23 



State of Ohio, because it is neither the largest iior the smallest, but ap- 

 proximately an average State, and California embraces four times, the 

 area of Ohio, the ascertained area of the latter State being 24,640 ooo< 

 acres. 



The question of the proportion of the arable land in the State of Cali- 

 fornia to the entire acreage, has been much discussed. The pioneer 

 population regarded but a very small portion as suitable for cultivation. 

 Many large areas rejected as possessing no agricultural value whatever 

 in the first decade of American occupation here are now among the most 

 productive and valuable of any lands in the State. The methods of 

 agriculture pursued here are of comparatively recent discovery and prac- 

 tice. Being the result of experiment under climatic conditions wholly 

 different from those obtaining on the Atlantic seaboard, the agriculture 

 of California may be said to be distinctive and peculiar. As now 

 admitted to be applicable to the varying conditions of the different por- 

 tions of the State, the area of arable land in the State may be presented 

 as follows : 



San Joaquin valley 6,845,280 acres 



Sacramento valley 5,598,720 " 



Coast valleys, including Salinas, Napa, Rus- 

 sian River and Santa Clara 5,000,000 " 



Lands lying between the alluvial lands of the 

 Sacramento valley and the San Joaquin 

 valley and below the line of an equal ele- 

 vation at 2,000 feet 6,000,000 " 



Between the line of an equal elevation at 



from two to four thousand feet 7,000,000 " 



Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and San Diego 



coast climate 3,000,000 " 



Total 33,444,000 



Thus the present ascertained area of arable lands aggregates 33,444,000 

 acres. The irrigable area of the San Joaquin valley by definite ascertain- 

 ment is 5,545,280 acres. In a large proportion of this area there is suffi- 

 cient annual rainfall to mature annual crops of cereals, but the acreage 

 above shown as irrigable is irrigable from the water shed of the western 

 flank of the Sierra Nevada mountains. To this must be added about 

 1,500,000 acres on the west side of the San Joaquin valley, excluded from 

 the State Engineer's report as not receiving sufficient annual precipita- 

 tion of moisure to mature crops of cereals, but irrigable from storage 

 reservoirs in the Coast Range. 



The acreage of the Sacramento valley is 5,598,720 acres. This entire 

 acreage receives sufficient rainfall to mature annual crops of cereals. 

 The Sacramento and the San Joaquin valleys together comprise twelve 

 per cent of the entire acreage of this State. 



