50 STOCK RANGES OF NORTHWESTERN CALIFORNIA. 



quality of grain hay, and oat hay, of which a considerable quantity is 

 raised, is usually dark in color. The greater moisture also favors the 

 development of rust, which does much damage to grain ha} 7 s. 



The stock ranges along the coast are limited to the narrow mesa or 

 bench between the cliffs and the first mountain ridge which separates 

 it from the redwood belt on the east. At Point Arena, Point Gorda, 

 and Cape Mendocino the mesa is broader, as the redwood belt does 

 not follow the coast line, which juts into the ocean at these points. 

 The topography at the two latter-named places is exceedingly moun- 

 tainous and the country correspondingly wild and sparsely settled. 



THE MESA LANDS. 



Soils. — The soils on the coast bluffs differ materially from those of 

 the interior plateau and from those of the valleys. In many places, 

 as on the bluffs at Point Arena and Fort Bragg, they contain a large 

 admixture of blown sand, which renders them light and friable. Such 

 soils are often poor in quality and unfitted for the production of good 

 grass crops, except where they have been fertilized. 



By heavy manuring every other year good crops of red and black 

 oats are produced. The second year stock are grazed on the "volun- 

 teer" crop, or the ground is planted with potatoes, which are well 

 suited to the soil conditions. The soil also seems to be well adapted 

 to carrots, mangel-wurzel, and cabbages, which are grown as fall 

 feed for cows. 



These poorer sandy lands are usually characterized by growths of 

 the dwarf native pines, Pinus muricata and P. contorta. 



Between Manchester and Greenwood, and particularly on a strip of 

 land some 3 miles long near Miller, a richer and apparently deeper 

 soil occurs, producing splendid crops of wheat, barley, and other farm 

 produce, and proving well adapted to the cultivation of beans and 

 potatoes. Sweet peas, field peas, edible peas, cabbages, and other 

 horticultural crops, in spite of the foggy summer climate, are here 

 grown as seed crops for the San Francisco market. Some 80,000 

 bushels of grain and 1,500 tons of hay are reported as having been 

 produced in this vicinity in 1899. 



Grasses and other forage plants. — As before noted, perennial grasses 

 are relatively more abundant in numbers, both of species and indi- 

 viduals, along the coast than in the interior. On account of the length 

 of time occupied by the inland journey and the occurrence of an 

 exceptionally dry season, the writer's coast trip was made too late in 

 the season to find all the grasses in condition to collect, and the deter- 

 mination of some of the most important of them has therefore to be 

 left to a future occasion. 



Danthonia californica, Festuca rubra var. , an undetermined species 

 of Poa, Calamagrostis aleutica, Deschampsia cmspitosa and D. holci- 

 formis are the prevailing grasses, danthonia being the most abundant 



