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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (May 4, 1899)
10 Conservative. LANDS IN CALIFORNIA. SAN FUANCISCO , April 20 , 1899. MY DEAR CONSERVATIVE : You wore so recently in California , nud , by repeated visits feel such an in terest in us , that I am sure you will make good use of any addition to your store of knowledge about our rural in dustries and the soil upon which they are wrought. You will remember that we talked about the lands uncovered by the reces sion of Tularo lake , and that you were suspicious of investment in them for fear that it is a pulsating lake , being emptied by evaporation in a series of seasons when its affluents do not reach it and slowly refilling during another series when they do. You will see by this from The Tulare * fr Register that the refilling has begun : fcfti "Water came down the Tulo west of Woodville yesterday for the first time in three years , and the boys were on the bridge watching for it. Sure enough about noon , it came tumbling over the sands a very welcome sight , but the funniest part of it'was that right in the very van of the stream , where it was only a few inches deep , with the fins sticking above the muddy flood , there swam an immense carp in a great hurry to get to his old haunt , Tulare lake , One of the La Marsna boys , standing on the bridge , saw him and springing into the water grabbed the daring swimmer and threw him oil the bank high and dry. Ho weighed nine pounds and cer tainly has not fared badly up stream during the last three years. " In no other part of the United States have occurred as many disappointments about land as here. Men have thought they could buy laud anywhere in Cali fornia as safely as in the prairie states , where laud is laud , fit for some eco nomic use. But here it is not always laud. If settlers had bought the dry bed of Tulare lake , they would have found that their land was water. In other places land is a thin sheet spread upon bed rock closely underlying the surface , making fertility impossible , while in still other localities alkali fol lows the plow. But when a right loca tion is secured on good laud , water and sunshine added enable the noblest uses to which the soil is put anywhere in the world. It is the geological probabil ity that the great valley of California , that vast trough with its south end lifted up on the Telmchepi mountains audits northern end held up by Mt. Shasta , the unbroken wall of the Sierra # - Nevada on its east side and the coast range on its west , was once an inland sea. The San Joaquin river flows through it from south to north and the Sacramento from north to south , escap ing by a common delta from its western .Tl'l side into San Frauciso bay. People abroad who hear of the Sacramento valley and the San Joaquin valley think there are two valleys , but there is only one and its two halves are named for the rivers which traverse them and meet in its middle. In the mountain ranges on each side of this valley numerous volcanoes lit up its waters when it was a sea. In their fierce activity they sent up clouds of ashes which fell upou the water and sank to the bottom. The many streams flowing from the mountains brought down silt. The granite sides of the trough decomposed and other elements wore added. Sedimentary rocks began forming in places under the water and these were overlaid , deeply or other wise , by the silt and ashes. Finally , came the great upraise in the crust of the earth , carrying mountains and val leys with it. The volcanoes were raised beyond reach of the internal fires that fed them , and stand like the chimneys of a dismantled factory , whoso furnaces have been moved away. The inland sea drained off. The mountain streams be came confluent in the lowest channels and made the two rivers which carry its drainage into San Francisco bay. The great blanket of soil was spread out to dry. It is the granary , orchard and vineyard of California. Four hundred varieties of grapes grow in it. In the thermal belts on its east side are the largest orange orchards in the state. From its soils spring the lemon , lime , shaddock , pomegranite , medlar , the kaki that Japanese persimmon as big as a belleflower apple , which the little brown men call "the fruit of the gods" all of the stone fruits , peach , apricot , prune , plum , nectarine , the almond and English walnut , the core and seed fruits , apple and pear , and the cereals , wheat , barley , rye , oats and corn. In the midst of this valley is the center of American raisin production , with plan tations that ship thousands of carloads of raisins every year. It and its pro ductions are duplicated by many val leys which repeat it in miniature. But the Eastern man who wants to buy California land can not take the map in one hand and the wonderful list of products of the soil in the other and buy at random. Heads and hearts have been broken here by that experiment. No man should buy land in California without knowing what use he will put it to and its adaptation thereto. Our valleys have lands that will produce some crops without irrigation , while other uses require it , therefore that question must be studied. There are artesian belts where one well will irri gate eighty acres , some 160 acres. Other irrigable sections depend on water taken from streams and carried in canals and ditches. The foothills of the Sierra Nevada contain much valuable land. The soil holds moisture. It is disintegrated granite , and , when well pulverized , trees , vines and grain flour ish in it without irrigation. The rain fall in the foothills is greater than in the valleys , and the moisture does not recede as rapidly as in the sedimentary soils. Another class of soil is found in the tulo lands in the delta of the San Joaquin - quin and Sacramento rivers. This is surpassingly rich , as are all soils in the deltas of laud-building rivers. But it is subject to overflow and has to be pro tected by levees. When these are well- made with a sufficient berme outside to protect the levee against washing away , the tule farms are the most" productive aud profitable in the state. The line of the Atchison , Topeka and Santa Fe road traverses vast tracts of these tulo lands which when redeempd and tilled will produce immense crops. It is remarkable how slowly men became aware of the merits of Califor nia soils. The Spanish padres who founded the early missions here , brought with them wheat , the grape aud the olive , to supply the elements of the sac raments , bread , wine and oil. These flourished in the mission fields and gar dens for nearly a hundred years but did not suggest to the Mexican population that they could raise them as well as the padres. The laud was valuable then only to graze flocks aud herds. Wool and sheep pelts , and the hides and tallow of cattle , were the sole product of the great Mex ican aud Spanish grants. Horses ran wild on the plains , and when they in creased to such numbers as to encroach upon the forage of sheep and cattle , the Vaqueros would collect them in droves and stampede them over the cliffs into the ocean. To this day the beach in some places is strewn with horse bones. When one of the great owners desired to punish a son for disobedience he willed him land , but loft his sheep and cattle to his obedient children. The sou , cut off with a shilling , in the shape of laud with nothing to graze it , was often compelled to keep it until it descended unencumbered to his children. So it has come to pass that as a rule the rep resentatives of the old Spanish families now living who are rich , owe their wealth to descent from these disin herited scapegraces. The land remained in the family until its nobler uses were discovered and it became valuable. The flocks aud herds left to the good child ren disappeared and the family fortune with them. I can only advise men who want land and a living from it , to come and see for themselves and not to be in a hurry about selecting in advance of complete examination , for usually the laud that is offered by the best talker is of the poor est quality. In possession of good land oven an old man may plant tree and vine in the assurance that he will rest under their shade and eat their fruit. Very truly , JOHN P. IRISH.