USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare County, California with biographical sketches > Part 19
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KING'S RIVER INDIANS.
At King's River, says Ross Brown, there was a public farm maintained at considerable expense, the Indians were collected in a body of two or three hundred, and the white settlers drove them over to the Fresno Agency, after an expenditure of $30,000 a year. For six years that farm had scarcely pro- duced six blades of grass, and was unable to support the few Indians who lived there. Notwithstanding the acorns, many of them perished of hunger on the plains.
TULE RIVER INDIAN RESERVATION.
This reservation was about thirty miles from Visalia, on rented land. Of course no lasting improvements were made
96
SOIL AND PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTY.
on lands rented from year to year, and consequently the labor of the Indians was only periodically employed. Six adobe dwellings had been erected in 1870, for the Manaehes, and several frame dwellings been built by the Tules. Comfortable houses sufficient in number for all the Indians were provided at a later date. The agent's residence was an old unfinished adobe building, sadly in want of repairs.
The following tribes were attached to this reservation, viz .: the Kowsis, Yowkies, Waehamnnis, Monos, and Tejons, but they roamed at large through the section of country. As they never had been compelled to live on the reservation, they pre- ferred living away, as they obtained work from farmers, stock owners, etc. The Manache Indians, who formerly lived here, nearly all left and are living in the mountains.
The Indians were quiet, peaceable, and well-disposed, and beeame profieient in all kinds of farm work. The sehool taught on the reservation had been of real and lasting benefit; in addition to the Indians learning the English language, and its first rudiments, sewing and making garments, washing and ironing had been taught them, in all of which many of the oldest seholars beeome quite proficient, as well as many of the Indian women.
James D. Savage, in 1851, reported the Indians of this section as follows :-
KING'S RIVER INDIANS.
Waeheries 1,000
Cassa was
1,000
2,000
KERN RIVER INDIANS.
Taches 1,000
Tohountos. 700
1,700
TULARE LAKE INDIANS.
Tularaneauz. 1,000
Umas Indians and neighbors. 5,000
6,000
Savage gave the following estimate of all the California Indians :-
Klamath, Trinidad, Sacramento and tributaries .. 30,000 San Joaquin and tributaries, down to Tuolumne. 9,500
Tuolumne River Indians 2,100
Mereed 2,100
San Joaquin River and head-waters Indians. 2,700
King's =
2,000
Kern
1,700
Tulare
1,000
Umas =
5,000
East side Sierra Nevada. 31,000
On Coast, not eivilized.
6,000
Total. 90,000
This estimate was undoubtedly too large, as no aeeurate estimate or eensus was ever taken of the Indians. They were always anxious to make their numbers as large as possible, to aid in overawing the whites.
Soil and Productions of the County.
THE large extent, varied resources, and known capabilities of the lands of this eounty give assurance that at an early day it will become densely populated by a prosperous people. The eultivation of the soil will always be the principal industry, yet there are numerous opportunities for the establishment of such others as are required to make a community truly inde- pendent and self-sustaining.
This valley is destined to eventually become one of the inost prosperous and favored regions on the continent. Its vast area, favorable climate, fertile soil, and varied mineral and agricultural resourees, must necessarily attraet the attention of the immigrant and eapitalist, and they will unite to develop its latent wealth. Thus far the great work has been barely commeneed. Immense traets of overflowed land that might be reclaimed and made to produce extraordinary crops of wheat, or which could be devoted to the eultivation of other valuable produets, are as yet unimproved. Thousands of aeres of virgin soil remain uncultivated, although capable of returning rich returns for the labor expended upon it. There is room for a much larger population, and no possibility that the labor market can be overstocked for years to come. Man- ufactories are required to utilize the various products that are now allowed to go to waste; eanals are to be dug for irrigating the arid plains; railroads construeted to furnish eheaper trans- portation; mines and quarries are to be opened, that their products may be rendered available, and numerous new indus- tries inaugurated in order that the resources of this vast region of country may be fully developed. Nearly every necessary or luxury required by man ean be here produeed, and the inhabitants of this valley will have all the advantages of a ready aceess to the principal markets of the world, either for the disposal of their surplus products or for the purchase of necessary supplies.
SMALL POPULATION.
The population of the county is quite small considering its large area, and the statisties published show that the productions per capita are very remarkable. Taking the wheat product as one example, and it is proven that there were one hundred bushels of wheat raised for every inhabitant of the whole basin, including the mountain parts as well as the agricultural. If the estimate were made for the valley section alone the amount per capita would be very much greater. When to this is added the products of wool, barley, wine, fruits, bullion, ete., it will be seen that the value per capita of the annual products of this region of country is probably greater than that of any other portion of the known world. While this is accomplished by the present population, there is ample room for three times the number, and an opportunity for all to do equally well.
عربـ
'WILLOW POINT RANCH".' PROPERTY OF THE FOSTER
BROTHERS. 3 MILES WEST OF GRANGEVILLE. TULARE CO. CAL.
97
THE TULARE AND KERN VALLEYS.
INDUCEMENTS OFFERED SETTLERS.
This county offers superior inducements to those persons who are desirous of engaging in agricultural pursuits, and it is doubtful whether there is another locality on the continent where thorough and systematic farming is more profitable. Notwithstanding the occasional droughts which have been dis- astrous to the careless, unsystematic farmer, repeated experi- ments have demonstrated the fact that with thorough tillage and summer fallowing, crops can be raised in the driest sea- sons. The time is coming, however, when the farmer of this valley will have little cause to fear seasons of drought. A complete system of irrigation will be adopted, and canals con- structed to lead the water of the numerous streams over the land to furnish the requisite moisture to secure the growth of crops in the driest season. This object will be effected in some portions of the valley by artesian wells. A number have been bored, and flowing water obtained. Some of these wells fur- nish sufficient water to irrigate 160 acres of land, and by this means it is made capable of growing a great variety of pro- ducts, and two crops can often be raised the same year. When the land is sown to alfalfa, three and sometimes as many as five crops are cut-this depending upon the strength of the soil.
In no part of the United States can a settler secure for him- self as pleasant a home in so short a time. Fruit trees grown from the cutting will produce fruit in less than one-half the time required in the Eastern States. The growth of orna- mental trees and shrubbery is equally rapid, and where there are facilities for irrigation, it is possible for the settler to sur- round his home with a growth of choice trees and shrubbery in a very few years.
The prices of land are lower in this valley than in any other portion of the State within the same distance of a market and possessed of similar facilities for transportation.
THE PLAINS AND BASINS.
The valley consists of two plains of unequal width, extend- ing from the foot-hills of the mountains, and meeting in a trough, not midway, but considerably west of the center line of the great depression. This trough, running from one end of the valley to the other, has a general inclination in a north- westerly direction towards the outlet for all drainage waters of the great basin, Suisun Bay. Its slope is not uniform, but flattens out at intervals where lakes and marshes exist, as the streams flowing on either side have banked up the silt and detritus, washed from the mountains, at special points for ages past.
KERN RIVER AND LAKES.
In this manner, Kern River, sweeping down enormous vol- umes of decomposed granite, has spread out a broad barrier across the valley, inclosing a basin above it for the reception
of the waters forming Kern and Buena Vista Lakes, at the southern extremity of the trough; and King's River, carrying its load of sand and silt to the lowest part of the valley, has raised a dam across the depression, and completed the shallow basin, where now exists Tulare Lake, one of the greatest sheets of fresh water in California.
It is probable that this trough once held the bed of a contin- uous stream from Kern River, extending throughout the length of the valley, and receiving the tributaries flowing in on either hand. As it is, the depression serves as the drainage-way for all the valley, however impeded may be its course. From Kern and Buena Vista Lakes, which occupy the same level in the lowest depression of the southern end, and are at an eleva- tion of about 293 feet above low tide, it slopes at the rate of about two feet per mile for forty-two miles, to Tulare Lake, whose elevation is 198 to 210 feet, according to the stage of its waters. Thence to the mouth of Fresno Slough, at the great bend of the San Joaquin, fifty-five miles from the lake, the slope is .86 feet per mile.
The total fall from this point to the mnouth of the San Joa- quin River, a distance of 120 miles, is 165 feet.
TULARE AND KERN VALLEYS.
Tulare and Kern Valleys lie between the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range Mountains, which, coming together as the Tejon and Tehachepi Mountains, about the thirty-fifth degree of north latitude, form its southernmost limit.
The river bottoms are extremely fertile, but contiguous to the San Joaquin River, Kern and Tulare Lakes, extensive swamps exist, that require reclamation before they become adapted to tillage, when the fertility is exuberant.
Little timber occurs even along water-courses, and that of a poor character except for fuel. This portion embraces the finest lands for the cereals and plants of temperate climes within the valley, which will approximate half its arid ex- tent.
Some portions of the valley present a more arid surface and sterile soil, broken up by fresh-water lakes, extensive swamps, alkaline deserts, and detached groups of hills and mountains.
The valley may be said to possess no picturesque scenery. Like the prairies of the West, it is a vast, undulating plain or dead level, with an occasional tree, or park of oaks, to diversify the general monotony.
The land is nearly all adapted to tillage, with or without irrigation, and is moderately well watered by numerous peren- nial streams, and by the San Joaquin River. It is level or slightly undulatory, only a few feet above tide-water, with an occasional low, gravelly knoll and sink or depression, to diversify the general monotony of the landscape.
The valley differs from an Illinois prairie in that it has two magnificent mountain ranges for its boundaries-the Sierra
98
THE GENERAL CHARACTER OF THE SOIL.
Nevadas on the east and the Coast Range on the west. Being so situated, it is not exposed to severe storms or cold weather, but has a uniform and desirable climate, which, with its rich soil, makes a rich agricultural county.
CHARACTER OF THE SOIL.
The land along all the rivers and streams has been formed by the washings of the streams, and is called "river bottom- land; " that between the " trough " and the foot-hills is called "plain land;" and from thence to the mountains proper, "foot- hill lands."
We meet with the rolling land, or "hog-wallow," as it has been called, in all parts of the county. Upon this land a few years ago wild bunch grass grew in abundance, and it was classed too poor for cultivation, but now this same land is con- sidered very fine wheat land.
Alkali spots occur in some parts of the county. This name is applied, in California, almost indiscriminately, to all soils con- taining an unusual amount of soluble mineral soil, whose presence is frequently made apparent by the "efflorescence," or blooming ont on the surface of a white powder or crust, solu- ble in water. This "alkali" becomes most apparent in dry weather following upon rains or irrigation. Later in the sea- son it usually becomes less perceptible, from intermixture with dust, as well as from the failure of the soil-water to rise near enough to the surface. The first rain, dissolving the salty sub- stances, carries them partly into the water-courses, but chiefly back into the soil, whence they arise again at the re-occurrence of dry weather.
CAUSE OF ALKALI SOIL.
Professor Hilgard, in his report to the Board of Regents of the State University, says :-
"The immediate source of the 'alkali' is usually to be found in the soil-water, which, rising from below and evaporat- ing at the surface, deposits there whatever of dissolved matter it may contain. Such water, when reached by digging, is by no means always perceptibly salty or alkaline; and the same is mostly true of the soil an inch or two beneath the surface. For, since the soil, acting like a wick, draws up the soil-water and allows it to evaporate at the surface, it is there, of course, that all the dissolved matters accumulate, until the solution becomes so strong as to injure or kill all useful vegetation. The injury will usually be found to be most severe just at, or near, the crown of the root, where the stem emerges from the soil. Within certain limits, a greater rain-fall will bring up a larger amount of alkali; or, if instead of rain, surface irriga- tion is made to supply an additional amount of water, the same effect will be produced; always provided, that the rain-fall or irrigation does not go so far as to actually wash a portion of the salts definitely beyond the reach of surface evaporation, into lower strata, from which springs or seepage will carry them into the country drainage."
An analysis of alkaline soils made by Professor Hilgard, showed as follows: Sulphate of magnesium (epsom salts), 93.2 ; chloride of potassium, 0.2; chloride of sodium (common salt), 5.9. Total 99.3. This alkali was thus shown to consist almost entirely of epsom salts, which explains its injurious action upon vegetation even in small quantities.
These alkali spots are now fast disappearing. Much of the land containing them has of late years been plowed up and sown to grain.
HOW ALKALI SOIL APPEARS.
Says the Register: "When a new-comer rides through our county, one of the first things that attract his attention are the snowy white spots that here and there fleck the plain, and he not unfrequently takes fright at them, thinking that the whole county must be more or less affected with the same sub- stance. Now there is really no occasion for alarm. All soils contain alkali. If they did not they would be perfectly bar- ren. As nothing will grow in a manure heap, so nothing will grow where the alkali is too strong. We have too much of a good thing in some places, and that is all there is of it.
Old settlers tell that twenty years or so ago land that is now covered with luxuriant vegetation was as white and apparently useless as the worst land we now have, and that the alkali is all the time disappearing. This is accounted for upon the en- tirely reasonable ground that the herds of cattle that have roamed over the plains during past years have manured the land sufficiently to give vegetation an opportunity to start where the alkali was not too strong. We have no alkali water, which fact shows that the soil cannot be strongly impregnated with that substance to any depth; while upon the alkali plains east of the Rocky Mountains the water will take the skin off one's tongue if he drinks it.
But the alkali land is by no means wholly useless. Where it is not too strongly impregnated it produces excellent salt grass that keeps green all the year round, and is eaten by all kinds of stock with avidity. This being the case many lave adopted the custom of sowing their alkali lands to alfalfa. Where it is too strong for the alfalfa to grow, the salt grass comes up, and the two taken together make much better pasturage than the alfalfa would alone.
It is probable that there isn't more than an acre or two of land to the quarter section upon an average, taking the whole valley through, that has enough alkali on it to damage it any. Such being the case it might be advisable to cultivate the good land first, and leave the other untouched.
"HOG-WALLOW LAND."
There is another class of lands in the county which settlers have generally avoided until recently. They are plain lands, covered with little mounds or hillocks two or three feet high, and comprise those portions of the valley mnost remote from the streams. The soil is red and of good quality, being capable of
99
A RICH AND PRODUCTIVE SOIL.
producing a heavy crop of wheat. In some places these " hog- wallows" are underlaid with a ferrugineous cement which interferes with cultivation; but generally there is from one to two feet of good soil above it; while in many places the cement occurs only in broken patches or as a incre shell a half-inch thick, un lerlying the soil. Sometimes this " bed-rock " as it is called, runs to a depth of six or eight feet, overlaying a clay loam.
There is still much Government land in the county of this character which, when leveled, would make the most beautiful farms, and they occupy the healthiest portion of the valley. They would be excellent fruit lands, and their proximity to market would render them valuable for the cultivation of the apricot and such fruits as would bear transportation. Some irrigation would be necessary.
CHIEF CROPS RAISED.
Wheat and barley are produced in abundance. The Cali- fornia wheat makes the best flour in the world. Much of the barley is harvested for hay, so that the farmer may secure the benefit of another crop, if the soil is moist, by planting it with corn. Fine broom corn may also be produced. Tobacco grows well. The soil is admirably adapted to the raising of sugar- beets.
Experiments prove that cotton of a superior quality is des- tined to be one of the great staples of Kern County. Hops and castor-beans may be raised to a great advantage. Most all fruits that grow in the semi-tropical or temperate region will flourish herc.
Apples, peaches, pears, plums, apricots, nectarines, and cher- ries grow abundantly. Grapes of the finest quality are raised to a large extent. The fig yields abundantly here, two or three crops a year. A few acres planted in almonds will give a large and profitable return. Oranges and limes grow well. Strawberries, blackberries, and other small fruits in abundance. An endless variety of vegetables may be had at your door at any time of the year.
RICH AND PRODUCTIVE SOIL.
As we have said before, the soil is rich and productive, and in those portions of the county where a fair system of irriga- tion has been organized, the crops are prolific to a wonderful degree, and ever unfailing. Even on the comparatively small acreage that is now tilled, immense quantities of wheat, barley, corn, potatoes, hay, and other farm products are raised and shipped. Wool is grown to a large extent.
Many tropical, and all the semi-tropical fruits, as well as those of the temperate zone, are cultivated and produce in wonderful development and profusion. The pear and apple grow larger than anywhere else on the face of the earth,
Peaches raised in Stokes Valley, Tulare County, were the first in San Francisco market in 1883. They sold at one dollar per pound.
It is a difficult thing for Eastern people to understand the remarkable growth that trees make in California, an | the early age at which they begin to bear, and the almost unlimited period they will continue to bear if attended to properly. On the ranch of John Allen is a fig-tree eight years old, measur- ing three feet in circumference, a peach tree two years old, quite full of fruit, another three years old, heavily loaded. His apricot and peach trees are full of fruit,
CHARACTER OF CLIMATE.
The climate is so mild that residents can have vegetables fresh from out-of-door gardens the entire year. Some winters being so mild that the tomato vine, unprotected, survives and flourishes the entire year. During the summer are some days when the thermometer indicates 106 degrees in the shade, but seldom more than three such days in succession, and such periods at long intervals. Owing, however, to the universally cool nights, and the purity of the atmosphere, even this degree of heat does not produce that languid and oppressive feeling so common on the Atlantic slopc.
All the days are sunny. The solar heat is great, but in the shade it is cool enough. The long, sunny days evaporate an immense amount of moisture, and the norther greatly hastens the evaporation. But with sufficient water, nearly every acre of the valley can be inade fruitful.
RESULTS OF THE CLIMATE.
The following description is given us by a patron, and aptly describes the situation of soil and climate. It is dated in March. The scene is not overdrawn, and there are thousands of acres of unoccupied Government lands in the State, which can be obtained and easily brought to the state of perfection that characterizes the pretty home which the correspondent graphically describes :---
" A few miles from the bay-window where we write, the snow-covered heads of the Sierra Nevada Mountains stand out clear and sharp against the eastern sky. Here in the foot- hills, fuchias, geraniums, and roses, are bright with half-open buds and blossoms. In the closet are crisp, hard quinces of last year's crop; along the borders the quince trees are thickly covered with blossoms. The purest crystal waters come leap- ing from the hearts of the hills, and all the meadows laugh with the gayest-colored flowers. Humming-birds and swal- lows, calla-lilies and verbenas, orange trees, lime trecs, lemon trees, are all mixed up in sweet confusion. Yonder are olive trees in perpetual green, and a little further, English walnuts and grape-vines, with leaf-buds fast swelling. The apple trees do not believe summer-time has come, and patiently bide their time and season, but peaches and apricots and nectarines are tossing to the breeze sweetest perfumes. Fig-trees generously give three crops a year, and in these early March days have pushed out all along their naked arms hundreds of figs as large as an infant's thumb. Pomegranates, almonds, and Newtown
100
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE VALLEY.
pippins grow in the same border as peaceably as if they had been life-long friends. Oleanders and sweet cassia trees are fron ten to twenty feet high, out-of-doors all winter. Down the garden walk I see black berries, raspberries, currants and gooseberries. There, also, are half-grown strawberries. In the vegetable gardens the beet, carrot, and cabbage, do not seem to know when summer leaves off, and so they keep on grow- ing all the year, until surprised out of all propriety by being rudely pulled and thrust into market.
PLEASANT HOME SCENE.
"Down the hill slope there is one acre of alfalfa and red clover six inches high which gives three crops, and furnishes an aver- age of eight tons a year of sweet and tender hay. Around these bowlder rocks are grape-vines that every year rejoice in ten-pound clusters of perfect fruit. A little further along' against the fence, is a seven-year-old vine, three feet high, with three or four short arms from its head, that annually bear one hundred pounds of grapes. There is a patch of raisin grapes, three years old; the old wood, three inches in diameter, headed, three feet from the ground, with triangular frames around them to support the fruit. . After the children and chickens and wasps had picked at them last year, they yielded ten pounds each of perfectly luscious dried raisins. The quality and quantity of pears, plums, and cherries, is to us so marvelous we dare not risk our reputation for truthfulness by repeating the items as they were told to us. Around the east porch is a sol- itary rosebush, trained in festoons, reaching over seventy feet -at that point cut back, because it was encroaching upon the rights of its neighbor, who was ambitious to share the honor of crowning this sweetest of mountain homes with buds and blossoms."
SPECIMEN OF A CALIFORNIA HOME.
We wish to add that this description is a picture of the thousands of homes that it is possible, with a little persever- ance and wisely-directed industry, to build up in this sunny clime. The owners of this paradise are working people. The wife is equally at home in the kitchen, nursery or chicken yard, at the piano or in the parlor. The husband is the son of a Puritan sire, and a pioneer Californian, who, in addition to his daily work, has used the early morning hours to trans- form this rocky hill-side into a fruitful flower-crowned paradise.
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