AGRICULTURE. 151 
CHAPTER VII. 
AGRICULTURE. 
§ 128. General Remarks:—Of the 160,000 square miles in 
the area of California, about 60,000 may be tillable; of which 
16,000 are in the coast valleys, 30,000 in the low lands of the 
Sacramento Basin, 12,000 in the Sierra Nevada, and 2,000 in 
the Klamath Basin: while the 25,000 square miles of the Great 
Basin, the 15,000 of the Colorado Desert within the limits ot 
this state, 30,000 of the Sierra Nevada, 26,000 of the Coast 
Mountains, and 6,000 of the Klamath Basin, may be put down 
as unfit for the plough. The 60,000 square miles of tillable 
land contain nearly 40,000,000 acres, but only 1,000,000 are 
cultivated in the state: of the remaining 39,000,000, one-fourth 
have a soil very thin, or not fertile because of the presence of 
alkaline substances; one-half are too remote from market, even 
where the soil is good; and a considerable portion is tied up 
in lawsuits, so that the ownership is doubtful, and the claim- 
ants dare not improve it for fear of losing the improvements. 
Only a small portion of the state is, therefore, fit for the plough. 
Not more than one acre in ten could now be tilled profitably, 
and I suppose that not more than one acre in four will be tilled 
during this century. 
As compared with the great agricultural states of the Mis- 
sissippi valley, in so far as relates to the proportion of rich land 
fit for the plough, California is at a great disadvantage, and is 
probably inferior in this respect to every state on the Atlantic 
slope of the continent. In Tlinois and indiana, nearly every 
foot of land has a rich soil and a level position. Again, Cali- 
