250 Transactions of the 



formed an important part in their formation, and have assisted materi- 

 ally in tho making of the soil of which they are composed. This 

 proposition is evident from the fact that the immediate hanks of all the 

 larger rivers, and nearly all the smaller ones, after they have left the 

 mountain gorges and flow through the valleys, are considerably higher 

 than the land at a short distance back from them. In other words, tho 

 lands on cither side of all our rivers slope gradually back' to a line of 

 lowest depression, which line generally runs about parallel with the 

 river. Beyond this line again there commences a gradual elevation, 

 which continues, varied of course by intervening creeks or other natural 

 causes, up to the foot of the mountains. Such is the general formation 

 of the great interior valley drained from the north and south by the 

 Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers. These immediate banks have been 

 mostl}' elevated by tine sedimentary deposits brought from great distances 

 and dropped on the occasions of overflows. This sediment, mixed with 

 the decayed vegetable matter, has made a soil of the most fertile charac- 

 ter, not only on the surface, but to the depth of hundreds of feet. In- 

 stances are frequent along these rivers where present vegetable forms 

 have been found from thirty to forty feet below the surface while dig- 

 ging wells. The fertility of this soil is therefore absolutely inexhaust- 

 ible, and to keep up its marvelous productions, all that \% necessary is to 

 gradually bring to the surface, by plowing a little deeper each time, the 

 virgin soil that lies below. There are millions of acres of soil of this 

 formation in the State in which there can scarcely be found a pebble or 

 gravel stone the size of a small bird's egg. 



Experience has proved this kind of soil to be too rich for the produc- 

 tion of the cereals at a profit — the straw generally growing so large as 

 to cause it to i'all down before the seed has come to maturity. It is 

 ■well adapted to the cultivation of all kinds of vegetables, including the 

 sugar beet, and nearly all varieties of fruits. For stock raising, and 

 the dairy, it cannot be excelled. Seeded to Chile clover or alfalfa, 

 every acre of this description of soil will produce, without irrigation, 

 three or four crops of excellent hay a } T ear, averaging from one and a 

 half to two and a half tons at each cutting per acre. Or each acre will 

 keep in good condition the year round from ten to fifteen head of sheep, 

 or from two to four head of cows. Near the towns this class of land 

 is frequently rented for from twenty to twenty-five dollars an acre per 

 annum, and yields a good profit to the tenant. Bordering on navigable 

 rivers, these lands have the advantage of cheap navigation, a consider- 

 ation which materially adds to their value. The width of this class of 

 lands along the rivers varies on different rivers and on different points of 

 the same rivers from one to three miles, and though of the same general 

 formation, the soil also varies from a dark heavy to a light sandy loam. 

 The same variation is also found in the composition of the different 

 strata or layers of deposit of which these lands are formed. The strip 

 of low land between the lands just described, and the more elevated 

 shelf of lands towards the mountains on either side of the Sacramento 

 and San Joaquin Rivers, in seasons of high water, when the river banks 

 overflow, and the creeks from the foothills run full, constitute the 

 main body of the swamp and overflowed lands of the State, of which 

 there are about five million acres. In some sections these lands have 

 been reclaimed by levees and drains, and are among the most pro- 

 ductive and valuable lands in the State. Their soil is generally heavier, 

 and contains less vegetable mold than those between them and tho 



