AOEIOULTUEB. 151 



CHAPTER YII. 

 AGRICULTURE. 



§ 1-^8. General BemarJcs. — Of the 160,000 square miles in 

 the area of California, about 60,000 may be tillable; of which 

 16,000 are in the coast valleys, 30,000 in the low lands of the 

 Sacramento Basin, 12,000 in the Sierra Nevada, and 2,000 in 

 the Klamath Basin : while the 25,000 square miles of the Great 

 Basin, the 15,000 of the Colorado Desei't within the limits o± 

 this sUate, 30,000 of the Sierra Nevada, 26,000 of the Coast 

 Mountains, and 6,000 of the Klamath Basin, may be put down 

 as unfit for the plough. The 60,000 square miles of tillable 

 land contain nearly 40,000,000 acres, but only 1,000,000 are 

 cultivated in the state : of the remaining 39,000,000, one-fourth 

 have a soil very thin, or not fertile because of the presence of 

 alkaline substances ; one-half are too remote from market, even 

 where the soil is good ; and a considerable portion is tied up 

 in lawsuits, so that the ownership is doubtful, and the claim- 

 ants dare not improve it for fear of losing the improvements. 

 Only a small portion of the state is, therefore, fit for the plough. 

 Not more than one acre in ten could now be tilled profitably, 

 and I suppose that not more than one acre in four will be tilled 

 during this century. 



As compared with the great agricultural states of the Mis- 

 sissippi valley, in so far as relates to the proportion of rich land 

 fit for the plough, California is at a great disadvantage, and is 

 probably inferior in this respect to every state on the Atlantic 

 slope of the continent. In Illinois and Indiana, nearly every 

 foot of land has a rich soil and a level position. Again, Cali- 



