AGRICULTURE. 175 
same author (page 445), 1,700 fanegas were harvested from 19 
sown—an increase of 89-fold; and in 1827, an increase of 58- 
fold was obtained at San Luis Obispo by scratching the seed 
in with a harrow upon land unploughed, and not even touched 
by the thing called a plough in those days. Not less than half 
u fanega is sown to the acre; so we may suppose that the fig- 
ures which indicate the increase of the crop over the seed also 
indicate the number of bushels to the acre. Now, a tenfold 
increase is considered a fair crop. Crops of 80 bushels to the 
acre haxe often been grown in California. Mr. Hill harvested 
824 bushels from an acre in Pajaro valley in 1853, and obtained 
660 bushels from 10 acres. In 1851, Mr. P. M. Scooffy har- 
vested 88 bushels; and Mr. N. Carriger 80 bushels in Sonoma 
valley. In 1853, J. M. Horner harvested 1,000 acres of wheat 
near the Mission of San José, with an average of 40 bushels, 
some of it producing 60 bushels to the acre. The next year 
he had 2,000 acres, with an average of 40 bushels. Large 
fields of wheat in Eel River valley, according to the report of 
the assessor of Humboldt county, averaged 73 bushels to the 
acre in 1857. 
In the best wheat districts of the Mississippi valley, the 
farmers generally believe, or did believe a few years ago, that 
not more than 45 bushels of wheat ever had been or ever could 
be grown upon an acre; and when, on a visit from California, 
I spoke to experienced and intelligent men among them of 60 
bushels, I was told that not more than 50 bushels could possi- 
bly stand upon the ground. In 1856, the average wheat-crop 
per acre in California, according to the county assessors’ reports, 
was—25 bushels in Amador and Santa Cruz counties, 30 in 
Marin, 28 in San Francisco, 19 in Sacramento, 20 in San Joa- 
quin, 15 in Sonoma, and 28 in Tuolumne. The next year it 
was 35 in Amador, 40 in Del Norte, 20 in Alameda, Santa 
Cruz, San J oaquin, and Tuolumne, 19 in Sacramento, and 30 
in Sonoma. In 1859, the average was 30 bushels in San Ma- 
teo, Santa Cruz, Siskiyou, Sonoma, and Yuba, 32 in Butte, 25 
in Napa and Santa Clara, 20 in Contra Costa and Solano, 15 in 
