The Daily state register. [volume] (Carson City, Nev.) 1870-1872, 1872-02-09
SWAMP AND SALINE LANDS.

uia oStlildt6S lut noun Ol SWAMI u
and overtiowed land within that State
at three millions of acres. If it
were all reclaimed and under cult
walton he believes it would produce
more than allthe balance of the land
in the State. Some of this land is
now producing eighty bushels to the
acre, and the general average, he
thinks, would not go under fifty
bushels.
Comparing this statement of the
wealth of an adjoining State from
this source, with the poverty of Ne
vada in this sort of property, we can
realize to some extent the immense
damage Nevada has suffered from the
act of its Senators in refusing to aid
the passage of a similar act for the
benefit of this State. What the
amount may be of land which would
come within the definition Of swamp
and overhowed lands, we have no
means of knowing. That it is large
very ~large-every person who ha-
travelled through the interior of Ne
vada knows very we'll. In proper
ton to the total amount of agricul-
tural lands in the State, it far exceeds
that of California. All our rivers
flow into basins, and are lost in the
wide expanse of sinks. These sinks
are usually nothing more than ex-
tensive tracts of level country. Gov
cred during the Winter or Spring
with shallow water, but more or less
dried by absorption and evaporation
during the Summer. The greater
portion of these immense beds are
capable of reduction to human uses
and Of producing a variety of prod
ucts. The successful reclamation
OF partially submerged lands at the
junction Of the Sacramento and San
joaquin rivers, and the swamps
on both sides of those streams,
shows what energy and capital a
do. English companies have taken
hold of some of these enterprises,
and are spending their money freely
and probably in redeeming the soil.
1t may be objected that most of
these lands here are valuless on ac-
count Of the salts and alkali in the
soil. The English companies who
have now 80, 900 acres of salt marshes
on the Bay of San Francisco, have
found a way to remove these ingredi-
ents. and probably asimilar curse
would soon reduce the saline lakes
and marshes of the interior of Ne
vada. On this subject the CONNER
cial Herald remarks:
with reference to the marsh lands
bordering on the Bay of San Francisco
and its branches, the question has
satisfactorily solved as to their
when reclaimed. Most of
them are so situated that Immediately
the exclusion of the salt water
by suitable embaukmant, fresh water
can be turned in upon them,
and i'll some instances the teaching
process can be FASTENED by means of
arte>ian wells, as in the case
of the Beard tract. These salt marshes
the advantages of exemption
overflow 10y floods. Situated on
the navigable waters of the bay, they
also possess a special value from their
proximity to the commercial metropo-
lis of the coast. Forgrazing and dairy
purposes they will be extremely val
Instead of importing butter
for home consumption, there is no
good reason why California should not
make this a profitable article for eX-
port. Fifty thousand acres of marsh
land, thoroughly cultivated in grass,
would yield 10000, 900 pounds of but
ter per annum, which would find a
ready market in China, at fifty cents
per pound, making a gross yield OF
-, 000, 1000. Allowing one-half for cost
to the producer and profit to the eN-
porter, the net result would he $ 800
900, or so an acre. Nor are these
extreme figures, as shown by the eX-
perience of Holland and other cOun-
tries.