The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1895-12-16
COAST EXCHANGES.

COAST EXCHANGES.
The Stockton Independent, referring to
recent publication in the Mariposa Miner,
published at Coulterville, draws attention
to an interesting circumstance. The
Horseshoe Bend vineyard is on ground
which some years ago was supposed to
have been rendered worthless by placer
mining. After millions of dollars had
been taken from the ground in the form OF
gold the land was, OF course, abandoned.
1t lay neglected until six or seven years
ago, and in the meantime became covered
with a volunteer growth of ''scrub tim
her," 1t then became the property of P.
p. Mast of Springfield, Ohio. Now there
are on the $50 acres, 1900 olive, 5000 prune
and $500 almond trees, besides peach,
orange, fig, pomegranate, walnut and
many other trees, fine raisin and other
grapes, all of which are yielding richly.
We are not info rmed whether the pro-
cess of mining washed out the native
humus in the soil or that there was ever
humus in it. Without this valuable in
gredient the soil could not be expected to
produce food crops. But it is a TACT that
soil taken from deep underground sources,
devoid of vegetable mold and for time
repellent to vegetation, gradually under
goes ch emical changes when exposed to
the sunlight, air and rains, and so becomes
fit for vegetation. Then it becomes covered
with a volunteer wild growth and thus
acquires vegetable mold, and so in time
becomes fertile. This has been the
case with lands covered with sell
hrn t,nh4 1nrps hyrdr o,1 III lnS
by streams which overflow their banks.
The subject is novel and worthy of note.
The case is very different from that pre-
scented by the Nile, the Yellow River, the
Ganges and overfowing streams, because
they deposit an alluvium which is rich in
humus and which, therefore, is ready for
immediate cultivation. In the California
case the soil from mining comes from
depths at which this ingredient is wanting.
The point is that even such soil in time
naturally takes on conditions favorable to
cultivation, and so we are confronted with
another of those novel conditions which
make California peculiar. and indicate
still further source of undeveloped wealth
The INDEPENDENT calls attention to the in
teresting fact that although the Horseshoe
road to find profit in shipping its products
the revival Of mining in the Coulterville
region has created local demand which
does away with the necessity for seeking a
distant market, and which brings profit
to the grower. This means to say that ac-
tivity in one industry brings prosperity to
others. This is an important point
whose value is likely to be overlooked in
the general scheme for developing the re-
sources of the State.
The Dunsmuir Neus makes an announce
ment of startling character. 1t is that
syndicate composed principally of Eng
fish capitalists, has secured possession of
large tracts of land in the Klamath Basin
of Southern Oregon and Northeastern
California, much of which is covered by
the Klamath lakes, and that the syndicate
is preparing to empty the lakes by blast
ing out the Klamath River, which flows
southwesterly through Northern Caiifor-
MIA to the Pacific Ocean. Our contem-
porary says that the syndicate secured
title under the swamp land act, and pro-
poses to drain off the whole body of water
and thus secure meadow land of more
than hundred miles square Square
miles?). Our contemporary adds: ''They
are now within hall mile of the lower
end of the lake and when they cut through
that half mile the whole body of water
will be supposed to go rushing down to
the sea. AS the storage of waters in these
mountains is of immense interest to the
people of the Pacific Coast for all time to
come, we think tie National Government
should sit down promptly on this syndi-
cate; if not it will find itself in the posi-
ton of the boy who killed the goose that
laid the golden egg.'
The Klamath Basin is one of the most
beautiful and fertile regions in the world.
1t is a vast depressed plain formed by lava
flows from the great volcanoes of Northern
California and Southern Oregon, and it
receives all the heavy precipitation of the
eastern flank of the Cascade range. Great
shallow lakes, communicating one with
another. dot the plain, and their only out
let is the Klamath River. This is a stream
of comparatively recent origin, and in cut
ting its way through the Trinity range to
the sea it made gorge of supreme gran
deur. In consequence of the lakes in the
klamath Basin and of the moisture which
makes them possible, the plains are vast
meadow of Iuxuriant natural grasses.
which offer as fine pasturage as the Blue
grass region of Kentucky. The soil is ex-
ceedingly rich, as well-watered and thor
oughiy decomposed volcanic soils are apt
to be, and where cultivated yields splen-
did crops. The one thing against this
great empire Is its inaccessibility by rail,
but as it lies on the natural highway be-
tween the Upper Sacramento Valley and
the railway systems traversing Idaho and
Montana, it is bound sooner or later to be
tapped. When that happens there will
occur large addition to the wealth of the
West. To drain the lakes would be to
drain the land and render it arid and