Alma record. (Alma, Mich.) 1878-1928, 1915-04-29
SILAS MOODY WRITES ANOTHER
INTERESTING LETTER
April 5th, 1915
Up The Sacramento Valley

Dear Mr.. Brown
We left Sacramento for Williams
by the Southern Pacific X. K. and ar
rived there about one o'clock I'm the
afternoon. From there we went by
auto to Calusa, small town fourteen
miles away. There were seven pas
sengers i'm the auto. seven or more
suItcases, a large trunk, which was
roped on the outside, and hany sacks
OF mail tied on also. The driver
cranked up his car and crawled thru
small opening to his seat in the car.
We arrived after a long series Of
bumps and thumps.
At Calusa we were able to catch
a stage for Princeton, twelve miles
up the river. The road ran along
leafy bank twelve feet high which
had been thrown up to keep the water
from overlooking. However, in spite
of this protection, the water broke
through this spring and flooded the
country for miles around, killing all
the alfalfa and barley. In places the
crop was sown again at great eX-
pense.
After two hours ride we arrived
at Princeton where we were met by
Herman Shafer, a former neighbor
of Mr.. Failing in Emerson township
who came here nine years ago and
has ceased to be a tenderfoot as they
call Failing and me. On our route
we saw large flocks of sheep. The
lambs appeared to be two months old.
The pasture is unusually fine, the
grass and alfalfa being high and rich.
This is a great country for stock.
Hogs run here the year around with
60, OF NJ e
in this country.
We found here good many ranch
es one half mile wide and from five
to seven miles long running straight
back from the river, the general
course being north and south. These
ranches formerly raised wheat, then
as the wheat crops grew smaller, bar
ley was raised and shipped down the
Sacramento river to San Francisco.
Now some of these ranches raise rice
which has to be covered by water "a
bout one half the time and black
birds being very plentiful they have
to be driven oil with guns. One field
of ten acres YIELDED over eight hun
dred sacks of rice but was sold for
two and one half cents per pound.
Some of these lands are irrigated
by turning the water out of the river
and some of them by pumping it out
into bitches. The hitting of the
ground is done by eight mules teams
or by sixty horse power engines which
lay their own track and pick it up as
they go along. Mules are nearly al
ways driven two abreast; one line or
rope guides the head of the near mule
or horse.
One thing that Icould not under
stand was why we saw so many men
with packs on their backs going both
ways. But we were told that they
were hoboes, and further that some
of the biggest farmers were compell-
ed to depend upon this class of men
for their help TO drive eight mule
teams. They receive two dollars and
half day but most generally they do
not stay any longer than one day and
ten at the most They carry their
beds right along with them.
Wages which men receive are inter
esting facts: doctor one dollar per
mile, lawyer fifty dollars per day,
a constable fifty dollars a month, a
justice the same. Even the little town
of Princeton with one hundred fifty
inhabitants has a bank, a school
house costing $50, 100000, electric
lights burning all night etc. There
was also in that town beautiful wat
ering place built as memorial TO a
wealthy man by his son, provided the
town went dry, which it did As
result twelve saloons were closed, the
whole place being bettered for it,
visited a farm of one hundred
twenty acres near here where they
have thirteen hundred white chicks
in brooder, nine hundred hens lay
ing six hundred eggs day, selling at
twenty five cents dozen the year
around; the hachery capacity was two
thousand; there were two hundred fif-
~ hogs, fourteen he'd of cattle, eight
horses, Beets and alfalfa were the
principal crops, very little grain be-
ing raised. This was a model ranch
his valley is one hundred miles wide
lut gradually narrows as we go north
We start this morning for San Fran
Geo.