The record-union., 1893-01-17

SACRA-
the winter months All other kinds of
labor is in proportion. Sacks are not
much used in that country as they are in
California, as the grain goes in bulk to
the market. So, don't look for the farmer
there to sell out and come to California
when he knows the reverse is the case
here, and Notwithstanding the beneficial
enects of our salubrious climate; for tell
you 1t is money they are all after, even if
they do die in few years.
SO, even if the land monopolists wanted
to sell there wouldn't be buyers, because
small farming doesn't pay, owing to the
low price of produce and the high prices
OF labor, TO say nothing OF boodling Leg
Islatures. All of these drawba are
combined with sparse population. Until
we get down to the level with the Eastern
States 1t IS useless TO talk of manufacture
ing, owing to the difference in labor, so
that settles that part OF it.
As long as this state OF things continues
you viii have your large ranches, the
army OF tramps and the everlasting Mon
golian.
There must be somo way to remedy
these things, and then land will be sub
divided of its own accord. How about
taxation? This must be equal and uni
form, under our Constitution, and the
small farm has about ten times the inn
provements that the 40,O00-acre ranch has,
and the owner must pay taxes on them,
Wnere the other man pays hardly any
thing IN comparison. So the small
farmer must get out, and down comes
the schoolhouse. The larger one goes to
work, gets himself some traction engines
and combined harvesters, gathers up his
tramps and MOngOlian cooks, gets him
self good superintendent, arranges with
the telephone company so that he can
give orders from his line residence in
san Francisco or Oakland, and il goes.
NOW, suppose there be a change i'll the
system of taxation. Then you put the
monOpolist on level with the small
| farmer, and the order OF things will soon
| be changed; population will flow here,
and business of all kinds will increase.
Railroad rates can be reduced as the
volume of business increases, and this
quackery of fixing rates by Legislatures
will disappear like the snow of last year.
Immigration will flow both from the
States and Europe; and let us not be
afraid OF the latter when it is OF the right
kind, for there is room enough for all.
7. CARROLL.
Nicolaus, Sutter County.
Overflow Lands.~~
EDS. RECORD UNION: Your correspond
NAAh AclS DCGA d IGSIQ6ub Ol GOldllO
County sixteen years. l have carefully
watched tlfe rise and fall of the Sacra-
mento River and its tributaries, and from
my experience, coupled with all the in
formation Obtainable from the Oldest res
idents on the banks of the river, nothing
short of canal, TO be started somewhere
above the city of Sacramento and to run
through y olo County to Cache Slough.
thence to Suisun Bay near beaverton,
will give the desired relieffrom occasional
overflow.
The canal should have sufficient ca
pacity to carry Off one-third Of the over
flow. Otherwise all engineering skill of
this State cannot prevent the breakage of
levees or the overflow of tule lands.
II such a project is carried out the
owners of overflow lands need not con-
struct levees over three feet high, and
yet be perfectly safe at all times of the
year. a canal will not cost the owners
Of overflow lands half as much as the
present plan of leveeing by dredge.
To show you the slim hopes In relying
on the strength OF a levee. I cite the case
of Ryer Island, whose owners have con-
sJructed in the last two years a levee as
high as any flood ever known in the
neighborhood, with a base Of 100 feet
wide. Yet, when the first flood came. it
was swept off like the debris it was con-
structed from. If it had not given away
the flood would have overflowed the
levees of Grand, Brannan and Tyler
Islands, making large breaks in their
levees, overhowing thousands of acres of
very productive lands.
believe the owners of property in the
flooded districts should feel proud that
the President OF the Senate made such an
excellent selection in appointing Senator
J. B. Hoyt as Chairman fthe Committee
on Swamp and Overfowed Lands, as he
is a man that should be thoroughly
posted, having lived so long in Solano
County.
Mr.. Editor, go and view the dredger at
work, and you will perceive large tim
bers framed and Joined together for
strength with ponderous machinery, ope-
rating long arm, swinging to and fro,
dipping up the sediment from the bot
tom of the river and conveying it on to
the bank, forming the levee 100 feet wide
and as high as you please. Ask the cap
tain, engineer or superintendent if this
levee is calculated to resist flood and all
of them, having fat jobs, will answer,
Yes"
But the levee has no more power to re-
sisU the floods that l have witnessed dur
ing the past sixteen years than the puny
arm of man to fight against the elements
exhibited by the power that created the
heavens and the earth.
Let US by all means have drainage
canal. w. w.
Sacramento, January 10th.