620 Transactions of the 



the lands, controlled by the farmers, by making canals from the rivers of 

 the upper valle} r , would be of inestimable value to those who suffer from 

 drought. Make it a benefit, not a ruler; a protector from failure, not a 

 devourer of your profits. With flood-gates that could be opened and 

 closed at will, and no fear of the Sheriff's presence at harvest, a new 

 link would be added to the chain of agricultural success. The fruit 

 trees of the Sierra foothills would bend their boughs with the apple, the 

 pear, the peach, the plum, the pomegranate, the lemon, the lime, the fig, 

 the banana, and the mulberry. The rich alfalfa would there find a fruit- 

 ful bed. The uncertain wheat fields would rejoice in luxuries that they 

 never knew before. The numerous herds would eke out a comfortable 

 existence above the bottom lands in green fields which are now the 

 home of the scrub oak and the manzanita. A volume might be profita- 

 bly written upon this subject. Our agricultural domain can never be 

 half developed without a system of irrigation, as all may see who 

 will read the carefully matured views advanced by Hon. M. M. Estee, 

 in his address at the State Fair last week. Let me commend that val- 

 uable document to the careful perusal of all our farmers. No portion 

 of the population of the State are more deeply interested in the subject. 



RECLAMATION. 



But while you pray for water, consider that there is such a thing as 

 too much water. This presents a singular phenomenon. While your 

 valley contains the richest and most productive soil in the world, it is 

 bordered by a tule swamp utterly unfit for occupation. Geologists say 

 that which is life to plants is death to man. Most injurious substances 

 to one are invaluable to the other for their regenerating, fertilizing 

 qualities. We learn from the fens of England and Scotland, that the 

 three millions acres of tule land in this State were created for nobler 

 purposes than the production of snakes, lizards, and pestilential diseases. 

 The truth of this is shown in the reclamation of Grand and Sherman 

 Islands. This year the estimate of wheat from these once submerged 

 tracts, is four hundred and fifty thousand bushels, or an average of 

 about forty bushels to the acre. Barley, two thousand acres of which 

 have been raised, is said to range from fifty-five to seventy-four bushels 

 to the acre. Flax and beans 3 T ield liberally to a careful culture. Our 

 hopes of being able to manufacture our own sacks are encouraged by 

 the limited but promising culture of jute and ramie. The corn, squashes, 

 melons, cucumbers, and kitchen garden vegetables generally, grow in 

 rich abundance. The profuseness and variety of the grape, gives 

 assurance of a wine region unequaled in quality and quantity by that 

 of any other nation, and which will eventually exercise a controlling 

 influence in the markets of the world. The moisture below the dry 

 surface will produce two crops iu a season. The dairy will thrive, the 

 wool growers will profit by the experiment, and the horned stock will 

 fatten upon that which six years ago was fruitful cause of disease and 

 death. Can you then, with such an illustration, permit these vast acres of 

 unreclaimed soil to lie idle, when, by a slight comparative expenditure, 

 they may be brought into equal fertility with the lands already under 

 cultivation? You cannot throw away this advantage for Jack of energy. 

 Reclaim the land by drainage, and give the useful cereal the place of 

 the useless tule. And let me, in this connection, urge the people of San 

 Joaquin to set the example, and excavate a canal to deep water that 



