Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1872-07-23
agraultural.
agriculture in California.

III Ndittolula Tue tSth DSssiUS i"s~ "
October. The grass is green all winter;
blowing begins on the first OF Deeemoeri
wheat, barley. oats. and other crops are
sowed as soon as the land can be made
fit; and sowing and planting are eontin-
ued as late as March. Thus the husband
man 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 fun of flowers, and many
shade trees, like the acacias, the pepper
tree, and the live-oaks, keep their foliage
green the year round. Corn is planted
from March to May. and harvested IS
late as December. In the southern coun-
ties, and in the San Joaquin Valley es.
pecially, many farmers take two crops
from the same field-wheat or barley tor
the first, and corn for the second; and l
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 ill. in April or May. Where
this is done il is usual to plant corn on
the same ground. whsn 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 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 farm
er is not hurried, and the harvest proceeds
with none of that haste and anxiety
about the weather which trouble the
Eastern farmer. The small grains ale
usually gathered by machine called -
header, which clips of only the head,
OF grain stalk. Wheat, oats, and barley
are threshed on the field, put into bags,
and left either on the field or along the
railroad, for weeks often. in the open
air. and until the crop is sold and ship
ped. The grain does not sweat, nor is it
liable to injury from this exposure. Hay.
too, is baled or stacked on the field. and
LEFT there until wanted. Potatoes are
often lett in the ground long after they
are fit for digging. Thus it is evident
the farmer has, in the long, dry Calitorn-
ia summer, an immense advantage over
his Eastern competitor. He needs fewer
hands, he is not hurried, and he requires
no costly granaries or barns to costsir
The products of his fields.
Nor does he need TO put away much
food for his cattle. \ quarter OF an
acre of beets, replanted as they are used.
will support COW durisg the whole
year. Work-horses receive barley and
hay. but sheep are never fed; market
cattle fatten in the pastures and horses
not Al work get no food except what
they pick up in the fslds, in winter as
well SIS summer. The alfalfa, or CHILEAN
clover, which is now beginning to be
largely sown, does well to feed to pigs,
10 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 On
acre; it is not cut from December to
April, but yields from six to eight cut
tings in year. Cattle and horses are
more easily kept in good condition in
California than elsewhere in the United
States, and the former need no such
substantial stables as in the Eastern
States.
Fruit trees bear much earlier than in
the East. The peach bears peck in the
second year from planting the pit; the
apple gives crop at five years, and be.
gins 10 bear at three; the curculio is un-
known; and such perishsble fruits as
plums and cherries keep far longer than
with US. | have eaten cherries and
strawberries in Colorado which had been
brought from Sacramento-a four days
j0urney-and they were in perfect order.
The growth OF fruit and other trees is
extraordinary. The eucalyptus, fine
Australian evergreen shade tree, has
made twenty feet in year, Il have seen
one, eight years from a small cutting,
which was seVenty-fiye feet high and two
and half feet in diameter at the base)
the apricot becomes almost 8 forest tree
in size; and in the southein parts of the
State 1t Is the Gust ON to make fences of
sticks OF willow, sycamore cottonwood,
cut to the length of eight feet. and
stuck into the ground in December.
These strike root at once, aud grow 50
rapidly that in the second year the farm
er cuts bis fire-wood from these living
fences.
Moreover, the variety OF fruits culti-
waited IN the farmers orchard, especially
IA Southern California, is much greater
than with Us. have seen. commonly,
IN orchards, the apple. pear, peach,
cherry, ounce, plum, nectsrine, pome-
granite-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 staw berries, whenever care
is bestowed upon them. in every month
OF the year. Fruit trees are al free
from disease, though the pear.slug begins
to be troublesome in some places; and
the Gnnct ,-nr;ntin- &C Iii. - :. -