OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 81, 30 December 1907, Page 9

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

THE PACIFIC' COAST." IRRIGATION IN STANISLAUS/COUNTY. (IIY.OCn SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.)' In my last letter I gave .a description, of soma of the - spectacular projects of tho General Government in connection witlr tho irrigation of certain districts in the Western States. An account of the. irrigating .works of my own county, Stanislaus, in tho great Central California plain, will- be perhaps a moro useful story'of succcssful achievement in this particular field. Central California, or tho valleys jof tho San Joachiu and Sacramento rivers, is a vast level plain—not unlike tho plains of Canterbury, in New Zealand, -in r - its ■ general olfcct. It is level as a floor from 0110 end to the oilier, and is flanked'on overy side by mountains with an opening tO tho sea by way of San Francisco Bay and tho Golden Gate. Tho Siorra Nevadas, tho highest rangos of mountains, givo boundary to the East, tho Coast Range of-lower dimensions divides the plains from the sea. This'basin, in tho vory centre of the Stato was. tho bed of a Pliocene lake, or inland sea.', "Tho"soil is sand and mud sediment brought down from tho two mountain ranges. Through tho'southern half of tho plain runs tho Sun Joachin River, moving from south to -north'and forming tno central channel through which tho many .streams from thq ..Sierras running at right .angles reach the sea. ; Damming the. Tuolumne. 0110 of the largest • of tho intersecting streams tributary -to the San Joachin is the Tuolumne. Tho catchment basins of, this river in. tho Sierras, whoro tho annual precipitation is upward of thirty-five inches, yield immense stares of water, which, until recently, wont to waste through tho channel of tho river. 111 1891 tho work of "utilising a part of tho flow of tho Tuolumno was begun. The. peutral plains, it should liayp. been said,. are without rainfall for half the year, and aro unproductive unless they havo artificial' watering. Wheat, howfever, has been grown for' oVer half a century by seeding early during tho rainy season, and cattle have managed to eke out subsistence by foedirig 'upon tno' dried grass'. Irrigation changed all this and within a. few years California has. bccome■- essentially k new country. . .. .... . For this centr.il district tho Tuplumho Rivor was'selected as'the source' of its water supply. At. a gorge in tho mountains through : which tho river debouches there' was built a (lain for tho purpose of; diverting the waters' into tho channo ( fs ; • constructed ; to recedvo them, and 'thence distributed - through'tho Irrigation District. Tho dam and tho diverting canals cost a total'of 2,500,000 dollars. / How the Csst is Met. • The irrigating works are' not owned by private capital,' as is'the caso with many of' tho systoms of tho State,'but by municipal cirporations, created under a " Stato law known as tho Irrigation' District Law. Under tho provisions of this' lav; the limitations of an area called "District" are delined'and tho electors withip that district vot-o upon' the proposition of issuing bonds based upon tho land in" such district, tho moneys so raised to bo employed in putting in tho'irrfc gation system; : Tho indebtedness'of 'this' special district amounts to about-nine-dollars an acre,-and has forty years to run. - -Thomoney needed-for maintenance and "improve-" mont and interest on _ t-hb' bonds'is; raised by a tax levy which is figured at a fixed rata on tho basis of -assessed valuation;' This tax stands ;at present - at about; fifty' cents an acre. - .-. w/;-. ; ' Under this arrangement tho land v owns, tho water. Thcro are no such things ns water rights in tho district—that is, rights to . havo-water which some .lands of t-lio district may purchaso and have and other lands ijoi.t have. Every ncro of .'land ,has an equal ■' -light 'to , use of-water, "a'jld. pays' thorofor, whether wat-or is used oriiot. • Drainage a Big Factor. " The Turlock District •: comprises.Vl76',000' acres., . Tho inclino of the surface is vcrv, gradual ..toward tho San Joachin, River, .and tho land being, a saiidy loam 1 through which. water percolates, tho two important elements of. irrigation and drainagp,aro hero-present: It.,is quite' as important, to get. water off tho surface of land as to got. it on in tlio, first place. That surface,, which lays at a. sufficient level .to induco an <jasy and gradual flow of water;'arid .tho soil into; which, water, will: sink and' 1 drain; away; from' beneath, presents ideal irrigation conditions! Both of -these features aro present in this, district; indeed, it would Ibo difficult 1 t-o imagine lands moro suited to tlio spccial pur- ' poso of flooding from' irrigation ditches. , . . Look now at- tho results. ; Irrigation makes tho, small farm profitable. Instead of the groat wheat "ranches" : of 'fiVc, ten,' and twenty thousand, acres, innumerable small farms will now bo found. California is Settling up like any now country.; • ThoStafco gainod upwards of two hundred thousand this year in- its.' population.-. Ten, twenty- orforty acres,, aro quite .sufficient, for -.one family. ..Then tho new settlors,build-up. tho. towns. Turlock has grown-in thrco years from a sleepy village of. a fow stores audi houses to a town of. considor.ablo dimensions, and is now applying-for a city, charter. ... Fruit Country., As to tho crops grown wheat , is no longer king. It is a land mioW 'of orchards and vinoyards. Tho conditions-for fruit raising aro well nigh ideal on account of, tho uncoasing sunshine during tlio - long summer". Tho Tokays got just tho right bloom on them. Tho grapes used for raisins ,aro dried, in tho open nir without fear. of, rain. Prunes also require tlio .long dry,; summer. .Under, those conditions- tho fig .thrives in a' wonderful maniier. ; | It is a great melon land.' Turlock cantcloupcs are famed tho States over, s carload, after carload going East in tho melon sea-, son. Swept potatoes grow in splendid pro-fusion-and qunh'ty-undcr irrigation. Many a farmer has paid for his land the' .first year by tlio raising of "sweets" which sell readily at from. ono. to two dollars per hundred pounds,. Stock and dairy havo increased bccauso of tho' marvellous productiveness of alfalfa clover under irrigation.- From t-liroo to fivo cuttings of hay, will be made from a tiuglo piiwo and pnsturago left for tho winter. season. In short tno land which formerly maintained a small and scattered population is now teeming with activity, and crops which wero nover extensive . at best under tho. old regimo aro now worthrarely loss than ono hundred dollars annually ner aero, while fruit values may riso, to. .fivohundred dollars, an aero..or oven ono thou-, sand. - . This briefly, is t-lio .economic -story 'of"sunny Stanislaus,!' one of tho best counties in Central-California. AVater is, of course,; tho secret c£ tho transformation. Mr. Taft in Japan. • , Secretary Tnft's ■ visit to the Orient has been attended with not a lifctlo pomp and circumstanco, and doubtless with somo results—especially .in connection with tlio "Japancso 'question." Our genial Secretary of War talked-nothing but pcaco and'good will. At Tokio "lib told' tho people that war between'tho United States ami Japan would bo a "crimo against modern civilisation and as wicked as it would bo insane." Nothing could bo 'much stronger than that.: Nevertheless Secretary Taft was .firm . in declaring thft necessity of excluding Japanuse coolies from tho United States. . It is declarod that an official understanding was reached to this effect and that Jupan will submit to a treaty looking toward limitation of immigration. At proscnt Japanese) coolies aro coming into tho States across tlio bordor from Canada and Mexico. Immigration inspectors report, that thoro aro organisations in Hawaii whpso business it is to engage , Japancso labourers for work in tho United States. They not only provido tho means hut prescribe tho way by which. Japanese may obtain entranco to tho country by way of Canada or Mexico. 1 . . . Tho Japanese Government may.or mny not bo chargcablo.with-tlioso occurrences,.but it will cortainly' bo blamowortliy if .tlio' inimi-. gration continuos against our protest., Canada Comes In. In this protest Canada'also joins. Over thousaiii Jaoaneso hare come into. Brit-..

ish Columbia during 1897, and the agitation against them; : is strong and increasing. It is-said'that tho 1 people of British Columbia ' would -prefer '.secession from tho Dominion rather thaii submit to. unrestricted Asiatio immigration; ■'■ i Sinco' tlio. agitation-in Canada has bccome so pronoimccd there has been much less war talk-in;-Japan "against tho Americans. In justico Japan cannot now ask anything of tho United, States which may not bo demanded from Canada with equal force. It is perhaps this latter fact which has led the, Japanese Govornmont to attempt settlement nearer ihome. It has been announced that a vast colonisation scheme is bouig 'promoted to opon up ono million acresof land in Korea to Japanese settlement and officials aver that this will solve tho Japan--, eso question in America. So while peace hovers near tho horizon it is fair to ho grateful. • Nevertheless those who best, understand tho Pacific situation predict a . conflict , betwepi'i tho East- and $0 West,, sponer or later. Genoral Booth, of ■the Salvation Army, lias .just returned from tho Orient -and was impressed while on the Pacific..with the forces, forming, thero' for inevitable commercial conflict. . ' A Russian View. '■•. • j , A St. Petersburg paper, which of course may Gpoak with- some prejudice, lilis this to say in a recent oditonal: .'.'The day when; tho United States fleet passes out- of tho i Straits of Magellan -,and sweeps placidly into tho waters of tho Pacific will open a now era for the Eastern world.- Official courtesieß and ,tho temporary lull in war 'talk do'> not ' conceal tlio fact that America" is.reaching out for tho mastery of tho-Pacific, and-al-ready, is strong enough to-attain it. -The: American people are not lured by "the glam-' : our of mere display.- ; Their purposes are--deeper. Kindred.of ' England, tno Americans' creed ,is that commerce follows the . Hag. ' Her object is incompatible with mere dosiro to trade in'tho Far East. ' .England won'tho throno.of the Atlantic from Spain, , Holland and Franco. "America'is'about to challenge her rivals, for tho throno of tho Pacific." ' ■' • • ■ ; 1 ■ 1 This comes nearer tho fact' than r most . statement's on tho subject, and yet tho movement ■in America towards this'end is " rathor instinctivo than reasoned: If an American wero asked what- his "intentions" ■ woro on tho Pacific he .would • say ho had none.