You could probably grow alfalfa to advantage if the soil still deep and loose, getting less, of course, than by irrigation, but still an amount that would be very helpful in your chicken business.  Otherwise, as the land lies higher and perhaps out of sharp frosts, you could grow winter crops of vetches and peas and thus improve the land while furnishing you additional poultry pasture.  The latter purpose could also be served by growing beets, cabbage or other hardy vegetables during the rainy season.  This is prescribed because of the apprehension that the soil may not contain moisture enough for summer cropping without irrigation.

No Grain Elevators in California.

Is California wheat shipped in bulk or in bags at the present time?

There are no elevators in this State, owing to the fact that hitherto grain cargoes have been acceptable to ship only as sacked grain, because of claimed danger of shifting cargo and disaster during the long voyage around the Horn.  A novel by Frank Norris, entitled the “Octopus,” describes a man being killed by smothering in a grain elevator at Port Costa, but there never was an elevator at that point, and consequently there never was a man killed by getting under the spout thereof.  Answering specifically your question, California grain is shipped in bags and not in bulk.  It is handled in sacks from the separator to roadside or riverside storage, to the loading point into the ships and out of the ships on the other side — still in bags.

New Zealand Flax.

Give information about Phormiun tenax (New Zealand flax), which I see is imported to San Francisco in large quantities yearly for making cordage and binder twine, and is said also to be the best of bee pasture.  Can I get the plants on the coast, and is California soil and climate adapted to the culture?

New Zealand flax grows admirably in the coast region of California.  You will find it in nearly all the public parks and in private gardens, for it is a very ornamental perennial.  Plants can be had in any quantity from the California nurserymen and florists.  It produces plenty of leaves, but we should doubt whether it is floriferous enough for bee pasturage except where it occurs wild over a large acreage.  You could get vastly more honey from other plants grown for that purpose.

No Home-made Beet Sugar.

Is there any simple process of making sugar from beets so that I could make my own sugar at home from my own beets while sugar is so very expensive to buy?

There is no simple way of making beet sugar.  It can only be economically done in factories costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Don’t Get Crazy About Special Crops.