River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1902-12-04
From California.
Sacramento, Cal, Nov. %

JOURNAL is now the wet
season here and the rains are on a
California scale. One may start to
walk block with the sun shining
and before he gets there the rain
will be coming down, not in a driz-
cling way but in sheets; it just
pours. At a place, Cloverda1e,
where I was last week, the govern
ment gauge registered ~ inches
fall in less than II hours and over
IA inches in two weeks. That is
wet weather. Still there is not the
mud you would expect with such
down-pouring, the soil seems to
take it all in. The dull brown of
summer is now changed to May
green.
Ranchers are at work in their
fields sowing wheat, planting pota-
toes and setting strawberries, and
cattle are all in good pastures.
Grapes are nearly all gathered and
oranges are now being shipped.
The grape and wine industries in
the section of the country in which
| have been the past few days is
something enormous. | saw, near
Hea1dsburg, .cistern of grape
juice, which I was told was 80 feet
by So by 10 feet, and it was quite
full. Just imagine the number of
sour heads that were stored up in
it, A rancher at Napa told me he
had gathered 4 500 tons of grapes
and had SO to so tons more TO pick,
for which he received $28 to $32 per
ton, that goes into money. This
has been an exceptionally good
year for this industry. I cannot
give the cost of production, but it
is nominal in proportion to what is
received. This state seems to raise
about everything that grows, but
the same thing is not adapted to all
parts of the state. For instance, in
the Sacramento valley prunes pre-
dominate; at Fresno, raisin grapes;
at Watsonville, apples and straw
berries; in Samona county, wine
and grapes; in Yuba county, olives;
and in other sections, English wal
nuts, chestnuts and almonds, lines,
lemons, oranges, etc., mostly in the
southern part. Not that the latter
is exclusively theirs, for here in the
foothills of the Sacramento valley
fine oranges are cultivated. In
some sections the wheat fields are
estimated only by the square mile.
All seems to be on a large scale.
Last week, near Corning, / found a
new industry TO me, a turkey ranch.
That was the only industry. / asked
the herder how many there were IN
the flock. He said, Between 5000
and 4,000." Replying to several
questions, he told me that their
principal food was grasshoppers;
that they were fed little bran
mash and rejected wheat; that he,
with his two dogs, herded them TO
keep them from wandering off the
range and to guard against coyotes,
their greatest enemies; that he
would ship this week 5000 to TO-
600 pounds at 18c per pound. He
shipped last year over &c, 900 pounds.
Not a bad business to be engaged
in, l thought. These turkey ranches
are on land where water is scarce
and which cannot be irrigated.
Grasshoppers are plenty. The
herder lived in a portable house Con
wheels) and moved from place to
place. l find there are several other
sections of California where this
industry is carried on.
In Yuba county where the ponds
(almost lakes) are numerous and
there are large wheat fields there
was another employment, goose
herding, not tame but the wild