CLAY AND CLAY LOAM SOILS 3} 



brown to blackish loam varying from heavy to light, but for the most 

 part easily tilled and exceedingly rich. Considerable fruit has been 

 grown for years on these situations, and some kinds do well on these 

 bottoms which do not show adaptation to the plains. Some even of 

 the higher lying portions of these "black lands" support thrifty 

 orchards without irrigation. The wider stretches of alluvial soils 

 in the upper part of the valley, as in the Mussel Slough country and 

 the Visalia region, for instance, are notably well adapted to fruit 

 growing. The occasional intrusion of alkali, which must be care- 

 fully avoided, is the chief obstacle to the general approval of these 

 alluvial lands for fruit purposes. 



Soil of similar character is found in some small valleys consisting 

 of an alluvial wash from the bordering hills which in some places 

 reaches a depth of thirty feet or more without notable change in 

 character. Such soils have proved very fertile and durable. 



The rich river bottom, adjacent to the beds of the main rivers 

 and sloughs of the valley, has usually a dark, rich, and moist soil, 

 easily tilled and not subject to baking and cracking. It is largely 

 used for the growth of vegetables and alfalfa, but considerable areas 

 have been planted with fruit trees, especially with pears, which do 

 not suffer from submergence of their roots for considerable time. 



In the coast valleys of the State there are also very extensive 

 areas of alluvial soils which are largely used in fruit production, as 

 well as upland loams formed in place by the disintegration of local 

 rock formations. The famous fruit region extending from Oakland 

 southward nearly one hundred miles, including the Alameda and 

 Santa Clara Valleys, has very large areas of alluvial soil, ranging 

 from deep, rich blackish loams used for vegetables and small fruits 

 to lighter loams resulting from intermixture of sediment brought 

 by streams from adjacent hillsides with the clay of the valley 

 bottom. It is to these deep, rich alluvial deposits that the region 

 owes its great reputation in fruit lines. 



CLAY LOAMS 



Of loams containing sufficient clay to render them somewhat 

 heavy and tenacious, there is also a great variety in California. 

 Their suitability for different fruits depends upon selection of roots 

 adapted to their character and upon the depth and degree of reten- 

 tiveness of the soils themselves. They are more difficult of tillage 

 than the free loams, but offer some sompensation therefor in their 

 richness and durability. 



Clay Loams of the Foothills and Valley Border. The soils of the 

 foothills of the Sierra Nevada, throughout its courses along the great 

 valley, vary from a moderately clayey loam to a heavy, though not 

 uncommonly gravelly, often orange-red clay. This character seems 

 to be sensibly the same, whether the soil be derived from the decom- 

 position of the ancient slate bed-rock or directly from the dark- 

 colored granites, thus creating a presumption that the two rocks are 



