30 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



Where the surface descends gradually to the seashore, and not in 

 bluffs, there are as in Los Angeles and Orange counties, coast flats 

 several miles in width, where the soil is a dark-colored sandy loam, 

 glistening with scales of mica, and more or less affected with alkali 

 in the lower portions. Similar soils are found in tracts of greater 

 or less extent up the coast as far as Santa Barbara at least. As a 

 rule, these seashore lands are very productive, but fruits for them 

 must be chosen with reference to their low level and exposure to 

 coast influences. 



The light loams of the so-called desert region of Southern Cali- 

 fornia are not inferior in productive capacity to some of the best 

 soils of the great valley, which they greatly resemble, save in the 

 scarcity of vegetable matter. Only a detailed survey, however, can 

 determine the tracts having an arable soil, as against those overrun 

 by arid sand. The soil of the Colorado River bottom is highly pro- 

 ductive, easily worked, being quite light. It is a highly calcareous 

 soil, and now, as the water of the Colorado River has been made 

 available for irrigation, is yielding rich returns for cultivation. 



The valleys of the seaward slope of the Coast Range have mostly 

 gray, light, and silty, rather than sandy soils, quite similar in ap- 

 pearance, from Ventura to Humboldt county, though differing con- 

 siderably in composition, those of the southern region being more 

 calcareous, and apparently richer in phosphoric acid ; as the coast 

 region consists for the most part of low ranges with intervening 

 valleys, the valleys are, as a rule, small, though a few show consid- 

 erable area. In such a country the soil surface shows wide diversity 

 with its smaller areas than on the vast stretches of the great interior 

 valley ; consequently, so far as soil goes, the coast farms are often 

 suited to a wider range of fruits than the interior valley farms of 

 similar size. 



ALLUVIAL OR SEDIMENTARY LOAMS 



These soils have been considered from the earliest plantings by 

 Americans as par excellence the fruit soils of the great valley of 

 Central and Northern California. They occurr along the courses of 

 existing streams, and extend back to variable distances, until they 

 merge into the valley loams, or adobes. These deposits are consider- 

 ably higher than the present beds of the streams, and are sometimes 

 described as "next to river bottom." They consist of fine alluvium, 

 with seldom any admixture of coarse materials. These river soils 

 are usually very deep and they are naturally well drained. 



These deposits cross the valley in somewhat irregular courses ; 

 they are of greater or less width according to the drainage area 

 whence they have come. They vary also in depth, and tapper down 

 on either side to the level of the red loam or abode upon which they 

 have been deposited. Such strips are first chosen by the fruit 

 planters of the district in which they occur. In the valleys of the 

 rivers crossing the eastern side of the San Joaquin Valley, there are, 

 bordering the streams as well as Tulare Lake, considerable areas of 



