The San Francisco call., 1904-10-02
BUTTE COUNTY
CITIZENS HAPPY
Assemble at Gridley and
Celebrate Completion and
Opening of Their Canal
BIG CROWD is JOYFUL
Day Is Spent in Speechmak-
ing and Feasting and Ends
With Dance in Town Hall
Special Dispatch to The Call.

GRIDLEY, Oct. 1.-The celebration
and barbecue given to-day in honor of
the opening of the Butte County Canal,
an irrigation system which contem-
plates the watering of 215,OO0 acres of
land in this and Sutter County, was
great success. Two thousand people
attended, many being from San Fran
cisco, Sacramento and other outside
points.
A dedicatory address, written by
General w. S. Green of Colusa, was
read at the canal banks by w. A.
Beard, secretary of the Sacramento
Valley Development Association, Gen
eral Green being unable to attend on
account of i'll health. The barbecue
occurred at noon and was followed by
a programme which included an able
address by Charles Wesley Reed of
Sam Francisco, a rousing talk by w.
A. Beard. another by Senator Mar
shall Diggs of Yuba County and a
short talk by Willard NJ. Sheldon, Sec
retary Of the Butte County Canal Com
pany of San Francisco.
The days festivities closed with a
Nc1AANS IL thC OPCld
Following is an extract from Green's
paper:
I'VE have gathered. here to-day to
dedicate channel of opportunities
through which must flow wealth un-
told and unmeasured by any present
standard to the present inhabitants of
the Sacramento Valley, but which must
go on and on. increasing opportunities
for the generations yet unborn. Make
progress as fast as you, who now own
the land, think it possible for human
energies to move, and yet the next
generation will wonder why you were
so slow to see and in grasping oppor-
tunities.
"All the prosperity of Southern Cali
fornia is built upon water. Then, gem
tlemen, go down there and look closely
at the water supply and then come
back and look at the supply of the
Feather River. Look at the vast area
of magnificent land lying under the
canal, the dedication of which brings
us here, and you will see that the
Feather River will furnish more water
for irrigation than all the streams
south of Tehachapi put together.
''The territory covered by the canal
we dedicate to-day can produce double
as much Of any given thing, from pea
nuts to oranges, as all south of Te-
hachapi. Think you that when we have
progressed up to half the cultivation
of our southern neighbors we will have
to beg for special trains to travel We
will have no such thing as little ac-
commodation train run a few months
in the year, and have it taken off just
as we begin to feel that we need it.
"Other overland railroads are head
ing for that territory for its trade. If
another overland road is heading to-
ward us it is because we have land to
hold the two parts of their roads to-
gether. We have seen no place where
we are taken into the account, and yet
every man here knows that the lands
that can be watered from this source.
will produce more than all that terri
tory. This, gentlemen, is the begin
ming of the end. Many of you who are
now here will see half that number on
the land and you will then begin to see
that the land is not half worked. You
have a grand problem before you and
1 hope that you will realize and work
UP to it.