THE TRUTH ABOUT CALIFORNIA 



did he realize how largely it would increase the cost of 

 land and how seriously it would influence the entire 

 economic character of the country. lie held out the 

 hope of a prosperous living for families of small means 

 who should settle upon farms of one hundred and sixty 

 acres and upwards in the San Joaquin Valley, and de- 

 pend chiefly upon crops that could be grown without 

 irrigation. If " the millions" had accepted this advice 

 in the past, or should do so to-day, nothing but disaster 

 could result. Except in a few localities, prosperous 

 agriculture in the San Joaquin Valley without irriga- 

 tion is impossible. The character of the country is such 

 that large and costly canal systems are required to bring 

 any considerable portion of it under water. When these 

 were built it was no longer possible to acquire cheap 

 land, and the size of the practicable farm unit had been 

 reduced to about one-tenth of the amount Mr. Nord- 

 hoff advised. These developments changed the situa- 

 tion completely. 



The enthusiastic author was by no means blind to the 

 possibilities of horticulture, nor did he fail to foresee 

 that when this had been established it could be success- 

 fully pursued on much smaller areas. But here also his 

 advice is now quite obsolete, and must be revised before 

 it can again be offered to the public. He left the im- 

 pression that oranges could be grown throughout south- 

 ern California and the San Joaquin Valley. Later ex- 

 perience has eliminated the dream of orange orchards 

 from a vast portion of these localities, but has demon- 

 strated that the industry is practicable in some places 

 where it was formerly supposed to be out of the ques- 

 tion. While the orange- tree will grow and generally 



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