The Corvallis gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Or.) 1862-1899, 1894-01-26
CALIFORNIA IRRIGATION.
SAN Francisco, CAL, Jan. %, 1894

which to he understood must be seen. One
day last week, having occasion to 60 up
into the San joaquin valley to the town OF
Merced, 1 availed myself OF an opportunity
of examining into the natural resources OF
that country and shall ask your Indulgence
for giving the readers of The GAZETTE an
/ idea of what l saw. l am one OF those
persons who believe that the products OF
| the soil, in some form or other, constitute
| the true basis of national wealth. with
that conception l naturally conclude that
our country will be rich and powerful in
proportion as the soil is made to yield, to
the ingenuity and industry of man, its
stores of wealth. 1t is marvellous to me
that so many men cling to the idea that
wheat raising is the only industry worthy
of their attention. When 1 think of it /
am tempted to believe that they only exer-
else the quality of industry without that OF
| ingenuity. Every community has its quota
| of ingenious men who are too lazy to work.
You will readily mark those who combine
the two qualities of ingenuity and industry.
They are always in the lead, always pros
porous and always respected. A man may
be industrious. work himself about to death
| and still remain unsuccessful. Such men,
under ordinary conditions, will usually be
found to possess but little ingenuity. At
Merced 1 found some good object lessons
illustrative of the above fact. To appre-
ciate the value of soil in climate adapted
| 4. IrrI--
cation and without it. Land which will
yield a good quantity of wheat per acre
without irrigation will produce fruit, vege-
tables and other products ten fold under the
influence of irrigation. 1 learned from diff
ferent persons that the land around Merced
would 90 from Is to 80 bushels of wheat
per acre. And wheat yields of over 1000
acres, are the rule. So I inquired where
they could get water for irrigation and was
informed they had an artificial lake about
six miles out of town some ninety feet
higher than the surrounding country. l
went out to see it and found body of water
covering about section of land and holding
as I was informed, 300, 100000 gallons of
water. This lake was supplied with water
from Merced river by large canal. The
river flows down from the snow clad Sierra
Nevada mountains, through the Yosemite
valley, and furnishes an inexhaustible sup
DIV of water for the lake and irrigating
canal.
| The temperature at Merced varies from
% Q above zero in winter to ia . In sum-
mer. The ordinary winter temperature is
about SOC to 600 and summer 100 to
IOOo. I took these figures from the
weather record kept there and they indi-
cate about what the average temperature Is.
| 1t is just the right climate for fruit. By
bringing water on the soil during the warm
season the production is always great where
the soil is of good quality. The lake and
canal are owned by company who also
own some 10000 acres of land contiguous
to the canal and was told they have re-
Gently been offering the land in small
tracts to bona fide settlers, and at prices
and terms within reach of most industrious
| men. l asked an agent of that company
how much cash man would need to get
settled there with, and was told $1,000
would easily locate man on 20 acres and
make it possible for him to live from the
products of the place.
For instance: His land and water being
furnished by the company he would pay
seven per cent. of the purchase price down,
and have enough left to build small house
and barn and buy team and implements
enough to cultivate the place with, and pay
seven per cent. of purchase price each year
until paid for. 1t is hard for Oregonians to
realize how twenty acres can be made to
produce enough for a living; but when one
can be harvesting some kind of crop dur
ing every month in the year it is very diff
ferent proposition from taking only one crop
per year. Alfalfa hay is cut five or six
times a year and yields one to one.and-a-
half tons each time. Grapes mature one
part of the season; olives, nuts or some Ger.
tain fruits another; oranges and lemons in
spring months; vegetables, berries, etc, in
the summer Take alfalfa, for instance,
and feed it to hogs and with some grain
feeding, market bacon and hams. l learn
that most of the cured meat that is used up
there comes from the east | understand
that the company who own the water rights
up at Merced have lately made some large
reductions in the price of land and water
rights but did not inquire into that. The
selling of it, believe, is in the hands of the
Central Pacific land agent, w. Ell. Mills,
who has an Office at the company headquar
ters at Fourth and Townsend streets, San
Francisco.
While know but little about farming or
fruit-raising myself, I have the faculty of
observing the success or failure of others in
that field, and 1t struck me that good
many men now struggling almost against
hope to make living, would be considerably
better off located on good piece of fruit
land with plenty of water to insure certain
crops. Nj. j. s.
FROM LORD DUNRAVEN.