MEAN TEMPERATURES, AND DROUGHTS. 



425 



granate, are grown to perfection. These extremes of variability 

 are found within a few miles of each other. 



The &quot;tule&quot; lands are estimated to cover 3,000,000 of acres, 

 and contain the richest soils, to reclaim which, capital i now 

 largely directed. The time is not far distant when they will be 

 covered with the most profitable crops, for which there are all 

 the advantages of cheap water transportation. 



But the most marked geographical feature of the Pacific 

 Coast is the great valley which has been so fully treated of in 

 our chapters on irrigation, &quot;of 57,200 square miles in extent, 

 equal to Illinois, Wisconsin, or Michigan, or Iowa, or Ohio and 

 half of Indiana combined, or of half the area of all the Middle 

 States.&quot; 



All this immense area possesses the working man s climate, 

 a climate resembling that of Italy in its general character, 

 though far more bracing and exhilarating in its effect upon man 

 and animals. The following table, from &quot;Hittell s Resources 

 of California,&quot; shows the mean temperatures of January and 

 July, and the difference between them in different localities : 



The most serious drawback to California as a farming coun 

 try, is the frequency of droughts. Oregon and Washington 

 have hero an advantage, counterbalanced, to some extent, by 

 their frosts and snows, though the latter seldom involves an 

 utter failure of the crop. In portions of California, two rain- 



