USA > California > Tulare County > History of Tulare County, California with biographical sketches > Part 43
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The total quantity of wheat produced in Kern Valley in 1882 was probably about 1,500 tons, of which all but 50 tons were manufactured in flour at the Bakersfield Mills. The millers say that irrigated wheat has a thicker skin, and yields more bran than that pro luced by dry farms, and that the flour has a slightly darker color. Irrigation also toughens the straw and makes it harder to thresh.
The cost of preparing land, sowing, irrigating, and harvest- ing a crop of wheat is estimated at from $5.75 to $8.25 per acre. The average yield of these cereals on the Belle View Ranch in 1878 was: Wheat, 27} bushels; barley, 32 bushels per acre-averaged over an area of about two thousand acres. In exceptionally favorable spots 90 bushels of barley and 30 bushels of wheat per acre have been produced.
INDIAN CORN.
This is another plant the growth of which can no where be surpassed and scarcely equalled on the continent. The height of the stalk, the number and size of the ears, the quality and character of the grain, all justify this assumption. The same may be said of barley, wheat, and the small grains. Cour- paratively little attention has been given heretofore to the pro- duction of small grains, but it is gratifying to observe a growing disposition to varied culture instead of cultivating one or two staples to the neglect and exclusion of others equally adapted. The usual plan is planting barley and harvesting it in May or June, and then planting the same ground to corn, which strongly illustrates the fecundity and strength of soil, and the beneficence of climate. The cost of a crop of corn in Kern County averages as follows :-
Irrigation prior to planting, per acre. $ .30
Plowing, harrowing, and planting, per acre. 2.35
Cultivating, per acre. . . .25
Suckering and hoeing, per acre .60
Irrigation, per acre. .50
Husking and hauling to granary, per acre. 2.00
Shelling (for yield of 30 bushels), per acre. 2.00
Total. S8.20
Average yield of shelled corn, 30 to 40 bushels per acre. The cost of cleaning the land of corn-stalks for another crop is 30 to 50 cents per acre.
Hops are found to flourish in a remarkable degree, and yield most bountifully. The product in size and quality is said to be unexcelled. The hop is very large, hangs in massive clusters,
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AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS OF KERN.
and carries a much larger proportion of lupulin-the active prin- ciple of the hop-than usual. There are especial advantages and inducements to engage in its culture here, owing to the dry- ness and heat of the climate. In most places it is necessary in curing hops to dry them in ovens and kilns built for the pur- pose, but for the reasons stated above it would not be necessary to employ that process here. There is no moisture in the air at night-time, and the hop can be cured here by the natural process of sun drying. The expense of kiln drying would thus be saved, while the quality of the hop would not be impaired, as it frequently is by the kiln-drying process.
TREES, FRUITS, BERRIES.
It will be well understood that all kinds of wood growth- trees, shrubs and vines of every variety suited to the conditions of the climate-reach an extraordinary development in an in- credibly short time.
A view from the dome of the Court House, which overlooks the whole valley, shows their green outline in long narrow strips extending toward the west, subdividing the valley into dis- tinct, tracts. These strips mark the line of the water-courscs, many of them, however, showing where the water formerly ran, but has now sought other channels. The numerous great ditches that have been carried over the county will soon, also, be lined with trees along their margins. The trees are valuable for fuel, and the growth is so rapid that the demands for such pur- poses will, we believe, always be equalled by the supply.
They are valuable for fence posts, and are universally em- ployed for that purpose. The posts cut and set in the spring will immediately send out roots and establish themselves as trees. All that is required is to dig a trench along the line of fence to conduct the water and irrigate them freely the first " year. In low moist land it is not necessary even to do this. At the end of the second year there is a splendid row of trees.
It is usual here to plant in such a manner that the cotton- wood and willow shall alternate. If properly cared for, and all the care required is to see that they do not suffer for water the first year, they will obtain a wonderful growth, branching out at the top in bushy profusion ten or twelve feet for a single year's growth. The cuttings seem to do better and make a more rapid and vigorous development than the same variety if transplanted with the roots. Nearly all the fence posts in the valley are of this character, and the boundaries of the dif- ferent ranches are marked by lines of thrifty trees. They are thus not only highly useful, but ornamental, and in a compar- atively denuded country are very grateful to the eye.
There are hundreds, probably thousands of acres in the valley that are overgrown with the switch willow, such as is used in the manufacture of baskets and every variety of willow-ware, that ought to be employed for this purpose. Most of our wil- low-ware comes from Holland. The willow is grown there on the banks of the dykes that dispute the possession of the low
lands with the sea. It is carefully cultivated there, and a wil- low plantation is considered very valuable, The Hollanders are very skillful and dextrous in the use of the willow, some of their work being exquisitely delicate and fanciful. Kern can rival Holland in the production of the material-all that is needed is the energy, enterprise and skill to manufacture it.
THE EUCALYPTUS TREE.
Several varieties of the blue gum trees have been extensively planted during the last few years, and in their growth and thriftiness they have exceeded the highest anticipations. The rapid and luxuriant growth, the beauty of the tree, the fact that it is an evergreen, no less than the marvelous sanitary influence attributed to it, have made it a favorite. It emits a strong camphorous odor, and its influence in neutralizing the effects of malaria in the atmosphere seems to be a well attested and gen- erally recognized fact. The effect of tree-growth upon climate, the manner in which it affects the rain-fall and the temperature, are questions to which scientific inquiry has long been directed, and that it does perform an important part in the modification of the temperature, the conditions of moisture and the attrac- tions of clouds is a well-known and recognized fact.
GRAPES, SMALL FRUIT, BERRIES.
All small fruits are luxuriant in their growth, and abundant in their yield. Horticulture, however, is not an art that is as well understood here as in some older places, and much depends upon the choice of soil, the exposure to, or protection from, sun or wind, moisture, etc. A good deal of harm has no doubt been done by too copious irrigation and injudicious application. Those who have given the matter some attention, and whose experience entitles their opinion to some weight, advise the se- lection of the highest and dryest lands, with a soil in which there is a slight admixture of sand. Irrigation should be suffi- cient, but not too frequent. Trees under this treatment grow rapidly, mature early, and produce fruit superior in flavor and abundant in quantity. The same may be said of apples, pears, peaches, plums, apricots, cherries, and so on through the entire range of fruits usually found in the temperate girdle.
Strawberries are almost perennial in their productiveness; the yield of blackberries is simply enormous; in the warm belt before alluded to, it is said that the tomato changes its charac- ter as an annual, and becomes perennial, developing into a shrub.
Tobacco, rice, and ramie are also found to be suitable pro- ducts for this locality. Tobacco flourishes in the greatest lux- uriance and is destined to become an important product.
Experiments in ramie culture also have been attended with the most gratifying results. The discovery and operation of some mechanical contrivance or invention for denuding the stalk and dressing the fiber, would no doubt stimulate the production of this most valuable of all fibrous plants. The great strength, flexibility, firmness, and luster of the fiber render it invalua-
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AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIONS OF KERN.
ble. The Japanese employ it extensively mixed with silk, which it fairly rivals in appearance and delicacy, while it im- parts a strength and durability to the fabric heretofore unknown. They prepare it by hand process, and in the absence of machin- ery the supply must always remain limited. As there are com- paratively few places in which the plant flourishes, the advant- age of being one of them is at once apparent.
In rice and sugar-cane, but little has been done, but it is agreed by all that the country seems to be well adapted to their profitable cure, and in the absence of any known reason to the contrary it is so claimed.
The value of these various crops is dependent upon the rul- ing market rates of produce elsewhere. The local market has always been good, and the products of agriculture have either been converted into beef, mutton, and pork, or have been consumed at home.
Of flowering plants, the most delicate exotics known in eastern hot-houses are seen in the open air. The growth of trees, vincs, and ornamental shrubbery is extremely rapid.
CULTIVATION OF COTTON.
In 1871 an association was formed for the purpose of plant- ing and manufacturing cotton on the Kern River bottoms. The experiment of planting, which had before been tried on a very small scale, was again tried on a scale of more magnitude. A tract of land near Bakersfield was cleared and put in. But there was much difficulty in obtaining men of practical knowl- edge and experience in the culture of cotton, and consequently the project suffered greatly from bad management. The plant- ing was begun in April and through a series of blunders con- tinued till July. One of the great advantages claimed for this section is the length of the season. We have no rains or frosts as a general thing, from April till November.
That which was planted in the early part of the season ma- tured finely and yielded a crop of over 400 pounds of ginned cotton to the acre. To be added to the difficulties experienced on this occasion was that of irrigation. Those who had charge of the planting had no knowledge whatever, either practical or theoretical, of a proper system of irrigation. They had never raised cotton by irrigation, and knew absolutely nothing of the manner of application of water by such a process to the production of cotton. The result, however, plainly demon- strated if cotton can be produced under such adverse circum- stances, that in the hands of intelligent culturists and persons . who understand such culture by means of irrigation, when the peculiarities of the climate and soil were better understood, it would be, perhaps, the most remunerative and profitable en- terprise that could be engaged in.
The extent of cotton cultivation, Belle View Ranch, was 130 acres in 1880. The cotton was of a superior quality. A gin of the latest and most improved pattern is used. Picking con- tinues as long as 100 pounds per day is averaged by each hand.
CULTURE OF ALFALFA.
The experiments made in Kern County show that the rais- ing of alfalfa is a much better business than wheat raising. The large farmers there appear to be pretty well agreed that it is advisable to raise ouly so much grain as will be needed for the home market. It is not desirable to raise grain for ship- ment, except to the neighboring mining districts. In short, the policy of farming which largely obtains in Kern County is one which makes the farmer independent in a great measure of the railroad company. Grain for the local market requires no railroad transportation. Cattle and sheep feed on alfalfa and are driven to market, the wool only going by railroad.
Alfalfa is the great forage plant of the valley. Here all the peculiar conditions it requires are found in perfection. Accord- ingly it is cultivated to a greater extent than elsewhere, and merits the distinction applied to it of the great alfalfa region of the State. It does best on alluvial soil, penetrable by the roots to the water level, which should not be nearer than seven or ten feet of the surface, and requires a hot, dry climate. The simple truth in regard to its capabilities is sufficient to excite the liveliest interest in the mind of the farmer, grazier, or any one in search of sources of profit or wealth. It will make four crops of good hay between the months of May and October. All domestic animals, including poultry, are fond of and thrive and fatten upon it. Bees love the blossoms. Fields of it im- part pleasant odors, a cooling influence, and have a healthy effect on the atmosphere. It has been known to yield from ten to sixteen tons of hay to the acre, and furnishes pasturage several months of the year additional.
ALFALFA, LUCERNE (medicago saliva) .- This plant was cul- tivated in Greece 500 years before Christ, having been brought from Media. Later it was extensively cultivated by the Romans, and through them introduced into France. By whom it was introduced into Chile is not now known positively, but its cultivation there at present is very extensive; and in the pampas of Buenos Ayres it grows wild in the utmost luxuriance. From Chile it was brought to California, where it has proved itself the most valuable of all forage plants. In Europe it is known as lucerne, and on the Pacific Coast as alfalfa. There is no doubt that originally they were the same, but the modi- fications of climate have so affected what we know or style alfalfa, that it may be regarded as a distinct variety. It sends down its tap-roots in mellow soils to great depths, having been found in sandy soils fifteen feet in length-far below the reach of drought. The flowers are a pale blue, violet or purple. Its seed is larger than red clover, and more of it is required to the acre. When the seed is ripe it is yellow, plump, and heavy; if unripe, it is small, and of a greenish hue; and if blighted or blasted, it is a dark brown. When properly managed, the number of cattle that can be kept in good condition on an acre of alfalfa, during the whole scason, almost exceeds belief.
SOUTH OF BAKERSFIED, KERN CO. CAL.
HOME RANCH OF J. C. CROCKER, 7 MILES
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ELLIOTT. LITH. 42IMDNT. ST.
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THE MINES OF KERN COUNTY.
WONDERFUL GROWTH OF ALFALFA.
Ten years ago there were not probably two acres of alfalfa in the county, and to-day there are probably not less than 10,000 acres. The stories told of its productiveness to the sober New England farmer who thinks himself fortunate to get one scanty crop of timothy from his exhausted acres, seem but the irre- sponsible utterances of the lunatic. When he is told that alfalfa, if properly cultivated, must be cut every twenty-one days or else it will spoil, he smiles and exclaims in admiration; but his admiration is not at the alfalfa feat, but at that of the man who can lie like that. When he is told that five to seven crops of hay to the season is the rule, that a crop is from a ton and a half an acre to two tons, and that it may then be past- ured during the winter months by cattle or sheep at the rate of two or three of the former and ten or fifteen of the latter to the acre, he merely speculates as to which is the greater fool, the man who tells this expecting to be believed, or the poor dupe who yields a credulous ear. And yet these are the simple facts, that can be corroborated by hundreds from their own experience.
The culture of alfalfa has undoubtedly been carried on to a greater extent here than anywhere else in the State. Every settler on a quarter or an eight of a section of Government land immediately applied himself to the planting of a patch of alfalfa, large or small according to his ability. The reason lay in the fact that it was the most profitable crop that he could plant. Once planted and attended to through one sea- son it required little attention ever afterward, except to cut it at proper times. There was no outlay each year for plowing and planting. Each succeeding year it grew more luxuriantly and yielded more abundantly as its roots penetrated the rich alluvium and reached the natural moisture. After that it requires no irrigation and this is usually achieved the first year, if it is planted upon low lands.
The following figures show the average cost per acre of pro- ducing alfalfa on the Belle View Ranch :-
Preparing land, plowing, harrowing, cross-harrowing, and pulverizing soil . $ 3.00
Seed, 20 1bs. per acre, @ 10 cts. per ib. 2.00
Sowing.
.20
Labor of three irrigations, first year. .50
Total . $ 5.70
Average yield, first year, in three cuttings, four tons; second year, six tons; subsequent ycars, ten to twelve tons. Value, $5.00 @ $10.00 per ton.
In 1875, a tract was sown with alfalfa and wheat together, the wheat yielding 40 bushels per acre, and the alfalfa three tons in two cuttings. But one irrigation was required to produce this result, and the case is not an exceptional one.
An acre of alfalfa is always considered capable of supporting five head of horses or cattle, or twenty head of sheep, through the growing season-nine or ten months of the year.
Mines of Kern County.
GOLD was discovered as early as 1853 in the tributaries of the Kern River, many of which contain rich placers. These were soon worked out, and attention was then directed to quartz inining, and many valuable leads have been found and worked with great profit for many years. The whole mountain range, ribbing the county on the east and south, is rich in mineral.
At the time of discovery they were distant from any base of supplies; the country was unsettled; mining machinery and everything else had to be brought a long distance, over bad roads, at the cost of much labor, time, and expense; mining was but little understood, and the county failed to attract capital or a population of skilled and energetie miners; but little was done to develop the mines, and that badly done, mining fell into disrepute, the better class of miners left the county to tempt fortune in other localities, and those who remained lapsed into apathy and indifference, and the many rich ledges known to exist in the county remain yet almost entirely unprospected.
In the southern inclosure of the great valley in what are called the San Emidio Mountains, where the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range meet and merge into the Sierra Madre, is a region of which comparatively little is known other than that it is rich in various minerals. Rich gold plaeers had been found and worked in Lockwood Valley on the Piru Creek and its tributaries, the scarcity of sufficient water for washing pur- poses during the greater portion of the year being the only draw- back.
Valuable deposits of tin, antimony, silver-bearing galena and gold-bearing quartz have been found. Boushay & Co., of Los Angeles, erected works and successfully worked the antimony mines.
A RICH OLD MINE.
A well authenticated tradition exists that a very valuable silver mine was found in these mountains and worked by the Indians under direction of the Mexican padres long before the American occupation of the country. The crafty padres, how- ever, kept the location a profound secret, which it remains to this day, notwithstanding much search has been expended in the endeavor to recover the lost mine. The valuable church plate of the mission of San Luis Obispo was brought from this place. The remains of the old furnaces employed for reducing the ore have been found, but all efforts to discover the mines have proven futile. The surface of this part of the country is exceedingly rough, lofty and inexcessible mountains and precipitous and im- penetrable chasms impeding the progress of the explorer at every turn. Still, enough is known about it to warrant the assertion that it would richly repay the adventurous prospector.
KERNVILLE MINES.
The following article printed in 1875 will show how mining operations were at that date. It says " the mine at Kernville,
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MINERAL PRODUCTIONS OF KERN.
owned by Senator Jones, is located near the little town of Kern- ville, in Kern County, and was first opened some seven or eight years ago. It underwent a variety of fluctuations, until it fell entirely into the hands of its present owner. When Mr. Jones purchased all theinterestsoutstanding-about a yearsince-he at once commenced to unfold its treasures. He sank a deep shaft, ran winzes and stopes in various directions, mnade convenient levels and crosscuts at various points, and pros- pected the entire ledge for two miles and a half, and found it rich in gold at every point. It has an average breadth of 80 feet, and the main shaft has been sunk 400 feet-all the way in ore. The ledge varies in value from 825.00 to $300 per ton. Itis now estimated by the men in the mine that there isore enough in sight to furnish work for the stamps now in operation for ten years. The inill and hoisting-works are pronounced the best in California. An eighty-stamp mill, with every improve- ment known to modern mining science, is kept in constant op- eration-never ceasing either night or day-and it is turning out a vast amount of bullion. Of course it is only known to the proprietor and his chief operators how much the yield is; but if we strike an average of the ore, and allow one ton a day to each stamp, it would give a gross yield from this inine, with the present works, of $4,500,000."
DELANO GOLD MINES.
This is a rich mining district, and only needs capital to de- velop it. The first inine worked here was discovered as fol- lows: Some twelve years ago, a man by the name of Johnson was riding along, when he suddenly came across a beautiful specimen of dark blue ore -- the characteristic rock which now forms the ledge-near a squirrel hole, which led him to believe that there must be a lead somewhere near, and he ran his hand in the hole, when, to his surprise he brought forth another piece.
From that time up, the mine has been worked now and then; but the men being poor, as a rule, and the water plentiful, it has been abandoned several times.
Kern County presents to-day as rich, sure, and safe a field for quartz mining as any other in either this State or Nevada. The climate here is exceptionally fine and healthful: the mines are of easy access, and only a short distance from the largest and most fertile agricultural valley in the State, and unusu- ally well supplied with wood, water-power, and every facility for successful mining operations; the ledges are numerous, uni- formly rich and easily worked, and it is a matter of amazement that they have remained so long unworked and without noto- riety.
PETROLEUM DEPOSITS.
There is every indication of the existence of immense reser- voirs of petroleum in the western part of Kern County. The bituminous shales and sandstone formation are identical with those of the oil regions of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and considerable oil exudes from the surface in hundreds of places.
At one point petroleum had been collected from springs to the extent of several thousand barrels, of a heavier and less vola- tile character than the hydro-carbons of the East. Asphaltum also covers thousands of acres of land.
In the extreme southwestern corner of the county are the Buena Vista Petroleum Works. They were erected some years ago by a Mariposa company, but for some reason the enterprise was suspended, and still remains so. Great quanti- ties of asphaltum and oil are constantly oozing from the earth and flowing away; the oil being very volatile soon evaporates, leaving the dry, hard residnum on the ground. At several other places in the valley and the foot-hills there are oil springs of the same character. One has been discovered in the bed of Kern River a few miles above Bakersfield.
Asphaltum deposits occupy an extent of country nearly forty miles in length, extending from the eastern corner of Santa Barbara County to Buena Vista Lake on the north. The most extensive of the petroleum deposits lies to the south- east of this lake, a distance of about eighteen miles. Here is a spring, covering nearly an acre, of thick, heavy oil, termed maltha. The surface is constantly agitated by the escape of gas. Works were erected here in 1864, for the purpose of refining oil for the San Francisco market. After manufactur- ing some thousands of gallons of oil of good quality, the work was abandoned, as the cost of sending it to market enhanced its value to such a degree as to render successful competition with the article shipped from the Eastern States impossible.
The first oil claim located was in 1864, by John Hamilton, of Tulare County. Illuminating and lubricating oil of good quality was manufactured, but transportation to market was so costly it was abandoned. The place was left in charge of Stephen Bond, who kept a small store. He was murdered, and the place was neglected until the Buena Vista Company forined as stated above.
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