THE IRKIGATION AGE. 



CALIFORNIA AND THE CONGRESS 



J. J. ALLISON 



233 



The Fifteenth National Irrigation Congress, to be held in Sacramento, California, from Septemper 

 2d to 7th, gives promise of being the most largely attended of any gathering in the history of that organ- 

 ization. 



Governors of all the eastern and central states have announced their intention of appointing delegates, 

 and every state in the Union will be represented. 



Commercial bodies and industrial institutions of practically all the large cities of the United States 

 are preparing to participate. , 



An unusually fine string of trophies has been offered to induce irrigation farmers and orchardists to 

 exhibit, and this feature of the conclave will be more strongly emphasized than ever before. 



Altogether the Fifteenth Congress will be the banner convention both in point of attendance and in- 

 terest. , 



The history of California dates back almost as far 

 as the discovery of the continent by Columbus. 



The romance of the Spaniard, as evidenced by the 

 names of rivers, mountains, towns, and political di- 

 visions, has permeated the lives of the people to the 

 present day, giving them, in addition to their - loyal 

 democratic Americanism, a knightly bearing and an 

 enthusiasm for their state not found elsewhere. When 

 an outsider really understands them in their business, 

 in their homes, and in their motives, experiences the 

 beneficence of the wonderful climate, and comprehends, 

 in a measure, the resources of the state, in timber, in 

 minerals, and in agriculture, all the seeming exaggera- 

 tion of California's greatness is accepted as only a 

 meager attempt to tell the truth. 



To write about the prosperity and happiness of the 

 people ; to dwell on the beauties of orchard and vine- 

 yard ; to picture the peaceful home-life on the farm and 

 in the city, enveloped in perpetual odor of roses and 

 orange blossoms; to revel in all the ecstatic emotional 

 sentiments engendered by mild climates and enchanting 

 environments would be the work of the artist, the poet. 

 Our province in writing is the more prosaic work of tell- 

 ing the readers of THE IRRIGATION AGE the advantage? 

 of living in a region already made delightful and pro- 

 ductive by nature but rendered doubly desirable by the 

 hand of man through systems of irrigation. 



California is an irregular parallelogram 800 miles 

 lond and 200 miles wide, the Pacific Ocean and the 

 Sierra Nevda Mountains forming the longer sides. The 

 area is 156,170 square miles, about equal to the com- 

 bined areas of the eight North Atlantic states, whose 

 population is 25,000,000 against 2,000,000 for Cali- 

 fornia. In the possibility of support from the products 

 of the soil the ratio of population should be reversed. 



In climatic conditions, and in variety and pro- 

 ductivity of the soil, no state equals California. Mr. 

 Elwood Meade. an irrigation expert, in his report to the 

 United States Department of Agriculture says : 



"As an agricultural state California stands alone. 

 No other humid or arid commonwealth has as diversi- 

 fied products or high-priced farming land. . In some 

 respects the climate is marvelous in its possibilities. 

 The usual limitations imposed by latitude are here set 

 aside. Oranges ripen as early and surely at Oroville, 

 100 miles north of San Francisco, as at San Diego. 500 



miles south of that city, and much of the state has the 

 unique distinction of being able to grow all the products 

 of New England and of Florida on -the same acre of 

 land. Sacramento, which has the same latitude as 

 southern Illinois, is surrounded by districts where blue- 

 grass lawns are shaded by palms and orange trees. The 

 summers are not too hot for the turf nor the winters 

 too cold for the trees. Nowhere east of the mountain 

 barrier formed by the Sierras are these products grown 

 together. On the east side of the range one has to travel 

 south 500 miles to find a palm tree, while in Illinois 

 the apple takes the place of the orange. It is the only 

 state where crops can be harvested with absolute as- 

 surance that rain will not fall to injure them, yet where 

 these crops can be grown by the aid of rainfall alone. 

 In much of the cultivated portion of the state irriga- 

 tion is not a matter of necessity, but of choice. If a 

 farmer is content to raise wheat, ditches may be dis- 

 pensed with. If he wishes to add alfalfa and oranges, 

 and to beautify his surroundings with the perpetual 

 green of a lawn, he must provide an added water supply. 



"Although irrigation is not a necessity, it is every- 

 where of value, because its magic brings into full 

 fruition all of the attractions with which the state is 

 so generously endowed. By its aid midsummer can 

 be made almost as lovely as spring. It obviates or 

 lessens the dust and discomfort of the rainless season and 

 makes it possible to create rural homes which on the 

 whole represent an average of human comfort hardly 

 to be equaled elsewhere in this country. It completes 

 the marvelous combination which makes winter a season 

 of seed time instead of stagnation ; which gives to 

 farmers many of the products of the tropics with the 

 climate of the temperate zone ; which withholds moisture 

 in harvest time and thus relieves the husbandman of 

 the most serious vicissitude of regions of ample rainfall. 

 It is an aggregation of advantages which those who live 

 elsewhere ' find it hard to believe exists, and which the 

 people of the state do not fully appreciate." 



Of the 100,000,000 acres of land in the state ap- 

 proximately 60,000,000 acres are range lands for stock, 

 and 40,000,000 acres are agricultural lands. The greater 

 portion of the fertile lands lies 'in "The Great Valley" 

 formed by the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers 

 uniting near and flowing into the Suisun Bay. Much 

 has been known and written of the marvelous develop- 



