The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1873-10-28
agricultural department.
CONDUCTED BY ALBERT CHAPMAN.


luc luTucr III tniS Dlait - ptIsOu vi
uncommon resources and ingenuity. l
think he uses his brains more than our
eastern farmers do not mean to say
that he lives better, for he does not. His
house is often shabby, even though he be
a man of wealth, and bis table is not un-
frequently without milk he buys his but.
ter with his canned vegetables in Sap
Francisco, and bread and mutton is the
chief part of his living both being uni
versally good here. But in managing
his land he displays grea, enterprise, and
knows how to fit his efforts to the eli.
mate and soil. Thus, in the tule lands,
when they are first drained, he finds it
impossible to work the soil with cattle
or horses but this does not prevent him
from putting in crop, for after burning
off the tules, which are tall reeds, and the
high grasses, he sows his hundreds Of
acres with coffee mill wheat sower and
cody turns flock Of sheep on the
ground, driving them completely and
slowly over it, with the help of dogs to
keep the TANKS of his flock from scatter
ing; and wheat thus "shoeped in," as
they call it, has borne sixty bushels per
acre. Nor is this all. Unless he de-
ponds upon volunteer crop next year,
he must pillow the ground. 1t is still,
however, commonly too light to bear up
horses, and so he shoes these animals
with stout wooden sabots, eleven inches
long by eight broad, and thus they can
walk at leisure and drag the gang .plow
after them.
The gathering of the wheat crop goes
on on all the valley lands with herders,
and you will find on all the farms in the
Sacramento valley the best labor.saving
machinery employed, and human labor,
which is always the most costly, put to
its best and most profitable use. They
talk here of steam-plows and steam-wag-
ons for common roads, and l have no
doubt the steam-plow will be first practi-
cally and generally used, so far as the
United States are concerned, in these
California valleys, where have seen fur
rows two miles long, and ten eight-borse
teams following each other.
Withal, they are somewhat ruthless in
their pursuit Of wheat crop. You may
see farmer who plows hundreds oil
acres, tut he will have his wheat growing
up to the edge of his veranda. If he
keeps a vegetable garden, he has per-
formed heroic act of self.denial and as
for flowers, they must grow among the
wheat or nowhere Moreover, while he
has great ingenuity in his methods, the
farmer of the Sacramento plain has but
little originality in his planting. He
raises wheat and barley. lie might raise
a dozen, a score Of other products, many
more profitable, and all obliging him to
cultivate less ground, but it is only here
and there you meet with one who appre.
ciatcs the remarkable capabilities Of the
soil aud climate. Near Tehama some
Chinese have in the last two years grown
large crops Of peal nuts, and have, | was
told, realized handsome profits from nut
which will be popular in America,
suppose, as long as there is a pit and a
gallery in THEATRE but the pea. nut
makes valuable oil, and as it produces
enormously here, it will some day be
raised for this use, as well as for the
benefit Of all the old women who kcer
lruit-stands on the street corners. Ii
would not be surprising if the Chinese
who continue to come over to California
in great numbers, should yet show the
farmers here what can be done on small
farms by patient and thorough culture
AS yet they confne their culture of land
mainly to vegetable gardens
To the farmer, the valley and foot.hill
lands ofthe Sacramento will be the most
attractive, and there are still here thou.
sands of acres in the hands of the gov.
eminent and the railroad company to be
obtained so cheaply that, whether for
crops or for grazing, it will be some time
before the mountainous lands and the
pretty valleys they contain north of Red.
ding, the present terminus of the rail.
road, will attract settlers. But for the
traveller the region north of Redding to
the State line offers uncommon attrac.
tions.
The progress of California in material
enterprises is something quite wonderful
and startling. A year brings about
changes for which one can hardly look in
ten years. 1t is but eighteen months
ago that the idea Of system OF irriga-
ton, to include the whole Of the San
Joaquin Valley, was preached, and then
the most sanguine of the projectors
thought that to give their enterprise a
fair start would require years, and a
great number of shrcwd men believed the
whole scheme visionary. But a few ex.
perlments showed to landowners and
capitalists the enormous advantages of
irrigation, and now this scheme has suffi.
cient capital behind It, and large land.
holders are offering subsidies and mort.
gag'ng their lands to raise means to
hasten the completion of the canal Two
years ago the reclamation Of the tule
lands, though begun, advanced slowly,
ana arguments were required to convince
men that tulc land was a safe investment.
But this year eight hundred miles of
ieyee will be completec, and thousands
OF acres will bear wheat next harves.
which were overlooked eighteen months
ago: Two years ago the question whether
Calliornia could produce good raisins
could not be answered but last fall raj
sins which sold in the San Francisco mar.
ket beside the best Malogas we're cured
10y several persons, and it is now certain
that this State can produce-and from
its poorest sideh hill lands-raisins enough
10 supply the whole Union. Not year
passes bur some new and valuable pro.
duct Of the soil is naturalizcd in this
State; and ono who has seen the soil and
who knows the climate of the two great
valleys, who sees that within five, or, at