USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare County, California with biographical sketches > Part 21
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ELLIOTT. LITH. 421 MONT. ST. S.F.
RESIDENCE & RANCH OF SAMUEL TOME, 4 MILES NORTH. OF HANFORD . TULARE CO. CAL .
105
DESCRIPTION OF PRINCIPAL RANCHES.
value by cultivation and means for irrigation. Facilities are at hand to make the public lands equally valuable.
" Inquiries are often made for maps of vacant lands. We have no such maps to offer; nor would they be of much use if we had. The district is so large that to describe the vacant lands intelligibly would require many maps, and to give a general idea of the locality would be no better information than could be got from a good school atlas. But there are plenty of vacant lands in this district, and a settler cannot fail to find such as will suit him."
DESCRIPTION OF PRINCIPAL RANCHES.
The following is a brief description of the principal ranches of Tulare County, furnished us by E. O. Miller, Searcher of Records, who has the only complete set of abstract records in the county. He also has a valuable collection of maps and surveys. Titles to any land examined and abstracts promptly prepared. He is also interested in the real estate business, and will buy and sell land on commission :--
MURPHY RANCH, 2,720 acres; situated on Tule River about thirty miles from Visalia; is well watered, and is choice land, adapted to the raising of orchard and vineyard. Title, State swamp land. Owned by the estate of Daniel Murphy. "L. C.," 5,425 acres. Title, U. S. Patents and State patent; situated about ten miles south of Visalia; abundance of water and choice land; present owner, George D. Bliss.
CREIGHTON RANCH, 5,200 acres; situated in the artesian belt, about eight miles southwest of Tulare; is watered by artesian wells and Elk Bayou, a stream which has living water; is level land and well adapted to alfalfa and stock- raising. Present owner, J. M. Creighton.
HARRELL RANCH, 3,640 acres; situated on the head of Cross Creek, about six miles north of Visalia; is well watered, and 1,500 acres in cultivation. This is the finest tract of its size in the county. Title to most of the tract is U. S. Patent, part State swamp title. Part of the land is in litigation. Present owner, Jasper Harrell.
POGUE RANCH, 3,800 acres; situated about eighteen miles east of Visalia; is farmed and cultivated. Is watered by the Kaweah River. Title is U. S. Patent and State school land; owned by J. W. C. Pogue and the heirs of Win. H. Wallace, deceased.
PAIGE & MORTON RANCH, 4,705 acres; situated about four miles west of Tulare; is in a fine state of cultivation, and is watered by the waters of Packwood Creek and two artesian wells. Title, U. S. and State Patents; owned by James Morton and Timothy Paige.
LAUREL FARM, 1,440 acres; situated about four miles west of Tulare; farmed and cultivated and is in an excellent state of cultivation; is irrigated by canals and artesian wells. The
title is U. S. and State Patents, and is owned by John F. Uhlhorn and P. W. Maples.
THORTON RANCH, about 5,000 acres; situated on King's River; is irrigated land, and well cultivated; it produces small grain and alfalfa; is irrigated by the water of King's River. Is owned by David Burris.
MARKHAM RANCH, 3,500 acres; situated on Cross Creek about ten miles west of Visalia. Title U. S. and State Patents. Owned by Damoetas Markham.
HEINLEN RANCH, about 4,400 acres; situated in the south- west portion of the county near Lemoore on King's River. Title, State Swamp Land. Owned by John Heinlen.
FISHER RANCH, about 800 acres; situated about six miles northeast of Visalia well improved and cultivated, abundance of water. Title, U. S. Patent. Owned by James Fisher.
WATERLOO RANCH, 800 acres; situated on Tule River, about cighteen miles southeast of Visalia; farmed and cultivated, choice lands, and well adapted to small grain. Title, U. S. and State Patent. Present owner, John W. Jones.
RIVERS AND STREAMS OF TULARE.
The county is blessed with numerous and very valuable streams which supply an abundance of water.
Four Creeks was the name that portion of the country was known by in primitive days. Seven Creeks would have been a more appropriate name, from the fact it would have included the entire number of streams running through the valley. There are Southeast, Outside, Deep, Cameron, Packwood, and Dry Creek, while on the north are the St. John and Elbow Creeks, making seven streams, so well arranged for the distri- bution of the mountain waters that settlers have utilized these channels for irrigating purposes. At a point on the Kaweah, known as the Rocky Ford, Messrs. Bacon & Crossmore ex- pended a large sum of money in turning a portion of that stream into Packwood Creek, which during the repeated dry seasons had dried up.
KERN RIVER.
Kern River rises near the 37th degree north latitude, and runs due south in 'l'ulare County and for more than a hundred miles, between two parallel ranges of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, before turning west toward the valley. It drains 2,000 square miles of mountain region, which in all ordinary winters are within the snow belt, but it often happens that during a very warm storm rain would fall in the winter-time upon more than one-half of all this area; so that one warm rain is liable to turn loose much of the water of several pre- vious storms. This was the case in 1862 and again in 1868.
To shieldl the low land of Kern County from these extraordi- nary freshets, Haggin & Carr undertook to shove the waters of Kern River out upon the dry desert which skirts the eastern base of the Coast Range, and with that end in view constructed
106
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
a monster levee some fifteen feet high, and about thirty miles long. It is believed to be much more possible to carry these waters to the west of Tulare Lake by the same method as the desert there is broader and sinoother.
DESCRIPTION OF KING'S RIVER.
King's River, when we consider its size, position, and the area of the country within the region of perpetual snow which it drains, as well as that on the plains which it is capable of supplying with water for irrigation, together with the fact that it is not navigable, nor a tributary to any of the rivers which are, may justly be regarded as one of the most impor- tant and valuable rivers in the State.
It has a drainage area of about 1,855 square miles in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and foot-hills, where the river leaves the hill country and enters the Centerville bottoms, nearly half of which is situated within the snow belt.
It flows in a southwesterly direction from the mountains to Tulare Lake, and its general course is quite direct, with but few abrupt turns in its meanderings.
It has not a single perennial tributary from the foot-hills to Tulare Lake, a distance of about sixty-two miles; and the only stream of any note which empties into it is Wahtoke Creek, on the left, just above Smith's Ferry.
CHARACTER OF ITS CHANNEL.
Where it leaves the foot-hills, all the water flows in a single, well-defined channel, while, in its passage through the Center- ville bottoms, its waters are divided into several channels for a distance of about fourteen miles. There it is again all col- lected and confined to a single deep and tortuous channel, the bed of which is from sixty-five to twenty feet below the plains on either side.
Practically this portion of the river has no valley or bottom- lands, the high bluffs encroaching generally upon the margin of the river. Here and there the bluff's recede, and the river is fringed with a narrow belt of alluvial deposit, covered with a scanty growth of oak trees and vines. This condition is main- tained to the head of Cole Slough, a short distance below the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, where its waters are again divided, the greater portion passing northward, down Cole Slough, and the rest along the old river channels spreading into a delta- like swamp between Tulare Lake and the San Joaquin River.
DESCRIPTION OF KING'S RIVER CHANNEL.
In the Upper King's River all the water during the different stages flows in a single well-defined trough or channel, with bottom and sides composed of large bowlders, intermixed with cobble-stones, coarse gravel, and sand, in such proportions and manner as to present a comparatively even and regular surface, which offers but little resistance to the free flow of water. This particular formation continues for several miles down the river, when the large bowlders disappear almost entirely, and
the bottoms and sides of the numerous channels into which the river is divided are compose l of large cobble-stones, intermixed with coarse gravel and sand. This latter formation extends for several miles further down the river, to a point about mid- way between the upper and lower end of the Centerville bottoms, where the large cobble-stones in turn disappear, and the river bed is composed of small cobbles, coarse gravel, and sand, which changes gradually until the lower end of the Centerville bottom is reached, where the material of which the bottom of the river channel is composed is almost exclusively coarse gravel and sand.
From this point clear through to Tulare Lake there are but few if any localities where anything but coarse gravel and sand is to be found in the river bottom, while the sides, particularly below the San Joaquin Valley Railroad Bridge, are composed of clay and sedimentary matter, intermixed with a gravelly alluvial deposit, which is unable to resist the abrail- ing force of the current of the river, especially in the bends and at high water, and is constantly being undermined, large portions of it frequently caving in.
HIGH WATER PERIODS.
King's River, like all the large rivers of the State heading high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, has two "high- water" periods in each year. The first usually occurs in December, after the rains have set in, continues through Jan- uary, is known as the winter rise, and is caused principally by the rains. The second, which commences about the last of April or first of May, after the rains are over, and continues through June and part of July, is produced by the melt- ing snow, and is of longer duration than the winter rise. The river generally keeps up between the two rises some one to two feet above its lowest stage.
After the second or spring rise, as it is usually called, the river gradually falls to the low-water stage, which it main- tains through August, September, October, and a part of November, or until the winter rise sets in.
The time of the greatest demand for water for irrigation is fortunately during the winter and spring rises, when the river is capable of supplying, during ordinary years, all the water needed for the irrigation of lands at present prepared to receive it, and furnished with canals for its diversion and dis- tribution.
THE TULE RIVER.
Tule River enters the valley in Tulare County, about eight- een miles from the southern boundary thereof, and its channel extends westerly down a plain sloping from twenty to two feet per mile, a distance of thirty miles, to Lake Tulare. The lands through which it runs are generally sandy; its bed is upon a loose deposit of sand, and its waters seldom reach far into the plain before being swallowed up in this great mass of dry detritus. In particularly wet seasons, and through the
107
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRINCIPAL RIVERS.
months of spring, when there has been heavy snow-fall during the preceding winter, Tule River water reaches Tulare Lake above ground for several weeks, or months even, at a time; but this does not occur sometimes for a series of years.
THE KAWEAH RIVER.
The Kaweah River enters Tulare County from the Sierra Nevada Mountains, and runs westerly to Tulare Lake. The county maps spell this name as it is here spelled, but a Span- ish gentleman with our party declared that the proper orthog- raphy is Cahuilla, a word which signifies in the Castilian tongue, "Indian." The delta of this river commences, as it were, within the foot-hills, seeing that the mouth of its cañon is filled with detritus of its own production and depositing, for several miles above the edge of the plains, and the river spreads through the uncertain and obstructed channels of a swamp, almost before it has left its rock-bound course through a mountain cañon. Thus, although the Kaweah is a some- what more reliable source of supply than Tule River, because it has a larger and a higher drainage area, yet a great portion of its waters are also lost in the depths of the sands, gravel, and light alluvial soil with which it has built up the plain for many square miles in front of its point of emergence from the mountains.
DELTA OF THE KAWEAH.
This is the Kaweah Delta. From the cañon above Wutch- uinna Point to Tulare Lake it is thirty-nine miles in length falling in that distance from an elevation of 520 feet above low water in the ocean, to the plane of the lake, about 190 feet above the same level. In the upper portion its grade is at points as much as thirty feet per mile, alternated by compara- tively flat and swampy tracts heavily overgrown with trees and underbrush. Near the lake the plain falls only two or three feet per mile, and without irrigation is dry and barren.
CHANNELS OF THE KAWEAH.
Down this sloping delta plain the Kaweah flood-waters find their way through eight or ten channels whose beds are upon deep sand deposits, particularly near the mountains, and which occasionally are lost altogether in some swampy tract-the waters partially emerging below into another channel under some other name. About half way down the plain from Cross Creek on the extreme north, to Outside Creek on the opposite border, the width of the delta is eighteen miles, but thesc channels approach each other lower down and enter Tulare Lake only about ten miles apart.
TWO GREAT FLOODS.
Since the settlement of the plains, and beginning of farming along King's River, there have been two great floods, the first occuring during the winter of 1861-62, and the second during the winter of 1867-68, being occasioned in each instance by excessive rain-fall during the winter months. During each
flood the Centerville bottom was overflowed, and large quan- tities of driftwood deposited there. From the lower end of the Centerville bottom to a point a short distance above the San Joaquin Valley Railroad crossing, all the water during each of these floods was confined to the river channel. From the railroad crossing through to Tulare Lake, the country along the river on both sides was more or less flooded.
What is now known as Cole Slough, which carries a large portion of the waters of the river, was opened by the flood of 1861-62, and enlarged to its present size by that of 1867-68. The effect of diverting through this slough the greater portion of the water of the river during ordinary stages, and all dur- ing the period of low water, has been the gradual filling up of the old river channel with sand for several miles . below the point of diversion, thereby reducing its carrying capacity, and at the same time producing an increase in the elevation of its flood line.
The flood of 1867-68 produced a rise in the river at the foot-hills of 17.5 feet above low water of 1878, while at the San Joaquin Valley Railroad Bridge it rose 17.3 feet, and at the Southern Pacific Railroad Bridge, or Tulare Lake, 14.8 feet, as indicated by the most reliable high-water marks of the flood that could be found.
Irrigation in Tulare County.
ONLY a few years ago it was the general impression that irrigation could not make any material improvement in the wealth of this part of the State. It was said in the first place that the plains were destitute of plant-food for the most of the vegetable growths the farmer hoped to raise by irrigation; and right well does the writer remember when many were of the opinion that fruit trees, Indian corn, and garden vegetables could not be grown on the plains from the simple fact that the soil was said to be destitute of food for such plants. Again, it was said the action of the water, under the influence of the sun, would destroy the substance of the soil; and another belief was that when water was put upon the land it would produce such an amount of chills and fever that people could not afford. to live in the irrigated districts.
Gradually these errors have been exploded, irrigating ditches have been made to checker the land in every direction, cities have sprung up on these dry plains, and fields of waving grain mect the eye wherever any system of irrigation has been adopted, and the most delicious fruit to be found in the world is produced on these irrigated lands with the least effort; besides this, the health of the plains is nearly as good as it was before the days of irrigation. The people of this part of the State are fast getting over their prejudices against irrigation.
108
IRRIGATION IN TULARE COUNTY.
THE LACK OF IRRIGATION.
The problem of irrigation in this great valley is not yet clearly solved. There are irrigated farms which are wonder- fully productive. There are twenty-acre homesteads and small farms covered with vineyards and orchards. But these are exceptional places. The great plains are not irrigated. The systems of irrigation which prevail are local. They belong to neighborhoods. No broad and comprehensive system has been established. Water-rights have been sold to go with land which convey more than four times the entire quantity run- ning in the streams. King's River, Kern, Kaweah, and other streams send immense volumes of water into the thirsty plain. A great deal of this water is wasted, and a great deal sinks before it reaches Tulare Lake.
Enough water comes down from the western slope of the Sierra to irrigate the entire valley. Yet, under the hap-hazard methods of using water, it is doubtful if one-fourth of this area will ever be artificially watered. In some places in winter in the mountains the snow in cañons is fifty feet deep, in others five to ten feet. There are patches of open ground where the sun has full play. If there were no trees on the western slope of the Sierra, this great body of snow would go down to the plains early in the season, creating destructive floods, followed by the most desolating aridity.
IRRIGATION IN MUSSEL SLOUGH DISTRICT.
That portion of the Mussel Slough country which is now under cultivation by irrigation and supplied with water by the present canal system, is located almost entirely in Tulare County.
It is bounded on the north and west by King's River, on the south by the swamp and overflowed boundary line along Tulare Lake, and on the east by Cross Creek and the San Joaquin Valley Railroad, and contains 155,000 acres.
The general slope of the Mussel Slough country is from King's River, in a southwesterly direction, to Tulare Lake, and all of the canals and old water-courses and sloughs follow the slope of the country, and tend towards the lake, into which they discharge their surplus waters during the irrigation seasons.
The light, sandy, and friable nature of the surface-soils, together with the exceedingly porous character of the sub-soils, which permit to a remarkable degree the free passage of water, acting at the same time as a filter to retain all its silt and other fertilizing qualities, has rendered it possible, to the present time, to irrigate this entire district by what is commonly known as seepage or percolation.
As frequent or constant application of water, either by flooding or percolation, always compacts and hardens the soil, it is possible that at no very distant day the free passage of water by seepage will, to a great degree, stop, and render irri-
gation by flooding necessary over a large portion of the land where it is now accomplished by seepage.
CANALS OF MUSSEL SLOUGH DISTRICT.
Mussel Slough country is at present supplied with water for irrigation from King's River direct, and from the Kawah River through St. Johns River and Cross Creek.
There are five canals which divert the waters of the former, and two of those of the latter, in all seven, which constitute the present canal system of this district.
The aggregate length of the five canals and their main branches, which take their supply from King's River, is 110 miles.
The aggregate length of the two canals and their main branches, which take their supply from the Kaweah River, is fifty-five miles.
For the first several miles along the channel of each canal no water is diverted for irrigation, owing to the fact that the beds of the canals are so far below the surface of the surround- ing country as to render it impossible to raise their waters to the surface and divert them for irrigation.
Allowing say four miles to each of the five canals, there are twenty miles of the most expensive portions of each canal, together with their headgates and dams in the river, which could have been avoided had a proper plan for irrigating this district been decided upon in the beginning, and all the inter- ests and water rights united in building one large canal, lead- ing out from the river at some point above the head of Cole Slough, or near the foot-hills.
The following table gives the number of canals, as well as showing the number of acres and kind of crops raised by irri- gation in Mussel Slough country, during one irrigation season :-
TABLE.
ACRES IN CULTIVATION-AND IN WHAT CULTIVATED.
NAMES OF CANALS.
Wheat ...
Barley . .
Alfalfa . .
Corn ...
Beans .
Potatoes ...
Vegetables.
Orchard .
Vineyard .
Forest.
Totals.
People's Ditch
9,159
985 1,173
547 1513 75
1
1
3
. 1,685
Last Chance.
6,798 2,133 2,330
282 1423
29
40
57 34
16 12,040
King's River
5,063
587
342
15
5
41
15 12
6,084
Rhodes' Ditch
1,058
240
371
65
1
S
110
1,775
Totals
23,348 4,200 4,272
984 299
SI
124 184
61
88 33,924
Settlers' Ditch
5,684
919
616
217
14
14
28
52 16
71 7,779
Lake Side
3,571
607
773
290
51 1
5
25 18 63
5,564
Totals
9,255 1,526
1,389
507
65 15
33
77 34 134
13,343
Grand Totals.
32,603 5,726 5,661 1,491 364
96
157 261 95 222 47,267
474
31
87 5
72 12,340
Mussel Slough.
1,270
255
56
.
It will be seen by the preceding table that the total number of acres irrigated by the five canals from King's River (those first named in the table), was 33,924, of which there are 4,272 acres planted in alfalfa.
W. J. Osborn
FT
mat. Ham
Sonyjulian .
FROM PHOTOGRAPHS OF S.W. WATROUS. VISALIA. ELLIOTT & CO LITH. 421 MONT. ST. S.F
J. wday).
109
EFFECTS OF IRRIGATION ON THE SOIL.
The total number of acres irrigated by the two canals from the Kaweah was 13,343, of which there are 1,389 acres in alfalfa, making a total of 47,267 acres cultivated by irrigation in the Mussel Slough country during 1878.
Deducting the number of acres of land now under cultivation by irrigation from the 115,000 acres which are estimated as the total area susceptible of irrigation, we have 73,000 acres yet to be provided with water and the necessary facilities for its distribution. There is at this date probably only about 50,000 acres without irrigation. .
PREPARATION OF THE GROUND.
In the Mussel Slough country, where irrigation is accom- plishedl almost entirely by seepage or percolation, and where the general surface of the ground in its natural condition is more or less even, the irrigators have as a rule paid but little, if any, attention to the preparation of the land for cultivation by irrigation, although it is apparent in localities where the land is naturally even and uniform, that the whole surface becomes more evenly and uniformly wetted up, and the crops therefore are a'so, in a corresponding degree, found to give a more satisfactory average yield per acre.
That portion of the Mussel Slough country which has been under constant cultivation since the introduction of water into the country for irrigation, has, by the frequent plowing and harrowing necessary in the preparation of the ground for seed- ing and the cultivation of the crops, become, in a great degree, as smooth of surface as is probably necessary where flooding is not resorted to for the purpose of watering the crops.
COST OF WATER AND PRICE OF LAND.
In all cases where the irrigators own the canals themselves, the entire quantity of water in each canal available for irri- gation is divided into as many parts as there are shares of stock in the company.
The cost of water to persons who purchase it from the canal owners is from $1.00 to $1.50 per acre for the irrigation season.
The cost of distributing ditches is from 50 cents to $2.00 per acre.
The cost of plowing and preparing land for sowing is from $1.25 to $1.75 per acre.
The cost of harvesting, including stocking, is from $1.50 to $2.00 per acre.
The yield of wheat is from twenty to forty bushels, and of barley from thirty-five to fifty bushels per acre.
The value of land not adapted to irrigation is valued at from $1.25 to $2.00 per acre, while the land capable of being irri- gated is worth front $5.00 to $25.00 per acre.
EFFECT OF IRRIGATION ON SOILS.
Irrigation in the Mussel Slough District always compacts and hardens the soil, especially when the water is applied by flooding, and sometimes to a very inconvenient degree. Of
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