The Placer herald., 1856-12-20
COUNTY SURVEYORS REPORT.
COUNTY SURVEYORS OFFICE,
Iowa HILL, Dec. I'd, 1856. {

|
Hon. JOHN A. BREWSTER, Surveyor General.
SIR; Owing to having had to attend to
professional business, which could not be de-
Iaved, | have been unable to attend to the
instructions of your circular of August last,
sooner.
The agricultural and grazing land of this
county, is almost entirey confined to the
western portion, adjoining Sutter county.
In this section are located many fine ranches
Placer county raises nearly the whole amount
of vegetables necessary for its own consump
ton. 1t has considerable quantity of good
grain land, and several orchards in flour
ishing condition; and in the course of one or
two years, this county will produce large
quantities Of the finest peaches. Farmers
who have devoted their attention to the rails
ing of wheat and barley have not been dis
appointed in their expectations. The guam
tity to the acre has been large the quality
good | believe there is no land in this
county belonging to the State of California.
There is no land in this county which can
properly be denominated swamp or overflow
ed land. There is about six thousand acres
of cultivated land, mostly cleared of timber,
and twelve thousand enclosed There are no
Spanish grants extending over any portion
of it.
Fruit trees, five thousand. COL VIM. Nc
Clure, of Yankee Jm's, has a fourishing
peach orchard, bidding fair to be excelled by
none. Its location is three thousand five
hundred feet above the level of the sea-
OF the different kinds of grain there has
loo eoJ bo hole
mostly of good quality.
There is a great abundance of timber in
this county, consisting principally Of the diff
ferent kinds Of pine. Placer county ranks
among the first in the State in regard to the
extent Of its lumber trade. 1t has twenty
two saw mills in operation, employing four
hundred and forty men-sawing ~, ,00O,0 600
feet of lumber annual estimated value at
twenty dollars per thousand, amounts to
$2,50O,000 Fifteen of the mills are worked
by steam power and seven by water.
We have somewhere in the vicinity of four
hundred miles of canal now constructed
valuation, 100000. The average price Of
water, as sold to the Miners is fifty cents per
inch.
OF the capacity of the different canals in
this county, have been unable to collect cor
rect information. This | regret, inasmuch
as they are a conspicuous portion Of the pro-
perty of this county, and a source Of con
siderable amount Of revenue, both to the
State and county.
There are four quarts mills in successful
operation in this county. One of them is
situated at Grand Ledge, on Humbug Canon,
eight miles east of Iowa Hill. It has sixty
horse power engine, working twenty-four
stamps, and capable of crushing fifty tons ol
quartz in twenty-four hours This mill is
under the management of Dr. McMurtry, one
of the most experienced quartz miners in the
State The quartz mill of Watson & Co.,
situated at Sarahsville, four miles east OF
Yankee Jims is paying handsomely.
As for the richness and extent Of it's hv-
drauic and tunnel mines, Placer, | think is
excelled by no county in the State. The
miners in many places are washing away the
banks of gravel to the depth of seventy feet
The ground on which the town Of Michigan
Bluff is located will probably in the course
of four or five years be entirely washed away
The depth from the surface to the bed rock
is from forty to eighty feet.
The estimated length of the different tun-
nels run for mining purposes in this
county, is twenty eight miles, average size,
five feet wide and six feet high-estimated
cost Of construction, at nine dollars per foot
S1,33O,560.