The morning call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1878-1895, 1892-03-03
MORE RAIN COMING.

Unless this winter is to prove an excep-
ton to the average, a good deal more rain
may be expected to fall before April l. As
compared with the normal precipitation
San Francisco is 53 inches short Sacra-
mento inches and Los Angeles g. 8 inches.
Rather curiously Fresno has received 1.6
inches above the normal and Yuma just
about as much.
1t is therefore well to look for consider
able rain in this current month of March,
The meteorological tendency in the State is
toward uniformity, and while we are likely
to have droughts and deluges at in HervaiS
in the future. they will probably be of rarer
occurrence than in the past, and their effect
on the crops will be less marked. Settle
ment and agriculture are invariably fol-
lowed by an increase Of rainfall in the arid
sections and by dminution of torrential
action.
The bearing of rainfalls on agriculture is
only just beginning TO be understood. Our
ancestors came from a country where the
average precipitation is about 40 inches q
year, and their descendants were at first
inclined 10 doubt whether successful agri-
culture could be conducted in a region
where the average rainfall WAS under Is
inches. But 1t has been aScertained by
observation that If properly distributed
through the interval between harvest and
harvest rainfall of 10 inches is ample to
fertilize the earth, aad that more than that,
especially if il be precipitated suddenly and
in large volume, is absolutely injurious.
Gentle raius deposit the chemical elements
required for the termination and growth
OF plants; torrential rains not only deposit
nothing. but wash away the rich alluyium
in which plant lite thrives.
From causes which are not entirely under
stood the two great agricultural valleys of
this State contrast in a marked degree in
| regard to rainfall In the upper Sacra-
mento Valley a rainfall of 80 10 80 inches
between October l and April is not unn-
sual. At Bakersfield a rainfall of 10 inches
during the season is considered literal
Yet when Kern and Tulare counties get
their 10 inches well distributed gentle
showers throughout the winter they raise
as large crops as Tehama and Butte with
their 30 inches; and StanislauS. where Is
inches are an average. yields as much
wheat 20 the acre as Colusa. with % or %
The secret is that the fertility Of allu-
vial valleys is as easily impaired by
excessive moisture as by excessive dry
ness. In both valleys the farmers are
| ply by systems Of irrigation, and there
is every prospect that they Will succeed. II
they 90 it is quite possible that the so-called
arid counties may hereafter rival the wet
counties in their product. Spain, four ffths
of which receive less than Il inches of
! rain per year. produces Oh an area not more
than 50 per cent larger than the area of Cal
lfornia an average wheat crop of about five
million tons. And yet in Spain agriculture
is supposed to be more backward than in
| any other country in Europe except Russia.
1t is far too soon. however, to indulge in
speculatIons over the chances of this PROV
ing ary y inter. March is generally wet
month, and it has been observed that when
November and December have been def
cient in rainfall, as they we're last year,
March is apt TO make up the difference.
| Seasons have been known in which April
contributed a substantial quota to the an
nual precipitation. The year 1892 may
after all prove an average year.