A CREATION OF THE CALIFORNIA DISTRICT LAW. 



15 



rising 110 feet and mortised into the solid rock. 

 Leading out on either side of the picturesque gorge 

 are the noble canals through which will soon flow 

 the silver streams that will awake the valley lands to 

 new industrial and economic possibilities. This is 

 inspiring, but it is only when the beholder has real- 

 ized another fact that the whole force of the scene 

 sweeps in upon his imagination. This other fact is 

 that these massive works, these graceful canals, were 

 built by the people and for the people. They mort- 

 gaged their homesteads that they might build and 

 own forever the irrigation system which they had 

 learned at last was essential to their prosperity. And 

 so this creation of man's genius, industry and faith 

 stands as a monument to the people. 



The original plans were made by Col. Mendall, but 

 they have been altered in some respects. William 

 McKay has been the efficient constructing engineer 

 from the beginning. Harry Crowe has represented 

 the Modesto district. R. W. Gorrell, of San Francisco, 

 is the contractor on the dam. 



IV.-THE COMING TRANSFORMATION. 



The first result of the introduction of irrigation on 

 the lands of the Turlock and Modesto districts will be 

 the division of large farms into small ones. It has 

 already been stated that the present average is 640 

 acres. There are many farms, however, comprising as 

 large an area as two or three sections. The average 

 farmer cannot operate a large farm profitably under 

 irrigation. What the new unit will be at first it is 

 difficult to say. Perhaps it will be as large as 160 

 acres, as the average farmer feels equal to the cultiva- 

 tion of a quarter section. But with the gradual ad- 

 vance of scientific cultivation, and the growing press- 

 ure of population, the farm unit will gradually lessen 

 until it gets down to an average of forty or twenty 

 acres, an area on which a man can be perfectly inde- 

 pendent of the outside world in the genial climate of 

 the San Joaquin valley. 



TRANSFORMING AN INDUSTRIAL SYSTEM. 



After the division of farms the most interesting 

 feature of the coming transformation will be the 

 change in the industrial system on these lands. This 

 is now almost exclusively a wheat country. With irri- 

 gation it will become a country of diversified crops. 

 All the vegetables, all small fruits, all the deciduous 

 fruits and perhaps the citrus fruits, in certain localities, 

 will be produced by scientific cultivation and irrigation. 

 There is no question whatever but what intelligent 

 farming will produce upon twenty acres the variety of 

 products which a family will consume, and a sufficient 

 surplus for exchange at the grocery store for such 

 things as the climate forbids, together with something 

 for the savings bank. It is a very pleasant prospect to 

 which farmers of the Turlock and the Modesto dis- 

 tricts are looking forward in these tranquil winter days. 



THE VERY LANDSCAPE WILL CHANGE. 



Instead of the indefinite stretches of grain fields, on 

 which the word "poverty" is written in too legible 

 letters, we shall soon see on both sides of the pictur- 

 esque Tuolumne closely settled neighborhoods of pros- 

 perous small farms. Each one will have its garden 

 patch and its orchards, and, in front of every home, 

 roses and pansies will nod to the passing stranger. All 

 the way up the valley, from the railroad to the foot- 

 hills, the landscape will speak eloquently of the ad- 

 vantages of irrigation. The day of the great land- 

 holder will be a thing of the past, and the day when 

 men live on terms of equality will have come. If hard 

 times should continue for half a century there would 

 be no suffering among the proprietors of these small, 

 diversified farms. The soil is good, the sunshine per- 

 ennial. With water in the ditch no condition of pros- 

 perity is lacking, provided the farmer shall make it 

 his first business to produce from his acres the necessi- 

 ties of existence. The picture that will be presented 

 to the eye of the casual stranger will be very differ- 

 ent from that which lay under the moonlight on the 

 October night when Mr. Wright and his companion 

 drove down from the foothills on the occasion here 

 described. It will be a scene of even and unvarying 

 prosperity, that condition which holds the promise of 

 the only true happiness for men. 



THE VALUE OF THE BONDS. 



But one thing remains to be said. This is a refer- 

 ence to the value of the bonds issued by those two 

 districts. The Turlock district has issued bonds to 

 the amount of $1,200,000, and the Modesto to the 

 amount of $800,000. In the case of the former these 

 cover 176,000 acres, and of the latter 80,564 acres, 

 These represent a mortgage upon the water supply, 

 the great diversion dam, all the canals and other 

 agencies of distribution; upon every acre of farming 

 lands ($10 per acre), every town lot, every business 

 block, every dwelling in all the communities com- 

 prised within the boundaries of these districts. They 

 take precedence of all other debts, mortgage or other- 

 wise. Could any security be stronger? Not only the 

 real values, but all the productive energies of these 

 communities is sacredly pledged for the fulfillment 

 of these obligations. The law \ipon which these 

 bonds are founded has passed successfully through 

 the lower courts, as well as the supreme tribunal of 

 California. It remains only to be tested in the 

 Supreme Court of the United States, and there its 

 triumph seems certain. This verdict secured, and the 

 massive works of the Turlock and Modesto districts 

 will stand as enduring monuments to C. C. Wright 

 and the men of California who sent him to the Legis- 

 lature, and then carried out the provisions of the law 

 which his genius and courage wrote upon the statute 

 books. 



