| OCR Text |
Show 112 WESTERN WILDS. valley of the Sacramento great stacks of wheat in sacks, standing in the open fields till a convenient time arrives for hauling it away, and threshing- machines running in the open air with no fear of rain. The stubble of the old fields retains its brightness, and the long dry autumn of California is fairly inaugurated. The marshes become CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL REPORT. beds of dust, which is blown up in stifling clouds ; the mirage ap-pears upon the plain in deceptive floods of what the Mexicans call " lying waters;" the tules become dry as tinder, and at night the Sac-ramento is lighted for miles by the fires that rage over the same area where, eight months before, a steamboat could ply at ease. The yellow grass is eaten to the ground, and the herds are driven far up the mountains; the dust, which has become insufferable in the roads, seems to blow away and on to the fields ; the ] > ads are often bare and dry, hardened like sunburnt brick, and the depressions in the fields knee- deep in dust. The sky becomes obscured ; the sun rises red and fiery, and disappears about 4 P. M., in a bank of haze. People prepare for winter by nailing a board here and there on an apology for a barn, and hauling away any wheat that remains in the field. After a few preliminary showers, the " early rain" comes in force; torrents descend upon beds of dust, and the plain becomes a sea of thin mud. Then all the mountain gulches are swollen with muddy red water; the Sacramento spreads for miles over the tule lands, and steamers again ply over what was a baked plain three months before. In a few weeks the worst is passed, and the growing season begins again. Moral: To enjoy California, come in the first half of the year. From June till November it is too dry for comfort ; from that till the middle of January too muddy. |
