"Although the mildness of the winter months, and the fertility of the soil, secure to California very decided agricultural advantages, it is admitted that _irrigation_ would be of very great importance, and necessarily increase the products of the soil, in quantity and variety, during the greater part of the dry season. It should, therefore, be encouraged by government, in the survey and disposition of the public lands, as far as practicable.
"The farmer derives some very important benefits from the dry season. His crops in harvest time are never injured by rain; he can with perfect confidence permit them to remain in his fields as long after they have been gathered as his convenience may require; he has no fears that they will be injured by wet or unfavorable weather. Hence it is that many who have long been accustomed to that climate prefer it to the changeable weather east of the Rocky Mountains.
"As already stated, the forests of California, south of latitude 39°, and west of the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, are limited to detached, scattering groves of oak in the valleys, and of red wood on the ridges and on the gorges of the hills.
"It can be of no practical use to speculate on the causes which have denuded so large an extent of country, further than to ascertain whether the soil is or is not favorable to the growth of forest trees.
"When the dry season sets in, the entire surface is covered with a luxuriant growth of grass and oats, which, as the summer advances, become perfectly dry. The remains of all dead trees and shrubs also become dry. These materials, therefore, are very combustible, and usually take fire in the latter part of summer and beginning of autumn, which commonly passes over the whole country, destroying, in its course, the young shrubs and trees. In fact, it seems to be the same process which has destroyed or prevented the growth of forest trees on the prairies of the Western States, and not any quality in the soil unfriendly to their growth.
"The absence of timber and the continuance of the dry season are apt to be regarded by farmers, on first going into the country, as irremediable defects, and as presenting obstacles, almost insurmountable, to the successful progress of agriculture. A little experience will modify these opinions.