STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. '.',')'.) 



• All these things could not be foreseen, but when once comprehended it 

 is no trouble to deduce general propositions. Our large farmers are becom- 

 ing shnwd political economists, in spite of themselves: they are learning 

 that the relative values of raw and cultivated lands are slight: primarily, 

 that it is the skill and labor, intelligently applied to a piece of land, that 

 enhances its value; that, although wheat may be king, it cannot be queen, 

 nor prince, nor princess at the same time. The thrifty Yankee maxim, 

 " The shadow of the owner enriches his soil," probably accounts for the 

 poor returns from some of the extensive ranches, where it is often impos- 

 sible for the owner to give the personal supervision it properly deserves. 



Now, the kind of people we wish to come and settle among us, are princi- 

 pally capitalists and laborers. The capitalists need not be millionaires, 

 nor, indeed, men whom the world usually terms rich, nor need that capital 

 be altogether of the kind that is placed on the assessment roll of the county, 

 but men with some money and brains enough to make it stick. Such men, 

 with their families, can certainly find and make desirable and happy homes 

 here, where nature is not miserly with her gifts. However, there are plenty 

 of opportunities of investment to the heavy capitalist, but they are of the 

 few, and are able to look the field over for themselves; we are giving infor- 

 mation to the many. And of laborers, steady, temperate, and industrious, 

 are the kind needed. The laborer is always worthy of his hire, and he will 

 be respected if he respects himself and his occupation. There is little 

 danger of an over-supply of that kind, but we have enough of the kind that 

 spend all their wages at the saloon, as long as they are able to earn wages, 

 and then, when they get the "jim-jams," and the physician gets them up, 

 " skip the town " to prevent paying their honest bills. Yes, of that class, 

 we have enough and to spare. 



Well might the settlers of the Upper Sacramento Valley have exclaimed 

 " Eureka! " when they saw the monarch oaks of the soil, under whose shade 

 they rested to contemplate the hoary heads of the bold sentinels that stand 

 guard on either side, while the valley, itself, was carpeted with all the 

 variegated beauties of spring verdure. 



The northeast corner of Tehama County is boldly marked by that 

 majestic peak, Mount Lassen — nearly 11,000 feet high — from whose base 

 numerous mountain streams of crystal clearness take their rise, and flow 

 in a southwesterly direction into the Sacramento River. Of these streams, 

 Battle, Payne's, Antelope, Mill, and Deer Creeks flow through this county 

 and empty into the Sacramento, within its boundaries and within seven or 

 eight miles of one another. On entering the valley, these streams, from 

 their great carrying powers and the effects of attrition, afford particular 

 and remarkable characteristics, of which advantages the farmers contigu- 

 ous thereto have, in numerous instances, taken occasion to improve. The 

 soil along these streams is what we usually understand by the term " made." 

 It is made up from the attrition of matter through which the streams have 

 passed in their rapid descent to the valley, and is, for the most part, 

 decomposed lava, granite, and vegetable matter. It is of a light, friable 

 nature, precluding the necessity of any kind of underdrainage before it is 

 fitted for the important cultivation to which it is so well adapted. The 

 margin of these streams was originally well timbered with oak, sycamore, 

 elder, and cotton wood, with interspersed spots of dense thickets, through 

 which the wild grapevines wandered in luxurious abandon; once defended 

 by the almost impregnable hedges of the wild blackberries. The early 

 settlers ate their first pies made from elderberries picked from "trees." 



On Deer Creek the parched and weary emigrant stopped to recruit, and 

 wash up, just having arrived by the Lassen trail, now scarcely existing 

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