184 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



ALSO FAMOUS FRUIT COUNTRY. 



Again, you will meet with great vineyards of 

 Muscat and Thompson's Seedless grapes, out of which 

 very fine raisins are made by drying them in the sun 

 in the fields. Train loads of these grapes are sold fresh, 

 called "table grapes," those elegant specimens seen in 

 the eastern markets. Out of the inferior grades or the 

 unsold surplus millions of gallons of the famous Cali- 

 fornia wine are made made every year. A net return 

 of $250 an acre and even higher sums are common. 



Very fine lemons, oranges, peaches (yellows, Muirs 

 and clings), apricots, figs and olives grow in the valley 

 soil. In places unsurpassed blackberries are success- 

 fully cultivated. Certain soils favor English walnuts 

 and prunes. In the counties south of this valley are 

 also great orange and lemon orchards and walnuts 

 grow well in Orange and other counties. West San 

 Diego county produces raisins and olives unsurpassed 

 in the United States. 



In Fresno, Kern, Los Angeles and other counties 

 immense quantities of crude petroleum, mainly of an 

 asphaltum base, are annually taken, the output for the 

 state amounting to from 36,000,000 to 40,000,000 bar- 

 rels each year. 



In the San Joaquin valley and the counties south 

 of it are found large areas of the best sugar beet soil 

 in America, and the manufacture of beet sugar has al- 

 ready attained extensive proportions. These beets yield 

 from 2,500 to 3,000 pounds of sugar per acre. In this 

 same region hundreds of acres of lima beans may be 

 seen growing in a single field. Down in San Diego 

 county a net return of $300 an acre from strawberries 

 is a common matter, and yet tons of strawberries are 

 shipped in for local consumption. This is but an out- 

 line sketch, and does not tell all that California lands 

 and favoring climate will do for cultivators of the soil, 

 by any means. 



Above San Francisco about 60 miles is Santa Rosa, 

 near which the famous Luther Burbank is working out 

 his experiments in plant evolution. Along the Sierra 

 and North Coast mountain sides are grand forests of 

 pine and other timber. Many of the most magnificent 

 trees in the world are found in this state, some of them 

 measuring over 36 feet in diameter and towering 300 

 feet toward heaven. 



Reclamation Service 

 flews 



FREDERICK H. NEWELL, 

 Director of the Reclamation Service. 



[CONTRIBUTED.] 



Frederick Haynes Newell was born in Bradford, Pa., 

 March 5, 1862. He graduated from the engineering course 

 of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1885, and 

 later took a post graduate course in hydraulic work. The 

 graduates of this college, owing to its high standards and 

 excellent facilities, are found in the front rank of the tech- 

 nical professions. 



Immediately after completing his course, Mr. Newell 

 took up his professional work in Colorado. Here he came 



into direct contact with practical irrigation on a large scale. 

 His stay in Colorado left a deep and lasting impression which 

 was responsible in no small degree for his accepting a minor 

 position as hydraulic engineer in the irrigation survey in 1888. 

 During the formative stage of this survey its rather chaotic 

 conditions afforded an excellent field for the exercise and de- 

 velopment of young Newell's capacity for organization. 

 Through all the vicissitudes which the new bureau passed he 

 never wavered in his purpose of doing well and thoroughly 

 everything assigned to him. The irrigation survey proper was 

 short lived, as Congress failed to provide for it after 1890. 

 Authority, however, was granted to continue the measurement 

 of streams and to select survey, and segregate reservoir sites. 

 All of this work was placed directly under the charge of Mr. 

 Newell. 



His star was national reclamation of the Great American 

 Desert, and for eighteen years he has devoted all of his skill 

 and energy to the work of acquiring information concerning 

 the resources and needs of the arid West. It is said that he 

 has first hand knowledge of every important stream in the 

 West. The extensive and valuable results obtained through 

 this work attracted wide attention, and the demand for data 

 led Congress to increase the appropriation gradually until in 

 1902 they amounted to $200,000 annually. 



The early work was mainly in a vast wilderness full of 

 obstacles to civilized occupation, and the results were largely 

 responsible for the subjugation of many desolate vallevs and 

 the development of large areas for agriculture. His work 

 opened new channels for industry, new employment for many 

 thousands, and continues to afford opportunities for the home- 

 seeker. 



The reclamation act of June 17, 1902, was the logical de- 

 velopment of the investigations of the previous twelve years 

 under Mr. Newell. Naturally its administration was placed 

 in his hands as chief engineer by the director of the Geological 

 Survey. His appointment to the position of director of the 

 Reclamation Service, now an independent bureau of the In- 

 terior Department, is a proper recognition of the invaluable 

 services he has rendered the Government. It furnishes also 

 an inspiration to those who are devoting the best years of 

 their lives to Government work. 



Mr. Newell's fitness for great responsibilities lies chiefly 

 in his all-round perfect balance, supplemented by good com- 

 mon sense and a judicial attitude of mind by which he can 

 at any time patiently hear and give due weight to the sug- 

 gestions of others. Thus to a remarkable degree he is able 

 to bring to his work the combined wisdom of many minds, 

 avoiding the errors of the cock-sure egotist on the one hand 

 and of the pliant tool or weakling on the other. 



If Mr. Newell has anything that may be called a hobby 

 it is his insistence on a close personal acquaintance with the 

 work of which he has charge. He spends a large share of his 

 time in camp discussing details on the ground with those who 

 are designing or building works, thus equipping himself for 

 quick and wise decision on the many points of importance 

 that constantly demand executive action. He is an incessant 

 worker, and has the capacity for an immense amount of busi- 

 ness, yet never appears to be hurried nor overwhelmed with 

 the duties of his office. 



An invaluable element of his extraordinary success in or- 

 ganization, the Reclamation Service entered upon actual con- 

 needed for responsible positions, and in maintaining an esprit 

 de corps among them that has challenged the admiration of 

 all who have come in contact with the Reclamation Service. 



As a result of his foresightedness and his ability in or- 

 ganization, the Reclamation Service entreed upon actual con- 

 struction within a year after the passage of the act, and two 

 years later a great project in Nevada was formally opened to 

 settlement. At the present time construction work is going 

 forward on twenty-five projects in twelve states and two ter- 

 ritories, involving the ultimate expenditure of $40,000,000 

 and the reclamation of 1,200,000 acres. In less than five years 

 the service has practically completed four projects and will 

 supply water this year to 282,000 acres of desert. 



It has dug 1,267 miles of canal, several of which carry 

 whole rivers; its tunnels are more than nine miles long and 

 the excavations of earth and rock amount to 33,000,000 cubic 

 yards, or about one-fourth the estimated yardage of the Pan- 

 ama canal. It has constructed ninety-four large structures, 

 including two great dams, one in Nevada and one in Idaho. 

 It has built 376 miles of road in mountainous country and 

 through heretofore inaccessible regions. It has erected and 



