284 National Geographic Magazine. 



been $800,000 for one work. Taking the streams from San 

 Joaquin river north, that come out of the Sierra Nevada, up to the 

 northern end of the valley where the Sacramento river enters it, 

 every important stream comes into the valley within a deep gorge. 

 The beds of several of the northern streams are so filled up with 

 mining debris that diversion from them would be comparatively 

 easy, but in their natural state there is not an important stream 

 north of the San Joaquin which could be utilized for irrigation 

 by any other means than through the agency of capital in large 

 amount. On the west side of this great valley the tillable strip 

 is comparatively narrow. It is on the lee side of the coast range 

 of mountains. Precipitation is made first on the seaward face of 

 the Coast Range, and then crosses the valley, dropping upon the 

 inland face of the outer range very little more than upon the 

 valley itself, where the precipitation is only about 10 inches. So 

 that we have no streams coming out of the Coast Range into the 

 southern part of the interior valley specially noteworthy as irriga- 

 tion feeders. But as we go northward the Coast Range becomes 

 wider, and the big mountain basin containing Clear Lake fur- 

 nishes a large supply of water to Cache Creek, probably enough 

 for 10,000 acres. Stony Creek flows between two ridges of the 

 Coast Range, and out on to the plains, furnishing about the same 

 amount of water ; but still there are no streams from the Coast 

 Range into the valley that are comparable with those of the 

 Sierra Nevada. In the northeastern corner of the State, on the 

 great plains of Modoc, we have the Pitt river, a stream of very 

 considerable volume, but its waters are in comparatively deep 

 channels, not very well adapted to diversion, and the. consequence 

 is, they have been utilized to a very small extent, only on small 

 bottom-land farms. The whole stream can be utilized, however, 

 and the country is thirsting for water. 



The practice of irrigation in California is as diverse as it could 

 well be. California, as you know, covers a very large range in 

 latitude, but a greater range in the matter of climate and adapta- 

 bility to the cultivation of crops. In the southei'n portion of the 

 State, the orange and the banana and many other semi-tropical 

 fruits flourish. In some localities along the foot-hills of the Sierra 

 Nevada, also, those fruits flourish, particularly the orange and the 

 lemon. In the valley of San Joaquin, wheat is grown by irriga- 

 tion, and in some places profitably, and in Kern county quite 

 profitably (were it not for high transportation charges), because 



