STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 37 



lanndred thousand acres of as good land as the State e ...ns. Nicholas 

 Wycotf, the engineer, who located most of the ditches in Yolo County, 

 and the engineer of Svvainp I^and District Number Eighteen, lying 

 mostly in that county, says, in a letter to the Secretarj' : "The da}' is 

 not far distant when the wates of Cache and Putah Creeks, in oi'dinary 

 seasons, will be used upon the land, and not be suffered to pass into the 

 tuies except at high floods — thus assisting to reclaim those valuable 

 lands." 



The people of Colusa County are also moving in this matter. They 

 proj)ose to take the waters from the Sacramento River, at auy point 

 above low water mark, so as not to interfere with navigation, and turn 

 it through a canal which, including one main branch, will be one hundred 

 and twenty miles in length, over an area of some three hundred thousand 

 acres of black valley land in that and the northern part of Yolo County. 

 The scheme is pronounced entirely practical by competent engineers 

 who have made the preliminary surveys, and the people are determined 

 to accomplish the enterprise and rea]) its beneflts. In view of these 

 facts, and the probability of other similar enterprises, may we not look 

 forward to the time when most of the surplus waters of our creeks and 

 rivers during the rainy seasons will be used to irrigate and render 

 immensely productive all the higher lands of our vallej's ? Asa secondary 

 though very important result of the accomplishment of such a system of 

 irrigation, great assistance would be rendered in permanently reclaiming 

 the tule lands, and the improvements of our farmers, and the towns and 

 cities on the immediate banks of the rivers would be thus relieved, to a 

 great extent, from danger by overflows. 



The mechanical and manufacturing industries of the State, though 

 partaking of the general depression of the past year, and suffering some- 

 what from the state of the currency, w4)ich has encouraged importations, 

 have, notwithstanding, continued to enlist in their prosecution a gratify- 

 ing increase of capital, and to extend their enterprises and scope to a 

 great variet}' of the articles necessarily used in carrying on the various 

 industrial pursuits, and in supplying the necessities and luxuries of every 

 department of life. 



Leather of the various kinds, hoots and shoes, harness, saddles, Avhips, 

 every description of cordage, building materials, granite, marble, lime, 

 plaster, cement, wagons and carriages, railroad, passenger, and freight 

 cars; woolen goods, such as blankets of all kinds, flannels of every 

 description, cloths and cassimcres, carpets; hats, caps, and various kinds 

 of clothing; glue, asphaltum, gunpowder, matches, tar, pitch, resin, 

 mineral paint, spirits of turpentine, salt, soap, yeast powders, starch, 

 vinegar, pickles, every variety of preserved fruits, jams, raisins, flgs, 

 maccaroni and vermicelli, castor oil, ])etroleum, \vines, brandies, and the 

 various kinds of spirituous and malt liquors; paper of every varict}^ ; 

 glass bottles of all kinds demanded, earthen and stone ware, wood, tin, 

 and wire ware; mining, mill, and steamboat machineiy, and machinery 

 of every kind in use ; agricultural implements, and various other articles, 

 are manufiictured in the State, with greater or less success; ver}- many 

 in sufficient quantities to supply the home demand, and keep up a very 

 good and remunerative export trade, while others are struggling against 

 the persevering competition of importation. 



Preparations, upon extensive scales, are now being niade to add to 

 this list, railroad locomotives, shot, and lead ]Mpe. The experiment of 

 smelting copper has already proved so much of a success as to warrant 

 the confident expectation that all our coj^per ores will soon be smelted 



