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“ where the product pays for it, but generally speaking, all depends on 
“ the heavy winter rains. To grow grain and hay, the farmer must 
“ have rain at least during a couple of months in the year. The eom- 
“ ing year threatens to be a dry one, and the effects are already being 
“ felt. I am told here, that if we get no rain in another month or so, 
“ people will be sleeping on blankets in the streets of the cities and 
“ stealing away on trains going north. A lively prospect isn’t it ? 
“ At present, however, irrigation is going on full speed; furrows 
“ are ploughed winding down the hill sides and circling about on the 
“ flats, and water is led about everywhere from wooden or cemented 
“ drains built on the higher levels. There are men going about with 
“ hoes all day, re-directing the water where it overflows and it runs 
“ day and night. 
“ An enormous amount of water is expended, yet it is not like 
“ rain. You only see streaks of water wet the soil on both sides of 
“ them ; in between there are wide belts of dry, dusty earth. I sup- 
“ pose the water soaks better through below the surface and reaches 
“ the roots somehow. 
“ The ranch I am working on employs 20 Europeans and Americans 
“ and as many Japs. The latter make good workmen and are employ- 
ed at pruning and picking. They get $1.60 a day. The white hands 
“ get $1.75. 
“ No grass or weeds are allowed about the estate : the soil is being 
“ cultivated and harrowed continually. It is a peculiar soil called 
“ adobe (accent on o and the e pronounced as French i ), which is found 
“ in places all over California. It is a brown mineral earth very fine 
“ and sticky when wet : it bakes in the sun and in nurseries the beds 
“ are often covered with shavings or sawdust until the young plants 
“ are well up into the air. If left without water it hardens and cracks. 
“ I am disappointed to find so little really good soil here, it seems 
“to be either adobe, granitic loam, gravel or sand. 
“ People use little manure hereabouts. Everybody is grabbing, 
“ but in the long run they will find out their mistake. It is nonsense 
“ to say, as some people do, that California soil needs no manure. It 
“ cannot do without it. 
“ On our ranch straw and spoilt cattle fodder has been used for 
“ improving the soil. They grow also a small leaved plant, alfalfa, 
“ part of which they sell. The rest is given as fodder to the horses. 
“ Some plantations are manured now and again by sowing peas or 
“ other leguminous plants, and ploughing them under, when they have 
“ grown to a certain maturity. 
“ On this ranch we are also using a kind of seed, indigenous to 
South Africa which produces a tuber that acts as excellent manure. 
“ The seed was sown all over the orchards last year and it paid so well 
‘‘ that it has just been done again forthesecond time. I shall send you 
“ a sample of the seed when a fresh lot comes, in September. It is 
“ called fenugreek. 
April 8th. Since I wrote you last I have sat at a watchmakers’ bench 
( for 3 months and have not felt particularly well. I was sacked from 
t4 the old ranch because I could not run fast enough to please the owner. 
People all say I am too particular in my work. They want a lot of 
