446 Transactions of the State Agricultural Society. 



be served for navigation equal to one hundred and thirteen thousand 

 seven hundred and cigbtj'-eight acres, making a total, with those also 

 irrigable from the same extension, two hundred and fourteen thousand 

 four hundred and sixty-six acres. With the completion of the canal 

 southwardly to Tulare Lake, it will serve for navigation, adjacent to its 

 bunks, the further area of seventy-four thousand one hundred and thirty- 

 three acres. But, it is to be remembered, bj T establishing a connection 

 with lake navigation the whole vast area of Tulare and Kern Counties, 

 adjacent to the lake, are equally brought within the benefits of canal 

 navigation. The total area contiguous with the canal which it would 

 serve for navigation, between its point of union with Tulare Lake and Ellis 

 Station, would be four hundred and six thousand seven hundred and 

 twenty-one acres — a figure, it may be added, so great, that it conveys to 

 the mind no definite idea of area. Its capacity, when all cultivated un- 

 der irrigation, may be stated as equal to that of any equal number of 

 square miles of the richest virgin soil ever turned in California in its 

 most favorable season. The area hitherto beyond reach of market, to 

 which a market is to be brought by canal navigation, is some two hun- 

 dred and fifty thousand or three hundred thousand acres of the very 

 richest and most productive soil in California. Concerning the larger 

 features of a comprehensive canal system for the eutire State, with a 

 main lateral canal along the foothills on each side of the plains, it is 

 obvious that the one projected for the east side can wait; most of tho 

 good that it could accomplish is in process of being accomplished by the 

 minor works already in progress or in prospect. The main canal on the 

 west side could be executed with advantage, creating a high value upon 

 nearly every acre of the vast plains upon that side of the San Joaquin 

 river. The leveeing works proposed in Tulare County would tend to 

 remove the last drawback upon what is already both the richest and 

 loveliest spot on all the surface of California. 



