Bisbee daily review., 1906-05-31
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
SCORES OF THRIVING CITIES AND THOUSANDS OF FLOURISH
 ING, FERTILE FARMS.
There is More lrrigable Land in the San Joaquin alley Than is Watered in Egypt From the Nile.-Stockton is the Metropolis.-it is Wonderful for it's Diaries.
By Clyde H. Trevener. lSnecial Cnrresnnndenca

| SacnuSeltS, COnnectlcuC and Rhode
 Island combined. has suddenly boomed
 into prominence as the most remark. able valley in the West That is why l I temporarily deserted the newspaper mems army in San Francisco to inves- tigate and ascertain if the glowing de- scriptions of the country were true. Twenty-Five years ago this great val ley, a part of the old Spanish grant, ! was the home of the jack rabbit and
 the horned toad, and the feeding place | in winter of myrids of wild geese. The remarkable fertility of the soil has apparently been discovered suddenly,
 and it. is only question of a short time, to my mind. when the great
 country will be reclaimed to the last
 square foot do not mean to convey the impression that man has not yet
 reached here, for there are scores of
 thriving cities and thousands upon
 thousands of fiourishing farms, or
 chards and ranches. In fact from Stockton. which is almost directly
 east of San Francisco, down through
 the valley to Fresno and on to Bakers | field, a distance of about 300 miles. the rich plains and delta lands fairly
 throb and pulsate with human activ- | ity. But the magnitude of the tillable | land is of great proportions.
 For centuries past Egypt has been
 known as the granary of the world. Agriculture there supports more than | 5000, 900 people, an average of 543 to
 the square mile. There is more irri- gable land in the San Joaquin valley than is watered in Egypt from the
 Nile.
 ! Thnrn ;- ,rolIn1y nf hn fp northern Italy, where 3,O00,000 acres | under irrigation support in comfort 1 5000, 900 people. Yet the San Joaquin
 valley is as fertile as the plains of
 Lombardy and Piedmont in the val, | ley of the Pc, has a climate as kindly
 and three times the acreage. Imagine
 what a population it could support. Here the miracle of irrigation may | be always seen. There is no loss of time. Growth is going on all the year. | Something is maturing every month {: something ripening for table or market every week. With less labor and few. CT acres the intelligent farmer pro- | duceS in the San Joaquin valley a wider range of harvests. gathers lar. l ger profits and finds more comforts ! than in any other land under the sun. It is country where, I am told 1 there has never been the slightest | symptom of a quake. and the people | in these towns never have to enter. 1 tain visions of repetition of the San | Francisco horror. The country is tap, 1 ped by the Santa Fe system, and is within reasonable distance. to San | Francisco and Los Angeles.
 first visited Stockton; pretty, well built city of 25,00O people. the com,
 mercial center of the San EJoaquin. Ii ] i- at 1he head of tidewater navigation and is considerable of a railroad cen l ter. Flour and woolen mills, harves 1 ters and other agricultural imple | mcnts, mining machinery. street cals | and railway cars, pottery and .bri l luettes, the latter combination of coal and crudn oil, are among it's in dustries. Fruit canning and packing | also have 2 large place. the annual out
 put of the factories and packing hous rs being over $14,000,000. Fuel is
 cheap.
 | Steamers. barges and sailing yes
 sells ply between Stockton and the 1 bay. the river traffic being very large | The distance is about 100 miles, and | the business is not exceeded by more | than three rivers in America. The an
 nual freightage is estimated at a mil
 ion and a half of tons, and 150,OO( | passengers. The county has 873,00J l acres, nearly all of which is produc 1 tive
 The delta lands lying west of Stock l to3 have recently attracted much at
 tention from abroad They have been
 examined by agricultural professors ! from hs auriplIltnriStC frC m
 Germany and engineers from Holland
 and on all hands are regarded as be 1 ing among the remarkable lands of the
 world. They have been given the
 title of the California Netherlands
 a section of Holland here in the West
 under such skies as Holland never
 sees. They are called the ''tulle lands" and peat lands,'' but all dc
 not have the peculiar formation knowr
 as peat. They lie, where reclaimed
 behind heavy dykes, or levees broad
 enough on top for a wagon road. Thest
 walls protect the land from floods anC
 are made by dredging out the chan
 nels or waterways. Along these wa terways the steamboats pass, ana
 landing provides a convenient ship ping place for the farmer Througf the leyee pipe, is laid, and at higi ttide the land is irrigated by turnini
 a wheel which opens a gate. The wa ter passes into ditches and by cres' {. furrows Is distributed and the porous
 soil quickly takes it. The land readi
 ly rents for from sl0 to s25 an acre
 Potatoes, onions, ehicory, celery, as
 paragus, grain of many kinds, hay ant
 fruit of all kinds, are grown.
 T It is a wonderful dairy country
 "Juliana de Kol," distinguishet
 member of dairy herd of cattle tha was shown, has a record as a tw year old that has never been equaled
 This COW produced ninety-two pounds
 seven and one-half ounces of butte
 in thirty days. In 100 days she gay 5S66 pounds Of milk. or more than fiv times her own weight.
 Merced. Modesto and LeGrande ar , good little towns. There are numel l Ous colonies in the valley. where me
 with small capital can do well. Ian , is cheap. and it can be put on 8 Twin
 basis from the start Fresno Is a raj: z in city, eTnbowered in trees and sui { rounded by vineyards. None of Tn