457 
from which we extract the following paragraph in reference to the agricultural 
interest : 
' The area of Humboldt county is about 16,000 square miles, equal to the aggregate area of 
the States of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and Delaware. There are probably 
150,000 acres of tillable and 650,000 acres of grazing land, and the quantity of the former may 
be greatly increased by irrigation ; this has been done already in many places to considerable 
extent, and at no distant day it will be practiced much more extensively, particularly in that 
section through which the Humboldt canal is being constructed, and on either side of the 
Humboldt river. The soil is fertile and requires only irrigation to render it productive for 
nearly all kinds of cereals and vegetables. A great amount of rich alluvial land can be re- 
claimed in the lowest part of Paradise valley, by means of a canal through the centre of 
the same, to carry off the surplus water during the wet season; the soil is of. such a cbharac- 
ter that a canal can be easily eonstructed. This valley cannot be surpassed in the State for 
agricultural facilities. It is 35 miles in length and from 6 to 10 miles in width. There are 
numerous streams in different parts of the valley, that afford ample water for irrigating pur- 
poses. This section is pleasantly located, as its name would indicate, and is already a valu- 
able portion of the county. A flouring mill is being erected on Martin’s creek, near the 
head of the valley, at anexpense of $15,000. Aside from this valley, Queen’s river, Grass 
and Pleasant valleys, Big Meadows, the Humboldt river section, and the mountain canons, 
produce large quantities of cereals, vegetables, and hay. The following were the leading pro- 
ductions last year: barley, 2,500 acres, averaging 40 bushels per acre, worth 5 cents per 
pound ; wheat. 1,200 acres, average 40 bushels, 5 cents per pound ; potatoes, 50 acres ; hay, 
3,000 acres, average per acre 14 ton, worth $20 per ton. ‘There were in the county 900 
oxen, 350 cows, 600 horses, 60 mules, 650 stock cattle, 300 calves, 300 hogs, 1,500 sheep, 
20 colts. Average price of work oxen per yoke, $150; cows, each, $75; beef cattle, per 
100 pounds, on foot, $12; sheep, ditto, $12; hogs, ditto, $12. ‘The county is peculiarly 
adapted to stock-raising, the rich bunch grassof the mountains, and the blue-joint on the Hum- 
boldt river and Big Meadows, growing in abundance during the warm months, and the 
white sage or ‘‘ winter pot’? is ample for the winter. The tules of the Humboldt river are 
highly favorable to the raising of hogs, which live and fatten there with little trouble or ex- 
pense. The Pacific railroad is now running through the whole length of the county. 
YUBA COUNTY, CALIFORNIA. 
A correspondent in Yuba county, California, writes as follows: 
Much of our rich river bottoms have been and are being destroyed by the debris coming 
down from the mines in the mountains. Our streams and rivers are thick with mud, and 
during high water in winter a heavy sediment or deposit is left on all the bottoms over- 
flowed. ‘The river channels are filled up from 20 to 30 feet, or within afew feet of the bank 
along these bottoms, so that almost every rise of water overflows the land. Upon these 
lands were our orchards, the most. extensive and celebrated in the State, worth from 
$25,000 to $250,000. These orchards are beginning to die out. A few trees did not bud in 
the spring, being dead; the remainder came out and bloomed and set the fruit, and then died, 
so that the peach crop was a failure. Hundreds of acres are entirely dead, and the remain- 
ing trees must die the next or succeeding year. The apple and pear have been but little 
affected as yet from these deposits; but a year or two more and all the lowland orchards will 
be destroyed. Hundreds of acres of vineyards have sufiered in the same way, so that the 
crop was an utter failure. Time, however, will work a change, as the higher lands are 
found to be the best farm lands and the best adapted to fruit if properly cultivated, that is, 
ploughed deep and well tended. We can well afford to lose the bottoms to gain what were 
once deemed barren plain and hill lands. Over ten years ago I began to experiment upon 
these dry plain lands, and for ten years, as president of the agricultural society of the southern 
district of California, I have warned farmers against planting vineyards and fruit trees upon 
the lowlands, and urged upon them the feasibility of making homes upon and cultivating 
_ the higher lands. During all that time I have urged deep ploughing and summer fallowing, 
and to-day Yuba county and its vicinity has more acres of dry land under cultivation and 
does more summer fallowing than any other section of the State. This county suffers more 
by the loss of her rich bottom lands, but has to-day more wealth in her upland farms than 
any other county in the State. ° 
THE “DIFFUSION” PROCESS. 
Dr. Theodore Canisius, late consul at Vienna, now of Aurora, Kane county, 
Illinois, (where a beet-sugar enterprise is loeated,) communicates the following 
