212 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



milling companies, which fact may tend to retard rapid settlement 

 by farmers. 



Eastward of the redwood belt, in the same river basins, are three 

 million acres of rich and fertile mountain and narrow valley lands, 

 capable of a high state of cultivation. It is almost entirely unsettled, 

 being distant from railroads from forty to one hundred and fifty 

 miles. The title to these lands is still in the United States, and sub- 

 ject to the homestead and jjreemption laws. There are two hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand acres in the north part of Lake County which 

 ma3^ be similarly described, and an hundred thousand in northwest- 

 ern Sonoma, besides as much more which has passed into private 

 ownership, all of which is almost entirely unsettled. All ordinary 

 crops can be grown here. There need never be any sleepless nights 

 on account of drought. Stock raising and dairying will always be 

 profitable. Fruits of all kinds,*except semi-tropical, will do well here. 

 There are no severe Winters. There is snow on the higher peaks and 

 farming going on in the valleys below at the same time. This entire 

 region could easily support a population of one hundred and fifty 

 thousand. 



In Shasta, Tehama, Butte, and Colusa Counties are large tracts of 

 unsettled land as fertile as any we have yet described and much less 

 hilly, nearer railroads and every way desirable for settlement, still 

 owned by the United States. The climate is so mild in some places 

 that oranges have been grown fully equal to the Los Angeles best. 



In the Coast Range, the headwaters of Salinas River with its 

 tributaries form a basin about one hundred miles long and sixty 

 miles wide in the widest place. The whole shaped like a twisted 

 bow kite, and lying between the main Mount Diablo Range and one 

 of its branches — the Santa Lucia — which hugs the ocean shore. The 

 soil is rich and productive, and the beauty of the basin is not sur- 

 passed by the handsomest valley in the State. 



Irrigation is not necessary. There are four rivers coursing through 

 it. It maj^ prove to be the New Jersey of the coast for peaches. 

 Apricots do fully as well. Almonds have never failed to bear for a 

 single year when tried. Wheat and barley have been grown for a 

 century. This district is unsettled because of no railroad communi- 

 cation. 



There are two hundred and fifty thousand acres of good land in 

 the Monterey Mountains, suitable for general farming and fruits. It 

 is especially adapted to dairying. 



The same may be said of a million acres lying in the remote dis- 

 tricts of the coast mountains south of this point. 



We have gone over the remote lands thus fully because they are 

 the least known. The many valleys of the State with their unri- 

 valed climate and great variety of productions are known far and 

 wide, especially by those who will read this article. The area of 

 these valleys is less than that of the available, yet more distant small 

 valleys, hill, and mountain lands. Lands in these sections are sold 

 at from twenty-five dollars to three hundred dollars an acre, while 

 the others are sold at from one dollar and twenty-five cents to ten 

 dollars an acre. Besides the private lands, there are twenty million 

 acres of Government land which may be obtained under the home- 

 stead and preemption laws. 



Of the seventy-three million acres of fertile lands in California 

 only four million, or four million five hundred thousand acres at 



