Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1868-07-03
A Dark Side of California.

Mr. T. woodlands, Santa Clara, Califor-
MIA, has lately written letter TO the New
York Farmers Club, in which, after allud-
ing to the fact that companies of specula-
tors have recently taken up some 200, 1000
acres of the best government land in the
state, to the circulars they have issued, and
to carnations of the press generally, set
ting forth the advantages of California in
glowing language but which he thinks are
intended to conceal information that is i'm
portant to emigrants, he says: $50
81 deem it duty to say few words to
the public of what l know and have expe-
rienced as q, California farmer for the past
seventeen years. The climate is generally
healthy and pleasant, but some localities
are more subject to feveTs than others.
Probably all know there are two seasons,
wet aud dry; when the wet once com
mences, which is sometimes early in No
vember, and at other times not until the
latter end of December, spring in reality
commences, grass and vegetation grow;
while all are parched to perfect drynes8
through the summer and fall. AS to rain
the climate Is exceedingly variable,
droughts never fail, during which a scorch-
ing sun and drying wind prevail, parching
the earth from one to two feet deep. The
season for rain also always returns, but
with different results, sometimes the clouds
seem to have every fastening to the hea-
vens loosened, and come pouring down,
flooding the valleys, carrying away BRIDGES
fences, and even houses. At other seasons
and they are numerous, the clouds are at
tracted to the heavens and mountains, and
furnish the valleys only from two or three
inches to eight or ten inches OF moisture,
as in the rainy seasons from 1855 or 1856
10 WI
1862, and called the wet winter.
"My own and adjoining farms in Santa
Clara Valley, during those years, produced
only five or six bushels down to nothing
per acre. One year, from 100 acres sown,
not bushel was gathered. This was the
case ali through that part of the country
1t was quite as bad, if not worse, through
out the San Joaquin Valley, and, indeed,
ali the large valleys of. California Almost
all the cattle were starved there, and also
through all the southern part of the state.
Those who sowed lost their labor and seed,
until the country of the San Joaquin, es-
pecially, was thought to be unfit for occu-
pancy. Except for the little pasture it at
forded for cattle, every acre of that fine
agricultural country would have been &C.
cupied before now with bona fide settlers,
who have turned away and are gone back
to their Eastern homes, disguised with
California
1.-THE abundance of rain the three last
seasons has given adifferent aspect to these
valleys, and there are plenty here ready to
try them again, and if the seasons prove
the same as heretofore, the results will be
the same. My experience of California
goes to show that the seasons OF fertility
and sterility comes by periods of years.
Previous to 1856 there had been plentiful
rains consequently plentiful crops. After
that the rains IN the larger valleys were
quite insufficient to make crops, except in
those places where the water was near the
surface. Now again. we are IN period of
abundant rains, mud in the road ankle or
knee deep, and very possibly next season
may not give us more than enough rain to
lay the dust.
Take another view of the case, and sup
pose the seasons of plentiful rain continue,
there is no building or fence timber IN the
San Joaquin Valley. 1t has to be brought
some hundred miles, down the coast to San
Francisco, then up the San Joaquin River
100 to 200 miles, then by teams; and this
is not the end, for when you have put that
material into buildings and fences, you will |
have to pay % to 8 per cent. state and
county tax, and on all you possess, even |
to your pigs and wife's chickens, nor is
your individual person exempt, for that |
will be taxed to the amount of six |
dollars per year. The only things exempt |
from taxation that know of are your wife |
and children, and they would no doubt be
taxed, but that there are already so many |
bachelor housekeepers that to tax wives |
and children would not be likely to make |
the number less. Should such period of |
drought again prevail, farms in that valley |
will not produce enough to pay the taxes,
which are from double to five or six times |
that of any other state Then there are |
litigations and robberies of homes and |
lands through the so-called Spanish grants, |
which afford pettifoggers fine field for the
exercise of their fleeing operations.