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.
