, 1886-09-04
JOAQUIN mILLER ON CALEDONIA.


Irrigation NeedfuI to Increase Caiifor-
MAS Agricultural Prosperity.
For forty years the American has
foolishly fought the Mexican methods
of agriculture. He insisted that nature
would provide the rain. Indeed, once
heard a preacher, who was fighting
rather against the priests than for his
followers, insist from the pulpit that it
was sinful to irrigatc. And his text
was that God sends His rain on the
just and the unjust" And so to day l
look away, 300 miles to the south. and
see a brown land cleaning and glitter
ing under the precipitate sun, with the
unhappy settlers sweltering i'll 104 de-
grees of heat. Not a spear of verdure.
Not a sign Of any green thing, save the
solemn and impressive old oaks hat dot
the boundless scene and shelter the
sheep, and cattle, and pigs. But many
of the creatures must perish. The val
ley is, Of course, sparsely settled. And
how could it be otherwise where we
have farms with 90, 900 acres!
But away over yonder, beyond the
capital. lies the less fertile valley Of San
joaquin. green. fruitful. r%estful; beanti-
full and bountiful as in middle May.
An all this because last year the obsti-
nate American idea sucoumbed to the
Mexican experience of centuries. San
joaquin valley is irrigated.
\ poor French family, escaping from
death. brought a letter to a friend of
mine near here many years z and set
tied down on the nearest spot of vacant
ground he could find. And that nearest
spot was Jour acres Of Dand and gravel
and chapparal. 1t w.s 40 poor aud
dusty and dry and withered. men tell
me, that even the rabbits would not live
there. But il was not more poor OF
withered than the weary family thai
had worked its way here on an old sail
ship coming out from Liverpool for
grain. And so they sat down on these
four dry II dusty heaps of sand and
stone TO stay. Let us pass over the
wretchedness of the first year, during
which time the man dug a well, put in
n windmill. raised a rivulet of water,
and then planted his stoneheaps in black
berries.
Briefly. his four acres is to-day n big
fortune. 1t is, literally, every inch a
garden. And these four acres are all
that this man can handle OF cares to
have. His n acre of meadow produces
six crops Of alfalfa n year. He now has
cows, horses, pigs. In fact, he gets more
out of these TOUR acres of sand and
gravel than my good friend, Gen. Bid
well. gets out of any forty acres of all
his 50, 900. And this is the way for
Californians to make California populous
and p~rofitable-to cure the country of
tramps and communists. And | now
propose the greatest scheme on this con
tinent. Look at the map. Like n new
moon the vast level valley of the Sacre-
mento sweeps away from this tip of the
upper horn around past the capital, Sac
ramento City, then down to San Fran
cisco. Well, turn the Sacramento river
out of its bed here above Redding and
let it flow down and fill the hungry hol-
low of the moon! Then will the fertility
and eternal richness of Egypt be once
more with us as Of old.
1t is all very easy. | urged tins same
thing years ago, have gone over all the
ground, and know what | say. OF
curse | WAS laughed at years ago, and
derided AS "A lover of Mexicans, and all
that sort of argument. And even o
n little paper is pounding me for urg
ing this greatest state measure, anc
charging me with having come up from
Mexico filled with Mexican ideas. BuI
time will settle it all my way and show
that | am entirely right. am very am
billions. however, TO shorten the time of
"a. tI.et. Co. tlarA tls.-t,r $500 -,......
brutes that stand in the burning dust
under the noble old oaks over all these
thousand of square miles down toward
San Francisco.
| too a horse and rode out over the
hot heaps Of "tailings" that lie on the
deserted and worked out mines this
morning. | found the few farmers who
have settled down without first securing
water for irrigation not in good heart.
Things are burning up where they are
not irrigated. But where water flows
all things are rank, and full, and fairly
tropical. And so let me put down the
invitation TO this, or, indeed, any part OF
California, with this qualification: Settle
almost anywhere, for the land is all rich,
and farm or grow stock, if you can have
water. Otherwise ii is too much of q
lottery. You may strike n heated term
like this, and have all your apples turned
to ashes.
Thirty years ago, when l came here, a
great ditch flooded all the place. Water
was sold at 10 cents per inch at the head
of h sloping mining region. Then it
was sold a second, third and fourth time,
a scaling or declining figures, till it flowed
into the Sacramento neal this town.
Senator Jones, of Nevada, not long ago
tried TO restore the great ditch. But
after investing n great many thousand.
he let his noble enterprise stop. And 81
the whole world is simply scorching and
blazing and burning up. Small farmers
who hoped the ditch would be restored
are sitting by helpless and discouraged.
And the sight of them makes me cautious
here today. The truth is. il all this
country-thi side of Arizona, where the
great rainfall finds its limits-must pin
its future to irrigation. All theso great
rivers must ultimately flow over thes,
great valleys. Then surely seed-tim,
and harvest-time shall not fail. -Reddinc
cCal.) Cor. Chicago Times.
Peaks Of the Cascade Range.
nf thn Dou.uIa Nf,rntos,a Il, D,.ro,