IRRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 



THE AGRICULTURAL SITUATION IN CALIFORNIA, 



By Elwood Mead, 

 Irrigation Expert in Cliarge. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As an agTicultural State California stands alone. No other humid or 

 arid commonwealth has as diversified 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 surelv at Oi'oville, 100 miles north of San Francisco, as at San Dieao, 

 500 miles south of that city, and much of the State has the unique distinc- 

 tion of being able to grow all the products of New England and of Floinda 

 on the same acre of land. Sacramento, which has the same latitude as 

 southern Illinois, is suiTounded by districts where blue-grass lawns are 

 shaded by palm 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 SieiTas 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 wdiere crops can be harvested with absolute assurance 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 irrigation 

 is not a matter of necessity, but of choice. If a farmer is content to raise 

 wheat, ditches may be dispensed 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 everywhere 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 rej^resent an average of human comfort hardly to be equaled else- 

 where in this country. It completes the marvelous combination which 

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