374 Transactions of the 



THE PRINCIPAL EXPORTS 



Of the county at present arc wheat, wool, and live stock. The present 

 season the county lias produced about one hundred thousand tons of 

 wheat, and will export between eighty thousand and ninety thousand 

 tons. The clip of wool hist Spring its estimated by competent judges at 

 one million pounds. From so large a number of slue]) there must lie an 

 annual sale of a large number of mutton sheep. Not less than eight 

 thousand hogs have been exported the present season — one man having 

 shipped to the San Francisco market, in the month of November, six 

 thousand head. A large number of beef cattle are also sold annually. 

 The county has also a very huge number of line stock of all kinds. 



IRRIGATION AND RECLAMATION. 



The entire valley portion of the county is capable of being irrigated, 

 either by the waters of Stony Creek, or, by going up the river into 

 Tehama County, the waters of the river itself can be used. The cost 

 of either would not be great in proportion to the benefits. In order to 

 reclaim their land the owners of the swamp or tule land, above men- 

 tioned, have leveed the river, on- the west side, from Knight's Landing 

 almost to the head of the "trough." They now have to contend with 

 the water from the low hills, but they are now planning to stop this 

 out. Much of this tule land has been rendered tit for cultivation by the 

 work already done. The river on the east side is now being leveed. 



THE MINES. 



In the southwestern portion of the county some veiy fine quicksilver 

 mines have been opened, and although no great outlay has been made, 

 twenty or t\vent} T -hve flasks of quicksilver are shipped each week from 

 Colusa. By Spring these will be increased to hundreds. Several good 

 prospects for silver have been found in the Coast -Range, but as miners 

 have been incredulous about the existence of the precious metals in this 

 region, but little prospecting has been done. Copper has been found in 

 large quantities in the mountains. There are several mineral springs 

 of great value in the mountains on the west side of the county. 



• THE TOWN OF COLUSA 



Is situated on the west bank of the Sacramento River, twenty-two miles 

 north of the southern line of the county. The banks of the river at 

 this point are high — were not overflowed during the wet Winter of 

 eighteen hundred and forty-nine-fifty; but since the banks have been 

 worn down, and the channel of the river raised somewhat by the stop- 

 page of sloughs, a small levee has become necessary, but the expense of 

 keeping the levee up is very small. The town, as incorporated, extends 

 for a mile up and down the river, but an "extension" on either end 

 increases it to about a mile and a half, by three quarters of a mile back. 

 About two thousand five hundred inhabitants are scattered over this 

 territory. The town site was once thickly covered with large forest 

 oaks, and many of them are remaining at the present time. This is the 

 center of trade for the country we have just been describing, and if tlu 

 scope of this paper was not limited to a plain relation of facts, withoit 



