CALIFORNIAN BREADSTUFFS.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 566, 2 September 1869, Page 4

CALIFORNIAN BREADSTUFFS.

In a lecture recently given at Sydney by Mr Lloyd, a gentleman who lately travelled through California, the following passage occurs with respect to the enormous growth of cereals in that country. Mr Lloyd said :—" The city of San Francisco sends away now about 50 tons of silver, and six tons of gold every month. The gold and silver are, however, comparatively eclipsed by the extraordinary production of wheat, oats, and barley. When the" country was discovered, and for many years afterwards, it was supposed only capable of producing minerals, but within the last few years the plough has been found far more prolific than either the pick or the shovel. Thousands of acres of land have been turned up by the plough, without a tree to impede its progress, and the crops produced have been somethingastonishing. Within the last few years the wheat crop has been 14,000,000 bushels per annum, and last year it was estimated that the wheat would reach 20,000, 000, bushels, the barley 10,000,000 bushels, the oats 2,000,000 bushels, and the hay 650,000 tons. When you consider that of wheat alone, they can ship a thousand tons per day for every working day in the year, you will only have a faint idea of the rapid strides this country has made. No wonder that men become suddenly rich in such a field of wealth. While I was there, I rode over thousands of acres which five years ago coutd have been bought for 3s an acre, but which are now under cultivation and producing from twenty to sixty bushels of wheat per acre, according to season and soil. This land has of course risen in value, and the men who were supposed to have been worth nothing, have become large landed proprietors, and count their dollars by tens of thousands. In some instances the ground is so prolific, that if you do not touch it it will grow a second crop from the seed which fell in harvesting the first. They are called " volunteer crops," and have sometimes equalled a well-sown field. I spent some time in going over the great wheat fields in the valleys of Santa Clara, San Joaquin, and Napa, where, for miles, you have nothing but *> line of rich golden grain On the San Joaquin I travelled for thirty-one miles through wheat, all sown over a flat country, where there was not a single hill and no trees, except here and there an occasion al oak. I passed through the estate of one man who had 10,000 acres under cultivation. He employed 75 ploughs and 100 men, and could plough and sow 100 acres of land per day. At Stockton I was introduced to a man whose land produced last year 2000 tons of wheat. Such figures as these are sufficient to put Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp in the shade, and almost eclipse the events in the Arabian Nights. These valleys are on or near the banks of navigable rivers, by which the grain is transported to San Francisco at a trifling cost."