AGRICULTURE. 215 



Petaluma Valley, about twenty miles long and three wide, 

 has a rich moist soil, and a cool climate, and is well adapted 

 to the cultivation of fruit, maize, and wheat. 



153. Sacramento- San Joaquin Valley. The Sacramento- 

 San Joaquin Valley is three hundred and fifty miles long from 

 north to south, and forty miles wide, with an area of 14,000 

 square miles, not more than five hundred feet above the sea 

 level. On the western side there are few streams ; on the 

 eastern, many. Near the middle of the valley there is much 

 tule or swamp, and south of Tulare Lake there is some alka- 

 line soil. The entire valley has a warm summer climate, and 

 the greater portion of its surface is bare of trees, and is too 

 dry to produce wheat regularly without irrigation. The supply 

 of water available for irrigation is abundant, and the topog- 

 raphy of the country not unfavorable for the construction of 

 canals. 



The only minor valleys of note, tributary on the west side to 

 the Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley, are the Suisun, Pleasant, 

 Putah, and Cache Valleys, all of them formed in the coast 

 mountains, not far north from the Strait of Carquinez, and all 

 of them fertile and well adapted to the cultivation of grapes 

 and fruit. Tributary to Putah Valley are Berreyesa, Pope, and 

 Coyote Valleys, and tributary to Cache Creek are the valleys 

 of Clear Lal^e, (which lies about a thousand feet above the 

 sea) and Long, Bear, and Indian Creeks. 



Most of the rivers coming down from the Sierra Nevada 

 have little bottom land until they get down into the main 

 valley. King's, Kaweah, Tule, and Kern Rivers, which reach 

 the middle of the valley south of 36 30', all have deltas of 

 rich, moist soil, on which the water may be found at a depth 

 varying from seven to twenty feet. These deltas are admira- 

 bly adapted to the cultivation of cotton. 



154. Farming Advantages. The Californian farmer has 

 a great advantage over those of the northern Atlantic States, 

 in the mildness of the winters. Here we have no snow or 



