THE CALIFORNIA WHEAT CROP.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 750, 7 April 1877, Page 3

THE CALIFORNIA WHEAT CROP.

A QAEIfIORNttH agricultural journal says :—We are frequently inquired of relative to our large grain fields, and when we report them by letter to friends abroad, they seem to doubt that oar Californian grain growers can manage grain fields as large as we tell them—they think a few hundred or a thousand acres a monster farm—save in a few Western Grain States, on " prairie land," and when we speak of some of our farms of from 5,000 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 the following statement of the crop from the ' Aguas Frias Ranche,' in Butte County, containing this year (1776) fully 13,000 acres of wheat ; It is a very extensive ranch, and is owned by the Hon O G Pratt. The 13,000 acres this year in wheat, will certainly average over 30 bushels to the acre, thus giving a yield o' nearly 400,000 bushelß. The grain is heavy, and of a superior quality, equal to any ever grown in the State. It will be seen by this statement that the crop grown on this ranch is worth nearly half a million dollars. What say our Eastern farmers to this ? Yet we have some as large ranches, and some that are larger still, yet none superior in cultivation or yield. We should state here that the 'Aguas Frias Rancho' contains somewhat over 25,000 acres in all, including the wheat land named, and in pasture, woodland, garden, &c. On this ranche are upwards o* 10,000 sheep, 400 head of cattle, and 200 horses, and it is one of the finest, best managed, most productive 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 move.