HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 81 



gated colonies were started in the Fresno district 

 of the San Joaquin Valley and laid the permanent 

 foundations for the raisin industry, which had pre- 

 viously been demonstrated to be feasible in other 

 sections. Later colonies developed beyond present 

 enumeration, in all parts of the San Joaquin Valley, 

 founded on all kinds of farming but always on an 

 irrigation basis. Beginning later still, but continu- 

 ing to the present, are the irrigated colonies in the 

 Sacramento Valley, delayed by the fact that larger 

 rainfall renders irrigation less essential and sale 

 of subdivisions to unorganized settlers was the com- 

 mon method of development. 



In this outline of settlements, the term colony is 

 very loosely and broadly used to signify small sub- 

 divisions of land which bring settlers into close 

 neighborly association. Most of them had no other 

 relationship at the outset, although they usually 

 associated themselves in undertakings for mutual 

 benefit soon after getting together geographically. 

 While perhaps none has had the cooperative method 

 so completely embodied as the original Anaheim 

 colony (the actual cost of land, water and necessary 

 improvements to unite them being divided equally 

 among settlers without profit to promoters or organ- 

 izers), nearly all groups of subdivisions have advanced 

 in such ways that ultimately the owners of the land 

 have become owners of the water and of the system 

 by which it is secured and distributed, or are still on 

 the way toward such attainment. This consideration 

 touches closely on the law and philosophy of water 



