seasons it is very dry, but the crops raised upon it by cultivation and its abundant spontaneous vegetation in seasons of sufficient rain, attest the great natural fertility of the soil. The climate is very dry for more than half the year in any season, and warm for three or four months of summer and autumn. In winter it is so mild that stock and many of its inhabitants are indifferent to the shelter of a roof. At two points of contact with or near approach to the line of survey, it is slightly unhealthy in summer, to wit: near Red Bluffs at the upper end, and above Cache Creek, where the tule swamps are close to the hills. Generally, however, it is remarkable for its genial and salubrious climate. There is no country in which outdoor employment is so little interrupted by inclemency of weather, and none in which the time of harvest may be so long extended. None probably in which, on account of the scanty rain, seed time is so short. The rain-fall upon its surface is less than at Sacramento. It needs an artificial supply of water, for the application of which the features of the country are as favorable as could be desired. At numerous points along this belt, and generally where the occasional overflow of the lines of mountain drainage gives a partial irrigation, and imparts to the soil an increase of moisture, there are settlements of people engaged in stockraising and farming. In propitious seasons the yield of cereals and grass is very great. Several farmers stated to me that they had harvested as much as sixty, and in one case seventy-five bushels to the acre, and from forty to sixty bushels in fields of volunteer, the fourth and fifth year after seeding. But there is only one season in five or six of sufficient rain. In ordinary seasons agriculture is unremunerative, and in those of scanty rains, a total failure. The country is then almost a desert. It is exposed to fire, and frequently large districts. are swept by it; others are ravaged by insects. For more than a hundred miles (measured by the line of our survey) not one drop of water was seen upon the surface. Animals grazing upon the plain have to seek water in the hills, or upon the river, or be watered at wells of great depth. Except for the short season when grass is green, and water in sight, large areas of the plain are almost deserted. More than half of it is uncultivated, and nearly valueless now. In its normal state, it must The attraction of the climate, however, combined with the enormous production in the few seasons which are favorable to farmers, cause the settlers who occupy the more favored places, to regard the valley, to use the language of one of them, as "better than Illinois," although much of it is occasionally rendered by drought little better than a waste, and for several, sometimes four or five seasons in succession, the failure of crops is nearly general. Their means of living are therefore precarious. remain so. A canal of irrigation will, in all these respects, improve the condition. of the country. A stream of living water will be sent across the plain at almost every mile. Irrigation may be extended over the whole, as late as June or July, and preserve through summer the verdure of spring. A third or fourth part may be irrigated in the dry season of August and September. Fires upon the plains will be prevented, or easily subdued, and devouring insects will be destroyed by water and the plough. Agriculture will be independent of capricious seasons, and in the irrigated region the dryest may be the best. The season of seed time, if needed, may be extended into spring, and that of harvest into late summer, or autumn. With a canal of cheap transportation to make all products marketable, and an improved and irrigated agriculture, an annual average over the whole irrigable belt may be safely estimated at from thirty to forty bushels of cereals, or their equivalent, per acre. Experiment has proved that every valuable grain, vegetable, and fruit, grown in the Atlantic States, may be cultivated, and, with due supply of water, with the certainty of an abundance and quality elsewhere unknown. Grass, the most valuable product of some irrigated districts, may be increased in quantity and improved in quality, and be kept green through the year. The products of the dairy, for which California furnishes the best of markets, and of which it imports largely, may be made in quantity to supply the demands of the western coast. Stock fit for slaughter, often scarce and dear in winter months, may be as readily fattened in the fall as in the spring. Plantations of choice and useful timber may be grown with advantage and profit. The cultivation of the grape, for which there is a large area of suitable ground in the irrigable belt; of the beet, and some other sugar producing plants; of the various fruit trees, and of the mulberry; the vintage, sugar making, drying of fruits, and rearing the silkworm-an opening branch of industry giving promise of great returns in this State-for all of which the soil and climate are most favorable, will enable families seeking the comforts of a home, to maintain themselves in comfort and independence upon a few acres. The great power afforded by the water for irrigation at the point of its discharge from the canal and elsewhere, will be sufficient for mills to grind the crops of grain, and for manufactories of other kinds; and the means of cheap living, and of easy transportation by the canal to markets on the Bay of San Francisco, on the one hand, and the mining grounds of the mountains on the other, will tend to their establishment. The irrigated region may be changed from a desert to a garden, and be made capable of supporting a population of one to each acre, a condition nearly approached in other irrigated countries.; its value may be increased fifty fold, and its taxable property in the same ratio. Many of our farmers have grown up in the habit of a free use of the Government lands without payment of rent, the appropriation of a homestead of one hundred and sixty acres of choice land free of charge, and the acquisition in fee of any desired quantity at the small price of one dollar and a quarter per acre. They have been raised in countries of seasonable and abundant rain, and without the necessity for and the use of water irrigation. That it is a useful aid to them in California they know, but its full value they do not fully appreciate, and the application of it to the best advantage they have generally to learn. To many, the purchase of water will be a novelty, and may be regarded as an onerous burden. The first cargo of guano imported into the United States was equally a novelty and found a poor market. It soon became a necessity to those who tried it, and they felt it to be a misfortune if they failed to receive a regular supply of this stimulant to crops, and for which they often paid more than will be asked of the California farmer for a supply of water that will fertilize the land and make him independent of season. At first, he may be reluctant to pay a water rent, but it will be reversing the experience gained upon all other canals of irrigation, if with time a demand is not made upon it to its full capacity for supply; and the right of continued supply gained by the farmer in its early use, be one of such increasing value that he will be reluctant to relinquish it. The price he will have to pay for it in proportion to its value to him, and the relative price of labor and produce in this and other conntries, and the prices paid there for water, will be small. The farmer in India, for the use of water during a season of six months, upon one acre, pays the price of seven days' labor of a farm hand. The farmer in Italy, for the six months of summer irrigation, for the water for each acre in corn, flax, rice, etc., and in summer meadow, the net yield of which varies from ten to forty dollars, pays a price varying from three to twenty times a day's wages of a farm laborer; and for the use of water upon one acre of marcite meadow, from the eighth of September to the twenty-sixth of March, a sum varying from twenty to forty-five times the same day's wages. If the California farmer is content to pay at the rate of the average cost to himself in wages and subsistence of two or three days' employment of a laborer, per acre, for water for the whole year, then the rents from water arising from its application to the whole irrigated belt and running to the full capacity of the canal, will pay a liberal interest upon the cost of building one of a size to meet the future wants of the most dense population that the valley may contain, and of construction substantial and durable, and in all essentials permanent; more free from accidents and interruptions than ordinary canals, affording water at every mile, a good navigation throughout the year, and a line of cheap transportation and traffic between the head of the plain and tide water. One of the conditions of "a practicable route," and perhaps the essential of the expediency of building a canal upon it, is that of income corresponding with the outlay An estimate of the area of land irrigable from the canal, of water rents that may be derived from it and from power, and from tolls upon navigation, is necessary to show its practicability. For water that will run in living streams over every mile of a country now almost destitute of it except during the rainy season; that will increase from one to two thirds the average annual production of lands that now yield, in good seasons, from thirty to sixty bushels of cereals per acre, or other agricultural products in proportion; do more for lands now valueless, qualifying them for rich productiveness; and to both classes giving increased fertility and the equivalent of a good season every year; which will enable the farmer to keep green his grass crop, or some part of it, throughout the year; to produce his own vegetables; to dispense with the outlay of fencing and wood by growing them upon his own land; which will provide for him a home market for a part of his produce, and a cheap line of transportation and travel to distant markets for the remainder, and at the same time advance the marketable value of his land, the annual tax of two dollars and a half per acre for water will make him good return. There is no doubt that if he has the opportunity, and that rate is necessary to provide a revenue to pay an interest upon the cost of constructing, and the annual expense of maintaining the canal, he will pay it. From this source the early revenues of the canal will be drawn. But with the growth of the country there will be others which will enable the proprietors of the canal to reduce the rates of irrigation. The average annual marketable produce of the irrigable area, when thoroughly watered and cultivated, will exceed half a ton to the acre. Allowing that as much as one third of this may find a market by the river and other channels, there will remain for the canal one third of a ton per acre per annum. Freight of building materials, agricultural implements, machinery, raw materials and the fabrics manufactured from them, the necessaries and conveniences of life of a dense population, may add one half, and make the traffic equal to half a ton per acre. Allowing the average transportation to be about one half the length of the canal, it will make the quantity equal to one fourth of a ton per acre of through freight. Stone of excellent quality for house-building, near the canal and in San Francisco, abounds near the foot-hills. Wood in large quantity, timber of large size and good quality for lumber, and limestone, abound in the Coast Range. Iron ores in the mountains above Red Bluffs may in time, with canal transportation, be profitably worked. From these sources, and back freights to Red Bluffs and surrounding country, a quantity equal to thirty thousand tons of through freight may be assumed. In a tariff of tolls the rates would vary with the value of the article and the distance of its transportation. The bulk of the freight would be of a class that would bear a toll of one cent per ton per mile. I will estimate the whole at an average of one dollar per ton for through freight. There will be about one hundred and ninety sluices discharging water for irrigation, on an average of nearly one ton per second for half of the year, and nearly one third of the quantity in the dry season. It will issue from the canal with a bead varying from eight and three quarters to three and three quarters feet. Upon many of the lines of distribution, the fall near the canal is such that the same head may be obtained and repeated at short distance. The water will be on its way for irrigation, and though used for power, there will be no loss. It may be applied to agricultural as well as manufacturing machinery. Rents from water for power, at the moderate sum of one hundred dollars a year to the sluice, will produce nineteen thousand dollars. The cost of maintaining canals of transportation in the Atlantic States ranges from four to six hundred dollars per mile per annum. A canal built upon the route surveyed and the plan that will be presented, would be subject to less cost of maintenance than ordinary canals of navigation, and we may assume it at five hundred dollars per mile per annum. A branch canal that will be included in the estimate may be put down at two hundred dollars per mile. The area irrigable from the canal is estimated at seven hundred and eighty-two thousand acres. Applying the preceding rates to this quantity, we find the following annual income: Water rents, for irrigating 782,000 acres of land at $2 50 per acre per annum......... $1,955,000 19,000 Tolls on transportation, ton per acre, of 782,000 acres of the irrigable area Gross revenue... $2,199,500 Maintenance of 190 miles of canal at $500 per mile per annum................... $95,000 8,600 Net revenue.. 103,600 $2,095,900 The importance of the canal to reclaim from a condition of almost sterility, and to render fertile a large part of one of the best and largest valleys of the State; its capacity to do so and afford a line of cheap inland transportation, and great water power, with certainty of profit to the people and the State, if built; and the moderate water rents and tolls required to pay a large revenue, lead me to consider the canal as practicable, if it can be substantially and permanently built at a cost not exceeding ten times the probable annual net revenues. There are certain parts of any such canal as the Act contemplates that are as common to and nearly as expensive upon a small canal as upon a large one, viz: the connection with the river at the head, by dam, guard lock, and feeder, and with tide by a lock at the terminus; the slopes of the banks; the end and cross walls, and that part of each culvert which is under the banks; the foundation wing walls and parapets of aqueducts, and the approaches to them; the lift locks, and the flumes for passing water around them; outlets for water, by sluices and overfalls; the approaches to crossings; the right of way, and the contingent expenses of construction and maintenance. It is only in side hill work that the large canal increases in cost over the small one more nearly in proportion to their relative capacities. The large canal would therefore supply a larger quantity of water, and irrigate a larger area of land, at a lower proportional cost to the constructors of the canal, and at a lower rate to the consumer. The quantity and rate are questions of great importance to the development of the agricultural interests of the counties named in the Act, and, through them, of interest to the State. True economy requires that the location and plan of the canal should be adapted to the irrigation of the largest area practicable at reasonable cost. It may be expedient to build a small canal at the outset, with a view to future enlargement, but if it be located on ground too low it may defeat the object of its construction, and prevent the building of another to supply its own deficiencies and water the ground above it. The dividing line between a cost too great, in order te embrace more land, and the sacrifice of land that should be irrigated to save cost in construction, was as carefully sought as circumstances would permit before the route was surveyed. The object for seeking a higher elevation for the route than could be obtained from the county line of Colusa and Tehama, was to approach the foot-hills as soon as pos sible and keep near them. The dimensions of the canal depend upon the quantity of water to be passed through it, and the quantity chiefly by the area of land to be irrigated. It was necessary to ascertain approximately this area and quantity, and the dimensions of the canal, before the survey of the line could be made. From the best information I could command, the area irrigable from the probable route of the canal would be seven hundred and eighty-two thousand acres. From a canal upon the line actually run, the quantity is a little less, but modifications of the route which I shall propose will restore the full amount of seven hundred and eighty-two thousand acres as the area to be irrigated. Irrigation for agriculture in California consists chiefly in flooding the land. The times of watering are irregular and the depth of water over the land uneven. Irregularity of surface may make it two or three inches deep in one part of a field and twenty or thirty inches in another. It is practicable to prepare a system of irrigation, much less costly in construction than the present, and subject to little or no waste of water. The estimate will be based upon it. Very little information as to the quantity of water required upon it can be derived from California experience. In the experience of India, where the habit of great economy of water prevails, it is found that the constant flow of one cubic foot per second will irrigate one hundred and eighty acres |