Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1867-04-06
Farming ON the Pacific Coast.

The following letter is from former citizen
of Ashtabula, written fromhis residence in Cal
ifo1nia to an old Acquaintance and friend in
East Village. AS the writer is engaged in farm
ing, and devotes his letter so much to matters
pertaining to that pursuit-farming upon the
Pacific Coa5t-we very readily accept the sug-
gestion of our old friend to give it place in the
Telegraph, believing that the farmers of Ash
tabula county viii read it with relish.
Stony PoINT, Sonoma Co., Cal, Dec. s, &C.
Friend H-This is one of the best Countries
for small grain that have ever known. Ihave
lived in Warren county, ILL.,, and in upper Mis-
souri,, both called good cold, grazing growing re-
gions, and SO they are, but the crops are more
likely to winterk kill than here, and at times the
crops are injured by rain in harvest. We arc
never troubled in that way here. You will won
der how things grow without rain, and yet they
do, and that, too, to the greatest perfection. We
raise the most wheat, oats, barley, and the best,
no doubt, in the known world. So of vegeta-
bles-potatoes, cabbage, onions, beets, turnips,
&C. They grow upon the hills as well as in the
valleys, without irregation. We have grass and
grazing for our stock, such as wild oats and
clover, that makes the richest of pastures for
horses cattle and sheep. Dairy men say their
cows make f5o pounds of butter for the milking
season, averaging about 40c "a pound. Forfruit
thiscountry can'tbe beat. Apples, pears, plums
grapes, gooseberries and peaches are so bounti-
ful you can hardly sell them at all. The max
ing of grape wine is becoming quite business
in this country.
Petaluma, nine miles distant, is our princi-
pal market, and governed in prices by San
Francisco, fifty miles distant. Produce is car
ried to the latter place by water for $3.50 per
ton. Wheat is generally worth from two to three
cents per pound; oats and barley about the
same Potatoes about &c, and the payment is
in gold and silver We don't deal in paper.
Sugar is from to lOc per pound Coffee % to
33c; syrup 75c per gallon tea from SOC to 8 so
the best article, right from China. Clothing
"a good dness-eoat from l6 to $25, and pants
from to SO; coarse boots from 2, soto Sc ; cot
ton cloth from l5 to 25c. Farms are worth from
25 to 800 per acre; cows about $40; sheep
from to S3. We have rams that will shear
IS pounds II is a fine sheep country, and the
animals are healthy and prolific. Beef is worth
ahout &c: hogs on foot about the same; eggs
about 40c per dozen. My residence in Sonoma
county is of 13 years continuance, and am
enabled to make these statements from an init
mate acquaintance with the matters spoken OF:
Phe beauties efthe climate will not attempt
to describe. Our winter is like your May in Ohio.
Roses and other flowers are bursting their buds
If YOU were here to-day you might see them In
our parlors. December is as pleasant as May.
We are now plowing and sowing. Sowing
may be done any time between this and the hrst
of April We can raise four bushels OF grain as
easy as you can one, and that is not an exag-
Grated assertion. P.N.w.
Such showing of the Pacific Climate and
productions, would seem to be seductive enough
to lead sone Of the younger and more energetic
Of our western bound farmers to strike for that
coast