The San Francisco call., 1896-07-24
Electric Freight Cars for the
Wares of the Farmer and
the Fruit Man.
PROSPECTS OF LOW RATES.
Franchises Will Soon Be Asked For
and Work Will Commence
Without Delay.

facilities for water transportation. The
bay of San Francisco is like the center ofa
star, with navigable streams radiating in
many directions. Some of these streams,
it is true, have been partially used for
freight tran sportation since the days of
the earliest settlers, but none of them
have yet been employed to their full ca
pacity.
Intelligent business men have long
pointed out the great saving to the
farmer and fruit-grower possible in the
navigation of the bay creeks and great in
land rivers. They have pointed out that
the Sacramento, with little assistance
from the Government, could be made
navigable to good sized craft from Red
Bluff to San Francisco, and that the south
central streams are equally available.
Were these streams employed to their full
capacity the saving to farmers would be
immense, and many an agriculturist
now practically bankrupt would to-day be
prosperous had he been able to use the
waterways to his market SO literally pro-
vided by nature.
Heretofore only the farmers living on
the shores of tidewater streams adjacent
TO San Francisco have reaped the ad-
vantages of these creeks, inlets and rivers
But there are indications that a new era is
about to dawn and that farmers compara-
lively remote will be enabled to njoy the
cheap transportation extended by them.
Unfortunately, however, it is English not
local capital that will do the exploita
ton; and yet there are millions of unem-
ployed capital in the banks of California.
Thus the spectacle Is presented of foreign
capital coming in and making money un-
der the very noses of local moneyed men
while they have been waiting for some
thing to turn up"
Old Sonoma, the first established town
in the State, is to be the scene of the OPEN
ing of this new era. The selection is thus
quite proper, and history bids fair to re-
peat itself.
There is considerable excitement over
the matter up in the Sonoma Valley, for
it means a good deal to the farmers and
orchardists of that beautiful vale If it
proves successful, 1T means the emancipa-
ton of thousands of farmers from exees-
slve freight charges. Not only this, it
means that other sections will 20 and do
likewise, and thus in due time vast dis
tricts of California Will be permanently
benefited.
The project is this: The Kenwood Land
Company, which owns a large tract of
land between Glen Ellen and Santa Rosa,
Is about to construct an electric railroad
from Santa Rosa to Sonoma, distance of
twenty miles. This will bring the farmers
and orchardists OF the upper Sonoma
Valley within six miles of the embarca-
dero on Sonoma Creek, where schooner
making regular trips between San Fran
cisco and the Sonoma Valley has a land
lnF. This of course means the release of
those farmers and orchardists from posi-
bic high rall rates in the future. 1t is one
OF the finest sections of the State.
Around Glen Ellen there are famous
olive orchards, vineyards and wineries, for
Sonoma is celebrated for its wines. Fur
thur on toward Santa Rosa, just over the
hills, are the great prune orchards of So
noma County. second only to those of the
Santa Clara Valley. The electric line will
enable all these prune, olive and wine men
to land their products by electric line and
water at San Francisco at much less than
they pay now. When the line gets well in
operation it is proposed to extend it from
Sonoma down to navigable tidewater at
the embarcadero, thus obyiating the
consequent breakage of bulk at Sonoma.
Between Sonoma and the embarcadero
are large orchards and vineyards, and it is
proposed to put in sidetracks at the prin-
cipal orchards to allow the orchardists to
load their fruit on the cars at their leisure,
thus giving the electric company an op-
portunity for rapid and practically un-
broken transit to tidewater.
Of course. the project will be opposed by
the railroads. There are two lines in the
valley-the Southern Pacific and the San
Francisco and North Pacific The former
line is branch running from Napa juno
ton 10 Santa Rosa, called the Santa Rosa
and Carquinez Straits line. The latter
leaves the main stem of the San Francisco
and North Pacific at Ignacio, in Marin
County, runs due east across Petaluma
Creek, turns north into the Sonoma Val
ley, and terminates at Glen Ellen at the
extreme upper end of the valley, passing
through Sonoma Town. Rail rates are
cheap in the valley, owing to the compe-
titiou between the Southern Pacific and
its lively rival and, as if this were not
enough, the schooner line from San Fran
cisco up San Pablo Bay and Sonoma Creek
to the embarcadero prevents the two lines
from pooling to the loss of the farmers and
the orchardists. Freight rates in the So
noma Valley are thus the cheapest in the
State to-day, but when the new electric
line gets into operation they Will be
cheaper still. And If there is anything
the California farmer needs it is cheap
freight rates.
1t goes without saying that these two
railroads will fight the new line. They
will prevent it from obtaining a franchise
from Sonoma County if they can. The
people of the valley have been quick to
realize this, and will watch their Board of
Supervisors very closely when the fran
chise comes up before it for approval.
The plan OF organization is unique, but
simple and very intelligent. Between
s250.OOO and $500, 600 worth of bonds will