Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1885-09-19
AN IMMENSE SCHEME.
TURNING THE MERGED RIVER
UPON THE PLAINS.
Interesting Description of an Under
taking that VIII Increase the
Fertility of 100000 Acres.

The following letter from MERGED to the
San Francisco Bulletin, under date Of the
10th instant, is of general interest as show
ing the rapid progress of development in
the San Joaquin valley. The writer says {:
| Paramount above all other considera-
tons, and most especially throughout the
! San joaquin valley, is the subject of irri-
! CATION or how 10 catch and control and
! distribute the vast volumes Of water
which, uninterruptedly, pour from the
snoW-capped Sierras, so that every man
| who owns piece of land may secure
proper share. The San JOAQUIN
valley has been termed by many writers
! the " Lombardy of California So it is,
and the Sierra Nevadas are its Alps There
! is similarity Of scenery, climate and soil.
| The mountains and rivers of the two sec
! tons are not unlike each other. Lombardy
| slopes from the mountains to the river Pc ::
the San Joaquin valley trends similarly.
The Alps overlooks their picturesque plains
! from nights of from 1000 TO 5000 feet; the
Sierras rise as majestically over the vaster
| domain at their base. The Pc and its trib-
utaries, in conjunction with some five or
| six lakes, feed the thousands of miles of
| irragating canals which spread over Lom-
hardy and make it one of the richest and
! most
FLoURIsHGNG SECTIONS OF COUNTRY
In the world, supporting more than 3,0OO,-
600 of people, or nearly 500 to the square
| mile, and producing annually 40,009,O00
gallons of wine, 100000 bushels of wheat.
100000 pounds of rice, and 60,G00,000
pounds of cheese: having exported as
single year. and having had within its
limits, few years ago, 500, 900 cattle, 70, 900
horses, $4,000 mules, 100000 sheep, and
about the same number of hogs. All this
magnificent reflection from a small area in
northern Italy is due TO the systematic irri-
CATION of what without such means would
have remained partially arid domain,
alike uninviting to man and beast the year
round. 1t is only matter of time how
ever, when the same glowing picture may
be painted of the San Joaquin valley the
facilities for spreading network of artif-
cial streams over the gentlesloping area
about eight feet to the mile-are every
where delineated; while the flow of the
natural running water from the SierraS, if
properly taken and controlled, could be
made to baptiZe every acre of valley living
between Mount Diablo and Tehachepi pass,
and TO make the whole section to blossom
as the rose.
MERGED AND PIEDMONT COMPARED.
MERGED county lies in the shadow of
part of the Sierra, and contains 100000
acres of land. Piedmont, which is an ex-
tension OF Lombardy, is overlooked by the
Alps, and contains l 100000 acres The
climate and atmospheric conditions of the
two countries are similar The natural op-
portunities for artificial irrigation are much
the same. There are less than one hundred
miles of canals and bitches in MERGED, and
Of
privileges of irrigation. Piedmont has
1000 miles of canals and bitches, and there
are few farms only that cannot have a
copious supply of water, the amount re-
quired being 5000 gallons per second, at
cost TO the farmers of So, 100000 per an
num- MERGED has a population of 5000,
while Piedmont. with only $4,000 acres
more than MERGED, contains population
of 100000
THE POSSIBILITIES OF MERGED.
There is a man living in MERGED named
Huffman. lie was a clerk in a store in 81.
| Louis when Ralston stcamboated on the
Mississippi. He came to California in 1919.
and for many years lived in Stockton and
made extensive purchases of grain for
Friedlander. Upon the death of the latter,
Huffman bought and sold land in the
neighbOrhood of the town of MERGED, and
chased thousands of acres of the very lands
he had sold. and retained them. He has
upon several occasions cleared 500 900
from single crop of wheat. And there
have been seasons when his losses have
been prodigious. Some three or four wears
ago Huffman visited MERGED Falls and the
higher waters of the MERGED river, and then
followed the noble stream down to d point
where it dashed into its subterranean course
l.. Al
him then and there that if all that water.
which had come all the way from the
Yosemite. and had dashed out of sight
upon the very rim of half million acres
of excellent land, could be saved and
turned upon that thirsty domain it would
be instrumental in developing all the re-
sources of MERGED county, and in time sup
port population of at least $1,000 people
HUFFMAN MEETS CHARLES CRoCKER.
Shortly after this Huffman went to San
Francisco, and one day met Charles Croker
with whom he had slight acquaintance
He stated what he had seen and what he
thought, and the railroad man lent a will
ing ear. The facilities for irrigating at
least 100000 acres of choice lands" said
Huffman, ale unequaled." Then he went
on to say that with a canal which should
connect with the MERGED river where ii
water could be obtained to convey all over
vast section of fertile plains, and in
short time enrich the county a hundred
fold" How much will this all cost 20
inquired Croker. . million OF dollars
responded Huffman, and Crocker replied.
90 Go on with the work"
COMMENCEMENT OF THE WORK.
Mr.. Huffman seemed to fully understand
the laconic instructions of Mr. Croker,
and at once returned to his ''land of
promise" On the first day of March, 1888,
work was commenced upon the main ditch
which, with its branches, has already
assumed proportions of vaStness. Last
week, by invitation of J. V. Drake. the
Superintendent of the work, took drive
by the quickest roads up to the headwaters
OF the canal and returned by way of the
canal. l learned from Mr. Drake that
operations had been kept up almost CON
tlnually since its commencement and that
between three hundred and five hundred
men and half as many animals had been
almost constantly kept at work; that the
canal taps the MERGED river at q point a
short distance above where water for the
Farmers Canal was taken out, at q curve
in an abrupt bluff along the first terrace OF
foothills, in the northeastern part of the
county, and meanders in a southwestern
direction that the whole length of the
canal and its branches, when completed.
will be upward of seventy-five miles. and
that il will at least carry water enough to
irrigate nearly three hundred thousand
acres of land in MERGED county and ouite
seyenty-five thousand acres in Fresno.
much of which is of very little account
without water; that
THE MAIN CANAL
For distance of eight miles is carried well
up on enough elevation to give it the fall
required. and that it is one hundred feet
wide at the top, seventy feet at the bottom.
and carries ten feet of water, or 800 cubic
feet per second; that, at point six miles
below the river, the canal passes through
a tunnel under a hillock of solid rock. l 800
feet in length, or, with its approaches,
forty-lour hundred feet; that the general
grade of the canal is one foot to the mile
except through the tunnel and its APP
proaches which is some ten feet to the
mile; that, as a general thing, the canal is
thirty feet wider at the top than at the bot
tom, thus sloping the sides at such angles
as to prevent cave or wash; that no projec-
tons have been left anywhere along the
sloplng of the embarrassment to obstruct the
How OF water or mar the symmetry of
construction; and that there is splendid
lnacadamiZed road, twelve feet in width
upon the upper side of the canal, made
hn ~. 1 l i