444 TRANSACTIONS OP THE 



doubters are not confined to the valleys. Those who started vine- 

 yards and orchards in the foothills by irrigation still adhere to the 

 practice; it would be death to let go and so they keep on irrigating. 



Irrigation, I repeat, is not necessary, but cultivation is. The use 

 of cultivation is to put, as it were, a blanket of non-conducting fine 

 soil on the top to prevent evaporation of the water which the soil 

 has absorbed in the Winter season. By plowing in the Winter, where 

 the land does not wash, you get all the rain which falls, and by cul- 

 tivating in the Summer you keep it in for the thirsty vine and tree 

 roots to drink as their necessity demands. 



To the doubter I wish to relate my experience. Perhaps there is 

 no drier-looking portion of this district than that about Loomis, in 

 Placer County. The soil is granitic, about four feet deep; underlaid 

 with rotten granite; the elevation four hundred feet above the sea. 

 I plowed and subsoiled my land in the Winter of 1881 and 1882, and 

 in April, 1882, which was a dry season, the grape roots ( Vitis Calif or- 

 nica) were planted. The stocks were not over one eighth of an inch 

 in diameter. They have never been irrigated. When I grafted them 

 in April of this year the stocks were from one inch to two and one 

 half inches in diameter. The canes of the grafted scions have made 

 a growth of three to six feet, and, had I not cut off the blossoms, 

 would have borne a handsome crop. Mr. Morrison, Mr. Williams, 

 and Mr. Ryder each set out this Spring an orchard, at Loomis, of 

 prunes, pears, apricots, figs, walnut trees, and peaches. The doubters 

 went by wagging their heads and saying, "Wait till the clouds pass by." 



The clouds did pass by, and at this present moment the trees are 

 living and clothed in the bright green of health, all without one drop 

 of water of irrigation. Mr. Costa and Mr. Himes have each a vineyard 

 near by which bears abundantly without the aid of irrigation. Mr. 

 Filcher, of the Herald, has also been successful in growing corn and 

 melons without irrigation, and Mr. Whitcomb,.at Colfax, who pro- 

 duced the largest clusters of grapes ever exhibited in this State, cul- 

 tivates his vineyard without the aid of water. 



I have introduced my neighbors' names and my own into this 

 statement, because I wished to state simply what I knew, and I have 

 dwelt with some prolixity upon the question of irrigation, because it 

 is the one question of this district which shall determine our future 

 as a fruit-growing section. It should be determined once for all that 

 trees and vines will grow in the foothills, and that they will bear 

 abundantly enough to satisfy any but the most greedy. Let not the 

 new comer be afraid; let him plant with faith. Heaven's bounty is 

 enough for him if he but cultivate his land. 



SOIL, 



Much of the exquisite fl.avor which characterizes the fruit of the 

 foothills is due to the nature of the soil. It is deficient in the ele- 

 ments which produce an excess of wood, but abounds in mineral sub- 

 stances which enter into the composition of fine fruits. 



My remembrance is that about Placerville the soil rests on slate, 

 tilted and seamed, into which the vine and the roots find ample 

 moisture and food. As you go north and west you enter the granite 

 belt, in which is located Coloma, famous now and for years past for 

 the peaches grown there, which, for size, juiciness, and flavor are not 



