AGRICULTURE. 171 
gluten be small, the grain of the bread will be uneven, the 
dough will give way in places, allowing the formation of large 
cavities, and less moisture will be retained. The wheat of dit 
ferent countries varies greatly in glutinousness, and California 
occupies a very high position. Our wheat is far more glutin- 
ous than that of any other North American state, and, although 
I have no precise information, I am inclined to believe that we 
have a like superiority in this respect over European countries. 
The consequence is, that our wheat is now in demand in New 
York to mix with their weak grain, so that a tolerably strong 
flour may be made. 
But the wheat of California is not all equally glutinous; some 
of it is much weaker than other. The most glutinous is that 
grown in Santa Clara valley; the southeastern part of San Ma- 
teo county; the southern part of Alameda county; and Diablo, 
San Ramon, and Suisun valleys. That of Santa Rosa, Pajaro, 
Salinas, Petaluma, and Sonoma, is considerably inferior in giu- 
tivousness, but is better than that of the Sacramento, San Joa- 
quin, and Napa valleys, the vicinity of Half-Moon Bay, and 
Alameda opposite the Golden Gate. The strongly glutinous 
is about one-third of the crop of the state. It is not known 
why the wheat in one district is more glutinous than in another. 
None of that grown very near the coast is strongly glutinous; 
so the moisture seems to be injurious. Napa wheat is inferior 
in glutinousness to that of Sonoma, though farther from the 
coast, and more free from ocean-fogs, but the soil of Napa is 
much moister. 
In Oregon and Washington, where the climate is very moist, 
the wheat is as weak as at HalfMoon Bay. In the Mississippi 
valley, where a great amount of rain falls, the wheat is also 
weak; and just in the Gallego and Haxall district, if report be 
true, the rain-fallis less than in any wheat-district east of the 
Alleghanies. And yet in the Sacramento and San Joaquin 
valleys, which are among the driest parts of California, the 
wheat is very weak. This is accounted for—by those adopting 
the theory that glutinousness depends entirely upon the cli- 
