Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-06-18
AGRICULTURAL.
MATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FOR
TIE RECORD UNION"
Does Cultivation Affect the Climate in
this State. and How Corn
as Crop.


stripped of its forests. Whenever on the
earth we find large breaiths of forests, whether
on mountains or level lands, there we find the
annual rainfall falls greater, and the average
moisture greater through the year, and as
rule the greater the proportion of the country
that is covered with forest just in that pro-
portion the rainfall and moisture in the
atmosphere increases. On the other hand
the more naked the country is or the more
the soil, whether naturally good or bad, is
exposed to the action of the unobstructed
rays of the sun, the less the annual rainfall
and the drier and more rariGed the atmos-
phere. 1t is true that there are many other
causes than forests that affect the climate of
n country, such as the exposure to the sea and
prevailing winds from them called sea breezes,
and then again the influence of these sea
breezes is curtailed or extended by the natural
formation of the country. Thus level
country extending long distance back
from the sea without the Intervention
of the mountain ranges enjoys the beneficial
influences of those sea breezes, while the
Intervention of such ranges cuts the moisture
off or throws it up so high in passing inland
that its benefits are lost entirely SO far as agri.
cultural benefits are concerned. This is the
general position of the great inland valleys
of the Sacramento and San joaquin. If to-
night the coast range mountains were to be
removed or sunk to level with the general
oft tba fbap,uatyao he
of these valleys tomorrow would experience
great change in the climate, and, in fact,
the climate of the entire State would be per-
manently revolutionized, and the climate of
it in general characteristics, would be the
climate of the entire inland portion of the
State. Yolo, Sacramento, Colusa and Yuba
counties would enjoy the fogs and damp
breezes that now are being brought in from
the sea to invigorate animal and vegetable life
throughout Marin. Sonoma and Mendocino
counties. With the present formation ef the
country these damp and cool sea breezes,
meeting the Coast Range mountains, are
forced by them up SO high above the interior
valleys Of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
that their influence upon them is almost en-
tirely lost, and it is not felt again upon the
surface of the earth till they have reached
high elevations on the Sierra Nevada. What
little benefits we get from these sea breezes
now, or at least the greater portion of those
benefits we receive, come through the Golden
Gate and even in front of this only break in
the Coast Range mountains sits Mount Dia-
bio, intercepting and diverting their course to
the interior in such a manner that the interior
receives but a moity of the benefits it would
otherwise receive, albeit this Mount Diablo
must be credited with saving the valleys
many a furious and destructive wind storm
that we would experience each season if it
were to bs removed or if it were to be sunk
to level with the surrounding country. If
this isolated peak of the Coast Range were to
be removed, leaving the balance of these
mountains as they now are, we should hardly
seek a residence at any point in the interior
of the State that would be reached by the
centers of wind-storms that would then sweep
over the interior of the State. The Golden
Gate acts as a funnel to collect and direct the
sea winds and storms inland, but Mount Dia-
bio is a natural obstruction to check the force
and spread the influence of these winds and
storms over much larger surface than they
would otherwise reach.
We have spoken of some of the general
natural causes that influence and make the
climate of the interior of our State what it
is. There are many local natural causes that
operate to change-some improving and some
injuring the climates of localities affected by
them. BY natural causes we refer only TO
such as have not been and are not likely to
be affected or changed by man, such as the
natural formation-level or broken-of the |
country, and the water courses. There are |
other causes that, while the country was un-
settled or uncultivated, were generally con- |
sidered, and were in fact, purely natural |
causes, but which, by the settlement and |
cultivation of the country, have been so |
changed, and their influence upon the general |
climate as well as the local climates of the /
State revolutionizsd, that they have in fact |
become artificial causes We refer to that |
class of causes that themselves depend on the
condition of the immediate surface of the
earth-soil-not covered by natural forests.
In other words, such as are brought about by
the cultivation of the soil and its occupation
by growing crops, as alfalfa, the various
kinds Of cereals and vegetables, and grape
vines, orchards, and such ornamental
and other shrubbery as are found
in all our towns and cities |
This latter class Of causes not only have an
Immediate and direct influence on the air
in the immediate locality of each, but they
have general influence extending to and
affecting favorably or counteracting to some |
Range, intervening as they do between the
interior of the State and our main source of
moisture either in winter or summer. To
make this proposition the more plain, let us
revert for a moment to the condition of the
surface of the earth over the entire agri-
cultural or arable portion OF the State in 1S49,
Or before the occupation of the same by
Americans. There was then no cultivation
and the surface soil almost
Ar,1 LII
that it was almost as impenetrable to water
AS the adobes of which the owners and tend.
ers of stock made their houses. The
rains of winter fell upon the lands, but being
unable to penetrate them, the accumulated
waters sought their way through the immense
number OF outlets-sloughs, dry creeks and
passages-to the large rivers,
and thus into the bays and ocean,
which they reached in almost as clear
md pure state when they fell from the
;louds Thus when the rainy season was at
IN end, and it made but little difference how
much rain had fallen, the water was COM {
,letely out Of the country, and the land,
though generally covered with an early
srowth of vegetation, was dry, and within a |
month from the closing rains was cracked ,
md baked down to depth of from eight to |
en feet, and its effect upon the local and gen.
,ral climate Of the State was like that Of |
vide desert. The line OF separation between |
he wet and dry season was much more |
harply drawn than now. The dry desert air
II the interior caused the moist winds and fogs '
rom the ocean to leap higher over the Coast J
ange, and their influence was scarcely per- ,
;eptible from April to December in all the |
Interior Of the State. These cool, damp sea-
ons that we are now experiencing more and !
more every May and June were then un-
Known, and night dews were among ,
he things we had left behind u.s.
throughout vast sections of country where I
perpetual water can be obtained now in wells |
fifteen and twenty feet deep, the people were 7
obliged to abandon their claims in the autumn, {
because water was not obtainable at any | I
lepth at that season of the year In fact !
learly half of the present good wheat grow ,
ng Sc ,tions of the State were then too dry !
wen for the maturity of wild oats, and the
ultivation Of wheat and barley, though per-
everingly tried, had to be and was aban-
loned, and was only resumed when it Q
,ecame evident that a change of eli v