USA > California > A history of the new California, its resources and people; Vol I > Part 19
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owners would be able to meet, and generally to determine the feasibility from the standpoint of profit to be realized from the organization of the district.
The board of supervisors were thus empowered to determine every fact necessary to be determined as to whether or not the petition should be, or should not be granted, and the cost of determining this question was prop- erly placed upon the petitioners. In case the petition should be granted of course the expense would be met by the district, if organized; but in case the petition should be denied, or if having been granted the farmers failed to organize it, the cost would be met by the petitioners.
This provision afforded ample means of avoiding any mistakes in the organization of any district, and if the boards of supervisors throughout the state had faithfully carried out this provision, in accordance with its spirit, no mistakes would ever have been made. No district would have been or- ganized which had not an ample water supply. No district would have been organized, the lands of which were not susceptible of irrigation by one sys- tem, and from the same source. None would have been organized where the cost of constructing the works exceeded the amount which the farmers could afford to pay.
The act provided for the holding of an election in pursuance of an order of the board of supervisors in case they should determine that the district was feasible, and if at the election two-thirds of all the votes cast were in favor of the organization of the district, it thereby became a public corpora- tion authorized to do the very things which it had been denied the indi- vidual to do, or the private corporation to do, by the decision of Lux vs. Haggin.
The act provided that such a district should have a board of five directors, an assessor, a collector, and a treasurer, offices corresponding to those of any other public corporation in this state. It also provided in detail what their duties and functions and powers should be; how these offices might be filled in case of vacancies, and for regular elections for the election of officers.
The district, by means of such organization, became possessed of all powers essential to carry out the object for which it was formed. The first duty consisted, of course, in determining what works were needed as a means of diverting and supplying waters essential to be used. Having determined what works were essential, it provided that plans and specifications of such
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works should be prepared, and should be adopted by the board of directors of the district.
To meet the exact condition created by the decision of Lux vs. Haggin, the act provided that the board of directors should have the right to acquire, either by purchase or condemnation, all lands and waters and other property necessary for the construction, use, supply, maintenance, repair, and im- provement of canals and works, including canals and works constructed and being constructed by private individuals, lands for reservoirs for the storage of needful waters, and all necessary appliances. Thus it was thought to en- tirely overcome the difficulty which had been met with in the decision of the case of Lux vs. Haggin.
The "farming neighborhoods" had been granted the right to organize themselves into a public corporation with the right to avail themselves of the benefit of the law of eminent domain. They had also been given the power to choose from such neighborhood five officers who should control all the affairs of the district ; they had been given the power to select an assessor who should assess their property ; a collector who should collect necessary assess- ments, and a treasurer who should be the custodian of the funds. It presented indeed a case of Home Rule to the last degree.
For the purpose of constructing irrigation works, the board of directors were authorized, as we have above seen, to cause to be prepared plans and specifications for all needed works, and to determine the cost thereof. Hav- ing determined this question, they were authorized to call an election at which should be submitted the question whether or not bonds should be issued in the amount necessary for the completion of said works. Complete provision was made for the issuance of bonds; the time for which they should run; how payment therefor should be provided, to the end that upon the final payment the district would own unincumbered a complete system of works, whereby it might for all time be provided with water for irrigation, had at the bare necessary expense of constructing its works.
In short, it provided for the organization of "farming neighborhoods" into municipal corporations with a single purpose. It differed from other public corporations in no other feature. It was given no extraordinary power; no power not exercised by other public corporations. Counties, cities and towns from time immemorial had exercised without challenge all
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the powers conferred on irrigation districts, and many others in addition thereto.
SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF THIS ACT.
The law having been enacted, the people of the state in various locali- ties proceeded to organize under its provisions. Very many districts were organized ; some advisedly and others inadvisedly. The safeguards provided to insure only the formation of such districts as would be practicable in their operation were ignored by the boards of supervisors in many instances, and districts were allowed to be organized by such boards without a single in- quiry as to the conditions surrounding them. In many instances districts were permitted to be organized that had no water, or the opportunity of ob- taining any. In other instances impracticable schemes were allowed to be consummated whereby the lands included within the border of a proposed district were either not susceptible of irrigation at all or not susceptible of irrigation by water from the same source, or by the same system of works. Of course in such instances failure necessarily followed. These failures were charged to the district law, instead of to the mal-administration of it.
The fight against the validity of the law was vigorous and protracted. The holders of large bodies of land, as a rule, were opposed to its enforce- ment. Land speculators were determined not to pay irrigation assessments upon extensive bodies of land which they held for speculation only, and which they could not hope to subject to a system of irrigation. The bankers of the state, as a rule, were firmly set against the law because many of them held large bodies of land which they had been compelled to take on mort- gages and trust deeds. They were in no position to provide their lands with irrigation, because they simply held them as a speculation or as a means of making good the moneys which they had loaned upon them.
In this manner almost unlimited capital was engaged in the attempt to have the law declared invalid. Notwithstanding these Herculean powers arrayed in opposition to the law, it passed through all the courts, and was finally determined to be constitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States in a remarkably exhaustive and well written opinion.
The best example of the practical operation of the law may be seen in the large districts known as Modesto district, Turlock district and Alta district. The first two named are situated mainly in Stanislaus county.
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They are the best examples of the practicability of the provisions of the law where proper conditions exist. In both of these districts an abundant supply of water is got from the Toulumne river, and distributed over about 256,000 acres of land. The Turlock district has an area of about 176,000 acres, and the Modesto district has an area of something over 80,000 acres. The works of the Turlock district cost a little in excess of $1,200,000. The cost per acre was a little less than $7.00 and the irrigation assessment, to pay interest on its outstanding bonds and the current expenses of conducting the affairs of the district, has not exceeded on the average thirty-five to forty cents per acre. It will thus be seen that when the principal has been paid off, the final cost of maintenance and carrying on of the system will be a mere trifle. About the same may be said of the Modesto district. There is, perhaps, no other system known by means of which water may be furnished as cheaply as the figures above indicate.
In many parts of southern California as much as $20.00 per acre per year is paid for water for irrigation. Under private corporations a common price for a mere water right has been about $20.00 per acre, with an added annual payment for the water itself of something like $1.50 to $3.00 per acre.
It will thus be seen that water for irrigation by the district system, where conditions are right, may be had at a mere pittance compared with the price to be paid where it is obtained through the intervention of private cor- porations.
The California Irrigation District law is somewhat extensively discussed above, for the reason that it constituted a new departure in the field of irri- gation, and was the first effort ever made to mould into form a system for farming neighborhoods, the suggestion of which grew out of the case of Lux vs. Haggin. The controversy over its validity was continued until the decision was rendered by the Supreme Court of the United States. This was decided on November 16, 1896, and it was thereby determined that the irrigation of arid lands under the California District law is a public pur- pose, and that the water thus used is put to a public use. The great point to be gained was that of furnishing farming neighborhoods with the right of eminent domain. This was fully accomplished by the District law, since, as construed by the Supreme Court of the United States, the use of water
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for irrigation purposes by farming neighborhoods constituted a public use. . To reach this end required over eight years of litigation, and during all of this time anything like systematic operation of the District law was impossible. Furthermore, the contention over the validity of its provisions resulted in the impossibility of selling bonds issued by districts, and work thereunder was wholly suspended until such time as confidence could be created under the final determination of the courts that such districts were valid. No general attempt to operate the districts throughout the state was ever undertaken, but in certain localities, which we have pointed out, they have been and are being operated with great success.
The District law, therefore, may be deemed an important incident in the history of irrigation in California, and its future is likely to be attended with very important results. As the districts already operating show the prac- ticability of its provision, and its high utility as an economic measure, it will undoubtedly grow in favor and become operative in many portions of the state, where at this time no attention is paid to it.
While controversy over this law was in progress, irrigation along other lines by no means languished in this state. Systems already begun were en- larged, and the area subject to irrigation was greatly increased. The most beneficent results followed the practice of irrigation wherever attempted. It is a most interesting study to note the great contrast brought about by the use of water for irrigation in any portion of California, when compared with ad- jacent lands not irrigated. In Riverside county, for example, irrigated lands have grown to enormous values, while lands immediately adjacent, for which no water supply has been provided, although equally good lands in other respects, are of practically no value whatever. There are hundreds of thou- sands of acres of land in southern California of the most fertile quality which are absolutely desolate-like in character, and will so remain unless a water supply can be provided for them. The vast wealth of Riverside, San Bernardino, Orange and Los Angeles counties has been almost wholly created by means of their irrigation systems. In fact, lands are scarcely habitable for agricultural purposes in any portion of southern California without the use of water for irrigation. The worthlessness of land without a water supply has resulted in most heroic efforts to promote irrigation enterprises, and millions of money have been expended in the creation of systems under
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extremely hard conditions, and where irrigation in almost any other portion of the world would not have been undertaken. The result has justified the faith of those who have made these efforts. While water, under all these circumstances, is worth almost fabulous prices, the use of it is extremely profitable. The late ex-Governor Waterman once stated, in a public ad- dress, that water for irrigation purposes in southern California had a mar- ket value of two thousand dollars per miner's inch, and while this may be in excess of present market rates, it is not greatly so.
In central California, where the water supply is much more abundant, and where the areas to be covered are largely in excess of those in southern California, water is furnished at a much cheaper rate, where furnished at all. Great systems have grown up in Kern, Tulare and Fresno counties. These are operated, in the main, by private corporations. Some of them furnish water for sale, but the greater number are merely used to supply lands owned by the corporations operating the systems. The great wealth of the last named counties is based almost wholly upon the use of water for irrigation. Lands without the artificial use of water are of very little value. Yet their fertility is such that, with the added use of water for irrigation purposes, they become highly productive, and of great value. Fresno county has become celebrated the world over as a producer of fine raisins. This product is wholly the result of irrigation systems existing in that county. The same may be said of its orchards. What has been said with respect to Fresno may be equally said as to Tulare and Kern counties. These counties have become famous as producers of all kinds of fruits. The actual results attained by means of their irrigation systems are astonishing in the extreme. And yet these systems are only in their infancy. They have been compelled, thus far, to rely wholly upon the natural flow of the streams .. No water has ever been impounded for irrigation purposes in any part of the San Joaquin and Sacramento valleys. They have rivers which have an annual flow, if all their waters could be utilized, to afford an ample supply for the irrigation of all the lands in these great valleys. Kern, Kings, San Joaquin, Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers each have an immense an- nual flow, which in the aggregate would easily serve all the lands in the San Joaquin Valley. It is most gratifying, indeed, to those who are interested in irrigation, to know that the general government has entered upon the pian
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of impounding waters for irrigation purposes, and we have no doubt that this system will be carried out to the extent of utilizing all the waters of all the rivers wherever the same can be used for irrigation purposes. The gov- ernment can very well afford to do this because it merely advances the neces- sary funds to be returned to it with absolute certainty, since the security af- forded by the lands covered by the systems to be served is many times more than ample as security. It is not too much to hope that many of the present generation will live to see all the lands in California. which are so sus- ceptible to irrigation, supplied with ample water for that purpose, by means of the impounding system, which has been entered upon by the government. Heretofore twenty times the water supply actually used in irrigation pur- poses passed on through the natural channels to the sea, without benefit to either the riparian owner or the appropriator. Such condition of things, it is not at all likely, will be permitted to exist.
The effects of the use of water for irrigation purposes may be studied with interest in those portions of the San Joaquin Valley where water has been recently furnished. It has not been many years since farming in those localities consisted in wheat-raising exclusively. For the support of a single family, the natural conditions existing in that valley required the use of several sections of land, and then farming had to be carried on with the 11tmost regard for economy. In those localities, where water has been re- cently furnished land has been quickly subdivided into twenty to forty acre tracts, and twenty homes may be found where but one existed before. There is, indeed, a bright future for irrigation in California, and prosperity heretofore unknown within its boundaries.
Photo by Taber VINEYARD, LIVERMORE, ALAMEDA CO., CAL.
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CHAPTER XIII. THE DEVELOPMENT OF VITICULTURE. By Honorable Andrea Sbarboro.
CALIFORNIA THE LAND OF THE VINE-WHAT THE OLD PADRES DID- POSSIBILITIES OF WINE-MAKING-MARKETS FOR CALIFORNIA WINES .- PURITY OF CALIFORNIA WINES-EXPORTATION OF CALIFORNIA WINES-HOW THEY SHOULD BE USED-OTHER INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT GRAPE-GROWING.
The good padres who first came to California for the purpose of civiliz- ing the wild Indians of the west are not only deserving for this good meri- torious work, but the people of the new El Dorado are also greatly indebted to the good friars for having discovered the fact that California was the land of the vine.
That necessity is the mother of invention was once more verified in this manner.
The Holy Fathers were not only accustomed to their flask of ruby wine at their meals in their mother countries, Spain, France and Italy, whence they came, but in the celebration of the holy sacrament of the mass wine was indispensable.
These learned men soon discovered to their joy that grape vines were growing everywhere along the creeks and embracing and climbing oak trees one hundred feet. high, and were not long in importing from Spain the Vita Vinifera, or the vine which produces the true wine grape.
Around their Missions they set out grape cuttings, and at the end of the third year gathered the grapes from which they squeezed the healthy and exhilerating beverage which makes all wine-drinkers healthy, happy and merry persons without "stealing away their brains," like is done by the strong alcoholic beverages used in our modern times. unfortunately by a large number of the American people.
At the Mission of Santa Barbara may yet be seen one of the original
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grape vines planted by the padres more than one hundred years ago which covers an immense arbor and from which over one ton of grapes are gath ered yearly.
The friars soon commenced wine-making in the primitive manner, as was done by the Romans before the Christian era, that is to say the grapes when matured were thrown into tubs, which were carved by the Indians from large Sequoia trees, and into these tubs the Fathers would have the Indians, both male and female, dance barefooted until the grapes were turned into juice. This juice was then removed and placed into kegs, which had brought oil from Spain, and there allowed to ferment. After the proper fermentation the wine was tested and found, to the joy of the Fathers, that it was the identical beverage which they had been accustomed to imbibe in their mother country.
So soon as European immigration commenced to pour into the state, upon the discovery of gold, all those coming from the Latin race, tasting the good wine produced by the friars, soon set out vines around their mining camps and commenced wine-making for their own consumption. From this small beginning originated the viticultural industry of California which is in time destined to be not only the largest industry of this state, but the most profitable and greatest industry of the entire United States, the same as wine is the principal industry of France.
As early as 1850 small vineyards could be seen growing in several parts of the state, but it was only in 1860 that wine-making for commerce was commenced in earnest.
The first wine-makers of Sonoma, Napa and Santa Clara valleys were, as might be expected, natives of Italy, France and the Rhine. The industry increased year by year and soon became of such importance as to attract the attention of the members of the legislature, who, observing the adaptability of California soil and climate as a fine wine-producing country, made a liberal appropriation to develop the industry.
Colonel Harazthy was sent to Europe for the purpose of bringing to Cali- fornia the choicest varieties of grape cuttings suitable for producing fine wines. The Mission grapes introduced by the missionaries were soon sup- planted by the Zinfandel from the Rhine, the Reisling, the Burgundy and other fine varieties of grapes imported from France, Italy, Spain and Ger-
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many. The quality of the wines thus improved from year to year, both by the introducing of the better varieties of grapes and by the experience ac- quired by the wine-makers, so that in the year 1870 the large quantity of wines which had been imported monthly from Europe was gradually di- minished and substituted by the use of California wines.
In 1881 was organized, by experienced wine-makers, the now famous Italian-Swiss Colony, and in less than ten years this corporation sent its wines to the world's exhibition in Europe where to the amazement of the European and the great satisfaction of the California wine-makers, Cali- fornia wines were tested side by side with the fine wines of Europe, received the greatest praises and were awarded gold medals for their superior quality. From that time the wines produced in California commenced to be shipped not only throughout the United States, but also to England, Switzerland, Germany and the South and Central American republics, where they have now obtained quite a foothold.
THE POSSIBILITIES OF WINE-MAKING IN CALIFORNIA.
The quantity of wine which can be produced in California is only lim- ited by the demand for the same. This great state is nearly as large as France and larger than the Kingdom of Italy. Its climate and soil is identi- cal with that of the Italian peninsula. It has been proved that every variety of grapes grown in France, Italy and Spain thrive in California just as well as, and in some cases better, than they do in the mother country.
In the northern part of California are produced the dry wines of Bur- gundy, Sauterns, Reisling, Sauvignon and Cabernet of France, the Barollo, Barbera, Chianti, Grignolino of northern and central Italy. In the central and southern parts of the state the grapes for the producing of the sweet wines such as Port, Sherry, Muscat and Marsala thrive just as well as they do in Spain and in the southern part of Italy.
The rich virgin soil of California gives such large quantities of grapes to the acre that the wines can be produced as cheaply as in any part of the world, therefore, whilst the quantity of wines now produced in California is only about 40 million gallons per annum, whilst France and Italy each produce over one billion gallons per annum, the time is sure to come when the Golden State will eventually produce as large quantity, as it is now pro-
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ducing as good quality of wine, as is produced in the largest wine producing countries of the world.
MARKET FOR CALIFORNIA WINES.
The future of the wine industry of California is assured by the almost unlimited market for its consumption. Whilst a few million gallons of or- dinary wines are produced in the different states of the union, it is a well known fact, as has been officially reported by the Italian viticultural expert, Cav. Rosatti of New York, representing the Viticultural Department of the Italian government in the United States, that the Vita Vinifera (the true wine grape) does not grow in any part of the United States with the ex- ception of the state of California, where on account of its soil and climate this famous grape grows as vigorously as it does in the wine producing countries of France, Italy and Spain.
Now, therefore, the state of California has first for its customers the eighty-five millions of inhabitants of the United States. It is true that the Americans are not as yet a wine-drinking people, but the time will certainly come when the intelligent, practical, bright, well-to-do people of the United States will eventually become educated to the use of this healthy beverage at their meals.
Wine has been used by all civilized people from time immemorial. In the fortunate countries where the grape grows to perfection and wine can be produced in large quantities, the industry has been carefully cherished both by the people and the government, as in some of them viticulture forms the most important industrial part of the state. It is a well known fact that France was only enabled to pay the enormous war indemnity placed on it by Prince Bismarck after the Franco-Prussian war from the money derived by viticultural industry. When a few years later the grape vines were destroyed by the phylloxera, the country immediately spent millions of francs in order to restore its vineyards, which it succeeded in doing, although it is said that the grapes grown on the resistant vines do not pro- duce as fine quality of wines as the grapes produced directly from the Vita Vinifera.
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