Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-13

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and its adjacent foothills / came here
skeptical. A year ago | advised your Sec
rotary against making an effort similar TO
this one.
| thought our country had so much TO
commend it, apart from orange-growing,
that we should be wasting our efforts to
hold out what seemed to me a false hope
of competing with southern California in a
direction where natural conditions were
against us. | begin to think l was mis-
taken. In several counties represented here
the orange crop already figures in COM
merce.
The specimens they present at this fair
compare favorably with any in the market.
From my own county we bring you
oranges, lemons, olives and pomegranates.
They are no dollhouse products; the trees
that bore them have stood the cold of
many winters without covering of any
kind, and were nipped by no frost. The
lemons sent here by G. g. Kimball, of Red
Bluff, were grown upon tree now fifteen
years old, and has borne fruit regularly for
years, and was never protected from frost.
Oranges are here from trees plated by Mr..
Cone and Mr.. Grotzer and others, some OF
which bore the third year from planting.
They grow in black loan in the bottom
lands, and they grow on the red and gray
hills of the highlands. They have had a
variety of exposures with like success.
| am prepared to yield to these convinc-
ing evidences, and so should any reason
able person who is seeking the truth.
But. Mr.. President, now that Tehana
county has recorded herself beside the
orange-growing counties of the valley, /
wish to use the remaining minute given me
in brief outline description of the county.
From foothill to foothill on our south
! limo ic hraaIrh IF nil Dnl pl,,fJ
a breadth of 80 miles, and at our north line
~ miles and length of 40 miles, making
over one millionssacres substantially, all of
| which may be cultivated to cereals or fruits.
This vast area is fringed on the east and
west by noble mountain ranges teeming
with a wealth of grasses and of merchant
able timber
The State of Delaware could be placed in
| this valley, with land to spare. Rhode
Island could find easy footing and not en-
croach upon the mountains.
| Much of this land is rich bottom loan
and adobe; and a large amount is level
plains of deep soil and rich in plant food,
while other is rolling hill land, very pro-
| ductive of plant life. Thousands of acres
of rich and productive lands lie outside of
this aud at greater elevation, but capable
of producing the finest fruits and vegetables
and grain.
invite attention to the display of Mr.
| Wheeler Hazen, from a farm 1000 feet
| above sea-level.
Intelligent people in San Francisco ask
me how We spend the long winter months
| in the mountains at Red Bluff. | am often
commiserated by friends in our chief city
| for being locked up in the winter SHOWS of
the SierraS for six months of the year.
| There is room for missionary work here
at home. | would like to feel that grown
! up men and women in California, if no.
where else, could be made to know that the
navigable waters of the Sacramento river
at Red Bluff do not go rushing down
a rocky canyon on a grade of 100 feet to
the mile; and that the seventh in rank
of wheat-growing counties and the fourth
| in wool does not lie in the heart of the
Sierras | would like to impress the sim
pie souls of our metropolis who have
heard of Governor Stanfords 3,0o0-acre
vineyard in Tehama county that it is not
| situated on top of Lassen Buttes.
| Pardon me- Mr.. President, for obtruding
a comparative table of minimum and mean
temperature and rainfall for Red Bluff,
Sacramento and Los Angeles. From
table published in a reliable form | find
that from 1855 TO 1928, as given by the
United States Signal Offices, for period of
seven years, the minimum temperature at
| Sacramento, DO; Red Bluff, 24o. The
mean temperature for the same period
was: Los Angeles, So; Sacramento 6lO;;
Red Bluff, so. There was one day in 1883
when the thermometer registered 1872. In
1854 the lowest was DO, and in 1885, 300.
Our signal officer, Mr.. Williams, informs
me that our lowest mean temperature for
eight years was 25.7o. He also said that
the difference in the humidity here and at
Los Angeles would give us an advantage
of 80. We know as fact that with the
temperature at and below freezing point
ice does not form in our valley and vegeta-
ton is not bitten. Mr.. Williams also gave
me the fact from his records that in eight
years the percentage of clear days was 60;
of fair DAYS 81, and of rainy, 10.
Why is it, Mr.. President, people rush off
to see Naples and die" when they can
come to Red Bluff and bask in her sunny
cline, and not feel obliged to die at all
| have plucked oranges at lovely Sorrento
and looked out over the Bay Of Naples at
Vesuvius, while the juice ran down my
chin-I mean the juice of the orange-but
l assure you it was no sweeter than one
gathered from Red Bluff tree; and as for
Vesuvius, | would rather look upon grand
old Mount Shasta any day, and the waving
wheat fields of the Sacramento valley, than
the lazy blue waters of Naples.
The average rainfall for seven years at
Los Angeles has been II inches, at Sacra-
mento 10, at Red Bluff u. l quote from
the table already referred to. Mr.. Will
Jams says-including 1885 to December
31st-our average for eight years has been
2S AZ inches.
Having brought Tehama county down to
a common temperature level with Sacra-
mento and Los Angeles, and having shown
our greatly superior rainfall, and having
produced before your eyes some very fine
specimens of citrus and other fruits,
think | might safely submit our claims
hope you will pardon me one or two
more words.
Viticulturists and orchardists have fire.
quently called attention to Tehama county
as possessing the highest and best condi-
tons for fruits and vines, and yet but little
has been done. Good land is plentiful and
cheap. Wherever fruit-growing has been
attempted success has attended the effort.
Near the village of Vina a narrow strip
| of land on Deer creek is being cultivated
| to fruits by Cinnamon in a very slipshod
| and imperfect manner, and yet they sell
about $50 900 worth of dried fruits annual
| ly. Good cultivation ought to double this
result and bad as it is, the income is rive
| times as much as wheat would produce on
| the same acreage. If we have not the
| to be proved we have the home of greatly
more valuable fruits in my judgment, and
we have a climate agreeable enough for
, anybody who don't want to be an angel
| forthwith
| One word about the dreaded north wind
| When Lieutenant Craig was in charge Of
| the Signal Corps of the coast he visited
| Red Bluff to confer with the officer in
charge there. The conference was mainly
about the north wind. Lieutenant Craig
advanced the theory, which is confirmed
| by observations of that corps, that the
| blasting effects of the north wind is dimin-
ishing year by year. He says the increased
production of trees and cereals and cultiva-
ton of the soil increases the humidity of
the atmosphere, and results in charging it
with moisture and the naturalization of its
desiccating effects. Tree-planting will
ultimately emasculate the north wind as a
power for evil, and make it as welcome for
its sanitary results, and to diminish ex-
cessive moisture, as it is now dreade
! But, Mr.. President, l am admonished
that my time has expired. would like to
dwell upon the varied resources of my
county; / would delight in drawing you a
picture of its wealth of charms for ply
steal existence, of its beautiful women and
I hrs hnt NJ Of for