has introduced scientific industry, refinement, and happy homes, whose intelligent occupants subdue the sterile sand-hills of San Francisco and the arid plains of the interior, where the domestic comforts of home are in strong contrast with the pastoral semi-barbarous lives of the early Spanish settlers of the country, and the perpetual bloom of the rose, lily, and honeysuckle, so abundant every month in the year, will compensate for the partial loss of the wild flowers of the vale.

May is the most charming month in the year in California: the last showers of spring invigorate vegetation; wheat is in head, orchards in bloom, every thing green, bright, and clean; haying is vigorously prosecuted. By the end of May the wild flowers disappear, and June ushers in harvest, with rustling fields of wheat. At this time grass and flowers are all dried up, and the whole face of the country wears a browned and parched appearance except the oaks, orchards, and vineyards, which latter retain their verdure until November. The grass, which during the dry season seems parched, retains all its strength, and instead of being dead is only cured by the sun, affording nutritious pasturage until the fall rains destroy it and start the new grass.

The great wheat-crop of California, in some instances consisting of ten thousand acres in a single field, is cut with reapers of the most approved style. Some of these machines clip only the heads off the field, leaving the body of the straw standing: the grain in this form is carried directly to the thresher, which is located in the open field; here it is threshed, and put in sacks of about two hundred pounds each. The long-continued dry season has thoroughly dried the grain on foot, so

that it is ready for the mill, or for shipment in bulk or sacks on shipboard to any part of the world. The grain once in sacks, it is piled in great heaps upon the open field, where it may remain secure from a drop of rain until November; or, if it is transported to shipping points, it is piled up in great heaps upon the piers and wharves until it is shipped. So dry is the grain that it can be taken directly from the thresher and shipped to Liverpool, China, or Australia without sustaining any damage, and the mills in many instances have to dampen it before they can grind it into flour. A peculiarity of the wheat of California is, that however ripe or long it stands in the field it does not shell: the little capsule which holds the kernel being strong, and not opened by rain or any change in the weather.

In ordinary seasons enough grain shells in the handling to make seed; and, should the ground remain unploughed, the rains of winter will beat the grains into the mellow earth, and in a short time a spontaneous crop will spring up: thus good harvests of grain are often obtained for two or three seasons without either ploughing or sowing. But sowing every year, with deep ploughing and summer fallowing, as in other countries, produces the best crops.

As horses, cattle, and sheep live out in the open fields during the entire winter or rainy season, there is no attention paid to saving straw or fodder of any kind, except for the towns and cities; so that the custom of farmers all over the State and in Oregon is, to burn the straw upon the field, and during the fall months vast fires can be seen consuming the piles of straw where the thresher stood, or sweeping the tall stubble from the field.

Farmers, however, are now beginning to learn the folly of consuming what, in seasons of protracted drought, and during the long and sometimes cold rains of winter, might save their stock from destruction, and are abandoning the burning of their straw, collecting it into vast piles and stacks, and in some instances erecting sheds over it. Here, secure from rain or from the scorching heat of summer, cattle will collect and feed freely. As the pasturage range is circumscribed by fencing and cultivation, the necessity of preserving every spear of fodder will press itself upon the intelligent farmer until the folly of straw-burning will be entirely abandoned.

Storms are very rare on the Pacific coast, and such hurricanes as sweep over the Atlantic States and portions of Europe are unknown. Occasionally a stiff northwest breeze is felt along the coast line, and the usually tranquil waters of the deep Pacific lash with great fury upon the coast. But the interior of the whole country, through each month of the year, is calm. Along the Coast Range, fir trees, three hundred feet in height, toss their lofty heads without the loss of a limb, half-decayed trees stand upon their frail pedestals, and tenements of light boards are unmoved. Fitful gusts, gales, thunder, and hail-storms are unknown.

During the spring and summer months occasional claps of thunder may be heard in the Sierra range; but at San Francisco and throughout the body of the State thunder is not heard nor lightning seen more than once in each three or four years, and then but in their feeblest forms.

In the southeastern portion of the State, where vast alkaline and sandy deserts stretch for leagues, what is

termed sand storms interrupt the traveller and fill the air with clouds of impenetrable dust. These storms are of but short duration, but their violence strikes terror to man and beast; and when the traveller is overtaken by one of these storms, which obscures the sun with volumes of dust, blinds the eyes, and cuts the cheeks with flying sand and gravel, his progress is impossible: all former signs of roads are obliterated, and the only alternative is to come to a halt and with blanket, coat, or shawl wrap head, face, and mouth of man and beast to prevent suffocation, and lie still until the fury of the gale is spent.

CHAPTER XXIII.

Agriculture Manufactures-Commerce-First agriculture in America-Increase of agriculture in California-Decline of miningDecay of mining towns-Area of California-Agricultural landsSpanish grants-Vast estates-How to obtain public landsSchool lands-Who may secure the public lands-Grain, fruit, and vegetable growing-Yield of grain per acre-HarvestingWild oats-Wild mustard-Hops-Potatoes-Tobacco-Large vegetable growths-Strawberries-Tropical fruits-Oranges, figs, and nuts-The grape-Fertility of the Sierras-Tea cultureBeet sugar-Cotton and rice-Silk culture.

FROM the earliest history of the human race down to the present time no pursuit or occupation has so materially aided in developing the physical, mental, and moral condition of man as that of agriculture. Commerce has brought with it adventure, deception, opulence, and power: so it has induced craft, dissipation, voluptuousness, and vice. Manufactures have stimulated invention, introduced new and useful commodities, and, in some instances, relieved man from oppressive physical labor: they have also crowded and huddled people together in the unwholesome atmosphere of cities and factories, and enfeebled the race in the pursuit of the tinselled display and allurements of wealth. Art has beautified the abodes of men, spread the broad sails of commerce, and lent a charm to life: so, too, it has induced frivolity, and, when uncontrolled, has fearfully pandered to the vices of the times. Science has gauged the celestial and terrestrial bodies, measured the depths of oceans, the heights of mountains, and the degrees of heat and cold; analyzed the earth, separated and purified metals, traversed continents, subdued the