Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-07-06

| northern terminus OF the Nacavllle and
| Clear Lake Railroad. The road had been
graded for some time into the Capay val
ley, the entrance to which is through a
narrow gateway in the foothills six miles
to the northwest, at the head of what is
known as the Hungry Hollow country.
But within the last two months steel rails
have been laid from Madison, to Rumsey at
the head of Capay valley, or rather at the
foot of the gorge piercing the range con-
stituting the natural divide between Yolo
and Lake counties. These two points are
twentysix miles apart
TERRA INCoGNITO.
Practically the country lying between
them is a terra incognito Comparatively
| few people have ever explored it. In early
days it was surrendered to hog and cattle
raising. | have just traversed the road in
company with a man who "was born in
these parts" and who a few years ago was
employed as swineherd, or as he more
bluntly puts it herding hogs" above
Limekiln," now known as Capay. In
later years wheat and barley raising partly
crowded out hogs and cattle, and still later
| Capay valley farmers have shown dispo-
sition to change from grain to fruits, in
imitation of their neighbors in Putah
Creek and Pleasant valleys, where stock
raising was in early days the chief indus
try and the main source of revenue. The
discovery of recent years is that these old
pastures constitute the best, most product
i've and earliest fruit and vegetable lands
yet invaded by plow and hoe and harrow
in the State.
THE ENTRANCE TO CAPAY VALLEY.
Leaving Madison, which lies in the mid
die Of the plain constituting the bottom
! lands of Cache creek and the western edge
of the Sacramento valley, the newly-laid
track makes a long sweep to the northwest
| toward the range rising out of the plain
like a wall which presents to the eye an
unbroken front. There are no signs of
valley-no indication OF anything but
rugged and broken foothills ahead, appar-
emily offering difficulties innumerable to
railroad engineering and suggesting any
thing but attractive fields for agricultural
development. Half way between the ris-
ing foothills and Madison lies Esperanza,
settlement recently established by the
Capay Valley Land Company, and at
which one of the handsomest railroad sta
tons in the State has been erected, as a
nucleus around which the new settlement
shall cluster
Esperanto lies Just south of the Hungry
Hollow country. The soil is deep rich
loan, such as constitutes the greater part
of the lower stretches of Cache creek, down
to its junction below Woodland with the |
Sacramento river. Thus far wheat has been
raised on the land for twenty-five or thirty
years. But the capabilities of the soil for
higher and more valuable form of agri-
culture is demonstrated by the orchards |
and vineyards of the foreman of the
Hungry Hollow land king, Duncan, a
shrewd old Scotchman, who is said to own
nearly ten thousand acres in the vicinity,
and who has resisted 80 far the most Sc
ductive offers to part with his land
Three miles beyond Esperanto the rail
road suddenly charges the foothills; and
almost before the traveller is aware of it
the train has entered narrow opening in
the range barely half a mile in length and
less than quarter of mile in width, in
which lies the little town of Capay or
"Limekilu." This narrow opening is the
natural gateway of Capay valley. 1t is
just wide enough for a one-street town to
crowd in between the brink of the right
bank of Cache creek and the steep hills on
the south side. This one street is the old
county road to Lower Lake and has been
utilized by the Vacaville and Clear Lake
Railroad as a roadbed. Shooting rapidly
through the town. the construction train
for up to date nothing else excepting the |
recent excursion trains have passed up and
down the road-emerges from the canyon
as suddenly as it entered it, and the hills |
on either hand recede, leaving between
them as charming and attractive valley |
as there Is anywhere in the State.
CAPAY VALLEY.
This is what is known as Capay valley, !
the scene of my fellow travellers hog-herd- |
ing experience, and for which he has had /
such an unquenchable craving since he left |
it that it has drawn him back all the !
way from Illinois" as the magnet draws |
the steel. He is chock full Of anecdotes of |
hog-herding days that are for the moment
interesting, as they help to while away the |
time and aid the ever-changing scenery TO |
make us all forget that we are bobbing up |
and down over the loose rails and rafting |
| ties of a new y-constructed railway, seated |
on a sack Of cabbage in the caboose of a |
construction train, and holding on to an |
iron bar to save us from being tipped out |
through the open doorway. We are rush |
ing along at a 30-mile rate with carload |
of steel rails ahead of the pilot and water !
car between us and the tender. But the |
track repairers are going over the line,
smoothing out the wrinkles and making it |
lit for passenger traffic.
The valley lies on line drawn from |
northwest to southeast. 1t averages in |
width from Capay to Rumsey-a distance |
OF about twenty miles-about one mile 1t |
rarely exceeds that and is seldom narrower. |
The floor of the valley throughout this |
twenty miles is so nearly level that in grad |
ing for the railroad track it was not neces-
sary to make cut or a filling until within |
a couple of miles or so before reaching |
Rumsey, where a few feet of cutting had to |
be done. The road follows the south |
western side; Cache creek flows at the base
of the hills on the other side, magnificent
stream of crystal water, its banks heavily |
timbered. The suggestion of q diminutive |
Napa valley is striking. The range on |
either side rises as abruptly, but not to so
great a hight; no are the slopes as heavily |
timbered. In fact, long stretches of the |
northwestern range are bare Of timber; cut !
the soil is will adapted to cultivation, and !
in many places the land has been plowed |
almost TO the summit Of the range, reveal |
ing deep and productive soil. The floor |
of the valley has the park-like appearance
of Napa valley and of the region adjacent
to Winters and Facaville, live-oak being
distributed on every hand with charming
effect on the landscape. The soil is a deep
vegetation mold
You can dig twelve feet or more down
in just that kind of soil" is the informa-
ton our ex-hog- herder acquaintance yolun-
teers; "and it is all through the valley just
the same"
How about the climate?"
Wall, its putty warm in summer time;
it's warm hereabouts everywhere, anyhow,
in the day time, but We hev blow frum
the west through the canyon at Rumsey
every evening that gives Teller chance
10 sleep. They can raise anything in this
valley, believe, that they can raise in the
Vaca district, and quite as early, if not
earlier"
WHEAT, WINE AND FRUIT.