State Agricultural Society. 337 



Shingle Springs to San Francisco, by means of the railroad, the distance 

 being one hundred and eighty miles. 



WATER PRIVILEGES. 



During past years it has been difficult to obtain sufficient water at any 

 price to supply the requirements of the orchards and vine}'ards. At 

 present, the Gold Hill canal supplies second head measure, one by two 

 inches, with a two inch pressure, at twenty-five cents per inch. An 

 acre of vines will require about twenty-two and a half inches of water 

 during the season, thus costing about five dollars and fifty-six cents. 

 The new ditch, when completed, will supply a largo scope of country 

 above the altitude of the present canals, and will probably lessen mate- 

 rially the water rates. 



MADE LANDS. 



It is conceded that one acre of made land in this 1'egion is worth five 

 acres of natural. The modus operandi of reclaiming soil washed away 

 by the miners can best be explained by an example: J. E. Munson, of 

 Cold Springs, had about two acres of land that had been mined over and 

 over again until only bed-rock, gravel, and piles of well-washed tailings, 

 remained. Throwing a brush dam around the lower side and end, he 

 turned upon it the muddy waters of a mining creek. In a remarkably 

 short time every inequality was leveled by deposits of sediment, and he 

 had a smooth, even lot, covered four feet deep with fine, close-grained 

 earth. Sand was next sluiced down from the hill-slope above, and 

 uniting with the sediment, formed a rich, loamy soil, which, properly 

 manured, produces crops that are unsurpassed by anything 1 have ever 

 witnessed. Many of the most valuable lands of Coloma have been thus 

 filled in, on the bedrock of abandoned claims. 



43— ( a e») 



