AGRICULTURE. 177 
failure of the wheat-crop in California, unless the rain should 
completely fail. After wet winters, the dry lands and hills 
will produce the best crops; in seasons of light rain-fall, the 
low, moist lands will take the lead. There are so many soils 
and so many climates in the state, that some must be favor- 
able. There is no danger that the grain, when nearly ripe, 
will be beaten down by the hail, as has happened in Europe 
and the Atlantic states. On only one occasion, within my 
knowledge or reading, has it happened that the grain has been 
“lodged” or beaten down by rain, and that was at Suscol and 
Napa in 1860; and the damage then was slight, for most of 
the grain recovered, and all of it, if I remember rightly, was 
reaped by machines. 
Wheat is sown from the first of November to the first of 
April. The most certain crops are those sown early; the 
largest are those sown late in favorable years. If the amount 
of rain is small or moderate, the earliest-sown fields are the 
best; but if the spring be wet, the early-sown fields are sur- 
passed by those sown about the first of February. Wheat is 
usually sown after barley and oats. The best farmers prefer 
to sow between New-Y ear’s Day and the middle of February. 
Most of the sowing is done broadcast, but drills are used to a 
considerable extent. One ploughing is, by most farmers, con- 
sidered sufficient. The harvest comes from the middle of June 
to the middle of July. The expenses of sowing, harvesting, 
and threshing, are the same as with barley. 
§ 137. Oats——The principal varieties of oats cultivated in 
California are the Australian, English, Bare, Feather, and Tuck- 
er. The Bare and Tucker oats thrive best on a heavy soil; 
the Feather oat prefers a sandy loam. The indigenous wild 
oat of California is never cultivated ; for, although it produces 
large and tall stalks, they do not contain so much weight or 
bear so much grain as the domesticated oat. The average 
crop is from 30 to 40 bushels to the acre, 30 per cent. greater 
than in the Atlantic states. The Crescent City Herald re- 
ported in October, 1857, that Rigg and Reid, in Del Norte 
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