338 Wheat Growing in the Pacific States. 



totally different to those in the Eastern States. In the first 

 place much of the agricultural land is in large individual 

 tracts, and although the tendency for the last twenty-five 

 years has been towards a gradual reduction in the area of 

 individual farms and ranches, they are still much larger 

 than the average farm of the East or even of the Middle 

 West. 



Another marked feature is the cultivation of large areas for 

 a single product. This is especially true of the wheat farms, 

 where this cereal is raised exclusively without fertilisers, 

 except such as is naturally obtained by summer fallowing. 

 In this territory no good crops for rotation are available, and 

 the limited rainfall in many regions prohibits the planting ol 

 a more fertilising crop. There is, however, in many of the 

 more suitable districts some development of the dairy 

 industry, and irrigation also permits of a certain amount of 

 more mixed farming. 



The use of machinery of great capacity, which means an 

 economy of human labour, but often a waste of grain, is 

 another distinctive feature, particularly of the great Cali- 

 fornian valleys. Ploughs are set in gangs, reapers and 

 headers are built with cutting bars of unusual length, and 

 every effort is made to combine several operations in one, 

 thus enabling one man to plough and cultivate the greatest 

 possible area with as many horses as he can control. 



The varieties of wheat sown in the Pacific section are 

 also different to those in the East, their peculiar characteristic 

 being a white grain, with a soft and starchy content ; and it 

 is said that other wheats imported for seed lose their indi- 

 viduality in a season or two. The principal factor in this 

 change is thought to be the lack of humus in the soil. A 

 large proportion of the more common varieties of the region 

 are of the Club Wheat type, so called on account of the pecu- 

 liar club-like formation of the head. This formation is of con- 

 siderable advantage there, on account of its ability to hold 

 the grain, a very desirable point in this region of very long 

 summers, where the grain, after becoming fully ripe, is 

 frequently left standing for a month or so before being 

 harvested. 



