THE CALIFORNIA WHEAT CROP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XII, Issue 68, 20 March 1877, Page 4

THE CALIFORNIA WHEAT CROP.

A Californian agricultural journal says : — We are frequently enquired of relative" to our large grain fields, and when we report them by letter to friends abroad, they &eera to doubt that oar Califorriian grain growers can manage grain fields as targe as we tell them — they think a few hundred or a thousand acres a monster farm — save in a few Western Grain Stateß, on " prarie land," and when we speak of some of our farms of. from 5000 to 20,000 acres, they hesitate to believe until they have visited our " Golden Land." They then say " the half has not been told them." We have just received tbe following statement of the crop from L the " Ag'uas Frias E?tncho," in Butte County, containing this year (1776) fully 13,000 acres of wheat; it ia a very extensive ranch, and is owned by^the^Hon. O. G. hratt. the 13,000 acres this year in wheat, will certainly overage over 30 bushels "to tbe acre, thius giving a yield of nearly 400,000 bushels. The grain ia heavy, and of a superior quality, equal to any ever grown in the State, It will be i seen by this statement that the crop grown on this ranch is worth nearly half a million dollars. What say our eastern farmers td*tnfa ? Yet we have some as large ranches, and some that aro larger still, yet, none superior in cultivation or y(e)idi We should state here that the " Agiias Frias Ranoho " contains somewhat over 25,000 acrea in all, including thV.wneat land named, and in pasture, woodland, garden, &c. On this ranch e Ptecupwarda of 10,000 sheep, 400 head of cattle, and 200 horses, and it is one of the finest, best managed, most prpdtibitve and valuable ranches! on this coast. The most careful estimates set down the wheat crop of the present year at a million tons. There are some who believe it is a quarter of a million more. But, taking the lowest figures, we have some results as startling as were ever laid before the word. At the calculation of a million tone, there would be 700,000 tons to export. To convey this vast mass of human food to Europe 700 ships of 1000 tons burden would ba required. Sailing in sight, or 20 miles apart, this fleet would extend 14,000 miles, or around nearly three-quarters of the globe. loaded on waggons of two tons each, the procession would extend from San Franoisco to New York, following the sinuosities of even the Central und Union Pacific railroads, the noses of the leaders of each waggon touching the tailboard of the one in front. In this Calculation we allow only 40 feet to each team. If the countries to which this vast crop will be sold used grain aa liberally aa we do, California, has produced enough bread this year to feed five million people besides her own. She has produced enough to supply the wants of one-tenth of the population of Great Britain and Ireland. I addition to this, we do not think there is any one State in the Union which will this year produce one million tons of grain. And all this in the State that twenty years ago was a howling wilderness, and regarded as of no value but for its mines, and which 20 years ago was thought might, with great effort, be made to support a sparse population.