Southern standard. (McMinnville, Tenn.) 1879-current, 1886-08-07
California Letter.

To the Standard
am Gin the middle of a fix"
Since my first letter appeared in your
paper my friends at home have been
pressing me to write something about
California. My friends here threaten
to mob me if / write another such
letter as the first, but as 1 expect to
leave here before this will come out
/ will take the risk.
l have seen but little of this great
State, and can only speak of what |
have seen. 1 expect to see more of it
before / return to Tennessee. The
wheat crop this year is good, and is
now about harvested. The largest
yield in this vicinity that ! have
heard of isabout twenty-eight bushels
to the acre; : but the average yield,
counting all the land sown, will be
from u to Is bushels. This is one of
the best wheat crops they ever had
here. They have been raising wheat
and barley on the plains of Fresno
county for about fifteen years, and
have raised good crops about half the
time. Sometimes they have total
failures, but generally make enough
to seed the ground. These failures
are caused by dry winters. If they
would cultivate the ground better l
am sure they would have fewer fail
ures. They use gang plows, gener-
ally four plows in a gang, and work
six horses to them, pillow two or three
inches deep and not very close and
thorough even that depth. Then
they SOW two crops with one plow-
ing-that is, if the land was plowed
last winter and soWed. After harvest
they will harrow the ground to scat
ter and cover the waste grain, and if
they think there is not enough grain
ON the ground they will add little
more. They call this volunteering,
and sometimes they raise good crops
this way. have seen several pieces
this year that made 10 bushels to the
acre. I see good many pieces sum-
mer fallowed. This they can SOW
early, before the rains, and they say
they are almost sure of crop on sum-
mer fallOw, let the winter be what it
may.
Wheat and barley are the principle
crops here. Where they irrigate they
raise alfalfa clover and fruits and veg
etables of all kinds. Irrigation is
very expensive and laborious, but
those who do it say it pays well for
the outlay and labor.
Many are interested about the wa
ter. Water is obtained by boring
from 80 to so feet. 1t is warm when
first drawn, but by getting tank or
barrel and covering it with grass
sacks or cloths, and letting the water
stand in these barrels over night,
where the wind can blow on them,
the water gets good and cool, and by
keeping these cloths wet the water
will stay cool all day. 1t is soft, and
when cool is as good water as / ever
drank. All vessels for carrying water
to the field, whether kegs, jugs, OF
fruit jars, are covered, and the cover
ing kept wet, and the water keeps
cool all day if.kept in the shade and
wind. If farmers in the East would
try this plan think it would be an
improvement on the present way Of
keeping water. Pumps and wind
mills are used almost exclusively tC
raise the water. There is wind suffi.
cient nearly all the time to turn the
mills and water enough in the wells
to run all the time. Water is obtain
ed in this way for all purposes except
irrigation, and most farmers irrigatt
their gardens and shade trees in this
way, when they have such things
and all could have beautiful yards
shade trees, fruit trees and gardens i
they would take the time and trouble
to do so. But many of them do not
Where they have well and vino
mill-and all have them-they have
plenty of waste water to make goot
garden and orchard.
The climate seems to be the creates
attraction. They have no cold wealth
er, no storms, no thunder, and light
ming, grass and other things grow al
winter. / have been here little owe
two months, and in that time we havt
had ten or twelve hot days. The hot
test day was ll40; but and horse
worked and suffered less than theyd