The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1872-07-02

lie fills six foot grave, although
lie could not fill her eyes.
AGR1CULTURE IN CALIFoRNIA-InC Cal.
ifornia the rains begin late in October.
The grass is green all winter plowing
begins On the first of December; wheat,
barley, oats, and other crops are sowed
as soon as the land can be made fit and
sowing and planting are continued as late
as March. Thus the husbandman has
three or four months to put in his crops.
Trees are also transplanted in this season.
South Of San Francisco, and in the great
San Joaquin Valley, frost is rarely known,
roses bloom all the winter through, the
flower garden is constantly full offlowers,
and many shade trees. like the acacias,
the pepper-trec, and the livecaks, keep
their iolaSe gIuen tho yoar round. Gun
is planted from March to May, and har-
vested as late as December. In the
southern counties, and in the San Joaquin
Valley especially, many farmers take two
crops from the same field-wheat or bar
ley for the first, and corn for the second
and | have seen fields which yielded, in
good season, ninety bushels of corn for
this second crop. Wheat and barley are
commonly sown for hay, and cut before
the heads fill, in April or May. Where
this is done it is usual to plant corn on
the same ground when the hay crop is
cut. Thus the farmer gets two valuable
crops from the same field. The harvest
season for wheat, barley, and oats is in
the latter part Of May and in June.
After the middle of April the rains
cease, and the whole harvest season is
absolutely without rain. Thus the farmer
is not hurried, and the harvest proceeds
with none Of that haste and anxiety about
the weather which trouble the Eastern
nrnci The smaIl grains usually
gathered by a machine called a "header,
which clips off only the heads of the grain
stalk. Wheat, oats, and barley are
threshed on the field, put into bags, and
left either on the field or along the rail.
road, for weeks often, in the open air,and
until the crop is sold and shipped. The
grain does not sweat, nor is it liable tc
injury from this exposure. Hay, too, is
baled or stacked on the field, and left
there until it is wanted. Potatoes are
often left in the ground long after they
are fit for digging. Thus it is evident
the farmer has, in the long, dry California
summer, an immense advantage over hi
Eastern competitor. lie needs fewel
hands, he is not hurried, and he requires
no costly granaries or barns to contain th'
products Of his fields.
Nor does he need to put away much
food for his cattle. A quarter Of an acr'
OF beets, replanted as they are used, vii
support COW during the whole year
Warehouses receive barley and hay. bu
sheep are never fed market cattle fatter
in the pastures, and horses not at worl
get no food except what they pick up il
the fields, in winter rs well as summer
The alfalfa, or Chilian clover, which i
now beginning to be so largely sown, doe
well to feed to pigs, to cows, and even Il
plow-horses, and bears enormous crops
On low ground, or where it can be irrigat
ed, as much as twenty tons have beel
taken from an acre. it is not cut from
December to April, but yields from si'
to eight cuttings in the year. Cattle an'
horses are more easily kept in good con
dition in California than elsewhere in tn
United States, and the farmer needs n
such substantial stables as in the Easter
States. --.... .. ...
! Fruit trees bear much earlier than i
the East. The peach bears peck in tn
second year from planting the pit; tn
apple gives crop at five years, and be
gins to bear at three; the curculio is un
known; and such perishable fruits q
plums aud cherries keep far longer tina
with us. | have eaten cherries and straw
berries in Colorado which had bee
brought from Sacramento-a four day.
jourpey-and they we're in perfect order
The growth of fruit and other trees is ez
traordinary. The eucalyptus, fn
Australian evergreen shade tree, has mad
: twenty feet in year Il have seen ont
eight years from a small cutting, whicl
was seventy-fve feet high and two and
! half feet in diameter at the base) tn
apricot becomes almost forest tree j
size; and in the southern parts of th
State it is the custom to make fences {
) sticks of willow, sycamore, or cottor
wood. cut to the length of eight feet, an
, stuck into the ground in December Thes
, strike root at once, and grow 50 rapid
that in the second year the farmer Gu
his fre-wood from these living fences.
e Moreover, the variety of fruits cultiva
o ed in the farmers orchard, especially
Southern California, is much greater tina
{ with u.s. | have seen, commonly, in o.
/ chards, the apple, pear, peach, cherr,
ounce, plum, ncctaripe, pomegranate-
mos. lovely tree or tall shrub when
bloom the fig. which bears two crops
,, year; the orange, lemon, almond, div
English walnut, and apricot and yc
may eat strawberries, wherever care
bestowed upon them, in every month
the year. Fruit trees are all free fro
, disease, though the pear-slug begins to
troublesome in some places and the fine
; varieties Of fruit known in the East gro
: freely here t'i ''