The San Francisco call., 1904-03-03
THE SPRING FLOODS.

~ ECAUSE the usual spring floods, in the rivers of
X California, the only floods we have, the papers
- make much of them for purposes, but it is
we'll make much lest they be taken by East
readers the equal of the floods in the valleys OF
the Ohio and the lower Mississippi country. With
every counted the titled lands involved in floods
seldom reach so 600 acres. While the flood is very
the of the inundated lands
comparatively little impression upon the general
production of the State.
Our land builders and these floods transport
silt that raises the general level of the country Man
wait for complete her slow construc-
tOn He wants the land before its natural level
completed, and does by shutting the with
dykes and cvees When the rising make
breach in these, the land is temporarily submerged but
in the process it is raised little and its fertility is in
creased, that its future production compensates for
the loss OF part of seasons crop and the of
pairs. The water recedes and the land is
planted later in the season. for the climate of California
permits the of land for variety of crops
only lack of water keep land of action for
whole crop year
Putting floods among the accidents which agricul-
ure is liable in very small part of California an ex-
animation OF the effect and comparison with the accidents
that bese crops in the East leave such balance in
favor that 1t be said that farmer the East
would gladly trade his chances for ours There an in
exorabe condition limits him crop year. If wet
weather destroy his small grain in the shock, early
frost spoil his corn, he plant later crop of any
thing, and If the loss be SO large disorder his
finances he burdens his land with mortgage tide him
to the seed time Here he waits brief space
and then crops his land something else for every day
in the is seed time and harvest in California Most
of the flood districts the sag of the great valley of Cal
iforna where the waters meet in six weeks from now
will show sign of the nundaon but every will
be growing crop The land whose fields
involved naturally protest against such publications
make possible an analogy between these floods and
the disasters of the kind Eastern rivers
When the enormous drainage of the Mississippi and
Missouri joins, and the SHOWS of Nebraska the
Dakotas and the far watershed of the Yellowstone
melt and the rains on the drainage basin of the
Mississippi overflow is caused that overwheIms mil
lions OF acres from Quincy to New Orleans These
floods sweep away the crop possibilities of year
They width of more than hundred miles, and
their occurrence calamity that affects the revenues
of States, and the welfare of millions of people In
misfortune vast the little and brief floods of the
ley of California lost sight of entirely.
Those Eastern floods frequently make necessary the
Intervention of the Federal Government and large ap
preparations made from the Federal treasury vain
effort to check them to aid the people who are inn
povershed by them In this State the land subject to
occasional overflow is of great fertility because it is
food made land the auvum dissolved and divided fine
ly by the water make it the best medium for plant
food This land the equal of that built UP by the an
nual floods of the Nile, which the worlds an
cent granaries and which to-day under more skillfu
cultivation is regenerating Egypt ndusrally and fnan
ciay, making it greater country than the shepherd
kings dreamed of.
But California could spare all of these flood lands and
by transferring the energies of their owners to other
fields suffer loss in production While this could be
done 1t will not be- for the that there is no need
OF it. These lands will continue pour their product
into horn of plenty and their owners will prosper in
spite Of storm and food