USA > California > San Joaquin County > An illustrated history of San Joaquin County, California. Containing a history of San Joaquin County from the earliest period of its occupancy to the present time, together with glimpses of its future prospects; > Part 15
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" Neither this court nor this jury has a right to say that a portion of a public highway once legally established ceases to continue to be such solely because unnecessary or unused as such, or because it had become a part of a water- course. The Legislature of this State has con- ferred upon the Board of Supervisors of this county general supervision over the roads within the county, and to abolish or abandon such parts thereof as are not necessary."
From the instructions of the court above given it will be seen that no formality is necessary for the dedication of a strip of land as a public highway; only the intention of the owner, as indicated by his words or acts, is nec- essary. This settlement of the case superseded the necessity of any further prosecution of sev- eral other suits of a similar nature that had been instituted, and the indications are that all litigation in this line is ended.
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AGRICULTURE, ETD.
CHAPTER VIII.
AY Providence deliver us from a boom, if the experience of Los An- geles, San Diego and many other points is worth anything," is the prayer of the denizens of San Joaquin County, and a sensible desire it is, if by the term " boom " is meant the rise of real estate to fictitions values .* The peo- ple of this valley proceed upon the principle of steady and substantial growth, and consequently neither they nor their Eastern friends are dis- appointed. Disastrous financial depressions do not occur here.
California is often poetically alluded to as the " land of golden promise." Is is not a land of performance? In what has it failed? Gold? Grain? Fruits? Vegetables? And these are the four great sinews of the State that ever made any " promises." Although San Joaquin County was never a gold region, it has the other three sinews in perfection.
The development and wealth of San Joaquin County are steadily growing. Of the 873,195 acres in the county, all but 20,000 or 30,000 acres were upon the assessment roll in 1886. This county, both by rail and water, is as con- venient to the markets of the world as any other point in the State.
VARIETIES OF SOIL.
Upon the west side of the San Joaquin river in this county there is a body of land from eight
to ten milesin width and twenty-five miles north and south, which in favorable seasons lias pro- duced extraordinary crops of wheat. The soil is a deep, sandy loam, in many places from thirty to forty feet to the hard pan, and with a supply of water it could be made the inost pro- ductive and valuable land in the county. Owing to the great depth of the soil and its location at the eastern base of the Coast Range, it suffers from the effects of drouth more than the land located where the topography of the country is more favorable for securing the maximum of rain-fall. It is a noticeable fact that npon the Pacific coast the heaviest rain-fall occurs upon the western slopes of the mountain ranges, the storm clouds floating inland from the ocean, seeming to be bereft of their moisture as they pass over higher elevations. This large body of land is an important portion of San Joaquin Connty, and must eventually be furnished withi means of artificial irrigation from the San Joa- quin river, which in seasons when irrigation is necessary to secure the growth of vegetation pours its torrents of water past the land to the sea.
The red lands in the eastern part of the county have proven good average wheat land, but when properly worked is very profitable in fruits. It varies in depth, but the most of it is strong, en during soil. It is especially good for plnms
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and prunes. Windmill irrigation for fruits has been a great success here.
Loam lands are found both in the northern and southern parts of the county. The whole Mokelumne river basin is a magnificent body of this kind. It is sandy and deep. A great part of it is the finest sort of garden loam. This is the " live-oak " country, so called from the live- oak tree growth covering it. There is no land in the State better adapted to small diversified farmning than this. It is easily worked, and is unfailing in the production of crops. For twenty years the chief product of the " live-oak" farmer has been wheat. But the more wide- awake husbandman has not lost the opportunity to demonstrate that for table grapes, almonds, apricots, pears, prunes, peaches, figs, and for all kinds of sınall fruits such as raspberries, straw- berries, blackberries, currants, etc., this soil cannot be improved npon.
A great reservoir of water extends under the loam lands, and is a never failing supply of water to this district. Whether the year is un- unnsusally dry or unusually wet, no difference is discovered in the under-ground water level. Its source is in perennial and eternal fountains. A three-inch well, bored to the depth of twenty- five feet, affords an inexhaustible water supply the year around. The prevalence of pleasant, tempered winds from the coast during the snmn- mer months, encourages the erection of wind- mills for irrigation purposes throughout the district. A number of ten, fifteen and twenty acre fruit and vegetable gardeners in the vicinity of Lodi, are doing a good business, annually netting the industrious proprietors from $150 to $250 per acre. These gardens are irri- gated mostly by pumps and windmills. Two six-inch wells are sunk eight or ten feet apart. Pump plungers are inserted into the galvanized- iron casings of these wells, and are worked by a walking-beam, pivoted between the wells. A sixteen-foot windmill or an ordinary horse- power will operate the contrivance, and lift from five to ten thousand gallons per hour, sufficient to irrigate a ten-acre garden thoroughly. These
loam lands along the Mokelumne are valnable, yet can be bought for from $45 to $60 per acre. As old methods of farming give way to better ideas, this section will develop and improve with great rapidity.
Along the Mokelumne river are to be found thousands of acres of rich bottoin lands, lux- uriantly productive without irrigation. Every- thing planted there has made prodigious growth. Four crops of alfalfa, making six to eight tons of splendid hay per year, are usually taken from it; corn, sixty bushels, and barley fifty bushels to the acre, are averaged. Hops, patatoes and fruits, and all sorts of garden products grow lux- uriantly.
The black adobe lands are strong and rich, the heaviest requiring double the horse-power to break them, but notwithstanding they are the inost valnable They have generally been adapt- ed to grain but are easily irrigated and produce the stone fruits well. It is abundant in the vi- cinity of Stockton. (See Chapter I for further particulars).
EARLY MINING PERIOD.
Previous to 1851 the County of San Joaquin was considered good only for grazing and hunt- ing. There were immense herds of cattle and some horses ranging the valley under the re- straint only of the vacaro. The old Mexican custom of the rodeo still prevailed, and was practiced for a few years later. The rodeo ground was the place where the ranchero or stock-raiser gathered all the stock which was found grazing within his boundary lines. There was a stated day for these gatherings once in each year; and all the owners of stock from the surrounding country came to the rodeo, selected their estrayed cattle, and drove them to their own grazing grounds, leaving what could not be identified by claimants, to become the property of the owner of the rodeo, who branded them accordingly.
The soil of the valley had never, with bnt two exceptions, received into its bosom the plow of the civilizer. Ages had passed by ; generations of red men had been born and passed away;
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nature had planted tlie grasses and flowers, and the soil had brought them forth again. For successive centuries the elk, grand in his un- tanied strength, the deer, in his primitive beanty, the antelope, in its graceful action, had taken possession of a land to which nature had invited them. The coyote, the grizzly bear and the mountain lion had found a place that nature had seemed to have created for them, and the Indian had been " monarchi of all he surveyed."
Such was San Joaquin County previous to 1851; but the sleepy centuries had been awak- ened to learn that the time had come when the harvest was to be gathered which the ages had been preparing for the coming man. Time in his flight had reached the point where the change was to come; gold had been fonnd wliere nature in her bounty had deposited it; that had created an influx of immigration which, like a tidal wave, moved toward the Pacific slope, and with it had come the artificer, the student, the inechanic, and the husbandman, all seeking sudden wealth, and looking to a speedy return to homes left in search of the shining metal. With this immense influx came necessities for the support of this suddenly populated region, and no supply being produced from the soil to ineet it, prices raised with the necessity; money was often more plenty than bread.
Under this combination of circumstances the far-seeing turned to the valleys and said, We will dig for gold with the plow, and reap it in the harvest of grain; this soil, which does not hold the metal, holds that which will draw it from the hand of the one that is fortunate, as well as those who are not; for all must eat to live. Here in the plains lies the financial lever that, prop- erly applied, will move the wealth of the mines into the valleys. Suchi men located to stay, and are here now to enjoy the fruit of their fore- thought.
Others, unsuccessful in their search for gold, disappointed and heart-sick, scattered throngh the lower country, selecting places not so much with a view to farming as a desire to seclude themselves from the outside world, that they
miglit forget the far-away home, to which pride and a want of means prevented them from re- turning. A few of these are still in the coun- try, and are now thankful that seemning destiny forced them to acquire some of this valley when it was apparently of little value.
For other and various canses, the little cabins sprang np here and there over the country, first along the streams, and, as the apparent choice localities were taken up, further back, until to- day, San Joaquin County has become the garden of the State.
In Castoria Township eighty acres of wheat were sown in the fall of 1846, from which there was no yield. There were a few, somne sixteen, acres of wheat sown by Joe Bussell, in 1847, near Lindsay's Point, that was not cut. With these exceptions, there was no grain sown in this county up to 1851. In that year W. L. Over- hiser raised sixteen acres of barley on the Cala- veras, north of Stockton, and harvested the same. Mr. Sargent also raised between forty and fifty acres, on the ground where Woodbridge now stands, and harvested it, although the winter was one of the driest ever known in the State since white occupation, there being only 4 71- 100 inches rainfall. He obtained a yield of about ten bushels to the acre. These were the only fields of grain cut in the county in 1851.
The next year, 1852, considerable barley was raised in the county. R. C. Sargent and W. L. Overliser each harvested sixty acres; a number of other parties also raised grain. The assessor's returns for San Joaquin County, of that year, give 4,001 acres as the amount that was raised; from the same report we learn that there were produced that season: 5,145 bnshels of wheat; 111,489 bushels of barley ; 1,625 bushels of oats; 1,245 busliels of corn; 42 3-10 tons of potatoes.
The mode of cutting the grain was principally with the cradle, one of which could be had by paying $150, the present price being $4. Win. McKee Carson owned the only threshing-machine and reaper in the county. R. C. Sargent im- ported one of eachi, the succeeding year of 1858.
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RECLAMATION OF SWAMP LANDS.
Lessons from the older eastern States, and even from the Old World, began to be reduced to practice in this county in due time, and the work is still progressing with profitable results; and the area for this great industry in this connty is considerable. A knowledge of the most effective methods of accomplishing the re- clamation of these lauds, which we have no hesitation in saying are the richest in the world, has been acquired only by years of patient and costly experiment; and experimentation seems to be still going on. The fresh-water tide lands of the State occupy an area of 350,000 acres or more, all of which has a fertility three or four times that of up-land when thoroughly free from the encroachment of floods. The reclama- tion problem has been made one of the special lines of investigation by the State engineer, and his report has thrown light npon a vexed question in which the world takes a deep inter- est. These lands present a vast field for enter- prise and capital. The returns of yield in the staples of wheat, barley, potatoes, corn, fruit, vegetables and every manner of produce which a fertile soil, ample moisture and stimulating sunshine can bring forth, show such astonishing figures that the cupidity of men is excited at thie very mention. The reclaimed lands on the Sacramento river have for years supplied the inarkets of San Francisco with a large share of the fruits and vegetables there consmined, and no manner of cultivated plant, tree or shrub that flourishes in any part of the United States, has yet been found to fail when tried on these lands, while they usually flourish with an extra- ordinary growth seldom equaled elsewhere.
The amount which has already been expended in the reclamation of tule lands in this State cannot be estimated, but it has undoubtedly been several millions. In this county alone $1,000,000 would not cover the cost.
The plan adopted for subjecting the land to cultivation, varies with the varying qualities of the soil. In some parts, where sediment pre- dominates in excess of the vegetable matter, one
of the methods successfully used, is to burn off the tules when dry, turn over the sod with plows that cut the roots off squarely, and after a few weeks' exposure to the sun, burn the sods. It has been found that the roots burn out entirely, leaving the sedimentary soil as finely pulverized as a flower garden. Treated in this manner, the soil is at once ready for a crop, and requires no further plowing or pulverizing. The first plowing costs abont $4 to $5 an acre, and the burning about $1 per acre. This treatment would, however, be ruinous to that class of peaty soil where the vegetable element predomi- nates, and much of this class of land has been spoiled by fires which liave burned out all the substance of the soil down to the water level. The necessities of cultivation on this class of land have called fortlı agricultural implements specially adapted to them. The tule plow must not only have a cutting edge as sharp as a knife, but be shaped so as to turn the toughi sods com- pletely over. The subjugation of the peaty land is accomplished by various devices, the mnost successful of which is a spiral cutting knife, winding about a cylinder three feet in diameter. The knives are abont four inches apart on the cylinder, and cut the sods up into strips. Other implements specially adapted to this class of land are in nse.
The tule islands have a brilliant future. It is not enough to say that they will soon be the gardens of the State. They will be the source of supply for all manner of textile fabrics, and it is not an extravagant prediction to fore- tell the erection in Stockton at no distant day of enormous linen factories, silk factories, jute fac- tories, beet-sugar factories, and other under- takings of a similar and equally possible nature, deriving their raw materials from island grown products, all of which flourish ou these lands as though indigenous to the soil.
To the enterprise of such men as M. C. Fisher, Haggin and Tevis, General Williams, and R. C. Sargent, who as pioneers have risked unlimited capital in this work, the State is in- debted beyond estimation. The popular cry
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against the "land-grabber " and "monopolist" is a futile shaft when levelled in a direction where nothing could be done withont large aggregation of capital. They merit all the profits which they hope to gain, and deserve more honor and credit than an ungrateful public is likely to give. They are striving to redeem a howling waste to fruitfulness and fertility. May they succeed! for, wishing them success, we but repeat the wish, " Let Stockton flourish," as, fed and nourished by such resources as these, flourish she must and will.
In the northwestern portion of the county is a large tract of land originally considered of little value because of its swampy character. When the country was first occupied by Americans it was wholly covered with a growth of tules and flags, and subject to overflow at every rise of the water in the San Joaquin and its tributaries. It is only within the last ten years that intelli- gent and comprehensive efforts have been made to reclaim this land, but the result of the work already accomplished is very encouraging. Thousands of acres of this kind of land are now producing bountiful crops of wheat and barley, which but a few years ago were but im- penetrable bogs of tule and flag.
By the construction of substantial levees to protect from overflow, the land is made dry and susceptible of cultivation, and its capacity for production is greater than any other variety of land in the State. All kinds of small fruits and vegetables have been raised in abundance without irrigation, and the aggregate value of the products of this region of country will be enormously increased, when the extensive schemes of reelamation now in contemplation and partially carried out shall be fully completed.
Good and sufficient levee protection, under proper management and with the use of the many improved appliances for handling dirt, can be built at a cost of about $5,000 per inile. For the purpose of estimating the cost per acre, it may generally be recognized that most of the unreclaimed swamp lands of the valley can be put in a state fit for cultivation with an average
of one inile for each 200 acres of land inclosed. This is indeed an extreme allowance, for fre- quently 300 or 400 acres would be a fair propor- tion; but taking the top figures, the cost of thorough reclamation, if understandingly set about, will not exceed $25 per acre
The value of well reclaimed swamp lands is now thoroughly appreciated, and beyond question of a doubt there remains a splendid field for enterprise and capital in the reclama- tion of a good deal of hitherto untouched land in this region. Owners of considerable tracts of swamp lands in this county have realized as high as thirty dollars per acre from their land, by leasing it to parties who would cultivate it for a share of the crop. The renters, at the same time, have also been well paid for their labor.
The total area of the swamp and overflowed lands of the San Joaquin County is about 250,- 000 acres, of which about 100,000 acres liave been effectually reclaimed.
Hundreds of iniles of extensive levees have been constructed for the reclamation of this character of land, and many thousands of dol- lars expended for that purpose, but the invest- ment is regarded as a profitable one, and the work is being continued. The time is there- fore not far distant when the overflowed lands of this valley, which it is possible to reclaimn, will be brought under cultivation. It is esti- mated that during the year 1882 at least 1,000,- 000 bushels of wheat and barley were raised upon land in San Joaquin County, which, less than ten years previously, was overflowed the larger portion of the year, and was generally inaccessible except by boats. This kind of land necessarily improves by cultivation, and it requires several years to fully demonstrate its producing capacity. As the tule roots decay and the native weeds and grasses are killed by thorough cultivation, the soil is easily worked, and found to contain all the elements necessary for the growth of almost every agricultural product raised in the most favored districts of the globe.
It is a notable fact, that little of the thor-
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onglily reclaimed lands is offered for sale, as the owners are fully satisfied with the returns, and believe that the investment is a profitable one. Tracts of unreclaimed land susceptible of rec. lamation, owned by parties who are indisposed to expend tlie money necessary to make them productive, can, however, be still purchased at reasonable rates, and it is doubtful whether there are better inducements offered in any locality, for the investment of capital, than can be shown to exist in the prospective profits to be derived from the purchase and thorough rec- lamation of this character of lands adjacent to the San Joaquin river, in this county. Some of the shrewdest capitalists of California have already invested largely, and although it re- quires time to make the reclamation perfect, and thereby guarantee a sure profit from the productions of the land, the success attending efforts already made is incontrovertible.
The location of lands adjacent to the naviga- ble channels, enables the products to be cheaply transported to market.
Concerning the principal early experiments in this county, the following paragraphs are clipped from the Independent, of 1878:
"Union Island, lying between the old and middle channels of the San Joaquin, containing in round numbers some 45,000 acres, principally owned by General T. H. Williams, has been the great field of experiment and research in swamp- land practice, and great interest has necessarily attached to the progress and development of the work carried on there.
" Wherever practicable, that is, wherever the material employed was entirely sedimentary, the levees have been built entirely by means of horse scrapers. General Willlams has thor- onglily recognized the futility of any half- measures, and the sedimentary levees at the head of Union Island are probably the most thorough, or nearly so, of any work done in the State. One line has been given a crown-width of eighth feet, witli a slope of three to one on either side and a height varying from seven to ten feet. The extreme crown-width was in-
tended to furnish a roadway for the island-traf- fic; a perfectly harmless, indeed, probably com- mendable, practice in dry weather, but one open to grave challenge in winter-time, and now, we believe, entirely vetoed in Holland and the vicinity of the Mississippi.
" Below the sediment line, General Williams' procedure has been entirely original, and whilst variously criticised by outsiders, contains, we believe, the solution to the question, How to levee in peat lands? Double retaining walls, carefully built up of peat sods, have been car- ried along the line, and the space between them filled with sand pumped from the river bed. The machines used for this purpose were of different construction, the principle of one, the invention of Mr. Denison, being a vacuum pump, the vacuum being obtained by the usual steam jet and condenser, and the other, designed by Colonel Von Schmidt, a huge centrifugal pump with an anger attachment, working at the bottom of the suction pipe. The only point of objection to either of these inachines is that their effective working is limited at present to sand, to the rejection of clay or more retentive inaterial. The experience of the past winter, however, shows that the sand is by no means the treacherous material when thus employed that skeptics had been disposed to think it, and if we might venture to criticise the combination levee on Union Island, we would say that it comes nearer to entire success than anything heretofore attempted, and could only have been improved upon by preparing a peat foundation for the sand, and, perhaps, being careful to avoid any joint or overhang in the retaining walls, but rather to carry them up as a uniformly well-bonded, homogeneons mass.
" The lower end of Union Island was over- flowed this year; not as we believe from any defect in General Williams' work, but entirely owing to the obstructive action of some adjoin- ing proprietors wlio refused anything like co- operative action.
" Roberts Island, separated from Union Island by Middle river, and lying between Middle
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HISTORY OF SAN JOAQUIN COUNTY.
river and the San Joaquin proper, contains somne 64,000 acres of land. The largest individual owner is Mr. Morton C. Fisher, who owns somne 15,000 acres of the upper end of the island, and who owns the controlling interest and is the managing director in the Glasgow Cali- fornia Land Company, owning some 40,000 acres in the lower division.
" The reclamation of the upper portion was completed two years ago, and cost $140,000 for the 22,000 acres reclaimed, making an average of $6.50 per acre. The lower end reclamation works that have been in progress for the last year are completed; 36,000 of the 42,000 acres in the lower division have been reclaimed by these works, at a total expense of $350,000, or about $10 per acre. This is considerable more than the cost of the upper half, as there were more and greater obstacles to overcome, the dam on one slough costing $25,000. Here, as on Union Island, the entire sedimentary work was done by horse-scrapers, the levee being carried to a nine-foot grade with slopes respectively of three and two to one.
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