Marshall County Republican. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1856-1878, 1869-12-09
Wheat Growing in California.

We clip the following from an interesting
California letter to the Boston Advertiser:
One curious feature of the wheat business
is that the farmer gets two crops for one
seeding. The second year brings ''vol-
unteer CROP" as it is called-growing from
self-sown seed, and needing no attention
whatever. This years crop scatters itself
10y the wayside and ON good ground; let
the field alone, and the farmer gets about
half crop next year, with no labor but
that of harvesting; still let the field alone,
and year after next there is still another
crop that will be worth gathering. Well
up in the San Joaquin valley saw field on
which lfty pounds to the acre was sown
last year; the crop of 1868 was little short
of thirty eight bushels to the acre; the
volunteer crop" of this year is about twen-
ty-one bushels; and the old farmer told me
that he ''reckoned" he could get twelve or
fifteen bushels next year if he should let
the field lie over again.
/ have never anywhere else eaten such
uniformly good bread as they have given
me in California. asked the steward OF
my hotel about it one day-he said, ''good
wheat always makes good bread" which
was doubtless very proper, as it certainly
was q very sententious answer. II set me
luiukluk-tut uldu WHO COil DC4H NVu W
think performs one Of the highest offices
of friendship. l made other Inquiries
They grew several varieties of wheat the
favorite seeming to be what is called the
.sWhite Australian" the different valleys
produce widely differing grades; the berry
is generally very white, and remarkably
hard-this last named quality protecting it
from the insects and making it possible to
ship or store great quantities without the
least danger of heating" The Californi-
ans pride themselves not little on the
fact that we of the East are obliged to
send ont here for the best quality of -four,
and they expect the opening of the Pacific
Railway to bring a largely increased de-
mand for their fine grades of wheat.
Nothing cosld lcok more unpromising to
the eys of an eastern farmer than one OF
these California valleys in this month OF
October. There hasn't been drop of rain
since last May; you don't see a blade oi
grass for miles and miles as you ride along
the roads are from four to eight inches
deep with dust like that Of an ash-heap
the ground of the fields is so hard that q
plough cannot be put into it; the outlook
is that of dry desolation and unproductive
ness.
Wait. The rainy season begins next
month. By the first of December the Cali
fornian will have his ploughing teams ont
III January and February he viii. SOW his
seed; March will bring a marvellous profu
sion of flowers to the valley and the hill
sides; April is tolerably sure to give the
sprouting crop its "spring rain;' in May
the farmer finds his wheat heading out !;
in June he begins his harvest; in Septem
Der or October he sends to market his croT
of twenty to fifty bushels to the acre. Sc
runs the wheat-grower's season. Give hin
his winter and spring rains and he is sure
of the rest He may harvest at his conve-
nience-July or August or September; be
is as sure of continuous fair weather as he
is of day itself; he threshes his grain in the
field, puts it into sacks, piles the sacks IL
any handy place.