Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-02-04
AGRICULTURAL.
NATTER PREPARED SPECIALLY FoR
THE RECORD UNION"
The Future Ct the Sierra Foothiils-Ths
Farm az a Factory-Raise
Your Own Cows.

The hilly portions of country are almost
! always the last to be occupied and converted
into farms and homes. The foothills of the
western slope of the Sierra Nevada Mount.
aims are 10 exception to the general rule in
this respect. While the valleys have been
settling up ard being cultivated and improved
for the past thirty years, and while there is
now very little land In any CT the valley por.
tons of the State not appropriated, the oc-
cuparcy and settlement of the foothills has
been very slow. and to this day but very
small portion Of the lands of this section
have been converted into private ownership.
In the hilly portions of Placer. FL Dorado.
Amador, Tuolumne, Calaveras, Mariposa.
Yuba, Butte, Tehama and Shasta prob.
ably not one quarter section Of
| land in ten has been taken up
and occupied. In all these counties mining
was formerly paying and quite general
occupation. Gold was found almost every
where, and in quantities to pay for working
wherever water could be found with which
to separate it from the soil. These sections
were from 1850 to 1860, and perhaps for five
years later the most populous portions of the
State. There were then good roads main
tanned to all accessible points, and stages and
heavy freight teams were occupied in trang-
porting people and goods to ard from the
mines. In these early days fsw ranches
were located mostly along the main travelled
roads, fer the purpose of raising hay and
vegetables to supply the teams and people
passing, and few were also To-
Gated in different sections OF the mines
with view to partly supply the miners with
fruit, vegetables, etc. The fruit trees that
were then planted out came into bearing in
an astonishing short period of time, and the
| fruit produced were the wonder of all who
saw them. THE potatoes, green com, toms-
| toes and other vegetables also were superior
in mary respects TO any grown IN the valleys.
In fact these foot-hiil ranches proved to be,
as rule, much more profitable ventures than
the mines. and those who located and culti-
waited theln were generally regarded as
shrewd business men, and as particularly
fortunate in their choice of business and
location. These ranchers as general thing
also surrounded themselves with few
COWS, and made butter, to sell in
the mining towns and camps, and in
this there were also fortunate and
successful. But the day came when the
surface mines were worked out, and mining
ceased to be a popular and paying Industry.
Then as a consequences the markets of these
| few ranches became less certain, ard ranch.
isg ceased to be profitable. The fruit would
grow just as finely, and possessed the same
high favor; the potatoes and other vegetable:
were just az good, and grew as well and laxu,
riantly as they ever did but as they could
not be sold tc the miners, and as they were
too far from the cities of the valleys to com.
pete with local fruit growers and gardeners,
the business of ranching in the mines or foot
hills ceased to be satisfactorily profitable,
and except in the vicinity Of larger
mining towns, as Placerville, Nevada
and Grass Valley, aud other towns
where quartz or hydraulic mines were deyel
oped, the ranches were neglected, and the fine
gardens and orchards went to decay and ruin
Eoough had been done, however, in these
flush days of the mines to demonstrate the
value Of all parts of the foothills for frui.
and vegetable culture, and to show that tht
dairy could also be made successful indus
try there. The soil and climate of the foot
hills were thus in q very early day shown to
| be among the best in the State fer system q
general culture, but circumstances were
against their general occupancy, and
on account of these circumstances theii
cultivation was to great extent
abandoned. These same circumstances are
still operating against their settlement and
cultivation. Along the line of the Sacra
mento Valley Railroad, as at Folsom, Md
Springs, Single Springs. and about Placer.
vile, considerable ID doEe 10 the cultivation
of fruits, vines and vegetables. because, be-
sides local market, the railroad brings these
! localities near to outside markets. The same
| state of cultivation exists along the line OF
the Central Pacific Railroad, as at Newcas.
tie, Lincoln and Colfax, and also about Grass
Valley and Nevada. encouraged by the
narrow gauge road that connects these places
with the Central Pacific at Colfax. Indeed,
wherever there has been established a line of
communication with the centers OF trade
and commerce, the foothills are being
settled up and brought under cult.
walton, and everywhere with great
success. The vineyards about Coloma and
Placerville are noted for their Superior grapes
and wines. the orchards of hardy and tropical
fruit about Newcastle have not their supe-
rior in the State, and everywhere in the
foothills where the snail fruits, as straw
berries blackberries, ETC., have been Guilt
veted fruit of superior excellence has been
produced. Even apples produced in the
Iu3Lnllls nave HtNOf 81 iuuCu eupofluT W
these raised in the valleys that the same
varieties seem like Different fruit altogether.
In the valley the fall pipp;n is fruit of but
pooe flavor, dry and tough meat and coarse
grained, while the fall piPpin grown in the
foothills at the elevation of Placerville
and above is one Of the finest
traits in the world-fne grained, juicy,
of q pleasant sub-acid. and in every
| respectEa luscious fruit. The same difference
is found in all other kinds Of the apple A
similar difference exists in the peach, the
apricot, nectarine, and all other fruits. The
orange of Newcastle is decidedly superior to
the orange of Los Angeles, Riverside, or any
other locality in the south end of the State,
not only in quality, but the Newcastle oranges
ripen from two to three weeks earlier than
the same fruit ripens Of the south, Now
| Coloma. Plseerville. Newcastle, Lincoln,
Grass Valley and Nevada, ara not excep-
tional locations in the foothills, the soil Of
these localities is not different, and the eli
mate is no better than the soil and climate OF
similar attitudes all along the foothills from
the head waters OF the San Joaquin to the
head waters of the Sacramento. The great
thing lacking is communication with the foot
hills-means of easy and cheap transporta-
ton. When this ia furnished these now
neglected portions of the State will become
the most thickly settled and prosperous
millions of acres now covered with chaparral
will TEEN with fruits aud vines, aud the
homes Of happy people will dot the foothills
f-0no ono o,,5 Of 4ho Gtoto fo tho othar