Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-04-21
PACIFIC GROVE, March 25, 1903.

PACIFIC GROVE, March %, 1903
DEAR JONES
One can know what his impressions
are after digesting them, and so | have
waited until [ can trust myself TO say
something to you about California.
Everywhere | have gone in this state
| have seen two sorts of land-oasis
and desert and as the conditions which
produce the desert exist throughout the
state, the same two sorts of land exist
everywhere An Easterner, as we
Badgers would be called here, does not
understand the real meaning of the
word desert" as the thing exists here,
We are apt to think of it as something
which is gradually disappearing and
that will ultimately entirely disappear
through irrigation. That is u mistake,
and the fact that it is a mistake goes
very far to explain the high prices Of
unimproved lands in California. Lands
are high priced here because Of a law
as old as traffic;--scarcity of an article
| increases its value. Lands are very
scarce in this state,- that is lands which
are not desert lands. My estimate of
the proportion of California lands that
are and always will be irreclaimable
desert is seven eighths of all the lands
south of the latitude of San FSancisco.
| think one eighth is so situated that it
can be irrigated To understand Gsis
one must first know the primary fact as
IT, irrigation, namely that to irrigate
successfully, no,-to irrigate at all
your land must be fet. and then IL must
slope slightly if you would raise fruit
| Alfalfa can be raised by means of small
| irrigating bitches even if the land is
level But your bitches make moving
machines useless, and your grass must
be mown with scythe. Fruit, how
ever will not thrive well without irriga-
ton aud your orchard must slope suf-
| fieiently to permit the water TO run
slowly. If you have the right soil the
right topography and can get water tor
| irrigation, a farm of twenty acres.
planted to the sort of fruit 10 which the
soil is adapted, Will, at present prices
for fruit. return the owner as many
dollars as two hundred acres of the
best land in Wisconsin But you must
not make a mistake and try To raise
oranges upon soil not adapted 10
orange growth And you must not
axe it for granted that because your
neighborS on both sides of you have
good orange farms, that yours lying
| between them must be good orange
Hand for You viii not seldom be diSap-
pointed if you reason IN that way
Riding upon the country roads. through
| these little valleys where farming IS
possible, if you watch the changing
eolors of the soil, it will greatly interest
and surprise you. You come, say to a
patch of red soil on one side nf the
road; on the other side of the road the
soil may be biaek.-yet you are IN a
/ valley where t.se ground IS 50 near a
dead leve. that it looks to be that. a
little farther on. the color of the soil
suddenly changes from red TO grey. OF
lblack. And so it keeps changing. You
might do well raising oranges upon
that red soil. but on the grey soil per
haps you would do very poorly With
oranges, and very well with aprieots-
peaches or pears.
Now, if you carefully grasp the idea
that without irrigation, all land 10 Tall
fornia, south of the latitude OF San iran
cisco. is and must ever remain desert
and that irrigation IS not profitable
1 even if feasible, upon more than one
eighth part of three-quarters OF tbs
state yoD will understand what | mear
bv saving that land Is high here be.
cause il is scarce No lands Of a rolling
character can be irrig atec. 1oi
/ couldn't get the water on 10 them from
the bitches, and if you could get watei
from els, using wind mills TO raise II
as IS often done here. this would be use
less in a rolling country because th'
water would run of 50 rapidly that ]
would not soak in Iou would not b
irrigating your own land but some on
/. below y0u If you will try 4
imagine Wisconsin 70 be a country
J where for six to eight months of DO
weather not \ drop Of rain falls. an'
: where, in consequence of that yeaFl
{ drought, vegetation Is iugossabae withou