IKRIGATION INVESTIGATIONS ON CACHE CREEK. 163 



of the Sacramento are systematically discharged over this swamp land whenever the 

 river threatens the dikes of the reclamation districts. Some attempt has been made 

 to facilitate the discharge of this water by a canal through the lower part of this 

 tract connecting southward with the bay, but the capacit}' of the canal as constructed 

 is entirely inadequate for the volume to be discharged, and when the floods come the 

 lands remain under water much longer than is good for them or convenient for those 

 who occupy them. While it is not probable that the water can be prevented from 

 covering a large area of this territory when the Sacramento is in flood, if this canal 

 were deepened and widened there is a great deal of rich land that is now of little 

 value that could be brought into productive use. 



WHEAT GROWING. 



The leading agricultural industry of this section is the production of wheat and 

 barley. The wheat and barlev are sown during the fall and winter and grow during 

 the cool months of winter and spring. There is usually rainfall sufficient to mature 

 them. Without irrigation these are practically the only field crops that can be 

 matured. The land has been so long cropped with these grains that the grain- 

 producing elements of the soil ai-e showing signs of exhaustion and the yield has 

 seriously diminished. 



When prices are favorable there is something very taking about the methods of 

 the wheat growers of this region. Gang plows drawn bj- teams of eight or ten horses 

 turn the soil. The man with the harrow rides behind on horseback while directing 

 his team. The seeding u done in the same large way. The harvester, drawn by 

 S'2 horses or a traction engine, cuts and thitishes and delivers in sacks each day the grair 

 from 20 to 30 acres. The straw is burned. In the spring succeeding the harvest the 

 land is plowed and then lies fallow until the following fall, when it is again seeded. 

 But without irrigation there can be no rotation of ci'ops and no chance for the soil to 

 recupei-ate. It is a fascinating but destructive system of agriculture, and the farmers 

 of Yolo County are paying the penalty in steadily diminishing crops. Where once the 

 returns were 40 to 60 bushels to the acre, the farmer now receives 12 to 30 bushels. 

 This, with the low prices prevailing, has rendered grain farming very unprofitable. 

 Only those who by operating on a large scale secure the full advantage of labor- 

 saving machinery can now make wheat farming profitable. The tendency of all 

 this is to the elimination of the small farmer and an increase in the acreage of the 

 larger landholders. 



I would not wish to be understood as advocating the abandonment of grain 

 growing in this section. The natural conditions are here peculiarly favorable for 

 the production of wheat and barley-, and their cultivation will always be a leading 

 industry, not only in Yolo County , but throughout the whole Sacramento Valley. 

 What I deprecate is the wasteful and destructive system which is impoverishing the 

 land and ruining the farmer. With the rotation of crops, which irrigation would 

 make possible, these lands might soon be restored to their former fertility. A less 

 area in wheat with a larger production would mean success where now is failure. 



The small farmer is falling behind, and his lands are gradually passing into the 

 possession of his more prosperous neighbors or into the hands of the trust companies 

 from whom he has borrowed money to keep up the fight. Many once pleasant homes 



