Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-09-10
ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF
AGRICULTURE IN CALIFORNIA.


continued stormy and wet weather. setting in
just at the beginning of harvest, thus at once
depriving the husbandman of the fruits Of
an entire years labor and investments, and
checking the prosperity of whole people,
it is hardly to be expected that California
farmers will not be led to higher apprecia-
ton of that peculiar feature of our climate
that gives them an absolute assurance Of
three or four months of rainless weather-of
clear, bright days and equally clear and cool
or market all their crops, including wheat
and all other grains, as well as hay and all
classes of root or other products. A true
Californian may well be excused for in.
dulging in little enthusiasm over a
climate that gives him such marked advan.
tage over British competitors for supplying
the wheat markets of their own country
Though six thousand miles away, and the
tropics to cross twice, and the Horn TO
double. we are more sure, when we begin our
harvest, TO put our wheat into the Liverpool
or London market, in good condition, than is
the farmer within twenty miles Of either city.
But does not this very feature of our climate
place our agriculture under some grave dis
advantages, as well as such important
advantages ? We, as rule, have
no rains from April to October, and
very little from March to November.
It necessarily follows that, except in our low
Io+top, land, ,vbara fba yooist,,ra 30 a,,,i;o !
from the rivers, summer crops are impossible,
and mixed agriculture and rotation of crops
is equally Sc. This very feature Of our eli
mate, which gives US such great advantage in
harvesting our wheat and other grain crops,
restricts US to the production of the small
grains on at least seven tenths of the pro-
ductive lands of the State. 1t forces our
farmers to stake not only years, but life's
labor upon single crop. This crop failing,
all fails, and We not only fail to get ahead
but necessarily fall behind. Ii we produce ali
wheat and nothing else, we have all else to buy,
and nothing TO buy with. How many Cali
fornia wheat farmers have had an actual
experience of tits situation How many
has this much praised climate brought face
to face with financial bankruptcy? Another
disadvantage we labor under from this pecu.
liar climatic feature. It facilitates harvest
ing our crops, but is almost bar to fertiliz-
ing the soil. Hence has arisen and is main
tanned that peculiarly California practice of
burning straw-stacks and stubble. We have
plenty of moisture and plenty of heat
out they come separately-one in the winter
and the other in summer-and hence what
we plow under or mix with the soil
to fertilize it fails to ferment and decay, and
hence does not fertilize the soil. A continu-
ance of the present mode Of cultivation of
the soil for wheat must therefore finally, and
that at no distant day, take all the wheat out
of our soil, and hence that which now is re-
garded as great advantage to wheat-grow-
ing with US threatens to lead to ultimate ruin
in this particular. We see still another seri-
Gus disadvantage growing out of this climatic
popularity. 1t is, so far as the up
Landslide grain lands of California
are concerned a positive bar to the
division OF land into small holdings for
wheat-raising. No farmer with 100 acres of
land that will produce nothing to advantage
but wheat or other small grains can compete
with his neighbor who has l, 600 or 5000
acres of the same quality of land, in raising
grain. No prudent farmer dare risk his
financial standing or livelihood for his fam
lily upon the chances of the profits on a crop
of wheat on a 100 acre farm-even if he
makes good crop-with no other resource,
for the profits from crop of that size
will not carry him through the year. To
compete with English and other wheat-grow.
ing countries for the wheat markets of the
world, we are compelled to reduce the cost
of wheatgrowing to the very lowest possible
figure, and this can only be done by awaiting
ourselves of all the labor-saving machinery
known in this department of farming, as well
as of all other advantages which large
wheat-grower has over small one. That
popularity of climate, which we point to
with so much pride as giving us
SO much advantage over the wheat
growers of other countries subject to
wet weather in harves! time, is therefore of
doubtful advantage when traced to its certain
ultimate effect upon the country, even for
wheat growing, and is bar to the success of
mixed agriculture, which alone can place
State upon sound agricultural basis. With
large farms, devoted to the single pursuit Of
wheat growing. we can never expect large
Such agricultural conditions will
sustain but a sparse population. Without
large population we can never have home
markets or q manufacturing country. The
eastern half of our country is suffering with
long continued and destructive drought that
is almost as injurious in its effects upon the
agriculture Of the country as the continued
wet weather in Great Britain is to The agri-
culture of that country. We may rejoice
that we are free also from the effects of such
a drought But while we are free from the
effects of the drought, we are at This time in
the midst of drought, the beginning
of which antedates the beginning of
the drought in the East by months
We have had no rains here since March of
fering from any unusual lack of moisture
we have drought at least equal to the pres
ent every summer. We have country
subject to these droughts, and have adapted
ourselves to it, and hence we do not suffer
its effects But suppose we had the vast
plains OF this State that are now devoted to
exclusively, with fields of from
l, 900 to TO- 600 and 20. 900 acres under a
single ownership and management. cut
up into farms of from fifty to one hundred
acres each, with an owner or family on each
and suppose each one of these farmers had
last spring planted few acres of corn, few
of potatoes, few of beans, few of flax,
and had had few acres planted to au
orchard. and few in natural pasture, with
a few COWS, few sheep and swine dependent
on the natural grass to grow thereon. Sup,
pose the conditions of our agriculture had
been similar to the conditions of the agri-
culture Of the Eastern drought-suffering
would we not also have suffered
even worse than they are suffering? After
our wheat is cut-we care not how dry the
drought can do no injury to
the dry stubble and we have taken good
care to plant for summer crops our corn, po-
tatoes and vegetables on the the moist river
bottoms where there lisa plenty and sometimes |