Per cent and oranges at least $300 per acre. The 228 loss of 20 per cent on such crops would 70 reach a very large sum. Irrigation with 234 such soils and under such circumstances 36 makes production as certain as that of 244 the weaver, the iron-molder or the shoe298 maker. The sunshine is there, the soile 77 are filled with fertile elements, and the 66 water, when stored above or below ground, 120 made rich by nitrogen, microscopic fungi 98 and other fertilizers drawn from earth and atmosphere, will, combined with the skill of the cultivator, rob agriculture of the uncertainty that has heretofore belonged to it as a pursuit.

ken as the total reclaimable area. At average profit of $200 per acre for fruit and other special crops which is rather below than above the yield of fruit lands in that section-the reclamation of the 8,000,000 acres alluded to would within five years make an annual return of $600,000,000 to the income of the community. Mr. Van Dyke declares:

"The amount of land available in Southern California for the production of all kinds of fruit is a thing that few even of its oldest residents have any idea of. Every year sees thousands of acres of vineyard and orchard shining upon land that the year before every one supposed nature had designed only for brush or cactus. Every year sees thousands of vines and trees come into the full bearing of abundant and perfect fruit upon gravel and bowlder washes, wastes of cobblestones, etc., that but three or four years ago the poorest seeker for a home on the public lands would not touch. So every year sees water brought higher and higher Over the country, and thousands of acres which must have irrigation, and which with water are the most valuable parts of the whole, are being yearly reclaimed. Southern California is getting more water than ever before; is entering upon an era of water development that will cast the past into the shade. This is of far greater Importance than the discovery of new land, for it is the irrigated sections that will produce the greatest amount of wealth, and maintain upon the market the highest standard of products."

The farm value of the fruit trees raised in the United States is not less than $180,000,000. Our annual imports of fruits and nuts may be estimated at a value of $20,000,000; just about the amount that France spends annually in aid of her agricultural development. Our total exports will not exceed one-tenth of our fruit imports. Or oranges we import not less than 1,750,000 boxes; of lemons, 2,275,000; of raisins, more than 2,000,000 boxes of twenty pounds each, and of figs, 8,000,000 pounds at least; the value of prunes imported cannot be less than $800,000. The 3,000,000 acres of land which Mr. Van Dyke claims can be reclaimed in Southern California, alone will produce of the finest of fruits enough to wipe out the difference between our present exports and imports of such production. This fact alone is sufficient warrant for the practical interest manifested in the progress of irrigation. It is evident that California alone could supply all of the temperate and semi-tropical fruits and nuts that are now consumed in this country. Recent reports claim a commercial shipment for 1890 equal in value to $10,000,000. Of prunes. 15,000,000 pounds; raisins, 40,000,000 pounds, and of oranges 4000 carloads have been shipped out of the State. Nor is this all of the benefit arising from special culture and intensive farming by means of irrigation. Our wine imports exceed in value $7,000,000 annually, yet California has about 225,000 acres under wine-grape culture, and exports wine to Europe to be brought back and sold in our own markets as of French origin. The product for 1890 is estimated at 18,000,000 gallons. We can not only supply our own tables, but we can vastly increase that market by an inarease of the fruit area. an export

and compete with the best fruit countries of the world, and ere long we shall probably be found doing this successfully.

The question of general farm competition is settling itself. Take California, for example, as a wheat-growing State. Three years since California had nearly 2,800,000 acres, producing over 30,400,000 bushels. The past year the cereal crop was about 27,000,000 centals. The average value of the wheat product was $7 50 per acre. The difference in favor of the Eastern farmers' contiguity to market is estimated at about 30 cents per bushel.

In an address before the State Horticultural Society N. P. Chipman declared that the yield per acre in California has fallen off at least 28 per cent within eighteen years. He estimates its average as below that of the United States as a whole. It is claimed therefore that to raise wheat for the world's market is comparatively unprofitable farming, and that fertility and production are alike diminishing. Forage plants, especially alfalfa, are much more valuable when combined with the raising of fine stock. But a very large proportion of the area devoted to wheat in California can profitably be transferred to fruit culture, with a difference in favor of the grower in net profits of from $100 to $300 per acre. In 1874 Vaca valley contained 4500 acres devoted to wheat and alfalfa. It is now planted to trees and produces an annual profit of nearly or quite $200 per acre. Land worth $60 in 1874 sold for $600 in 1888. At Newcastle, in Placer county, among the foothills, wheat land worth five years since from $5 to $10 per acre is now selling for fruit-growing purposes at from $100 to $200 per acre. Wheat lands in Merced county, under ditch two years since, selling at from $25 to $40 per acre and renting for half these figures, are selling now for fruit purposes at from $60 to $150 per acre At Bakersfield, Kern county, a similar change from alfalfa and wheat to vines and fruit trees has trebled the value of the land. In the whole San Joaquin valley the vineyards average but twenty-three acres each.

One of the most striking evidences of all this change under the magic touch of irrigation is that exhibited by Fresno county, in the center of the San Joaquin valley, California, especially that portion of it lying adjacent to Fresno city. In 1871 a colony of 500 persons settled there and laid out 5000 acres in small vineyards, for the purpose mainly of cultivating the muscat or raisin grape. This colony, begun on the 16th of February, 1871, is the most prosperous, with the exception, perhaps, of Riverside, now existing in California. The same settlers that bought and planted 5000 acres of land, paying $2 50 per acre, became the supporters of the Fresno Canal and Irrigation Company, which then had a length of about forty miles of main and lateral ditches. In 1870 there were less than 5000 people; in 1890 there were over 100,000. There are 25,000 residents in and around Fresno city. More than twenty colonies, large and small, are located there, and 20,000 acres of vineyards are directly tributary to that place. In 1890 there were sixteen main canals in existence with a length of 750 miles. The laterals had about the same mileage, or 1500 miles in all. About 400,000 acres are under cultivation in the

In California the small farm, fruit culture and their necessary intensiveness of all arable land. Throughout the State culture have added greatly to the value of unirrigated land commands from $5 to $50 per acre; and there have been many sales in excess of the larger figure. In Los One of the most interesting questions is Angeles county, at the mouth of the that of land values as produced by irriga Cahuenga pass, unimproved land with a tion. The nature of the products raised water right has sold at $450 per acre; ordiunder this system of farming and the in-nary vine land, unirrigated, is worth $40,