CHAPTER XXII 

 AGRICULTURE 



Soil the Chief Source of Wealth 



Gold in the hills? Oil deep down below the rocks? Yes, 

 but more important by far from the economic standpoint, from 

 the standpoint of dollars and cents, is the hidden inexhaustible 

 wealth of California's soils. Long after the gold diggings shall 

 have ceased; long after the lakes and pools of oil shall all have 

 been drained away; long after "prospecting" for gold and 

 "wild-catting" for oil shall have ended and been forgotten, and 

 during long aeons of time to come, the soils of California will 

 continue to yield their increase. The palm, the olive, the 

 grape-fruit and the orange, the apple, the grape, yes, and the 

 alfalfa and the grasses, the vegetables of uncounted variety, will 

 continue to bring wealth to the producers and food to the mul- 

 titudes of the earth. 



Geology a Science of Fundamental 

 Importance 



And all this great potential wealth depends upon geology. 

 But for geology earth processes there would be no soils, no 

 crops. There would be no Golden Gate, no Sierra Range, no 

 Yosemite Park, no citrous orchards, no vineyards, no cotton 

 fields, no olives, dates or palms, no blooming desert, no San 

 Gorgonio Pass, no gold, no oil. Land of extremes, as has been 

 stated before, the geology of California is the most complicated 

 of any State in the United States of America; highest in the air 

 (Mount Whitney) , farthest below sea level (Death Valley) ; 

 most intensely tropical at Indio and Mecca; perpetual snow on 

 the crest of the Sierras; dry ice in the hot arid desert on the 

 shore of the Salton Sea; smoldering sulphurous fires from Lassen 



