Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-02-05
TIE LESSONS OF TIE FLOOD.

vators to defend their possessions IS demon
strated. The experiences are all familiar,
unfortunately, but it is necessary to inquire
seriously whether the people OF the valley
are willing to go on in this way again,
or whether they have at length gathered
enough wisdom to convince them that
their past course has been i'll advised. II
there is any conclusion which should be
burned in upon the brains of these people
by repeated suffering and loss, it is the
conclusion that separate, independent,
discordant attempts at reclamation and
defense are mere waste Of time and money.
It has been made clear in the costliest
manner that the State policy which has
controlled the disposition of the swamp
and overfowed lands was the worst and
most disastrous that could have been
adopted. It's effect has been to set all the
swamp land owners against one another,
and to prevent any harmony of action,
and consequently any successful treatment.
In fact the whole subject of floods
and reclamation has been handled in the
most irrational and hopeless way, mainly
because of the adoption of this imbecile
State policy The idea that small sections
of land here and there could be reclaimed
without any expense to the rest of the
valley: that in this piecemeal, hapbazard
way the whole of the lands of the Sacra-
mento could be protected; that it was
possible to obtain good results by such
clumsy fumblings with the problem, must
at last be surrendered. 1t is no longer
possible to believe that any useful purpose
can be served by continuing the old
methods. Nothing worse could have re-
suited had no efforts at all been made, and
in that case millions of money would have
been saved. 1t is in fact a sober statement
and not an exaggeration, that enough cap
ital has already been literally thrown away
upon abortive reclamation works to have
built impregnable levees from the mouth
to the headwaters of the Sacramento, and
to have corrected its channels so that they
should perform their full work.
This experience therefore has been a
dear one so dear that the people who
have been casting their earnings year after
year into the waters, without seeing it re-
turn to them after many days, must now
prepare to strike balance sheet, and make
up their minds whether they will abandon
the hopeless work they have been so long
engaged in, or make one more effort under
entirely new conditions. As to continuing
on the old lines, it would be midsummer
madness. There cannot be any security
for the future under that policy, and every
year must increase the dangers and the
difficulties, for every year must bring the
destruction of the Sacramento river nearer,
and therefore render all leveeing against
its floods more bootless. There is therefore
but one course which can commend itself
to intelligent men, and that is to adopt
the conclusions of the engineers who have
surveyed the whole valley, and who have
examined the question of drainage in the
most thorough and exhaustive manner
These engineers all agree. and insist that
it is useless to attempt any remedies unless
the whole valley is treated comprehen
sively, undeF-one system. And that is the
plan which the long succession Of past fail
ures in reclamation points to with equal en-
phasis It is only by systematic and sua
tanned treatment, the engineers declare
that safety and success can be obtained
It is not worth while to discuss the prob
lem at all, in fact, unless this is conceded
at the outset.
That agreed to, however, the treatment
of the whole question becomes compare
lively simple and easy. There are indeed
no new and complex situations to perplex
science. What is going on in the Sacra.
mento valley is only an exaggeration oI
processes which Nature is carrying or
almost everywhere upon slower and
smaller scale. Nor does the disposition oil
hydraulic mining at all affect the method;
to be pursued. No matter what the future
of that industry the work to be done in the
valley must be the same. There are two
sets of operations to be undertaken. One
is to keep back the heavier debris in the
mountains. The other is to correct the
channels in the rivers and thus enable then
to carry greater volume of water. 1t
would be useless to adopt one OF these
plans and reject the other. It would BIT
useless to build dams for the debris in the
upper part of the valley, and to dc
nothing to improve the river channels il
the lower part. The system must be put
in operation as whole, or it will be
another instance of money and time
wasted. At present the floods themseIve
tend to retard their own dispersion, as wit
ness the case of the waters which, break
ing out of the Sacramento above Grey'
Bend, sweep across the Suffer and Yoll
basins, and impinging upon the Monte
yuma hills, are thence diverted at RICH
angles to the river, and plunging straight
across its current, create there formid
able bar, which backs up the river to thil
city, and prevents the drainage of thu
freshets.
Hitherto all efforts to protect the rive
islands have failed. When the waters o
the river proper do not break down thu
Grand Island levees, this escaped food
which has taken the short cut through tn,
tules, bursts across the river banks ant
dashes over the stream to force the de
lenses of the island. As to the various
cross and partial levees which are scat
tered all over the country, their mair
use is to effect temporary resting-plaot
for stock when the flood breaks in upor
the lands they were intended to protect
In short it is patent that all the ole
methods are egregious failures, and thai
the new methods must be tried, or tn
overflowed lands must be abandoned. Al
the area of overlooked land is steadily in
creasing with the shoaling of the rive
channels and the accumulation of debris
it is clear that this practically involves tht
abandonment of the Sacramento valley