182 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



the Sacramento. The lands above that line are uuai??scted by the tides. 

 Very little attention has as yet been devoted to the last-named class of 

 lands on account of their distance from the market. 



SALT-WATER TIDE-LANDS 



These lauds all lie upon the shores and islands of »an Francisco, San 

 Pablo, and Suisun Bays, and differ in several important characteristics 

 from the fresh-water tide-lands upon the rivers. The lands on Suisun 

 Bay, however, assimilate more closely to the fresh-water lands above, 

 from the fact that the waters of that bay are but to a email extent of a 

 saline character. For nine months in the year — from November till 

 September — the tides are so low that the water is excellent for drinking 

 purposes. During the remainder of the year it is but slightly brackish, 

 and is readily drunk by live stock. Hence, upon the islands of this bay 

 there are many tracts resembling the tule-swamps. These tracts are 

 reclamable at a comparatively small expense, seldom exceeding a i^ro 

 rata of $3 per acre. Long Island is thoroughly protected from inunda- 

 tion by a levee 12 feet wide at the base and less than 4 feet high. This 

 embankment resisted the unusually heavy storms of the winter of 1871- 

 '72 without the slightest injury to the works. In fact, it was drier than 

 the liighlands surrounding the' bay. The levees of Grizzly and Joice Isl- 

 ands, of about the same dimensions, were equally intact. The highest 

 floods of the Sacramento and San Joaquin, which usually occur in Jan- 

 uary and February, do not raise the waters of Suisun Bay more than a 

 foot above the highest summer-tides, the riee and fall of which do not 

 extend above six feet. By placing gates in the embankment at proper 

 intervals an ample supply of water for irrigation during the growing 

 season can be secured, which insures the success of the crops. This is 

 the nearest land to San Francisco that enjoys this advantage of inex- 

 pensive fresh-water irrigation. 



The shore-line of the lower bays is much cut up by sloughs, which, 

 though valuable for drainage, offer serious obstacles to extensive farm- 

 ing, as but few acres can be found in a body. The work of construc- 

 tion embraces an embankment about 4 feet high, with a, base 12 feet 

 wide, the intervening sloughs being dammed. The work has of late been 

 prosecuted with great energy, and from one-third to one-half of the 

 marshes of San Francisco Bay have been included in works of reclama- 

 tion now under construction or com])leted. 



The preliminary survey of marsh-lands, lying upon San Francisco 

 Bay, was accomplished by a board of State commissioners, who, in 

 their report of 1872, presented a statement of their nearly-completed 

 labors. They had made a final survey of tlie lands subject to their juris- 

 diction, amounting to G5,200 acres, and located in sections extending 

 from a point in Marin County, north of San Francisco, round the 

 southern extremity of the bay, and along its eastern shore to a point a 

 few miles north of Oakland. ' The lands along San Pablo and Suisun 

 Bays were not embraced in this survey. Of the total area surveyed, 

 33,200 acres — over half— ^were reserved for basins, channels, and tidal 

 area. This reservation quieted a grave public anxiety in regard to the 

 danger of shoaling the water at the entrance of the bay by contracting 

 the tidal area. In this policy the commissioners profess to have been 

 inlluenced by the highest hydrographic authorities. Of the remainder 

 of the lands surveyed, 13,200 acres were found to be covered by State 

 patents and legislative grants, leaving 18,800 acres to be disposed of by 

 the commissioners. Of this latter aggregate, i4,400 acres had been sold 

 lor $1,447,929.92. The total expenses of survey and sale amounted to 



