Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1938-07-07
j III. HARPER WRITES
INTERESTING LETTER

Mr.. J. H. Harper, formerly OF
Penn township, now teacher of ag-
riculture, in Hanford, Calf, Union
high school writes:
Enclosed find check for SO to re-
new my subscription to the Demo
crat. / am still teaching Smith
Hughes vocational agriculture here
at Hanford. This year my dairy
cattle judging team won the state
championship, but due to change
in ruling we will not be able to rep
resent the state at the national
dairy show at Columbus, in Oc-
tober. The last time my team won
the state championship in 1880,
they also won the national cham
pionship and I regret very much not
the national title.
OF particularly local interest
around here is the refilling of Old
Tulare Lake, after it had been dry
for Is years. On the map a half a
century ago Tulare Lake was shown
as the largest lake west of the
Rocky mountains, located in the
southern San Joaquin valley, about
midway between San Francisco and
Los Angeles. This Kings county
lake slowly dried up and the fabu-
lous size Of harvests taken from it's
rich bottom land, became almost
legendary. Tulare Lake made many
millionaire farmers in the last two
decades. Now it is filling up again,
breaking them ruthlessly. 1t will
not fill up to it's former extent be-
fore the settlement of the area when
it covered hundreds of square miles
of territory.
In 1862, the first real measure
ments indicated that the lake had
reached it's greatest size, as far as
known. It's surface level was 220
feet above sea level, and it's sur
face was 760 square miles. Fluctua-
tions in the height of the water oc-
Cured down to 1888, when a height
measured. AT this level the water
covered 195 square miles. Since
that time the extent of the lake var
led in proportion to the annual pre-
cipitation Of snow on the Sierra
Nevada mountains, which in melting
finds it's way to the channels of the
streams that flow naturally toward
the lake bed Kings river, the natur-
al course of which is to the lake
basin, is the largest stream con-
tributing to fill the lake bed in
times of flood. In normal years all
of this water is taken out in large
irrigation bitches to irrigate the
crops as no water falls here during
the summer months, thus none of it
reaches the old lake bed.
In the early 90's the land sur
rounding the basin proper began to
attract the attention of grain grow
ers, for the Virgin soil covered with
an alluvial silt laid down through
the ages, offered fertile field for
heavy yields with but minimum
of expense. For a number Of years,
as the water would recede in dry
seasons, following flood years, the
grain men would follow the water
back in grain paintings, trusting to
luck that the waters would continue
to fall until crop could be har
vested. Some went so far as to
equip their horses with mud shoes
that they might negotiate the soggy
soil, drawing the seeders through
the mud as the seeding progressed.
Mud shoes were pieces of boards
nailed on the feet of the horses in
stead of the usual shoes. The size
of these shoes were Sx12 inches,
and if a horse ever got down it was
some job to get them back up again.
At times there would come fresh
cts in the streams which would send
the water back over the grain fields,
flooding and running the crop. On
other seasons when there was de-
fciency of rainfall the farmers
would be the victims of drouth.
During these climatically uncer-
tain times fortunes were made and
lost and the intrepid farmers were
willing to take gamblers chances.
In 1906 wet season in the val
ley and heavy SHOWS in the Sierra
mountains, melted by extremely
warm spring weather, brought flood
conditions that completely sub