The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1872-07-11
Agriculture in California.

A8rICuICur0 In CALIFORNIA.
In California the rains begin late ii
October. The grass is green all winter
pIowing begins on the first or Decem
Der: wheat. barley, oats, and othe
crops are sowed a. snon as the lane
can be made At; and sowing ane
planting are continued as late a.
March. Thus the husbandman ha.
three or four months to put In hi.
crops. Trees are also transplanted in
this season. South Of San Francisco
and In the great San Joaquin Valley
frost 10 rarely known, roses bloom all
the winter through, the flower garden
ID constantly full Of flowers, and many
shade trees, like the acacias, the pep
per-tree. and the live-oaks, keep their
foliage green the year round. Corn 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
held-wheat or barley for the first, and
corn for the second; and I 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
oil. in April or May. Where this is
done 1t 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 har-
vest season for wheat, barley aud 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
troubles the Eastern farmer The
small grains are usually gathered by a
machine called header" which
clips of only the heads Of the grain
stalk. Wheat, oats, and barley are
threshed on the field. put into bags,
and left either on the fell or along
the railroad. for weeks after, in the
open air, and until the crop is sold and
shipped. The grain does not sweat,
nor Is it liable to injury from this ex-
posure. Hav, too. is baled or stacked
In the field, and left there until it is
wanted. Potatoes are often left in the
ground long after they are fit for dig
ging. Thus 1t is evident the farmer
has, in the long, dry California sum-
mer, an immense advantage over his
Eastern competitor. He needs fewer
hands, he Is not hurried, and he re-
quires no costly granaries or barns to
contain the products Of his fields.
Nor does he need to put away much
food for his cattle. A quarter Of an
acre Of beets, replanted as they are
used, will support COW during the
whole year. Work-horses receive
barley and hay, but sheep are never
fed /; market cattle fatten in the pas
tnres. and horses not at work get no
food except what they pick up in fields,
In winter as well rs summer. The
alfalfa, or Chilian clover, which is now
beginning to be largely sown. does
we'll to feed to pigs, cows, and even to
plow.horses. and bears enormous
crops. On low ground, Or where it
can be irrigated, as much as twenty
tons have been taken from an acre; ii
is not cut from December to April, but
yields from six to eight cuttings in the
year. Cattle and horses are more
easily kept in good condition in Cali
fornia than elsewhere in the United
States, and the farmer needs no such
substantial stables as in Eastern
States.
Fruit trees bear much earlier than in
the East. The peach bears a peck in
the second year from planting the pit;
the apple gives crop at five years,
and begins to bear at three; the curculo
is unknown; and such perishable
fruits as plums AND cherries keep far
longer than with US. l have eaten
cherries and Strawberries in Colorado
which had been brought from Sacra-
mento-a four days journey-and they
were in perfect order. The growth Of
fruit and other trees is extraordinary.
The eucalyptus, fine Australian
evergreen shade tree, has made twen-
ty feet In q year. Il have seen one
eight years from small cutting, which
was seyenty-five feet high and two
and half feet in diameter at the base)
the apricot becomes almost forest tree
in size; and in the southern parts Of
the State 1t il the custom to make
fences of sticks Of willow, sycamore or
cotton wood, cut to the length Of eight
feet, and stuck into the ground in
December. These strike root at once,
and grow so rapidly that in the second
year the farmer cuts his fire-wood
from these living fences.
Moreover. the variety Of fruits cul-
tiva.ed in the farmers orchard, especi-
ally in Southern California, is much
greater than with us. / have seen,
commonly, in orchards, the apple,
pear, peach, cherry, ounce, plum,
nectarine, pomegranate-a most lovely
tree or tall shrub when in bloom =
the fig, which bears two crops year
the orange, lemon, almond, olive,
English walnut and apricot; and you
may eat strawberries, wherever care is
bestowed upon them, in every month
of the year. Fruit trees are all free
from disease, though the pear-slug
begins to be troublesome in some
places; and the finest varieties Of fruit
known In the East grow freeley here.
Charles Nordhot, in Harper's Mag
azine for July.
Drinking.
No man ever became drunkard,
lived drunkard's life, died drunk
ards death, and filled drunkard's
grave. as . matter Of free choice. No