480 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
IRRIGATION. 
It will thus be readily understood that it is difficult to overestimate 
the importance of artificial irrigation in the middle and southern parts 
of California. In the entire valley of the San Joaquin it is the condition- 
precedent of assured success in farming; which otherwise is nearly as 
full of risks as speculation in mining stocks, and to many has proved 
equally seductive and fatal; for in favorabie seasons, the cereal crops 
of that region are prodigious, and successes therein have made many 
fortunes, which too often have again vanished into thin air on a repeti- 
tion of the venture. The bordering mountains supply water enough for 
the irrigation of the whole region, at least so long as the forests on the 
Sierras shall be preserved; and where this supply has been made avail- 
able, as in a number of the “irrigated colonies” of Fresno, Los Angeles, 
and other counties, the results have been most satisfactory in every 
point of view. Not only does the irrigated land produce certain and 
large crops, but also several such in a single season, if so desired. The 
land is thus rendered very valuable, is naturally divided into small par- 
cels, and thus invites and favors a system of conservative and intense 
culture, which is the exact reverse of the general practice of American 
farmers, and cannot fail to exert a beneficial influence in improving the 
latter by the example of success thus set. 
At the head of the Great Valley, in the tributary valleys on its east 
side, and in the comparatively narrow strip of land lying between the 
rivers and the Sierra, irrigating ditches are rapidly multiplying, though 
unfortunately, so far, not generally upon any comprehensive plan. Inthe. 
vast and, when watered, profusely fertile plains on the west side but 
little has been done as yet toward irrigation, the cost of bringing water 
being too great for either a private purse or even for that of acorpora- . 
tion; for the small streams of the coast range can only be locally utilized. 
The projected great ‘ West-side Irrigation Canal,” which is to be fed by 
the headwaters of the San Joaquin, is now the subject of extensive sur- 
veys ordered by the State, and when constructed will, it is expected, 
redeem the whole of the valley from its scourge of drought and render it 
the garden of California. At many points, both in the valley and on the 
coastward slope, artesian wells have been successfully resorted to as 
sources of water for irrigation, even on a large scale. 
THE CLIMATES. 
Taking as a convenient point of view the central portion of the State, 
the climates of California may, for agricultural purposes, be roughly 
classified as follows: 
1. The bay and coast climate—Its prominent characteristics are, first, 
the small range of the thermometer, caused by the tempering influence 
of the sea, the prevailing winds being from the west. The average winter 
and summer temperature at San Francisco thus differs by only about 
5° Fahrenheit (50° and 51° respectively). Snow rarely reaches the level 
of the sea, and is sometimes not seen for several seasons even on the 
summits of the Coast Range. <A few light frosts, with the thermometer 
at between 28° and 32° Fahrenheit for a few hours during the night, is 
the ordinary expectation for winter, while in summer the number of 
“hot” days on which the thermometer reaches 80° or more rarely ex- 
ceeds eight or ten. These occur chiefly in September, and under the 
influence of ‘the “‘norther,” which causes the hot, dry air of the interior 
valleys to overflow the barrier of the Coast Range. Under a brilliantly 
