THE PRESENT STATUS IN CALIFORNIA 383 



operation. The reports of the Dry-farming Congress 

 furnish practically the only general information as 

 to the status of dry-farming in the states and terri- 

 tories of the United States and in the countries of 

 the world. 



California 



In the state of California dry-farming has been 

 firmly established for more than a generation. The 

 chief crop of the California dry-farms is wheat, 

 though the other grains, root crops, and vegetables 

 are also grown without irrigation under a compara- 

 tively small rainfall. The chief dry-farm areas are 

 found in the Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys. 

 In the Sacramento Valley the precipitation is fairly 

 large, but in the San Joaquin Valley it is very small. 

 Some of the most successful dry-farms of California 

 have produced well for a long succession of years 

 under a rainfall of ten inches and less. California 

 offers a splendid example of the great danger that 

 besets all dry-farm sections. For a generation 

 wheat has been produced on the fertile Californian 

 soils without manuring of any kind. As a conse- 

 quence, the fertility of the soils has been so far de- 

 pleted that at present it is difficult to obtain paying 

 crops without irrigation on soils that formerly 

 yielded bountifully. The living problem of the dry- 

 farms in California is the restoration of the fertility 

 which has been removed from the soils by unwise 



