256 
WISCONSIN STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
rains, the dryness of the atmosphere, and the uniform temper¬ 
ature of the climate. Evidently, in case of the bunch grass, 
which grows m dense tufts, the dry weather coming on arrests 
the further growth of a mass of foliage, thoroughly curing it 
upon the root before its nutritive elements have been lost or 
changed into woody fibre, while a large proportion of those 
stalks bearing seed have also been checked in growth and 
dried in time to retain a large proportion of nutrition. 
In comparing California, as a dairy region, with grazing 
lands on the Atlantic slope, the winter and spring months cor¬ 
respond with our best grazing season. From the first of Janu¬ 
ary to June, the grasses grow in great luxuriance. July, Au¬ 
gust and September, correspond with our fall and early winter, 
while November and December, when stock require a little 
feed, may be set against our six months of cold and snowy 
weather. It is evident, so far as climate is concerned—so far 
as the storing of cattle-food and the necessary breadth of land 
for growing such food, the advantages are all in favor of the 
Pacific. But on the other hand, our nearness to the markets 
of the world, the permanency of our grasses, our established 
system and skill in manufacture, must, in a measure, compen¬ 
sate for the rigors of the climate, and other disadvantages 
which do not obtain in more favored sections. 
Comparative Profit from Grazing Lands .—From what I saw 
of California, and California farming, I became strongly im¬ 
pressed with the idea that the grazing lands of the state, for 
stock-growing and the dairy, can be made to pay quite as 
largely as lands devoted to almost any other special agricul¬ 
tural interest. Fruit trees of all kinds grow with great rapid¬ 
ity, and produce enormously. But, at present, the markets 
are limited, and the supply so much beyond consumption that 
there is no profit in fruit-growing. 
I saw peach trees producing choice varieties of fruit, (only 
across the bay from San Francisco, and where daily transport 
of fruit could be made for a mere trifle), that were paying 
nothing to the owner beyond affording food for swine, the fall- 
