The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1905-12-07
California PEAT FARNS
Ground Burns For Weeks or
Months on Catching Fire
MACHINERY IN FARMING
Agriculture Carried On Under Con-
ditions not Matched Anywhere
Else I'm the World--At Times
Yields Fortunes to Its Owners
boundaries Marked by Dltches.


tlon OF Holland In the New World.
Tho Sacramento and San Joaquin
are widespreading streams. Like
most Californian rivers, they are
wide, rushing torrents In winter and
not much more than creeks In sum-
mer.
Toward their mouths thoy used
to spread irregularly over a district
twenty miles wide in some places,
nnding n new channel every winter.
All over that district was thick
growth of tule-a fat six foot reed.
Here millions OF wild ducks and
geese used to feed on the seeds of
the tule. 1t is still one of the great
est ducking grounds In the country.
Along In the early '70s California
capitalists began to study these del
tas with a view to reclaiming them.
II was found that the decayed tules
had formed light, rich soil twenty
or thirty feet deep on the river bed.
The needles of the great mountain
forests from which the San Joaquin
rises had added to its richness and
sand from the placer diggings in the
Sierra had tied It down.
They began to dixie out islands in
the middle OF the river, Tending It
back by heavy walls of earth and
rubble. The first island carved out
Rough and Ready, 1t Is called
was a gold mine.
Those were the days when wheat
prices were high, and the crops ia
ken OFF this land we're incredibly
large. Rough and Ready, devoted at
rearing OF blooded dairy cattle. Is
now one OF the most productive areas
In California.
The farmers went into It on a
larger scale. They carved out Union
Island and Bouldin Island. further
down the river and began work on
the mouth Of the Sacramento
Early in the game there appeared
q new trouble. Those lands, after
they had dried out and before they
were tied down by the first years
crops, would burn up on the slight
est provocation.
The tule reed packs in a mass
something like peat. When dry 1t
burns with slow, sullen flame, like
4 fire In sawdust pile.
The regular process Of reclama
ton is to get the dixie built hard and
fast, leaving kind OF swamp, and
then to pump out the water After
that 1t is left through one dry bak-
ing California summer to get ready
for the plough.
spark from a combined harvest
er or from a distant grain fire would
set It going. Then 1t would smoul-
der and shoulder, advancing per-
haps only few inches day, but
burning down as far as hard pan.
II was found to be a most persis-
tent kind of fire. In the early days
they used to run lines of hose from
tho dredges and pump in water by
the million barrels.
After the land is thoroughly
burned It is left fallow until the
rains of two winters have packed the
ash. Then 1t is ploughed and plant
ed like any other land.
The days of dear wheat are over
There is very little in that business
now, even on the broad areas of Cali
fornia 1t is only lately, however,
that the owners of delta lands have
begun to put their incredibly rich
soil to other purposes.
A Chinaman, one Wong jim,
showed them the way. One summer
he approached a Stockton landholder
and asked permission TO plant some
delta lands In potatoes on shares.
The American refused. Wong came
back with another proposition. He
would rent the land, cash down, for
its average profit in wheat and an
advance of few dollars an acre.
On that basis he went to work,
much joked by the American farm
srs. Next year the Texas potato crop
failed and the East had poor crop
but Wong Jim dug out potatoes like
nuggets and sold them at famine
prices. He returned to China next
year to live as magnate on for
tune estimated at $40, 900.
Then Bouldin Island found that the
land was prime soil for asparagus.
Small fortunes we're picked up there
from canned asparagus for the East
ern markets.
There are no fences; the landhold-
srs mark boundaries by ditches
There are very few houses. The
islands are not comfortable places
for homes, and most Of the owners
live on the mainland.
When the grain Is yellow and
dropping big traction engines come
in from the mainland. drawing those
combined harvesters peculiar to
California harvest.
The combined harvester is mower,
threshing machine and sacker rolled
into one. 1t Is a gigantic piece OF
machinery, almost az big as Mogul
locomotive. Among the tntricacies
OF It's beams and levers stand the
dght men who run 1t.
The machine goes along behind