Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1878-04-15
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.
Ed. Monitor: The Boston Journal
of Feb. 81, says: 1.-THE crops through
out the great San Joaquin valley of Cal
ifornia were nearly total failure, last
year. for want of water. This year the
recent food has ruined $4,000 acres of
wheat, ETC." No doubt such stories ex-
cite your sympathy for we poor. STARRING
Californians /; but stories, like other
things, have two sides to them, and per-
haps the Journals correspondent was
not here at Stockton, the great center of
the San Joaquin valley. when those long
trains of cars were coming in daily with
from 200 to 400 tons of the wheat crop
of 1877, with much more coming in on
wagons, drawn by ten, twelve and four
teen horses. Many ranchers shipped
their wheat at once, while others held it
for higher prices, and as the storage was
but one dollar per ton, the result was
that thousands of tons were stored here
in the immense warehouses of this city.
AS the war cloud grew darker in Europe,
wheat went up to 1926 per GENITAL, and
the holders wanted, and some expected,
to get S. per GENITAL. This reminded me
of Vermonters once holding their butter
when fifty cents was offered, and then
finally selling for twenty-five cents. But
as the war clouds in Europe began to
disappear and the rain clouds appeared
here. wheat took sudden downward
tendency and for several weeks past has
been shipped from this city at the rate
of more than one thousand tons a day,
and is worth from $3.50 to $l.90 per
GENITAL, or trihe over one dollar per
bushel so much for the wheat crop OF
this valley being nearly a total failure.
Now let us see about the ruin of $4,000
acres by the recent food. It looks large,
and may be little over-estlmated but
if correct, some might think that one
half or three-fourths of all the wheat
sown IN the State was ruined. AS large
and small are only relative terms. this
$4,000 acres is but a small part of the
wheat sown in California this year. The
amount of acres sown this year in Cali.
fornia, is 2,352,213; SO the $4,000
acres ruined is less than one. forty-sev
enth part of the whole amount sown.
l will give few statistics taken from
reliable sources: The wheat crop of Cal
ifornia, in 1877, was in round numbers
100000 bushels; worth, $4,000,
900. This amount would give ever,
person in Vermont over 20 bushels. Cal
ifornia has population of $4,000, ant
besides feeding these, she exported, las
year, 13,5OOO00 worth Of wheat ant
-four before the 1st of January, 1878
Her exports, to say nothing of gold ant
silver, made up the sum fS6l, 100000
The gold and silver from this coast, las
, year, was 100000. The wheat GRO
of 1877 was two-thirds as large as tina
of 1876. From our own observation W
, are satisfied that the wheat crop coul
6 be more than doubled on the sam
amount of acres. The main object seem
, to be to see who will 60 over the mos
: ground. To insure good crop in thi
| valley the land requires deep blowing
many will run six or eight gang pillow
: and not over two or three inches deeI
and the result is that the land soon drie
as hard as brick, while deep-plowe
land keeps mellow and moist until tn
; crop natures. The water stands With
! six or eight feet of the surface of th
o ground in large share of the San Jos
: quin valley. Many depend on a volur
. teer crop of wheat. In this case the
IS neither pillow or newly sow, but depen
q on what was wasted in harvesting fl
. seed, and only drag harrow over l
;. But in dry season it doesn't alway
n volunteer. We noticed some pieces
y wheat, last year, poorly cultivated, thu
4 were worthless; while other pieces az
n joining, with no better land, but bett'
+ cultivated, yielded from 80 to 60 busl
>. els per acre. Wheat raising in tn
,e State is only in its infancy as yet. Whe
n the present plans for irrigation are full
= carried out, and farmers learn to try
see how much they can raise per acr
'. instead Of seeing how many acres the
10 can run over, then the wheat crop
10 California will be estimated at hundred
IN Of millions of bushels.
i. We have had over fifteen inches Z
Eo11 with m