The record-union., 1894-06-14
SACRAMENTO VALLEY TULE BASIN.
Great Swamp and Overflow Districts
to Be Reclaimed.
Result of the Investigation Made bs
Engineer Manson at the Direc-
tion of the Legislature.

thousands OF DrOperIy-oNneIs Hafo Do0h
In progress along the great central valley
of Sacramento and San Joaquin under
the directions of A. II. Rose, State Com
missioner of Public Works, who has en-
Moved Messrs. Marsden Manson and c.
Z. Grunsky to do the actual engineering.
1t is proposed by the State to reclaim
over l, 10000 acres of swamp and over
flowed land located along the Sacramento,
Feather and San Joaquin Rivers and their
tributaries, the value of which will there
by be greatly increased.
For the purpose of finding out how the
immense work of improvement should
be commenced, the last Legislature cre-
ated the office Of State Commissioner OF
Public Works, appointed a. ii. Rose OF
Colusa Com missioner, and directed him
to report as tothe best and swiftest means
to be employed in the drainage and pro-
lection of the 100000 alluvlal acres
which are now useless.
Commissioner Rose employed Messrs.
Manson and Grunsky to prepare the re-
port, basing it upon an inquiry into the
past history of the lands affected and an
examination into the depredations caused
by the ungoverned and tremendous
volume of discharge of the rivers which
course through the affected valleys.
Upon the report prepared by the en-
gineers the next Legislature will base the
Inauguration OF the reclamatory work.
Marsden Manson has just returned
from one of the gauging stations estab-
lshed along the sacramento River. and
gives the Examiner in advance of the eX-
haustive report to be hereafter filed with
the Commissioner a resume OF what has
been ascertained and done and what plan
will be submitted for the Legislature TO
act upon.
THREE GAUGING STATIONS.
1--WE first,' he said. established three
gauging stations one at Iron Canyon, at
the head of the Sacramento Valley, in
charge of Mr.. Shackleford. another at
Oroville in charge of Sell Rose, and the
third at Folsom, on the American River.
at these gauging stations data is being
collected to determine the volume OF dis
charge Of the principal rivers which
course through the submerged ana
swamp land. Local surveys have also
just been made upon the Bear River
near Wheatland, in Yuba and Sutter
Counties, to determine what can be done
to drain and protect the highly valuable
agricultural land III the district.
The most colossal conception could
not fully rate the value OF the great work
which the State has planned to execute.
Right III this district are the largest hop
fields in the world. From seventy-five
TO one hundred persons can there subsist
upon the product OF loo acres, and the
fields employ from 5000 TO $500 men,
women and bows Thousands upon thou
sands of acres. alluvial and wooded, fully
productive, are there awaiting reclama-
tion. The drainage and protection of this
district is complicated by the past dis
charge of mining debris into the Bear
River and It's tributaries, and large guam
titles Of this debris yet remaining in the
So l,iol.a
has had charge of this branch of the pre-
liminary work.
In carrying on the work have come
upon some startling if not sensational
facts in connection with the colossal
drainage and reclamation operations car
ried Oh in the great valley of the State in
years past-facts which the public is gen.
orally unaware OF, and which are very
suggestive.
STEALS OF THE PAST.
''Vast sums of money have been ex-
pended on these swamp lands, and with
out adequate return. Instead of treating
the work as a whole, which it is, it has
been divided into several hundred recla-
NATION or swamp land districts. These
districts, as a general thing, have natural
boundaries, although some are ostensibly
bounded by property lines. The prime
object of the authorities of each district
has been merely the protection OF their
own lands according TO the local objects
to be attained.
''Since 1850 nearly Sl5, ZOO, 900 has been
valn!y spent in trying to reclaim the
lands, as follows:
BY the eState.......... S3l4S1SS 90
BY the United States . 654747 SO
Sacramento and its tributa-
7,146,5 90
San Joaquin and its trlbuia-
1891, ,l31 90
To+sI q. oto sc- 90
"a Again, in the lower reaches of the Sac
ramento and San joaquin Rivers, there
are about twenty-six dredgers at work,
with an average capacity of 100000 cubic
yards per month. Does the public know
what these figures mean? Nowhere
upon earth, except in the construction of
the grand canals OF Suez and Panama
has such dredging plant ever been
massed. Yet this group of engines in the
deltas of the Sacramento and San Joa-
quin Is working without system. There
are but two instances where two of them
are working on the same 'plan,' and
most OF them are, or have been for years,
engaged in building levees at right
angles to flood channels. Yet the men
directing these separate operations have
been terribly in earnest. Frequently
every dollar, every acre, they owned
has been involved.
'As consequence of these useless
Sacramento stands across the path of
American River floods, and its north
leyee IS In such position as to throw the
full volume of American River floods
about at a right angie into the Sacramento.
Therefore no levee has ever stood about
this junction, and. until natural condi-
tlons are restored, never will.
THE LANDS AND THE PLANS.
"Now for the remedies which will be
ipn ~,
wastefnl work Of many years. The lands
affected consist OF large areas situated on
the lower San Joaquin and Sacramento
Rivers and their tributaries, embracing
the swamp lands and islands on the San
joaquin from the mouth of the Stanis-
laus TO New York Landing, and the low
lands of the Sacramento and tributaries
known as the HolO-Solano basin the
Pocket, American basin and Sutter basin.
Tho aggregate area OF these bodies of land
IS over 100000 acres; the aggregate area
OF all the swamp and overflow lands in
the State ,Io0,O06 acres. Its length from
north 10 south is 40 miles: its greatest
width twenty miles. Ii is the most pro-
ductlve land in the world. 1t will, when
properly cultivated, nearly double the
agricultural returns of California,
''Our report will direct a complete ami
hiiation or the old dredging and draining
methods. And the new plan will embrace
the folio wing features:
first-Rectitying and enlargiDp the
present channels of the great rivers and
using the power OF the flowing waters to
do the main portion of the work, sup
plemeniing lt With dredging and other
appliances and modes OF procedure
known TO The science OF engineering.