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thoroughly. I am speaking of the valley as a whole — the great plains or 

 uplands — and not of the bottom lands; these speak for themselves, and are 

 distinct in soil and formation from the clay and sand-mixed uplands. To 

 retain moisture the latter require cultivation, while the former do not. The 

 great philosopher, student, and editor, Horace Greeley, in an address deliv- 

 ered at Marysville in 1859, on the occasion of the State Fair, pointed out 

 how to bring moisture in the absence of summer rains. The recipe was 

 nothing more than deep and thorough cultivation. The writer, then a 

 young and inexperienced farmer, sat beneath the renowned orator, and was 

 surprised over the assertions of the great stranger, that we could thus coax 

 the moisture from its lower levels to the roots of not only our trees and 

 vines, but to our grain, grass, and vegetables. He (the writer) had worked 

 for a man that ceased cultivating his young potatoes, that the moisture 

 might not escape into the air. Singular as it may seem, the theory of 

 summer fallowing our uplands for wheat was accepted and began to be 

 practiced about that time, and the result was an overwhelming surprise in 

 favor of this method. W e cannot discuss all the whys and wherefores of 

 the phenomena, but it opened the pores of the soil, which were readily 

 occupied by the hitherto imprisoned moisture, and thus were revealed all 

 the requisites for fruits and vines. These wheat fallows keep alive and 

 thrifty, until the winter rains set in or frost ensues, Indian, broom, and 

 Egyptian corns, every variety of melons, squash, or pumpkins, tomatoes, 

 cucumbers, beets, and the like. Now, as none of these root as deeply as 

 fruit trees and grapevines, their success is accounted for. A glance at 

 these conditions also reveals the cause of the superiority of our productions. 

 Thus the fruit takes all the moisture it wants, and no more. It receives the 

 warmth of the surface and the sun, and thus is produced the size, the 

 flavor, the sweetness, and the wealth of valley fruits. That exceptional 

 seasons arise argues nothing against our theory, because exceptions recur 

 and have recurred since the world was thrown into space. The best means 

 at hand to overcome exceptional seasons is to assist nature with extra cul- 

 tivation, reducing the surface of the soil to powder if possible, and to thin 

 out the fruit to the capability of the season. Where this has been observed 

 no deterioration of quality and size, and little, if any, of quantity, has 

 occurred within the writer's knowledge. I am not called upon to condemn 

 irrigation in the valleys, mountains, or foothills. It is a local question, 

 and addresses itself to localities and communities, who must work out the 

 problem to their own satisfaction. Where so much has been accom- 

 plished as in the Sacramento Valley without the harrassing and expensive 

 use of artificial water, and where such brilliant prospects meet the eye on 

 every hand, nothing more need be said by me on " Fruit Growing in the 

 Sacramento Valley without Irrigation." 



DISCUSSION ON IRRIGATION. 



Mr. Flournoy, of Tehama: There is an opinion in this State that irri- 

 gated fruit cannot compare in quality with that not irrigated. In one 

 respect it is true, and another it is not. Proper and improper irrigation 

 are two very different things. While but an infant in fruit growing, I have 

 had six years experience; and while I can grow fruit without irrigation, I 

 can grow better fruit on the same land with irrigation. To illustrate: I 

 have some Peach trees, Orange Clings, and the ends of some of the rows run 

 into the bottom; the others are on the bend, four feet above this bottom land, 

 where I irrigate; the other I do not. The fruit on the lower land is larger 

 without irrigation than that on the upper land, and my neighbors in com- 



