THE CONQUEST OF ARID AMERICA 



identical that they need not be rehearsed. Here irriga- 

 tion and the small farm had begun to make themselves 

 felt, and the single county of Fresno gained more than 

 five times as much in population in the last census dec- 

 ade as the entire Sacramento Valley. Perhaps the earliest 

 triumph of the new woman in this generation was that of 

 Miss Austin and her three associates all school-teachers 

 of San Francisco who founded the wonderful Fresno 

 raisin industry. Investing their savings in a ranch, and 

 then boldly venturing upon a culture in which few had 

 faith, they demonstrated that raisins equal to those of 

 Spain could be produced in the San Joaquin. They were 

 rewarded with handsome profits, and later thousands of 

 people shared in the benefits of their demonstration. 

 But speculation and the fallacy of the single crop fol- 

 lowed as natural consequences, bringing hard times, 

 mortgages, and disappointment in their train. In the 

 mean time unskilful irrigation without proper drainage 

 wrought harm in various ways. All of these misfortunes 

 are being overcome, but it is not easy for the great valley 

 to undo the injury which its reputation has suffered in 

 the last few years. Nevertheless, the country of the San 

 Joaquin contains great possibilities, and will sustain a 

 dense population. Its contiguous mountains are richly 

 endowed with mines and great timber, as well as with 

 the sublimest scenery. Among its valuable resources are 

 artesian wells of large size, so situated as to be available 

 for use in irrigation. 



The valleys of the Sacramento and San Joaquin have 

 been, and are yet, the grain-fields of the Pacific coast. 

 Many of their residents have bemoaned the fall in the 

 price of wheat as the greatest of calamities. The truth 



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