Figs and orchards have netted from $180 to $200 per acre and with our present crude and imperfect knowledge of this fruit we are making serious inroads on the imported article. The vine with its products of wine and table and raisin Grapes. varieties is coming to the front. Our wines are being recognized as worthy of trial. Our Tokays as table grapes are eagerly sought after in Eastern markets, and California being the only raisin producer in the Union, we have only the Levant to compete with for this trade which covers the globe. Farming Grain Diversified "The grain product of this valley is still the paraReplacing mount interest, but growers are beginning to realize that Growing. there are other pursuits that bring larger returns. On account of persistent and continual annual sowing of our lands it has in places become impoverished for the grain product and this style of farming has become to a certain measure unprofitable and the era has come when the large land-holders recognizing this are turning their attention to diversified farming. The loss of the grain acreage, while somewhat startling to the old holders, is really a blessing to the new ones and the old ones, too. Sacramento "Right here is the opportunity for the home seeker to secure to himself a piece of good land at a reasonable figure, and if you can't do anything else with it pay taxes on it and watch it increase in value. "The Sacramento valley and its watershed is an Its Watershed. empire in itself with its 17,908,960 acres of which 7,190,431 acres are in farms containing a population of only 224,972. This means on farms an acre to each person that are on farms, not including cities of about 320 acres. In figuring on the total of our area compared with European countries we can support a population of 3,000,000 easily, because Scotland with an area of 29,000 square miles (ours is a little over 28,000) supports 4,025,764. Scotland's conditions are not as favorable as ours. "In making reference to the scarcity of farm help in this State which prevails, the idea of one man trying to farm 320 acres strikes me as being a little too much, in fact a great deal to ask of one man. This is what the farmer is trying to do and doesn't it appear that he is trying an impossibility? The solution is to put a man on twenty acres instead of 320 acres. This is the only true solution of the farm labor question." The Out-of-door And right here concerning farm labor and the conditions that exist, it is well to clear the mind of the Health Lift. impression that has gone abroad that the farm laborer is often obliged to sleep out-of-doors. That many laborers do sleep out-of-doors is true, but a friend of mine who lives on a farm in Colusa county calls my attention to the fact that this is not a very demoralizing practice. Sleeping out-of-doors in California is regarded as an invigorating action and a health lift generally. Camping parties usually count on sleeping with nothing above them but the blue sky, and harvest hands, fruit pickers and others scorn even a tent covering and do so usually because there is no need of shelter. Thus out-of-door slumber has become a custom of the country established by the well-to-do; engendered by climatic conditions, and is enjoyed as much by the camping capitalist as by the humble harvest hand. Concerning prices of land, further correspondence with those informed will give details, but generally speaking it may be said that good land may be obtained in the Sacramento valley averaging in price from $25 an acre upwards, according to location and character of soil. Home-seekers are interested in the lands that are for sale, and the lands of this valley will bear comparison with any land on earth. The foothill lands of red gravel and clay are among the best of fruit lands. Foothill lands seem to be peculiarly adapted to the growth of citrus and deciduous fruits. Nearly all the oranges grown for market in the central counties of California are in the foothills, although orange trees may be found growing luxuriantly and bearing heavily in all parts of the valley region. Deciduous fruits attain the highest perfection on these lands and some of the most successful orchard districts in the State are in the foothills. The foothill lands offer an inviting field to the man of small capital. With water they will grow anything he may care to plant, and What Land Can Be Bought For. A Few Acres Will Support 70 by practicing care, economy and thrift he can acquire a The level valley lands which are certain to be sub- The Opportunities The opportunities offered by these lands are of the of Today. greater value because of the growing scarcity of good land at this time. A few years ago the enterprising Easterner packed his goods into a wagon and moved West; he staked out his claim to the fertile plains adjacent to the Missouri, and the land was his for the taking. To-day there is no desirable government land that is available, but the stream of western immigration remains unchecked. The opportunities of the Sacramento valley exist because the valley is as yet comparatively unknown in the East. The movement now on foot to advertise California and the great interior valleys is certain to attract hither within a short time a vast number of people bent on securing land. The opportunities of to-day will The certainty of future growth in not exist to-morrow. population, in productiveness and in all that goes to make a prosperous country, is a matter which should appeal to the home seeker. Transportation facilities by water and by rail, close proximity of great commercial center and seaport, the existence and rapid development of vast resources of power, all these, as well as the fertility of the land and salubrity of the climate, should challenge the attention of every reader of this book. Wonders of the Sea. Lake Tahoe that mountain sea on the boundary line Mile Above between California and Nevada and forming part of the eastern boundary of Placer and El Dorado counties-is a continuous revel of unfailing joy. Such lights and shades, such morning and evening effects, such depth of shadow on forest-lined shores, such sunlight flashes on rippling waves, are marshaled for the camera at no other place |