F 868 
 .S8 B8 
 Copy 2 
 
 COUNTY, CALIFORNIA 
 
 2 he pioneer dam of the public irrigation districts of California, at La Grange, on the 
 Tuolumne river, irrigating about 300,000 acres. 
 
 ''Where the Land 
 
 Owns the Water'' 
 
ft(DD^^ 
 
 ftglDl]B©Dg]QD 
 
 JOHN T. B R A M H A L L 
 
 Modesto Herald 
 
 MODESTO, CALIFOBNIA 
 1914 
 
5. 
 
 Stanislaus County, California 
 
 yf /r(S^ OV(svri HAT is this Stanislaus County, of which we are hearing 
 
 I ( li so much, and yet in a vague and contradictory way?" 
 
 vAJXVM L asks the man from Missouri. That is the question which 
 
 we shall try to answer in this little book, as plainly and 
 
 frankly as possible, and leaving much unsaid. Stanislaus County is a fruit 
 
 land; — witness her 250,000 orchard trees, (1910). It is a vine-land, as 
 
 testified by her two million vines. The abundant grain crops of this present 
 
 year, 1914, upwards of two million sacks, show that Stanislaus is equal to 
 
 any of the counties of the Mississippi Valley as a grain country. A million 
 
 tons of hay, dotting the landscape with stacks as big as Pennsylvania barns, 
 
 demonstrate her capacity for hay production, and her thirty thousand or 
 
 more dairy cows, mostly grades and thoroughbreds, feeding on a hundred 
 
 thousand acres of alfalfa, show that Stanislaus must be a great dairy country. 
 
 A Great Dairy Country 
 
 Dairying is, probably, in a greater degree than any other branch of 
 husbandry, the basis of agricultural prosperity, and in a wider sense, the 
 foundation of the general welfare. Dairying improves the land, increases 
 crops of all kinds, multiplies population of the most industrious and thrifty 
 class, piles up bank accounts, fosters commercial business and encourages 
 improved transportation, invites intelligent white settlement, and in every 
 way tends to the building up and development of the community. 
 
 We will show our inquiring friends in distant states that Stanislaus 
 County is pre-eminently a great dairy country, and while also a region of 
 wonderfully varied and diversified agriculture, in grain, fruits and vegetables, 
 and in live stock of all kinds, it is, above all things else, a dairy land which, 
 with the aid of her great public irrigation systems (which make this county 
 unique in California) her fertile soil and her great number of small farmers 
 from the east, north and south, has attained the position of the leading dairy 
 county on the Pacific Coast, a position which all conditions indicate will be 
 permanent. 
 
It Is No Dream 
 
 'l"he reality is wonderful enough. It is no dream. "The San Joaquin 
 Valley," says William Allen White, of Kansas, "is the most productive valley 
 in the world." Stanislaus County has more alfalfa, more dairies, more 
 thoroughbred stock, and makes more butter — high-grade, creamery butter — ■ 
 than any other county in California — almost more than any two counties, in 
 fact. This in itself testifies to the general prosperity and productiveness of 
 the country and its desirability for residence and business, and as Stanislaus 
 is the acknowledged banner county in the dairy industry on the coast, it is 
 proper to make this the leading topic of this little preachment on life as it is- 
 actually lived in California. 
 
 A Look at the Country 
 
 Let us look at the country, and consider why it is a good dairy country, 
 and why it is a good country for live stock, fruit and other branches of 
 agriculture as well as dairying. If I were a dairyman looking for a location 
 somewhere between the two oceans I would look for a mild climate, good 
 water and drainage, good markets and transportation, and a fairly productive 
 soil. I have put soil fertility last, because the good farmer can generally 
 make his soil to suit himself. All these conditions, plus an unusually pro- 
 ductive soil, are to be found in Stanislaus County, California. 
 
 Location and Extent 
 Situated in the great San Joaquin Valley within a hundred miles of 
 San Francisco Bay, Stanislaus County is 1,486 square miles in extent, or 
 236 square miles larger than the State of Rhode Island. Of its 951,000 acres 
 the greater part is arable and about half is capable of irrigation. The valley 
 floor, between the Sierra Nevada on the east and the Coast Range on the 
 west, slopes gently toward the San Joaquin River, which flows northwesterly 
 through the western side of the county. The Stanislaus River forms the 
 northern boundary, the Tuolumne flows through the middle, and its southern 
 watershed is that of the Merced. All these rivers rise in the snows of the 
 high Sierras and empty into the San Joaquin. The total average run-ofif 
 of the three first-named, which supply the irrigation needs of the county, is 
 5,540,000 acre-feet. (California Conservation Connnission.) 
 
 The Soil,— None Better 
 "The soils as a whole are light, the largest part of the area consisting 
 of sandy loams and sands. These have suffered from continuous cropping 
 to grain. In portions of the area the soils are too shallow for the planting 
 of deep-rooted crops, and in places they have been injured by alkali and the 
 rise of ground water ; but, on the other hand, a very large part of the area 
 consists of deep, well-drained, easily cultivated soils, responsive to irrigation 
 and cultivation, especially suited to vineyards and orchards, and under favor- 
 able conditions producing almost phenomenal yields of all crops suited to 
 the climate. 
 
 [4] 
 
Tlic gardens of the Stanislaus boftoiiis, near Oakdale, are not exeelled for 
 
 prodiictiz'eness. 
 
 "Since the introduction of irrigation, the price of land has advanced 
 sharply, but the best land is still obtainable at a low price, and considering 
 the quality of soil, low cost of water, great diversity of crops, and advantages 
 of close markets, probably no other area of equal size in the entire West 
 offers greater attractions to the prospective settler than does this." (Depart- 
 ment of Agriculture Soil Survey of the Modesto-Turlock Area, 1908.) 
 
 Uliere the Sun Makes Sugar 
 
 In Stanislaus County there is a mild, brief winter, with all the rest of 
 the year for the crops to grow and stock to fatten and produce. The mean 
 winter temperature at Modesto, the county seat, is 48°, and for summer, 81°. 
 For the extremes, the mercury occasionally, but rarely, drops to 28° or rises 
 to 110°, but for a short time only, owing to the moderating breezes from the 
 bay, warm in winter and cool in summer. The rainfall is about 12 inches. 
 Heavy winds or rains are rare. The last killing frost in spring may come in 
 March, (last year there was none) and the first in autumn about the middle 
 of November. (Department of Agriculture, Weather Bureau.) In fact, 
 there is none too much frost to repress the abundance of insect life, while 
 there is sufficient heat, well distributed through the long orowins' season, to 
 make frequent crops of alfalfa and to mature fruit and grain with the 
 maximum of starch and sugar. 
 
 The Farm Area, and the Farmers 
 
 In 1910 there were 649,400 acres in farms, of which 512.200 were 
 improved. The census plays no favorites. It tells us that not only are the 
 people of Stanislaus mostly farmers, but that they are native Americans 
 who own the land they farm. Of the 22,522 population in 1910, 2,640 heads 
 of families were farmers, and of these 1 784 owned the land they farmed. 
 Of these owners, 1,544, or over 86 per cent, were native white, 652 were 
 foreign-born white, and just four were non-white. There were 296 native 
 white tenants. The tendency is for the tenants to become owners. 
 
 [5] 
 
A Land of Small Farms 
 With the improved conditions of agriculture, farms muUipHed rapidly 
 and the 951 farms in 1900 became 2,687 farms in 1910. Of these, 439 were 
 from 99 to 50 acres ; 1,046 were from 20 to 49 acres, and 515 were under 20 
 acres. In the irrigated districts the average size of farms is about 25 acres. 
 
 Rapid Growth of Population 
 In 1900, after a period of dechne, the population of the count}^ stood at 
 9,550. In the next ten-year period, "after the water came," the population 
 rose to 22,522. a greater increase than was made by any other county in the 
 State, save Los Angeles, which has the advantage of a large commercial 
 city and railroad center. The school census now indicates a population of 
 32,000. 
 
 Tlic Schools of Stanislaus 
 
 Few states spend so much upon their schools, in ratio of population, as 
 California, and few have better schools or more capable teachers. In 1900, 
 Stanislaus Conuty had 1,560 pupils in the schools and but one high school. 
 In 1913 there were 5,619 pupils in the elementary schools, with 157 teachers. 
 The eight high schools have 38 teachers and 662 students. The total expendi- 
 tures for schools were $348,000; value of school property, $810,000, and 
 the tax rate for elementary schools, .27, and for high schools, average, .47. 
 Since 1903 all one-room schools in the county have been changed to two or 
 three-room schools, and many separate primary schools have been built. 
 School gardens and playgrounds, with appropriate equipment, have been 
 installed in nearly every district and have been made an important adjunct 
 of the school courses. 
 
 Stanislatts is Prosperous 
 
 Assessed valuations are among the few figures used in connection with 
 real estate that mean more than they look. In 1890 the total valuation of the 
 property in Stanislaus County was, in round numbers, $15,000,000. Then 
 followed a drop in value, owing largely to the decline in the profits in grain 
 farming, and the assessment dropped to $12,000,000 in 1900. Then came the 
 inauguration of the irrigation districts and the change from dry farming 
 to alfalfa and fruit. Assessments have greater specific gravity than platinum, 
 but they rose to $24,000,000 in 1910, and to $28 000.000 in 1913. Irrigation 
 pays the freight. Another good index of prosperity is found in the bank 
 deposits. In 1900 there were but two banking towns in the entire county, 
 with four banks, and $871,000 in deposits. The big ranchers carried a buck- 
 skin pouch of eagles, and the little ranchers carried a mortgage. In 1914 
 there were twenty banks in ten towns, with $6,500,000 in deposits. 
 
 Libraries and Women's Clubs 
 Libraries and women's clubs are important indications of a high degree 
 of culture. Stanislaus County, in common with the other counties of the San 
 Joaquin Valley, enjoys both in a high degree. The countv library system 
 
 [7] 
 
gives the most remote foothill farmer the privileges of the central library, 
 (at Modesto, in the McHenry Library), and also of the State Library, with- 
 out expense. There are nineteen branch libraries in the county. The county 
 Federation of Women's Clubs has eight affiliated clubs, with over 400 
 members, having five club houses which serve as social centers for a wide- 
 spread population. As an example of their activity, the Improvement Club 
 of Modesto recently turned over to the city thirty-five acres of beautifully 
 improved parks, retaining fifteen acres for further improvement. 
 
 Farm Products Average $ioo per Acre 
 The farm products of the county, as returned by the County Statis- 
 tician, in 1913, a lean year, were: Grain, mostly barley, 1,060,000 bushels; 
 beans, 10,000 bushels; sweet potatoes, 533,500 bushels; alfalfa hay, 991,000 
 tons; melons, 72,000 tons; pumpkins, 25,000 tons. Total value, $9,545,400. 
 Orchard and vineyard products were valued at $1,685,000. Dairy products 
 sold amounted to $3,012,836; poultry products, $370,000; animals sold and 
 slaughtered, and wool, $1,441,000. Total value of all agricultural products, 
 $16,054,000. The products of the 152,000 acres of irrigated land figure out 
 something over $100 per acre. With something over 200,000 acres to be 
 ultimately put under irrigation by the extensions now under way or planned 
 for, there is every prospect that the annual revenue of the farms of Stanislaus 
 County will reach, before many years, twice the sum now realized, or more. 
 
 The Cozv Tester's Record 
 Space will not permit us to go into details regarding the dairy produc- 
 tion or the many fine herds of dairy cattle in the county. We may take, 
 however, a summary of the record of the Stanislaus County Cow Testing 
 Association, whose secretary reports a steady improvement in the dairy herds 
 of the county. For the sake of brevity, we will take from the report only 
 the cows rating above 1^^ pounds daily, making a composite herd of twelve 
 cows, grades of all breeds, averaging 4.05 fat test, 1,281 pounds of milk, 
 equivalent to 51.9 pounds of butter- fat per month. Brinka de Kol, a Holstein, 
 milked three times daily, and testing 3.95, made 79.3 pounds in May and 
 75.5 pounds in June. 
 
 IVhat Are the Irrigation Districts? 
 Speaking of the advantages of diversified and intensive farming. Judge 
 L. W. Fulkerth, of the Superior Court of Stanislaus County, says : "In no 
 part of California is this better demonstrated than in the Modesto and 
 Turlock irrigation districts in Stanislaus County, in the central and most 
 fertile part of the San Joaquin Valley. These districts are quasi-public 
 corporations, with boards of directors having similar powers and performing 
 similar duties, within certain defined limits, as boards of supervisors of 
 covmties. * * * The initial cost of the system was financed by long-term 
 bonds voted by the people, the same as county or school bonds, and the 
 
 [9] 
 
bonded indebtedness at present is small as compared with the selling value 
 of the lands, being only about $15 in the Turlock district and $20 in the 
 Modesto district. The running expenses and interest on bonds is provided 
 for by levy of yearly assessments which are collected in the same manner as 
 county taxes and payable in two semi-annual instalments, making payment 
 comparatively easy. The bonds run twenty and forty years, and after their 
 retirement the only expense will be for maintenance, or the extension of the 
 works. There are no 'water rights' separate from the land, as in privately 
 controlled systems." 
 
 The Irrigation Works 
 
 The irrigation works, consisting of diverting dams on the Tuolumne 
 and the Stanislaus, two large reservoirs and several hundred miles of canals, 
 considered as an undertaking not of the federal or State government but of 
 the farmers themselves, astonish all beholders. The La Grange dam, on the 
 Tuolumne, shown on the cover, was built in 1893 by the Modesto and Turlock 
 Irrigation districts jointly, at a cost of $550,000. It is 336 feet long and 
 127 feet high, and is one of the highest overflow dams in the world. Water 
 is diverted for the Modesto district on the north side and for the Turlock 
 district on the south side, the filings being 4500 second-feet for the former, 
 and 5000 second feet for the latter. 
 
 The Goodwin dam, on the Stanislaus, was built by the Oakdale and 
 the South-San Joaquin Irrigation districts jointly, at a cost of $350,000, and 
 was finished in 1912. It is a double-arch dam, the main arch being 78 feet 
 high, with 'a radius of 135 feet, and is designed to carry 260 second-feet for 
 the Oakdale district and 850 second-feet for the South-San Joaquin district. 
 These dams may be regarded as only a beginning of a still more extensive 
 irrigation system of the future that shall put water on every acre of irrigable 
 land in Stanislaus county. 
 
 A Model for All the World 
 
 These irrigation districts, organized and financed by the people and for 
 the people, and supported (in the Modesto, Oakdale and Waterford dis- 
 tricts) by taxation on land values alone, have furnished a model for the 
 entire country, and foreign lands also. Commissioners from distant South 
 Africa, Australia and South America have visited and carefully examined 
 the working of the system, carrying back the most encouraging reports of 
 its success. 
 
 Good Roads 
 
 Good roads are a necessity to the well-being of any community, and 
 especially to one that produces a heavy tonnage of perishable commodities. 
 The absence of rain through the long summer ensures dry roads, generally 
 hard and level. Through the county, from north to south, extends the great 
 State Highway, a smooth, paved boulevard that is being constructed through 
 the entire length of the State, connecting with a similar road leading to 
 
 [11] 
 
Portland, Ore£(on. The county has about sixty miles of this splendid road- 
 way. A lateral extends eastward to the mountains, via Salida and Oakdale, 
 and another is projected westward, making an alternative route from the 
 county seat to San Francisco, via San Jose and Santa Cruz. 
 
 Markets and Transportation 
 Stanislaus County has the best market in the world, San Francisco, with 
 demands greater than the supply. San Francisco is the American supply 
 depot for all the western hemisphere and will be the chief entry port for the 
 Panama Canal and its exchange of traffic. For the local trade, fruit and 
 dairy products delivered at the railroad in the evening are in the San Fran- 
 cisco market early the next morning. Two transcontinental railroads, with 
 their branches, pass through the county and one of the electric traction lines 
 exchanges traffic with a third, so that there is ample service and competition 
 in the matter of transportation. Of great importance in this regard is the 
 San Joaquin River, navigable for large boats from San Francisco to Stock- 
 ton, and its old-time service south of Stanislaus County soon to be restored, 
 making it a recognized factor in the adjustment of rates. Good, all-the-year- 
 round markets, accessibility, good transportation and good roads, smooth 
 and level, are the especial advantages of Stanislaus County. Now let us 
 look at the country more in detail. 
 
 The Newman Countr)^ 
 
 (S^^ N THE natural order of precedence, Modesto, the county seat, would 
 be entitled to first place in the Stanislaus County book. But in this 
 attempt to describe the county for the benefit of the home-seeker we 
 will pay little regard to precedence. We are trying to tell the new- 
 comer the real story of Stanislaus, — what the country is, how it came to be 
 what it is, and what it is likely to become. The story of the growth of 
 Stanislaus County to the position of the leading dairy county of the State 
 begins with Newman, on the great West Side. 
 
 Steamboats Up the RWer 
 Before the railroad came to the valley the San Joaquin River was the 
 main thoroughfare, even as far as Herndon, wdiich would have been called 
 Fresno Landing if the eastern style had prevailed. Stern-wheel boats went 
 up the river from the bay to Burneyville (now Riverbank), on the Stanis- 
 laus, and up the Tuolumne to Adamsville, near the present city of Modesto. 
 Much grain was carried on the river in those days, and also live-stock, 
 hides, wool, lumber, and supplies for the mining camps. Indeed, the river 
 is still under federal supervision and the bridges are built with draws. The 
 big crops of the west side of the valley in 1914 have revived steamboat traffic 
 to the old port of Grayson, on the San Joaquin, which is but a few miles from 
 Newman, the present west side metropolis. 
 
 [12] 
 
 <s> 
 
Sfanishius county public libraries and sclwols arc the latest ivord in architecture 
 
 and sanitation. 
 
 The Neiv Cremihcry System 
 About 1890 the new creamery system, with the refrigerating- process, 
 came in, along with the cream separator, and these improvements revolu- 
 tionized the dairy system and doubled the profits. To a great extent, also, 
 the creamery revolutionized agriculture, putting into new use the ancient 
 system of irrigation. The San Joaquin & Kings River canal (Miller & Lux) 
 brought water ; the new Chilean clover, alfalfa, proved itself to be really the 
 "best fodder," as its name implies, and the New Era Creamery, near the pres- 
 ent town of Newman, the first to be established in the valley, was the natural 
 result, and a success from the start, making about 100,000 pounds the first 
 year. The Newman country, besides being an ideal grain and cattle country, 
 became also a rich dairy district and population rapidly increased. 
 
 The Miller & Lux Canal 
 Bound up in the history of the early development of the county is that 
 of the Miller & Lux canal system, as it is called, or officially the San Joaquin 
 and Kings River Canal Company. This is the oldest canal in the valley, 
 dating from 1871, and is therefore the father of its irrigation. The system 
 diverts water from the west bank of the San Joaquin River above the town 
 of Mendota, in Fresno County, and the area tributary to it extends for 
 seventy miles along the west bank of the river in three counties. The water 
 company belongs to Miller & Lux, a noted firm of energetic German pioneer 
 cattle men who control immense holdings of land on the west side of the 
 valley. No water rights are sold ; the water is measured to the users and 
 charged for on the basis of a flow of one cubic foot per second every 
 twenty-four hours, amounting to about $1.75 per acre per annum. 
 
 A Great Beef Country 
 There is a constant and growing demand for beef of the best quality, 
 in San Francisco and for export. Stock raising on the west side and cattle 
 feeding also, are increasing and thousands of head of "feeders" from the 
 
 [13] 
 
southwest are being fitted for market on the wild pasture of the hills and 
 the alfalfa of the irrigated lands. But for the disorders in Mexico, ten thou- 
 sand head of stock would now be grazing on the long grass in the Coast 
 Range valleys. But there is an important movement towards providing at 
 home the material for a better foundation for the beef cattle of this region. 
 The Newman Herefords are a feature of every California State fair, and 
 would win premiums if sent to the International at Chicago. The thorough 
 bred herd now numbers about 150, headed by Young Donald and Hesiod 
 Lad, the former being an importation from Iowa and the latter from Mis- 
 souri. The four or five thousand head of beef cattle shipped from Newman 
 every fall will soon show a strong admixture of the finer Hereford blood. 
 Many sheep, it may be added, are also fed in the mountain valleys. 
 
 Hogs are an important element in the economy of the west side rancher. 
 Where there are many dairies, and as every dairy may be called a hog ranch, 
 it is evident that the industry is a considerable one. The common practice 
 is to feed skim-milk and pasture on alfalfa, finishing ofl:' at about 200 pounds, 
 without any grain whatever. A few farmers, however, have finished with 
 grain, and this year, with an abundance, of barley, many will adopt this 
 method of feeding. 
 
 An Electric Pumping Plant 
 
 Besides the fourteen thousand acres irrigated by the "Miller & Lux" 
 canal there are some two thousand more, all in alfalfa, irrigated by a system 
 of electrically operated pump wells, lying between the canal and the hills, 
 Three wells have been driven, on two sections of the Newman ranch, about 
 sixty feet, connected up with two powerful electric pumps and capable of 
 delivering 7,000 gallons per minute. The power is taken from one of the 
 electric companies whose lines traverse the valley on every side. The 
 advantages of electric pumping are great, despite the high cost of installa- 
 tion. With such a plant the rancher is made independent. He has his own 
 water, and he has it when he wants it. Moreover, it is pure for all domestic 
 uses and is of course entirely free from the injurious weed seeds that often 
 carry trouble for the alfalfa farmer in the ditch water. The accompanying 
 illustration shows a part of the alfalfa field, sown last fall, in contour cliecks, 
 irrigated by this plant. (See p. 24.) 
 
 The Newman country has been described as a great grain country in 
 the past. It is so still. In this present year, 1914, one may ride in an auto- 
 mobile, on hard, level roads, mile after mile, and mile after mile, past solid 
 areas of wheat or barley, principally the latter, lying against the foothills of 
 the Coast Range, and two to three miles broad, sometimes broken by sec- 
 tions or double-sections of alfalfa. Upwards of 300,000 sacks of grain will 
 go down the river from the Newman district this fall, besides many sheep, 
 hogs and cattle. Altogether, the grain crop from this district will reach a 
 million and a half sacks. 
 
 [151 
 
Newman 
 
 (fNrL<A. EWMAN is a bright, active town of about 1,500 population, with 
 ] ) two fine banks, the biggest grain warehouse in the valley, flour- 
 //, ishing commercial houses, schools and churches. The banks, 
 ahhough the first was organized as late as 1903, have about a 
 million dollars in deposits. The schools, both the grammar and the high 
 schools, are modern buildings and models of their kind. The Newman 
 Creamery turns out from a ton to a ton and a half of butter daily, besides 
 which about two hundred 10-gallon cans of cream are shipped. A dry- 
 milk plant, to use the product of a couple of thousand cows, is projected. 
 The cheese industry is also important, and profitable. The Hubbard & 
 Carmichael dairy, milking between 350 and 400 grade Holsteins and Dur- 
 hams with a milk test averaging 3.9, is making from 750 to 875 pounds 
 per day, selling at 2 or 3 cents over the San Francisco market, which 
 averaged 16 cents in 1913. The main feed of the cows is cut alfalfa, sup- 
 plemented by silage from four 250-ton silos. 
 
 Convenient Market. 
 
 Only 108 miles from San Francisco, with direct train service, and with 
 river transportation also, rich soil and unequaled health conditions, and no 
 fancy prices for land, a splendid future for Newman and the entire west- 
 side country, is promised. 
 
 While the town of Newman has been built up by and is the depot and 
 shipping point of a great corporation ranch, it should be considered, never- 
 theless, as an "open port" and a town that welcomes individual industry and 
 enterprise. The lands too, are open to all comers and the prospective set- 
 tler, if he likes the country, will have no difficulty in finding a piece of land, 
 large or small, suited to his desires. 
 
 Crow's Landing 
 
 ROW'S LANDING is eight miles north of Newman, with a deep 
 sediment soil common to all the west side country. It has two 
 banks, two churches, three creamery stations and a first-class 
 school, with a school garden that would take a prize in an inter- 
 county competition. If any one thinks that Crow's Landing is not a com- 
 ing place, let him look at the school, a fine new building costing $35,000. 
 And, despite its name, suggestive of days that are past. Crow's Landing 
 is a coming community. That is to say that it has every requisite for a 
 • -^osperous and growing town and surrounding country-side. It has the 
 soil, the health conditions, and the transportation facilities. Alfalfa has 
 long been established here, some of the fields being twenty-five to thirty 
 years old and so deeply rooted as to require no irrigation. The soil is so 
 friable that it does not pack down and harden by pasturing, which accounts 
 
 [16] 
 
for the endurance of the fields. One of these fields last year made five 
 cuttings of one and a half to two tons per acre. Naturally the leading 
 agricultural industry is dairying, and the district has over 4,000 cows. Grain 
 produces heavy crops and fruit has given good yields, though so far there 
 are few market orchards. 
 
 Resembles Illinois 
 Crow's Landing does not boast a large population. There are probably 
 less than five hundred people within a radius of a mile. But if the town 
 does not boast of population, or showy buildings, it is not because the 
 country is not rich in resources. It is to her credit that she has not been 
 exploited by ambitious promoters and land prices have remained within 
 the limits of moderate buyers. Crow's Landing, in fact, has not awakened 
 to a realization of her own advantages. The country resembles the level 
 prairies of southern Illinois more than any other part of California, but in 
 productiveness is more varied and infinitely richer. 
 
 A Bottomless Soil 
 The soil here is of wonderful depth, practically bottomless, in fact, and 
 this applies, to a certain degree, to all the soils of the county ; but while the 
 sandy loam is in places interrupted by a stratum of hardpan of varying 
 hardness and thickness, here the soil is made up of an alluvial silt and the 
 decomposed limestone and other rocks that form the Coast Range. There 
 is no bed of clay, so familiar to the eastern farmer, and while there is a 
 decreasing amount of humus as we go down below the surface soil, there 
 is no lack of the finely divided mineral elements so lacking in the older soils 
 of the East. Horace Greeley used to say that there was another farm 
 under the old fields ; here there are a hundred farms underlying the upper 
 one, and each quite as fertile, could they be spread out to the air, as the one 
 now producing sixty or seventy bushels of barley to the acre without a 
 pound of fertilizer. 
 
 Irrigation by Canal or by Pumping 
 The terminal district of the Miller & Lux canal, a great part of the 
 Crow's Landing district is practically old river-bottom land and is sub- 
 irrigated, while the land lying closer to the railroad is irrigated from the 
 catial. Farther west, where the land is higher, it may be easily irrigated by 
 pump wells, as is being successfully done on the adjoining Newman lands. 
 While the initial expense of such a plant is considerable — about $5,000 for 
 the well, motor and pump capable of irrigating a section (640 acres) of 
 land — it has the advantage of being a part of the land improvement and 
 responding to call at any time. 
 
 \ Vide A dap tab ility 
 Excepting citrus fruit, and such vegetables as do best on a dry. light 
 sand, the Crow's Landing country, and all this San Joaquin River land, is 
 
 [17] 
 
adapted to all crops of this latitude and will produce them in the greatest 
 abundance. Alfalfa and all kinds of fodder plants ; potatoes, and all manner 
 of root crops ; grain of all kinds, and every variety of pit fruit will grow 
 rapidly and produce abundant crops in this deep, rich, moist, alluvial soil. 
 The foothills contain valuable deposits of gypsum, building stone and various 
 minerals. 
 
 Patterson 
 
 ATTERSON is distinctly a garden town. It is a clean town, a 
 dry town, a live town. The young city has 800 people and the 
 colony numbers about 1,500. It has a bank, — one of the prettiest 
 in the State,— built at a cost of $25,000, and with over $100,000 
 in deposits. There is a Chamber of Commerce and a newspaper. The 
 Administration building and Postoffice, in a beautiful park in the center 
 of the plaza, is a very attractive building. The great steel water tank, larger 
 and higher than found in many larger towns, testifies to the up-to-date city 
 water-works and ample fire-protection, and the fine new grammar school, 
 and equally fine high school now building, — these the costliest buildings in 
 the town, — show the care that is exercised in the matter of education. The 
 Women's Improvement Club and a study club help to make a pleasant 
 society. 
 
 Patterson is another name for push, or in the Spanish, pronto. There 
 have been a good many model towns started in California, but some of them 
 have not survived the measles. Patterson is out of short pants and is the 
 Young America of the west side. The story is told how the elder Patterson, 
 a New Yorker, having purchased the old Spanish grant known as the Rancho 
 del Puerto (the name signifying a port, and testifying to the importance of 
 the river navigation,) of some leagues of land, locked horns with the big 
 Miller & Lux corporation, and the big irrigation canal was stopped at the 
 rancho's southern boundary. The San Joaquin River, with its three million 
 or more acre feet of mean annual run-off, ran past the rancho's front, the 
 riparian rights appertaining to the grant, and it might be cheaper to pump it 
 half a hundred feet than to bring it down a hundred miles by gravity. So 
 a canal was built to carry the water up hill, and pumping works were 
 installed to lift the water. 
 
 A Modern Rivcr-Puuiping Irrigation Plant 
 In Egypt one continually hears the creak of the sakya, or big wooden 
 water-wheel, by which the patient oxen raise the water of the Nile to the 
 fields and date orchards. Sometimes the fellah women, no less patiently, 
 carry the water on their heads. On the San Joaquin we harness the moun- 
 tain streams fed by the melting snows of the Sierras, carry it on copper 
 cables a hundred and fifty miles, and set it to work turning centrifugal 
 pumps lifting fifty thousand gallons a minute at the first step of twenty feet. 
 
 [19] 
 
Electric pumps lift zcatcr from deep zi'clls and from the San Joaquin river. 
 Pozver costs about one cent or less per K. JV. hour. 
 
 Four miles of concrete-lined canals and two hundred miles of laterals, with 
 relay stations for lifting- the water to the higher levels, make an irrigation 
 system that is rightly regarded by experts as being one of the most complete 
 in California. The combined capacity of the pumping stations is 1,645 horse- 
 power, capable of supplying three acre-feet of water yearly to the 19,000 
 acres in the tract. As the irrigation duty of water here is estimated at 
 two acre-feet, it will be seen that the needs are amply provided for. The 
 water rights go with the land, and the cost of operation, or the ratio paid 
 by the users, has been $1.50 per acre foot for the past three years. The 
 water company stock will automatically pass to the owners of the land when 
 three-fourths of the tract is sold and deeded, which will be, probably, by 
 the summer of 1915. The Patterson farmers will then own and control the 
 finest and most up-to-date co-operative irrigation plant in the country. 
 
 Beans Arc Profitable 
 
 Beans are found very profitable in this rich, mellow land, and are often 
 planted to follow grain hay, or between the young orchard rows. Crane 
 and Cairns planted forty-five acres of Lady Washingtons as an experiment 
 and harvested twenty-five sacks to the acre, — eighty pounds to the sack. They 
 have set out ten acres of walnuts and are growing beans between the rows. 
 There are about 1,500 acres of beans in the Patterson country. 
 
 Varied Industries 
 
 On its west side, against the foothills, Patterson is still a live-stock and 
 grain country ; through the center it is a fruit and poultry district, and 
 toward the river a dairy country, these industries of course lapping over 
 and intermixing. Patterson has no creamery as yet, but ships much sweet 
 cream, about 700 cans of sweet cream per month, and this is being rapidly 
 increased. As there are some fourteen thousand acres of alfalfa on the 
 Patterson farms, capable of maintaining as many dairy cows, it will be 
 
 [20] 
 
Piittcrson, iiciir llic Suii Joaquin rii'cr. is one of the clcaiicsf. f^rctticst and most 
 up-to-date tozi'us in the I'allcy. 
 
 seen that there is plenty of room for the dairy farmer. Hogs and poultry 
 are a profitable adjunct of the dairy and there seems to be no limit to the 
 demand for these products. The Patterson Hay Producers" Association 
 is a strong organization of farmers. 
 
 Orchards, especially of peach and apricot, are being put out in all 
 directions, and walnuts, too, are being extensively planted, so that in a short 
 time, almost before the people are aware of it, Patterson will take its place 
 as a leading fruit region. Already twenty-five hundred acres on the Patter- 
 son farms have been planted to fruit and nuts. Bartlett pears are also being 
 extensively planted, as the soil is found very suitable for this fruit and 
 there have been detected no indications of blight. 
 
 Palm and Oleander Bordered A-c-eiiues 
 
 The avenues radiating from the central plaza are planted with palms, 
 oleanders, eucalyptus, sycamores, magnolia, and other trees, and even now 
 the oleanders, which grow to a height of fifteen feet or more in this climate, 
 are showing a line of brilliant bloom ten or twelve miles long. In every 
 direction are seen rows of pretty bungalows, usually with barn, poultry 
 house and other accessories to the rural home. Las Palmas Avenue, a 
 gravelled boulevard lined with fine homes, stretches out three miles to the 
 east, to a beautiful park on the bank of the San Joaquin River. 
 
 Grayson and ITestley 
 
 Grayson is the old river town on the San Joaquin, already alluded to, 
 where steamboats take cargoes of grain and hay for the tidewater ports. It 
 requires no prophet to foretell a future of activity and prosperity, and well- 
 filled warehouses and busy wharves in this and other river towns in the not 
 distant future. Westley is west of Grayson, on the railroad, and is building 
 up a prosperous community, mainly on a grain foundation, but soon to be 
 supplemented by dairy and orchard. 
 
 [21] 
 
77;/^- is one of the schools zi'hosc St'onish architecture might deceive Father 
 
 Scrra himself. 
 
 The Modesto Irrigation District 
 
 (J^T] T IS unnecessary, in this brief space, to repeat the story of the enter- 
 prise of the people in forming- the Modesto Irrigation district and 
 J I building the system, and of the wonderful progress that has resulted. 
 That has been covered in the first chapter. The State Bond Com- 
 mission, in a recent decision on the legality of a bond issue of $610,000 for 
 improvements, pointed out that this was but a small portion of the indebted- 
 ness that the district could carry if necessary. The water right was assessed 
 by the commission at $1,225,000, and the land values, $15,291,000. 
 
 Sixty-nine Square Miles of Emerald Green 
 Like a fairy tale is the story of the turning of the sandy stubble and 
 dry pasture land of central Stanislaus County into a blooming garden. But 
 we will give the reader the cold facts and let him supply the imagination 
 for himself. The report of the Modesto Irrigation district for 1914 shows 
 that of the 52,381 acres irrigated, 44,261 acres, or 84.5 per cent, are in 
 alfalfa ; sixty-nine square miles of emerald green. Some of this produces 
 as high as ten tons to the acre, but figuring at five tons, which is a fair 
 average of the entire acreage, we have 220,000 tons of the best hay ever 
 fed to cows. The table of crop acreage, as compared with 1909, follows: 
 
 Crops. 1909 
 
 Alfalfa 16,306 
 
 Trees 2,240 
 
 Vines 2,404.5 
 
 Corn, ( milo ) 
 
 Tomatoes 
 
 Beans . 
 
 Millet 
 
 Oats 
 
 Potatoes 
 
 1914 
 
 44,261 
 
 2,744 
 
 1,768 
 
 665 
 
 561 
 
 8.5 
 107.7 264 
 
 17 
 
 6 All grain, 2.432 
 34.5 Garden, 247 
 
 Total 22,136.5 
 
 52,381 
 
 [23] 
 
-,"3- '^ rkie ■ 
 
 J^-'-J^^ ft 7^ '.: ^-~.s»w 
 
 
 
 •> 
 
The rapid increase in acreage, 137 per cent in five years, will be noted, 
 and the striking increase in alfalfa, and in grain (on alfalfa sod). Vege- 
 tables of all kinds have increased, while the vineyard area has diminished. 
 
 Sixteen Thousand Dairy Cou's 
 
 The county statistician reports 14,760 mature dairy cows for the 
 Modesto district in 1913, and there should be nearly sixteen thousand cream- 
 producers in the district this year, too small a number, however, for our 
 44,000 acres of alfalfa. Their proportion of the butter-production of the 
 county this year, figured on a basis of nine million pounds for the county, 
 would be 4,500,000 pounds. The figures are amazing, but it should not be 
 forgotten that Stanislaus County made over 8,000,000 pounds of butter last 
 year, and it wasn't a good butter year, either. Sixteen thousand cows, and 
 close to five million pounds of butter, — and the Modesto Irrigation district 
 hasn't got its growth yet ! 
 
 Tlwroitghbred Dairy Stock 
 
 Stanislaus County, and the Modesto Irrigation District especially, has 
 become noted as the home of the finest thoroughbred dairy stock on the 
 Pacific Coast. Dairymen have become stock breeders, selecting their founda- 
 tion stock from the best breeding farms in the East. A hundred and fifty 
 stock sales have been held in this district in the past six months, the Hillier 
 consignment sale of a hundred registered Jerseys last April being the most 
 noticeable and giving Modesto the rank of the leading dairy cattle market 
 west of the Mississippi Valley. 
 
 The J'\-iiadera Jerseys 
 
 Guy Miller's champion herd of Jerseys would alone give a national 
 reputation to Stanislaus County. Every cow is in the advanced register and 
 the head of the herd, Altema Interest, an animal of the finest breeding, has 
 been for the past two years grand champion Jersey bull at the California 
 State Fair. Pearl of Venadera has just finished a yearly test with a record 
 of 9,968.8 pounds of milk, average test, 6.03; butter- fat production, 601.27 
 pounds, the second highest producing Jersey in California. Goldie of Vena- 
 dera, 3-year-old, made 469.4 pounds ; Belle of V., 461.8 pounds, and Amethyst 
 of V. 391.3 pounds. Lorna of Venadera was awarded the silver medal of 
 the American Jersey Cattle Club for being the second best producing cow 
 of that breed in the United States in 1911. The herd, in 1913, at the Cali- 
 fornia State Fair, butter-fat test, took first in aged cows, three-year-olds, 
 and two-year-old heifers. On official test last year the herd of twenty cows 
 made an average of 362 pounds of butter-fat. This was worth, at the 
 Modesto creamery, $2,606.40. This is the kind of blood that is building up 
 the herds of Stanislaus County. 
 
 [25] 
 
The Crcauicnp Holstcins 
 
 The Creamciip herd of Holsteins of M. M. Holdridge stands at the top 
 of the black-and-whites. Pontiac Burke is the head of the herd and is a 
 sire of great promise. His grandsire is King of the Pontiacs, half-brother 
 of Pontiac Lass, (44.18 pounds in 7 days). His sire's dam is Ruby de Kol 
 Burke, and his aunt is Sadie de Kol Burke, the champion record cow. 
 Novena Creamcup and Modesto Cleopatra are cows with records of 60 and 
 70 pounds of butter-fat per month. Twenty-two cows of this herd have a 
 weekly record in the advanced registry of 18 to 28 pounds of butter in seven 
 days. Every cow in the milking- string- has an A. R. O. record. 
 
 Pigs Prcserz'iJig PJiilippinc Peace 
 
 Hogs are called mortgage-lifters in Kansas. Here they are raised for 
 ornament, on the principle of handsome is as handsome does. The Modesto 
 Creamery maintains a hog ranch of its own, a mile away, on the river. 
 Buying butter-fat above the market price for butter does not leave much 
 margin for profit. So the creamery turns its buttermilk into pork, adding 
 crushed barley to the feed. From 200 to 300 hogs are kept, and with barley 
 at a dollar a hundred and pork at 8^ cents, it is pretty clear that the hogs 
 raise the profits. 
 
 The Duroc-Jerseys of W. A. Daggs. near Modesto, have a wide reputa- 
 tion. In Hawaii, one of the big sugar planters has some of the stock, and in 
 the Philippines some wealthy Moros, retired from the piracy business, are 
 increasing their fortunes by raising red pigs of the stock of the Datto Daggs, 
 purchased by a paternal government at Modesto, U. S. A. Modesto King, 
 Rose May Hansel and Dolly Duroc Dahlia have enough blue ribbons cap- 
 tured at the fairs to make a bed-spread, if they needed one. Mr. Daggs has 
 about 150 hogs and his sales last year were about a hundred head, big and 
 little, at an average of $22 each. Thirty acres of alfalfa grow the forage, 
 and the nearby creamery supplies the buttermilk. 
 
 Peaches and Apricots 
 
 Peaches and apricots are the principal orchard fruits of the Modesto 
 district. Here is a sample of the small, or garden orchard: J. S. Rhodes, 
 near Modesto, has four acres of Elbertas which brought him, last year, 
 $1,929 gross, or $428 per acre. The expense of irrigating, cultivation, 
 marketing, etc., is figured at 33 per cent, leaving $1,286, or $321.50 per 
 acre net. In the past three years the orchard, which was planted in 1907, 
 netted $2,400, or $200 per acre, per annum. No artificial fertilizers have 
 been used. 
 
 A Moniiiiieiif to Irrigation. — Pigs 
 
 The McHenry Ranch, or as it is locally known, the "Bald Eagle Ranch," 
 is an example of eastern general farming as applied to the California ranch. 
 Robert McHenry came from New England before the era of irrigation, 
 
 [27] 
 
bought a big grain ranch on the Stanislaus, introduced blooded stock and 
 planted orchards and vineyards. Among other things he planted forty 
 acres of figs. Then he championed irrigation and some of the old settlers 
 lironounced him crazy and an apostle of destruction, but his lasting monu- 
 ment stands in the irrigated fields, gardens and orchards of Stanislaus 
 County. The fig orchard, forty-two acres of White Adriatics, yields an 
 average of five carloads of thirty tons a season, which are contracted at 
 $70 a ton, making a gross revenue of $250 per acre. Practically the only 
 expense is picking (from the ground), and hauling to Modesto and River- 
 bank. There are also 120 acres of vineyard and an apricot orchard. 
 
 Beans Like Good Land 
 Beans on alfalfa sod or following grain make a paying crop. Shoemake 
 & Warner have 300 acres in black-eyed beans which promise twenty sacks 
 to the acre, or 1,600 pounds. At the ruling price of 4 cents this would make 
 $64 per acre, and as the straw makes good hay we may credit $5 more, 
 making $69 per acre. There are about 2,500 acres of black-eye and red 
 Mexican beans in the county, with fine prospects. 
 
 Pushing the Egg Button 
 "1 have traveled from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico and from 
 coast to coast, and nowhere have I seen a better location for poultry where 
 climatic conditions, soil and feed are all favorable, than here in Stanislaus 
 county." So says John H. Myer, of the Myer Hatchery, between Modesto 
 and Empire. He carries about a thousand White Leghorns and hatches six 
 to eight thousand chicks in a season. Electric equipment is the important 
 feature of the Bald Eagle Poultry Ranch of the McHenry Brothers, on their 
 place west of Riverbank. They have about 1,500 White Leghorns in new 
 and well arranged buildings, one of which is a concrete incubator house 
 W'here the hatching is done by electricity, the heat being controlled by ther- 
 mostats. The brooders are also electric heated and the laying houses are 
 supplied with electric light during two hours of the winter mornings to give 
 the hens so much more scratching time. Last spring 2,500 chicks were sold 
 at $15 per hundred. It is figured that in egg production the average hen 
 makes very nearly $2.00 per year. 
 
 Cost of An Electric Pumping Plant 
 On the banks of the Tuolumne River, some five miles west of Modesto, 
 W. F. Duffy has installed an electric pumping plant with a 40 H. P. motor 
 and a 12-inch centrifugal pump to lift water fifteen feet from the river and 
 put it on a couple of hundred acres of level land. The plant cost about 
 $2,000, and taking current from the Sierra & S. F. Electric Power Co., which 
 built a transmission line of six miles to reach the plant, it is figured that it 
 will cost $15 to irrigate the eighty acres now in alfalfa and oats, or ^.IS/jA 
 per acre, per irrigation. 
 
 [29] 
 
Modesto, the Irrigation Capital 
 
 ODESTO is celebrated far and wide as the Garden City of the 
 San Joaquin Valley, the Spotless Town of Stanislaus, and the 
 Improvement Club's Paradise. And the praise is fairly earned. 
 Modesto is also the garden gateway of the Yosemite National 
 Park. In a recent article in Sunset Magazine, Alexander Powell said : 
 
 "We chose the route (to the Yosemite) through Modesto because I was 
 curious to see the surrounding countryside, which was enjoying, so I was 
 told, the benefits of a modern version of the jMiracle of Moses, water having 
 been produced where there was no water before by a prophet's rod in the 
 form of an irrigating ditch. As a result of this sudden prosperity, Modesto 
 is as up-to-date as a girl just back from Paris. Its lawns and gardens have 
 been Peter Hendersonized until they look like the illustrations in a seeds- 
 man's catalogue ; the architecture of its schools and public buildings is so 
 faithful an adaptation of the Spanish mission style that they would deceive 
 Father Serra himself (the old padre was, I believe, a trifle near-sighted) ; 
 and its roads would do credit to the skill of J. MacAdam." 
 
 The San Joaquin Valley may well be proud of Modesto. With a popu- 
 lation of 2,402 in 1900. showing an actual decline of fifteen per cent in the 
 decade, Modesto had 4,034 in the city limits in 1910 and is now credited by 
 the city directory with 8 000. Two of the finest hotels in the interior of the 
 State, fireproof 125-room buildings costing $150,000 each; six banks with 
 over $3,CX)0,000 in deposits, nearly half of which is in savings banks ; five 
 beautiful parks ; water of unusual purity ; ten miles of asphaltum-paved 
 streets, wide and arched with elms and sycamores ; electric light and gas ; 
 septic sewerage system ; a free market on the court-house square ; a fine 
 Public Library, the gift of the public-spirited Oramil McHenry ; numerous 
 churches, notably the First Presbyterian with its Modesto Christian Asso- 
 ciation, gymnasium, swimming pool, etc. ; two daily newspapers, well-stocked 
 commercial houses, and six garages, — and only four hours from San Fran- 
 cisco by express, Modesto is one of the finest and healthiest residence towns 
 in all California. 
 
 The manufacturing industries of Modesto are not extensive and are 
 naturally confined to preparing the raw agricultural products for consump- 
 tion in the distant market. Two creameries, with a monthly output of 255,000 
 pounds; an alfalfa mill with a capacity of 4,000 tons in the season, and a 
 fruit cannery, enlarged and re-equipped last year for an output of 50,000 
 cans daily, make a market for but a small part of the products of our farms 
 and orchards. With these products in abundance and of the highest quality, 
 it will be but a short time before the manufacturers of food products will 
 take advantage of the opportunities here presented. It may be added that 
 Modesto has the only locally-owned gas works in the valley. 
 
 [30] , , 
 

 i 
 
 Eucalyptus avenue, and a small punipiiig plant irrigating a farm from the 
 
 Tuolumne river. 
 
 Salida 
 
 EVEN miles nearer the bay than Modesto, in the richest section of 
 the irrigation district, SaUda, with its big alfalfa mill, its grain 
 and hay warehouses and its heavy shipments of vineyard and 
 orchard products, is a town of great promise. On either side 
 stretches a wide expanse of alfalfa, broken by orchards and vineyards. The 
 produce of its dairies is taken by the creameries at Modesto, and the county 
 town is its principal market. In time, Salida will doubtless have its own 
 creamery, and its fruit packing house also. 
 
 A Vineyard Pioneer 
 
 Thompson Seedless is the name of a grape that is making new history 
 for California. It is an excellent raisin grape of the Sultana class, and also 
 a good table grape and so can be utilized for either market. It is a heavy 
 yielder and commands a price usually considerably above the average. T. H. 
 Kewin was the pioneer in planting this grape in this part of the valley about 
 eight years ago and his forty acres of strong, healthy vines promise an 
 abundant yield, which means seven or eight tons to the acre. An adjoining 
 forty of Zinfandels looked almost as good. Almond trees border the vine- 
 yard, ten-year-old Ne Plus Ultra, and will produce at the rate of about a ton 
 to the acre, the trees being loaded down with fruit. 
 
 The vineyard of George Covell is another of the early vineyard plant- 
 ings of the county and one which ranks high in productive value. Here are 
 500 acres, mostly in wine grapes, that produce all the way from five to seven- 
 teen tons per acre, according to seasonal conditions, and bringing from $12 
 to $20 a ton, according to demand and quality. Present market conditions 
 indicate a price of $15 a ton or more. A few acres of Thompsons and Em- 
 perors give great promise. The expense of cultivation, pruning, etc., is 
 estimated at $10 per acre and picking and l\auling to station about $1.75 per 
 ton. Table grapes cost about $5.00 a ton for picking and the packing about 
 35 cents per crate, the crates of 28 pounds bringing 60 cents to $1.25 f. o. b. 
 
 [31] 
 
Dairies 
 
 Among- the dairies that of J. M. Bomberger will do for an example to 
 demonstrate actual experience in this line. By careful selection and watch- 
 ing his opportunities Mr. Bomberger, who started with a small herd of 
 grades, has got together as pretty a string of Jerseys as can be found, and at 
 no great expense. "It costs no more to raise a full-blood calf," says Mr. 
 Bomberger, "than a scrub, and it costs no more to feed a high-bred regis- 
 tered cow than it does one without a pedigree, but the thoroughbreds will 
 pay better, in every way." Mr. Bomberger is reluctant to boast of his own 
 cows, but he is an enthusiastic advocate of the Jerseys for butter-fat pro- 
 duction and says that they will produce 500 pounds of butter-fat at $8 less 
 cost than the Holstein. As for the calf, he insists that with registered, good 
 performing stock, there is no necessity whatever of sacriiicing to the butcher. 
 Good Jersey calves are always worth money, and the dairyman-breeder 
 pointed to a pen full of little fellows worth, he said, from $50 to $100 each. 
 
 Ten Tons of Hay to the Acre 
 
 Ten tons of alfalfa to the acre is the record of A. S. Bomberger, but 
 this is exceptional, even for this distinctive alfalfa district. The field is 48 
 acres, sown four years ago. The soil, a deep, rich, sandy loam, benefiting 
 somewhat by sub-irrigation. Up to October 25th last the alfalfa was irri- 
 gated four times and was cut five times, with the total yield of 478 tons. The 
 crop brought $5,353.65, and deducting expenses, a net of $4,053, or $84.44 
 net per acre. No fertilizer was used other than a slight top-dressing of 
 gypsum. About half the field was top-dressed the previous winter with 
 stable manure, ten loads to the acre. A neighboring dairyman pointed out, 
 however, that these returns would have been doubled if the alfalfa had been 
 fed to cows producing a pound of butter a day, and the fertility of the land 
 would have been increased. John Velthoen has done as well. 
 
 Alfalfa Mill 
 
 The Salida alfalfa mill, with a capacity of 5,000 tons in the season, and 
 two smaller mills grinding about as much, make a home market for the sur- 
 plus crop. There is a good market, by the way, at Panama for American 
 alfalfa, but the home market is better. The alfalfa meal is simply ground 
 alfalfa, without any admixture whatever, in a form concentrated, easily 
 transported, and keeping indefinitely in a dry climate. There is no loss in 
 the grinding, but rather a saving, as in feeding the hay there is a large 
 amount of waste. The eastern farmer buys California alfalfa meal and by 
 diluting with cotton-seed hulls, black-strap or corn fodder he has the best 
 stock feed in the world. It is l&rgely used also for hog and poultry feed, 
 and in limited amounts for horses. 
 
 [32] 
 
Suiynia ft^^s fay $ijo nii acre, and Duruc pigs f^iy even more. 
 
 Dioiicv makers. 
 
 Empire 
 
 MPIRE COLONY" it was a year ago, and five years ago a 
 stubble field. A colony of the church of the Brethren, com- 
 monly known as Dunkords, from Indiana and other states of 
 the Middle West, settled here, bringing with them the 
 Proverbs of Solomon. They sowed their alfalfa before they built their 
 houses and now they are cutting five or six crops a season and stacking it 
 up at the rate of six or eight tons to the acre. There are numerous members 
 of other religious denominations also and a general spirit of hospitality and 
 neighborliness prevails. 
 
 Empire is on the Santa Fe, five miles east of Modesto, with which it is 
 connected by the Modesto & Empire Traction line. In 1913 there were 
 shipped out 314 cars of grain, hay and fruit, besides express matter, and 651 
 c.rs of freight were handled on the traction line. 
 
 The Old People s Home 
 
 The Brethren church of California planned to establish an Old People's 
 Home. Good climate, good natural drainage, with no standing water; 
 absence of malaria and other similar diseases ; abundance of water for all 
 purposes, pure water for domestic use, and convenience of transportation, 
 were recjuisite. After a careful examination of many sites the committee 
 decided in favor of Empire, and here the Dunkords will undoubtedlv estab- 
 lish a record for longevity. 
 
 Alfalfa Avenue 
 
 All along the Traction line from Modesto to Empire there are fields 
 of alfalfa, orchards, gardens and pretty bungalows, and what was a short 
 time ago a country road is now a suburban avenue, and plans have been 
 made to continue the road to Waterford and Hickman and ultimately to 
 La Grange. Tree-bordered and lined with pretty homes set in emerald 
 fields of alfalfa, among orchards of peach, almond, apricot, plum and fig, it 
 woukl Ije hard to find a more beautiful or prosperous locality in California. 
 
An Early Picture 
 
 The San Joaquin Valley folder of the Santa Fe, published in 1911, said, 
 in describing- Empire : 
 
 "Empire Landing, on the Tuolumne River, was known of old for its 
 big freights of wheat and barley. Now a finer grade of goods goes by rail. 
 Farms have grown up on the grain fields like mushrooms in the night. 
 Empire Colony is composed almost entirely of Dunkords, and where they 
 settle the earth gets busy. Last year in dry pasture or stunted grain ; this 
 year green with alfalfa ! There are about two hundred families altogether, 
 and it is noticeable that they build their barns first. A tent does for house, 
 or the tank-house under the wind-mill. The following thumb-nail stories 
 will illustrate their industry and prosperity : Rev. J. W. Deardorff came from 
 North Dakota and was the first to settle here in the spring of 1909. He got 
 his forty acres of prairie seeded that summer and last spring cut his first 
 alfalfa, a ton and a half to the acre, which sold for $6 per ton in the field. 
 The second crop would probably make two tons to the acre and should be 
 worth $7 per ton. He has plenty of water and will likely make six cuttings. 
 Silas Spyres put fifty-five acres in alfalfa last summer. He had cut his first 
 crop and in twenty-eight days the second crop was standing three feet high 
 and he was cutting it, making two tons to the acre. S. T. Barkley, experi- 
 menting on a patch of seven-eighths of an acre, with a dressing of gypsum, 
 cut 6.500 pounds of alfalfa the first crop. Not one man in a thousand in 
 this country uses any fertilizer. Alfalfa is the only crop raised here as yet, 
 excepting the little gardens, but keep your eyes on Empire." 
 
 An Alfalfa Sermon 
 If the farmer-preacher should go back east and tell of his "forty" 
 of alfalfa and another eighty leased, from which he is now getting two tons 
 to the acre at a cutting and is likely to make five cuttings nearly as good 
 during the season, they would have him up before the elders. But he could 
 show them. He quotes John 1-46: "Come and see." He is an apostle of 
 optimism. When his people complain that hay is low, he answers : "That is 
 right ; hay should be low when it is plenty. But meat, and butter, and poul- 
 try and eggs, are not low ; turn your alfalfa into butter-fat ; sell cream, and 
 hogs, and eggs, and all the time your land is getting richer and producing 
 more alfalfa, and you will be selling more cream. Remember the parable 
 of the talents." The Reverend Jacob is a good pastor, and a good farmer. 
 
 Tzi'o TJioiisaiid Fleiitish Giants 
 Royer & Strom's rabbitry is said to be the largest in America. They 
 are some rabbits, sure enough. There are, or were at the last count, 2,000 
 of them, from new-hatched to does weighing fifteen pounds. Green alfalfa 
 from a 3^ -acre field with a ton and a half of grain a month is their feed. 
 Breeding stock are sold at $1.50 to $15 each and San Francisco hotels and 
 
 [34] 
 
hzcfi .,- Iiay is lozc, your land is getting richer and producing more alfalfa, and 
 dairy products are in good demand. 
 
 restaurants otter a market at 10 to 15 cents a pound, live weight. It is cal- 
 culated that the cost, including labor, is close to the former figure. The 
 Empire rabbitry ships fancy stock to all the Pacific Coast states and to New 
 Mexico and Texas. 
 
 Fifteen Pounds of Butter per Week 
 The Merci Ranch, east of Empire, has been long noted for its high- 
 class Holsteins. The herd has averaged from February last 6.7 gallons, test- 
 ing from 2>.S to 4.2, which is equivalent to a little better than two pounds per 
 day. Winnie Cornucopia has a weekly test of 668.9 pounds of milk and 
 23.94 pounds of butter per week, and the next best is 22.05 pounds. All 
 the milking cows average above 15 pounds a week. The feed is all alfalfa. 
 Norman draft horses, Poland-China hogs and poultry are other features 
 of the Merci ranch, together with peach, pear and fig orchards. The 160 
 acres of alfalfa make five crops a year, averaging over a ton to the acre 
 and sometimes a ton and a half. 
 
 Grapes and Almonds 
 
 Not far from the Merci Ranch, on the Waterford road, is the vineyard 
 and almond orchard of J. J. McMahon, an old resident of the county. There 
 are ISK) acres in Zinfandel and other wine grapes, and 120 acres in almonds, 
 eight years old, wath another orchard recently planted. There are 40 acres 
 in pears that produced last year 410 tons, selling at $40 per ton. 
 
 Poultry, and also berries of all kinds, tomatoes, garden beans and sweet 
 corn, offer good prospects to the farmer on few acres, and many are engag- 
 ing in these kinds of intensive agriculture. The market is an inviting one ; 
 conditions are good and there are no indications of a declining demand. 
 
 Claus is a brand new town between Empire and Riverbank. on the 
 Santa Fe. It has a fine school and being in the alfalfa country it has numer- 
 ous dairies. It will soon be in the class with its neighbors on either side, 
 and meanwhile it is about as good a place for an energetic young man to 
 settle in, with a share in directing its growing destinies, as any place on the 
 
 "^aP- [35] 
 
Turlock Irrigation District 
 
 HE Turlock district was the pioneer in completing an irrigation 
 system under the Wright Act, putting the water under the 
 proprietorship of the land instead of under corporations organized 
 for profit. By this system the irrigation water, necessary for the 
 production of crops, is made a charge upon the land, the same as roads and 
 bridges. The Turlock district is the largest of the Stanislaus County irri- 
 gated areas, lapping over into Merced County to the Merced River. It 
 includes 176,210 acres, or about half the size of the average Iowa county. 
 The area actually irrigated is about 100,000 acres and it is estimated that 
 there is about as much land adjoining that will ultimately be taken into the 
 district when the irrigation works are enlarged. 
 
 The bonded indebtedness for the construction of the works is but $15.11 
 per acre, the lowest of any irrigation district in the West. But this does not 
 mean a cheap district. There are 223 miles of canals, and the Davis reser- 
 voir, costing $475,000, has a capacity of 50,000 acre-feet. 
 
 The Pioneer Era Passed 
 Green fields have replaced barren wastes; jack-rabbits and horned toads 
 have given their haunts to the keeping of dairy herds and chickens. Fifteen 
 thousand people, mostly Americans and Swedes, have come and schools 
 and churches have sprung up in all parts of the district. In 1903, no less 
 than 3,403 carloads of produce were sent out and the total value of the 
 freight and express shipments was figured at $2,480,700. The Turlock 
 district is not for the pioneer. The period of pioneering is past. Telephones 
 and rural mail routes run to all parts of the district. Electric power is 
 convenient. The purest drinking water is found at fifty feet or less. It is 
 the age of good roads and the automobile ; of the small farm and intensive 
 farming. The opportunities here have been made by water, the matchless 
 California climate and a good soil, a sandy loam of granitic origin. 
 
 Alfalfa the Great Crop 
 "Everything grows in the Turlock country." Alfalfa is the great crop, 
 and there are 67,680 acres of this "best fodder" in the district. It costs about 
 $25 per acre to check the land and seed alfalfa, and it lasts for seven or eight 
 years, without re-seeding. Artificial inoculation is never necessary. As it 
 is the custom of neighbors to exchange labor at haying the cost of harvest- 
 ing is small. Many irrigate after each cutting, while others find the use of 
 less water gives better results. Although a thousand cars of alfalfa were 
 shipped from this district in 1913 this is a very small portion of the crop, 
 the major portion being fed to stock. 
 
 Dairying Is Profitable 
 Alfalfa is the backbone of the dairy industry, for it is a rich and inex- 
 pensive food. When the Turlock farmers began dairying they were short 
 
 [36] 
 
Irrigating canal near the foothills, and a lateral in the irrigated country. 
 
 of money, for they were paying for their farms. They picked good grade 
 stock and the best sires. They studied breeding. And now the awards at 
 the State Fair, the verdict of all experts who have visited this section, and 
 the prices foreign buyers pay for dairy stock have convinced them that their 
 herds are graded to a high degree of excellence. Horses, and hogs as well, 
 are making a name for the breeders. The local creameries and outside 
 buyers bid for the butter-fat and make a good market. The average price 
 for 1912 and 1913 was 34 cents. Many dairymen have contracts to supply 
 sweet cream and milk for the San Francisco market. The average cow 
 returns $10 a month, in addition to the income from poultry and hogs that 
 consume the skim milk. A little additional Egyptian corn for the poultry 
 and hogs, with some pumpkins, citrons or melons also for the latter, and 
 the extra profit from the dairy is considerable. Hog and poultry diseases 
 are rare. 
 
 Peaches 
 
 Peaches are the most valuable of the orchard crops of the district. In 
 1913 the value of the shipments was $411,553, and they will be much larger 
 this year. It costs $25 an acre to plant peaches ; they begin to bear in four 
 years and maturing in eight years, yield seven or eight tons to the acre, 
 worth $20 to $35 per ton. 
 
 Figs 
 
 The Smyrna, or "Calimyrna," Adriatic and Mission figs do well. Fig 
 culture is so recent that the trees have not yet shown their production at 
 maturity, but they are now yielding two tons to the acre, worth $80 or more 
 ])er ton. Olives, apricots and almonds are among the other orchard products 
 that pay well. 
 
 The Vineyard 
 
 Grapes paid the Turlock district $232,000 in U)13, the larger portion 
 being in wine grapes. It costs about $15 an acre to plant a vineyard and at 
 maturity, or in seven years, they yield seven or eight tons to the acre. The 
 1913 price was $12 to $15 a ton. Ten-year contracts can be made at $10 
 per ton, or more in the case of vineyards of established reputation. Shipping 
 
 [37] 
 
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 ■^1 S ^ 
 
 
Im 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 m 
 
 fci'\^. ' V' - 1.'- ' . ' 
 
 
 ^^va 
 
 i^mm 
 
 m 
 
 nw 
 
 ''9H 
 
 ^^''^sr'^f? ■?• 
 
 {^■^ 
 
 ^^^-^ 
 
 m 
 
 |i|||iM|g 
 
 ■^.^^J 
 
 1 
 
 These famous Dnteh-Belted cows, like the Guernseys on the preceding page, 
 
 are a woman's pets. 
 
 grapes yield 350 to 400 crates to the acre and bring 75 cents to a dollar 
 a crate. 
 
 Szveet Potatoes and Melons 
 
 Seventy-five per cent of the California sweet potato crop is grown in 
 the Turlock-Merced section. The shipments last year were 283 cars. The 
 yield is from 125 to 225 crates of 100 pounds per acre and bring 80 cents to 
 $1.25 per crate. 
 
 Tnrlock is the melon center of the West. In 1913, 1,092 carloads of 
 watermelons and cantaloupes w^ere shipped from this district. A fair yield 
 of watermelons is 15 to 20 tons, worth, on the average for the past three 
 years, $8 per ton. Large melons bring $12 and $14. Cantaloupes yield from 
 150 to 300 crates, and sometimes as high as 500 crates to the acre. They 
 were worth, average for the season, 65 cents per crate in 1912, and 85 cents 
 in 1913. This year's prices range a little above those of last year. The 
 Cassaba is now raised extensively and the Persian and Turkish melons 
 have recently been introduced and are very successful. 
 
 Intensified Farming 
 Turlock is the home of intensified farming, and of diversified agriculture. 
 All crops are grown with success. Cereals; wheat, barley, rye, oats; many 
 kinds of garden truck, including beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, cab- 
 bage, cauliflower, celery, peppers, cucumbers, etc. ; berries, strawberries, 
 loganberries, blackberries ; and all kinds of stock feed. 
 
 Turlock 
 
 URLOCK, a city of 3,000, is on the main line of the Southern 
 Pacific Railroad. It is the largest city and the commercial center 
 for the Turlock Irrigation District. Having been built recently, 
 it reflects the latest ideas in city building, having a municipal water 
 and sewer system, more miles of paved streets than any city of its age and 
 size in the United States, an exceptional street lighting system, and many 
 
 [39] 
 
beautiful homes. Here is located a cannery, creamery, gas plant, two banks, 
 two newspapers, a number of splendid churches, two grammar schools, a 
 splendid high school, and many stores whose stocks rival those of the cities. 
 
 A Week's Sliip.ments 
 Shipments from Turlock for the week ending July 25. 1914, averaged 
 thirty-eight cars per day. The value of one day's shipments, which may 
 be taken as an average, was as follows : 
 
 Watermelons, 18 cars at $120 $ 2.160 
 
 Cantaloupes, 17 cars at $350 5^950 
 
 Peaches, 4 cars at $260 1 'o40 
 
 Cream 1^558 
 
 Butter 459 
 
 T^otal $11,177 
 
 Ceres 
 
 ERES discloses its origin, or at least its history, in its name. It 
 was a settlement in a rich grain farming country, and its string of 
 big grain and hay warehouses on the Southern Pacific track are 
 filled to the roof this harvest season of 1914. Ceres is now a great 
 garden of peach orchards, with almond, apricot, fig, plum and other fruit, 
 with vineyards of forty, sixty and over a hundred acres. Its orchards supply 
 the canneries of Turlock, Modesto and others at greater distances and it 
 will soon have one of its own, as well as a fruit packing house. These 
 industries grow in a night in the San Joaquin Valley. Ceres has a fine 
 grammar school and is building a new high school of the most approved 
 architecture. The post office has lately been advanced to third class, and a 
 lively newspaper looks after the local interests. The largest creamery in 
 the district is turning out about a ton and a half of fancy butter daily for 
 the Los Angeles market and distributing about $15,000 every fortnight 
 among the 180 or more dairymen of the district. 
 
 TJie Jriiitmore Raiieli 
 A description of the Whitmore "ranch" will apply to the entire neigh- 
 borhood, for it represents the old and the new agriculture, and the dairy 
 industry and the fruit industry as well. Of the 1,000 acres. 270 are in alfalfa, 
 and about 200 in grain annually. An alfalfa region is a rich grain country 
 as well, for the plowing up and re-seeding, which is done about every six 
 or eight years, gives heavy crops of barley and oats and silage corn. The 
 dairy herd consists of about fifty high-grade Holsteins, headed by a couple 
 of thoroughbred bulls. — and no others are kept now in this country.— pro- 
 ducing a little better than eight-tenths of a pound of butter-fat dailv. Some 
 
 [41] 
 
of the cows are doing better than two pounds daily, which puts them in the 
 6(X)-pound class. But they average $8 per month, for the milking period, 
 besides the calf, which is worth from $8 to $25, the full-bloods bringing the 
 latter price. Hogs are an important adjunct of the dairy, consuming the 
 skim-milk and pasturing on the alfalfa. The hog sales amount to about $275 
 annually. The cow feed is straight alfalfa, with silage in the winter and 
 spring. There are two silos of 175 tons capacity each, and 55 acres are in 
 fodder corn, irrigated and cultivated, to fill the silos. 
 
 Peaches, Apricots and Grapes 
 The orchard of 250 acres is devoted mainly to cling peaches for canning, 
 and these bring from $25 to $28 per ton at the cannery. The crop runs from 
 five to ten tons per acre. Apricots, of which there are ten acres, bring $30 
 per ton. Apricots may be figured here at seven or eight tons to the acre, 
 with a full crop three years out of five. "Cots," and peaches also, have three 
 markets, the cannery, the fresh-fruit market, and dried. The vineyard, of 
 140 acres, is divided among Malagas, Thompson Seedless, Tokays and Em- 
 perors, and an experimental planting. 
 
 Many Orchards 
 
 All around Ceres are orchards, mostly peach, and some apricot and fig, 
 and almond as well. W. H. Harstine, who came from Kansas some years 
 ago, has a 20-acre place, with 14 acres in peaches, six years old. The orchard 
 began to bear at three years, producing $500, and the next year $800. This 
 year the indications are for six or seven tons to the acre. They will bring 
 from $25 to $30 a ton at the cannery. The orchard is irrigated twice in the 
 season, usually, water enough being let on to flood the checks. The whole 
 orchard can be irrigated in five or six hours, and the soil, being a deep, sandy 
 loam, takes the water quickly. 
 
 E. G. Stone, from Rochester, N. Y., has a fine old orchard, drying peach. 
 By good care and .cultivation this orchard is made to produce seven and eight 
 tons to the acre, and has a record of ten tons. Other orchards in the neigh- 
 borhood are fully as good. These orchard men, it may be remarked, employ 
 none but white labor as a rule, and there is no settlement of non-whites in 
 the neighboorhood, or in fact of any non-English speaking people. 
 
 A Big Wine Vineyard 
 The vineyard of A. B. Shoemake, though small compared with the big 
 thousand-acre vineyards of the wineries, is considered large in the irrigated 
 districts of Stanislaus County. It includes 560 acres altogether, with 320 
 acres near Ceres. The varieties are principally Zinfandel, Feherzagoes and 
 Thompson Seedless, the latter being available either for the fresh grape 
 shipping, for raisins or for wine. The vineyards are five years old and the 
 indicated yield is about seven tons to the acre, which will be increased to 
 eight and ten tons as the vines grow older. 
 
 [42] 
 
Figs 
 Figs are in a class by themselves, and the Ceres district is one of the best 
 fig- regions of the State. Figs are slower in coming into bearing than most 
 fruit, but are long lived, steady bearers, have few insect or other enemies and 
 cost less for care and cultivation than other fruit. One of the pioneer fig 
 raisers in the Smyrna Park section is Cyrus Case, originally from the State 
 of Maine. There are ten acres of Smyrna, or "Calimyrna" figs, producing 
 about a ton and a half to the acre, measured in dry figs, and increasing every 
 year. Half the crop is sold fresh, packed in one-layer boxes (8 pounds), 
 which bring 75 cents to a dollar in the Eastern markets, which is equivalent 
 to 18 to 25 cents a pound for the dried fruit. The dried figs, which are 
 picked up as they fall from the tree, are contracted for at $100 a ton, a good 
 price, considering the little labor in handling. The orchard is usually irri- 
 gated once and is then cultivated. The returns are about $150 or $160 per 
 acre and are increasing with the growth of the trees and the improvements 
 in marketing. 
 
 Poultry and bees are special industries of the Ceres neighborhood, three 
 or four carloads of honey being shipped annually. H. O. Brown, of the 
 Stanislaus Poultry Association, and W. A. Gilstrap. secretary of the county 
 Bee Keepers' Association, can give interesting particulars. 
 
 Keyes 
 
 Keyes lies in the center of the Turlock Irrigation District, midway 
 between Turlock and Modesto. The adjoining country is remarkably pro- 
 ductive in beans, watermelons, cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, alfalfa, grapes 
 and fruit, especially peaches. This season there will be between 700 and 
 1,000 carloads of sweets, melons and cantaloupes shipped from Keyes. The 
 creamery, owned and operated by local people, was opened on the first- of 
 July, 1913, with an output of 450 pounds of butter, and on the same date, 
 1914, the output was 2,750 pounds. The butter is shipped to Los Angeles 
 where it ranks at the top of the fancy trade. 
 
 J. A. Goodall is one of the leading Jersey breeders, coming from Illinois 
 two years ago and starting in dairying. He has confined his herd to regis- 
 tered Jerseys and now has some of the finest stock on the Coast, with a 
 number of animals from the famous Hood Farm, of Massachusetts. As an 
 example of success in beans, S. C. Peck put in fifty acres last year, clearing 
 $2,000. Grown in rotation with other crops, beans represent only half the 
 season's product. 
 
 The school shows evidence of the rapid growth of the community in 
 the temporary or "out-door" school building put up last year adjoining the 
 old school house, with another one building. The district now employs six 
 teachers, where two years ago there was but one teacher with twelve pupils. 
 
 [43] 
 
Denair 
 
 HE traveler from the south on the Santa Fe, after passing through 
 many tedious miles of dry grain country, spies, as the train crosses 
 the Merced River, wide expanses of restful green. He sits up 
 and takes notice. In the corrals he sees small herds of Jersey or 
 Holstein cows, and he also sees orchards and vineyards, which, if in mid- 
 summer, as the writer is telling this story, are breaking down with their 
 loads of fruit. The traveler inquires what place they are coming to. 
 "Denair," is the reply. 
 
 A Country of Good Pcof^lc and Small Farms 
 Like its neighbor, Hughson, a few miles north, and in fact in common 
 with all the rest of the district, Denair is a country of small farms and good 
 homes. And like all the rest it is "dry," with an industrious, white, church- 
 going community. There are three churches : Friends, Christian and Mis- 
 sion. For a couple of years when the town was new, the different congrega- 
 tions worshipped under one roof in Christian harmony, and this harmony, 
 which exists today, indicates that it is a community of brotherly love. Denair 
 has good schools, including a high school which is maintained in the bank 
 building ; a bank, a creamery, a newspaper and a live chamber of commerce. 
 Farms are small, — fifteen or twenty acres, while many of five and ten 
 acres are making a good living for their owners. Dairying, poultry and 
 fruit are the leading industries. Hogs as an adjunct of the dairy, are very 
 profitable and Denair has the record of being the leading hog-shipping point 
 of the county. There are some 75 shippers of cream and milk from Denair, 
 shipping about 200 gallons of cream and 300 gallons of milk daily. 
 
 The Soil — Esl^ccially Adapted to Alfalfa 
 The soils of the Denair-Hughson-Empire country (or in other words, 
 the strip bordering on the Santa Fe railroad, lying between the Turlock- 
 Modesto lands along the Southern Pacific and the land at the base of the 
 Sierra foothills) is a little heavier, or more loamy than that on the west and 
 a little better adapted to alfalfa. And it is no less suitable for fruit and 
 vegetables. But, as the doctors say, alfalfa is "indicated." 
 
 JVJiat Fifty Coxw Can Do 
 An experienced dairyman says: "Fifty cows on fifty acres of alfalfa 
 should average 270 pounds of butter-fat each in a year, making 13,500 
 pounds. These are no fancy figures, for individual cows might double this 
 production. At 32y2 cents, the average price for butter-fat in San Francisco 
 for the past five years, this would make $4,387.50 for the herd. Deduct feed 
 at $45 per year per head, and two men at $40 per month and board, $1,560: 
 total, $3,810, leaves a credit of $577. without allowing anything for the 
 calves, hogs and poultry. With only one man, which is nearer the rule, there 
 
 [45] 
 
would be $780 added to the credit side. There is too much variation in the 
 receipts for calves, hogs and other by-products but these, after all, represent 
 in the best dairies the real profits of the dairy." The hog shipments should 
 bring in about $1,000 a year. 
 
 Jerseys of High Degree 
 Here is a man from Illinois, Mr. J. N. Lester, with herds of registered 
 Jerseys headed by such famous sires as Gertie's Son and Marquis Golden 
 Lad — names that will be recognized by the initiated. He says : "My herd 
 at Denair averages me better than a pound of butter-fat a day. I have had 
 experience with dairying near Chicago, Lllinois, where I operated a dairy 
 and sold sweet cream at 36 to 54 cents for butter-fat. I had silos and fed 
 a complete ration, but it was not as profitable as my exclusive alfalfa ration 
 in the San Joaquin Valley. If you tell the dairymen of Indiana and Illinois 
 the facts in regard to the results we get from an exclusive alfalfa ration in 
 this region, they may regard it as a 'California story,' but it is all right. 
 * * * You will be doing these eastern farmers a favor if you get them out 
 here, and I will back you up with the facts." Mr. Lester also has a dairy 
 at Riverbank, and one in Kings County. 
 
 Seven Coii's; Eight Hundred Dollars 
 
 Mr. J. Lankard, who came from Missouri by way of Los Angeles 
 (which is the way most Missourians are shown) claims a better record, 
 which is often done with a smaller number of cows. He has fifteen head of 
 Jerseys, including young stock, and eight milking cows brought him $800 
 last year. He has twenty acres of land and he makes it all count. 
 
 Mrs. W. M. Leland makes a specialty of Guernseys, one of the few 
 herds of this breed in the county. They are heavier than the Jerseys, and 
 have more the characteristics of the Holsteins, with which the herd is mixed, 
 numbering altogether about sixty head. The cows are pastured on alfalfa, 
 though the greater part of the 120 acres is cut for hay. 
 
 A Litth^ Bit of Intensive Farming 
 N. A. Stimson hails from Iowa, but his name gives him away for a 
 New Yorker. He came here only four years ago and bought seventeen 
 acres of grain stubble. He has ten acres of alfalfa, two acres of straw- 
 berries and an acre and a half of peach orchard, with blackberries between 
 the rows. He raises pumpkins among the blackberries, so that there is not 
 much land lying idle. Mrs. Stimson takes care of the poultry and is raising 
 a couple of Jersey calves. Calculating roughly, the strawberries bring in 
 between $400 and $500, the blackberries $300, and the orchard about $150. 
 The poultry are good for $100 more. 
 
 A Good Orchard Report 
 The Shafer orchards, near Denair, have 50 acres in peaches, 30 in 
 apricots, 14 in plums, 6 in cherries, and 40 acres in Malaga grapes, with 
 
 [46] 
 
1 he scliouls ol :>hiiiislaus county are not excelled anyu'liere. These tivo are at 
 Patterson and Neivman. 
 
 five acres in alfalfa and ten or twelve acres in oats and milo for the stock. 
 This was the first year for the apricots (Tiltons), and they yielded 
 45 tons, at $30 a ton. The cherries bear well and bring 7 and 8 cents a 
 pound. The Kelsey plums are heavy and sure bearers, making eight and 
 ten tons to the acre. The vineyard will make five tons per acre this year 
 and the crop is already engaged at $20 per ton. f. o. b. The vines are young 
 and should produce eight or ten tons per acre next year. The orchards are 
 surrounded by a border of red gum (eucalyptus), five years old and forty 
 or fifty feet high, some of the trees being a foot in diameter. Home labor 
 entirely is employed in the orchard and vineyard and the best of conditions 
 prevail. A system of thorough cultivation is followed, with two irrigations 
 per year. (See illustration of the apricot side of this orchard.) 
 
 Poultry and Gardens 
 There is a very well founded prejudice against associating fowls with 
 gardens. Here, however, by the liberal use of wire netting, people manage 
 to have beautiful and productive gardens and quiet, well-behaved fowls. 
 P. T. Nye, who lives comfortably if not luxuriously in his tank-house, shows 
 a pretty garden well stocked with roses and a yard of White Leghorns. His 
 poultry account for last year showed 3,914 dozen eggs from 355 hens ; sales, 
 3,788 dozen, $926.60. Cost of feeding, $1.26 per hen, profit per hen, on 
 sales, $1.37, or including home use, $1.50. 
 
 Hughson 
 
 jj 
 
 <> 
 
 C^^ ^ UGHSON is on the Santa Fe, seven miles north of Denair and 
 113 miles from San Francisco. It is the northeastern section 
 of the Turlock Irrigation District and has a population of about 
 600, and every one counts. Six years from the grain stubble, 
 Hughson has a bank, a hotel, a newspaper, a milk-condensary, four churches, 
 grammar and high school, and a goodly number of well-stocked business 
 
 [47] 
 
houses and shops. Regarding the bank, it may be said that it was started 
 in the new-hatched town three years ago by a couple of Kansas hustlers, 
 and now has deposits of close to $100,000. which is a good indication of the 
 productiveness of the land. 
 
 A Cream Center 
 
 Hughson grew out of the subdividing of the old Hughson ranch of 
 2.160 acres in 1908. In a short time a hundred families, mostly from the 
 Middle West, had occupied the country with farms averaging twenty-five 
 acres or less. On the ten thousand acres tributary to Hughson it is estimated 
 that there are fully 3,000 dairy cows, of which about 1,200 are supplying 
 the milk condensary, established by local enterprise and capital, which ships 
 both condensed milk and sweet cream to San Francisco. Much cream is 
 also collected by the various creameries that are competing for the custom 
 of the dairies. 
 
 A Little Dairy Reeord 
 
 Nine small dairies in the neighborhood, running two to twelve cows and 
 totaling 66, show an average of $10.64 during the milking period. These 
 were mostly grade cows, with no extra care or feed, and costing their owners 
 nothing but the labor of cutting half a ton of alfalfa for each cow per month, 
 and the milking and care. Indeed, the writer was shown one dairy, not a 
 model one by any means, which managed to get along with only land enough 
 for a corral. The owner had got together half a dozen cows and by buying 
 refuse hay succeeded in coaxing his cows to provide him with a living, 
 bv turning hay worth $1.50 into butter worth $8 or $9. Which shows that 
 neither broad acres nor towering silos are absolutely necessary in the dairy 
 game. 
 
 Sonic Sample Dairies 
 
 Let us look at some of these dairies. Here is F. D. Keeney, for example. 
 He keeps thirty head of stock on twenty acres. It was the 5th of May when 
 the writer visited his place and his little patch of Peruvian alfalfa had 
 already been cut twice, yielding a ton and a half to the cutting. He milks 
 eiglit jersey cows and they give him ten pounds of butter- fat a day. 
 
 George F. Kendall came from Washington, where he had been handling 
 good money in a bank for several years. But it was all other people's money, 
 and he wanted to handle some of his own. So he came here two years ago 
 and got a little place on the oat stubble, building a barn and sowing some 
 alfalfa. He got a small Jersey herd and is now milking twelve, including 
 heifers and strippers, which average a Httle over a pound a day. He has 
 done all his own work until this year, to the benefit of his health. He has 
 been living, Swiss fashion (which is very much the fashion in Stanislaus), 
 in one side of his barn, but will soon have a neat little bungalow. 
 
 [48] 
 
Figs ill cloi'cr, icitli t^caihcs on the side, is a plcascuit game tu play fur the man 
 zvho has a shop in tozvn. 
 
 An Alfalfa Ledger Account 
 The local secretary presents the following- ledger account of nine acres 
 of alfalfa on the farm of L. P. Payne, in 1913: 
 
 Credit, 59>^ tons of alfalfa, sold at $9 per ton $535.50 
 
 Debit, Irrigation, state and county taxes $27.00 
 
 Labor, cutting and stacking- 90.00 
 
 discing- and irrigating 25.00 142.00 
 
 Net receipts $393.50 
 
 Mr. Payne paid $250 an acre for this land in 1912 and he is now 
 
 getting a net income amounting to 8 per cent on a value of $546 per acre, 
 
 and his total taxes, please notice, amount to $3 per acre. 
 
 A Profitable Dairy 
 And this: W. D. Longley has thirteen cows that have averaged 16 
 pounds of butter-fat per day for six months. Lowest price, 30 cents ; highest, 
 43 cents; average, 38 cents, at the creamery. Feed, alfalfa only, not quite 
 half a ton a month. This gives an average of $14.03 per month per cow, 
 and a return of $28.06 per ton for the alfalfa, not counting labor. This 
 would be greatly increased by crediting the pigs and poultry. Pigs are 
 bought at eight weeks old for $2.50 to $3.00; fed waste alfalfa and skim 
 milk for five weeks and sold at about 125 pounds weight at 8 cents. In 
 other words, 8-cent pork is produced at a cost of 4 cents or less. The skim 
 milk is also fed to growing calves and chickens. 
 
 Diversified Farming 
 There is so much orchard in and about Hughson that if one had not 
 seen the dairies he would call it distinctly a fruit country. And all this 
 country, whichever way you go, is so checkered with orchards and vineyards, 
 with alfalfa checks and melon patches, gardens and bean fields ; dairies and 
 poultry farms, grain and pasture, that you cannot say whether it is one or 
 the other, and the only name for it is diversified farming — and intensive 
 
 [49] 
 
agriculture. These farmers do not put all their eggs in one basket. They 
 do not "make a killing" on one special crop one year and then go broke 
 the next. It keeps them hopping to keep up with the procession and they 
 have no time for trips to Europe (some of them go, though, all the same), 
 or even to go fishing, but they have some produce to sell every week in the 
 
 year. 
 
 Grain and Horses 
 Milton Gross came here a few years ago from Pennsylvania and bought 
 a small place near Hughson. He set out a little vineyard and a mixed 
 orchard. Oat hay looked like a good thing to him and he put in ten acres. 
 He cut thirty tons and sold it at $18 and $18.50. making $547.50. He fol- 
 lowed the oats with white beans, harvesting 106 sacks of 90 pounds, which 
 sold for $3.90 a hundred, making $372 more to add to the credit, and a total 
 of $919.50 from the ten acres. He is now getting an income from his fruit 
 and has also put in some alfalfa, which nobody can do without. 
 
 Olives a Sure Crop 
 "What's the matter with olives?" asked the writer. There is nothing 
 the matter with olives ; not even scale. The experienced olive man turns up 
 the underside of the leaves in an olive grove to look for scale, though in 
 most cases he need not take that trouble. A glance suiifices here, for the 
 rich green, healthy foUage shows that there is no insect pest here. The oHve, 
 like the fig, is a long-lived tree, a constant bearer, and will stand a great 
 deal of ill-treatment, which it usually gets. Like the fig it requires plenty of 
 sun and air and is usually planted in borders. The smaller varieties are sold 
 for oil, at about $40 a ton, and the larger kinds go to the pickle factories at 
 prices ranging from $80 to near $200 a ton, according to quality and ripe- 
 ness, the demand now being for ripe olives. There is a risk, however, in 
 holding the fruit too long, as a frost may catch the olive man if he don't 
 watch out, and then his crop goes to the oil press. 
 
 The Hickman Countr)^ 
 
 (SI 
 
 o 
 
 ^ ICKMAN lies near the south bank of the Tuolumne River, just 
 south of Waterford, and all that has been said above of the 
 bright prospects of the latter apply also to Hickman. But it 
 may be said further that Hickman has advanced in the march of 
 progress and is already tasting some of the rewards that belong to an up-to- 
 date and wide-awake community. One has but to look at the wide and 
 brimming canal, the main artery of the Turlock Irrigation District, and the 
 orchards and alfalfa fields which border it almost from the outlet of the 
 reservoir down to the valley floor, and at the fine new grammar school which 
 testifies to the high intelligence of the people, to know that Hickman is the 
 center of a very productive agricultural district and a growing population 
 of up-to-date people. 
 [50] 
 
One of the itvo large grainiiiar sehools at Tiirloek and an almond orchard near 
 
 Oakdale. 
 
 Rich Sandy Loam 
 Surrounding the town of Hickman are some twenty thousand acres of 
 sandy loam. Almost a tenth part of the region is rich bottom land along 
 the Tuolumne River. Toward the west are found some of the best sections 
 of the Turlock district, and some four miles eastward begin the rolling hills 
 that are producing large crops of cereals to swell the warehouses of Hickman 
 and provide grist for the mill. In variety and quality of soil, for general 
 agriculture, for alfalfa, for deciduous or citrus fruit, conditions in the Hick- 
 man district are not surpassed anywhere in the State. While not all the 
 soils in this section are first class, and some soils are better for some crops 
 than for others, it will all, when properly prepared and irrigated, produce 
 good crops of alfalfa, grain, etc. The soils are loams of varying consistency, 
 from the dark brown, heavy Oakdale sandy loam to the lighter Fresno sandy 
 loam, entirely free from alkali and usually of good depth. 
 
 The Fertile River Silt 
 Along the bottoms of the Tuolumne are deposits of silt soil with a depth 
 of twelve to fifteen feet to water, which are unsurpassed in any country for 
 fertility. Crops are grown on these bottoms without irrigation. Corn 
 (maize) grows sixteen feet high and produces fifty to seventy bushels to 
 the acre. Kafir corn, or "Egyptian," beans, early potatoes, tomatoes and 
 vegetables of all kinds are also very prolific. The Bartlett pear finds here a 
 congenial home and not only produces heavily but has a color and flavor 
 not found in the valley. Cherries, apples and plums also do well. 
 
 Roads and Transportation 
 The roads are hard and smooth and are maintained at a small expense. 
 From all the east side, where the heaviest crops of grain are produced and 
 where the orchards of the future will be located, it is an easy down-grade 
 to the railroad. Besides the Southern Pacific, the Modesto & Empire has 
 surveyed an extension from Empire, on the Santa Fe, eastward to Water- 
 ford, and it is planned to carry the line on to La Grange. This will not only 
 
 [51] 
 
connect Waterford and Hickman with the county seat, but will give compet- 
 ing service on two trunk-line railways. 
 
 The Hickmmi Rancli 
 Hickman is the home, or business district of the famous Hickman ranch 
 of eleven thousand acres, owned and operated by the Louis M. Hickman 
 corporation. While primarily a scientifically operated grain ranch, the lands 
 have demonstrated that olives, figs, oranges, grapes and all kinds of fruit 
 grown in California may be successfully produced. But, as explained by 
 Prof. Wickson, circumstances and market demands called for other crops 
 and they have not got around to commercial fruit growing. The ranch has 
 raised large crops of grain and hay, and never better than the present year, 
 and fine stock as well. The owners, however, recognize the new era of small 
 farms and accept the change in the modern spirit. In a short time the ranch 
 will be subdivided and ofifered to newcomers at prevailing rates. 
 
 Electric Pozver 
 In these days, the man who is located at a distance from a power line 
 is as much isolated as if he were away from the railroad. The main pole 
 line of the Yosemite Power Company, taking its power from the Tuolumne 
 River, traverses the Hickman district, offering ample power for running 
 machinery, pumping plants and all farm and dairy work, as well as lighting. 
 
 Artesian Wells 
 As though the irrigation ditch were not sufficient, they have developed 
 several artesian wells in the Hickman neighborhood, which will have the 
 advantage of a never-failing supply of the clearest and purest of water. 
 
 The Oakdale District 
 
 'HE Oakdale district is the newest of the Stanislaus County irriga- 
 tion communities, having first tasted the blessings of water in 
 1913. It includes 70,000 acres on the northeastern side of the 
 county, lying under the Sierra foothills. The soils are for the 
 most part of a heavier texture than those of the Modesto-Turlock districts. 
 There is more clay-loam and greater areas of sedimentary or alluvial loams. 
 Having an elevation of about 200 feet on the upper side and with blufifs 
 fifty or sixty feet above the Stanislaus River, drainage is amply provided 
 for. The country shows a great variety ; wide stretches of level or slightly 
 rolling upland, and broad benches of river-bottom, especially adapted for 
 truck gardens, corn, potatoes, cherries, almonds and deciduous fruit. 
 
 An Irrigation Partnership 
 The Oakdale Irrigation district was organized under the VVright-Bridge- 
 ford act, with some improvement on its predecessors. A partnership was 
 
 [52] 
 
The apricot side of a big orchard near Deiiair. It is bordered unth olives and 
 
 Eucalyptus. 
 
 entered into with the South San Joaquin district on the north side of the 
 river for the construction of the dam above Knight's Ferry, on the Stanis- 
 laus, and the Oakdale district built its tunnel and canals, irrigating 30,000 
 acres on the north side of the river and 40,000 acres on the south side. Like 
 the Modesto district, the Oakdale taxation system relieves improvements 
 from the burden of providing for the bonds and up-keep. 
 
 Values of land have increased greatly with the introduction of the irri- 
 gation system, and will continue to increase as settlement and improvement 
 continues. Visitors from other parts of the State comment on the low 
 prices of land here as compared with production and with some of the older 
 settled regions. Scattered through the district, and particularly in the north 
 and east, are some of the most attractive colony sites to be found in 
 California. 
 
 In the Oakdale district are the towns of Oakdale, Riverbank, Thalheim, 
 and Knight's Ferry, the latter at one time the county-seat. Orange Blossom 
 and Langworth are old settlements near Oakdale. As the name signifies, 
 the oak is distinctive of the district, and though many have been cut away, 
 these sturdy, dark-foliaged live oaks form a most pleasing feature of the 
 landscape, besides being of great value on the home-sites. 
 
 Cattle on a Thousand Hills 
 There is more than a poetic simile in the song of the shepherds of Pales- 
 tine as applied to the foothills of the Sierras. Rich in natural grasses, the 
 wild oats and the filleree ; with the side valleys green long into the summer ; 
 this country maintains large herds of cattle and numerous flocks of sheep. 
 This is a part of the old stock industry of the country that will not die out as 
 long as the hills remain and San Francisco oflfers a market. The Paulsell 
 district, adjoining, is an ideal region for the stock feeder. Steers at three 
 years old, fed entirely on natural pasture, will average 1,200 pounds and 
 bring the highest market price in the San Francisco market. Those who 
 believe that there is still money in the live-stock business do not go astray 
 in the Stanislaus County foothills. 
 
 [53] 
 
!€ 
 
 Q fi 
 
 ^ 
 
 <*; ?^ 
 
 Cii 
 
 Co 
 
The Oakdale country has been long known for its orchards and vine- 
 yards, and is now becoming famous for its dairies and poultry. We shall 
 speak of the district as a whole, without attempting to segregate, any more 
 than is necessary, the various communities and their productions. 
 
 Hozv the Genoese Discovered Ameriea 
 It was over fifty years ago that Paul Brichetto came from a tiny Italian 
 valley near Genoa with a party of his countrymen who settled at Stockton. 
 The foothill valleys of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties are sprinkled with 
 Piedmontese names. They took naturally to Alpine farming and it is said 
 that they made more from' their gardens than the miners did from their 
 placers. About 1880 Brichetto came to Langworth (Oakdale had not yet 
 sprouted), and bought three hundred acres on the river bottoms. He planted 
 cherries, olives, vines, Italian chestnuts, and many other things, and kept 
 tight on the job. Likewise did his friend and compatriot, Casalegno. And 
 they prospered. Brichetto now owns about two thousand acres and has built 
 himself a Piedmontese palace in front of his old domicile. And Casalegno 
 has taken his family to Europe and will be welcomed at the old homestead 
 as an American prince. Moral : Great Oaks from little Oakdale grow. 
 
 A Variety Orchard 
 
 A. V. Stuart was a pioneer from Maine and planted the. first almond 
 orchard in the Langworth district, as it was then called. His daughter, Mrs. 
 E. V. Coleman, and her two sturdy sons conduct a fruit ranch of about 100 
 acres on the benches of the Stanislaus. There are 22 acres of almonds, 6 
 acres of olives, 8 of cots, 36 acres of peaches and two of prunes. The prunes 
 make 8 to 10 tons to the acre, the cots 10 to 15 tons, and the peaches 10 to 
 16 tons to the acre. The trees are large, the soil deep and loose, and the 
 surface well cultivated. Their estimate on almonds is an average of 1^ 
 tons, at 12 cents, or $240 per ton, making $6,500 for the orchard, with an 
 expense of about $500. 
 
 Olives and Nuts 
 
 Near the old Langworth school house lives C. C. Turner, who is known 
 for his success with olives. He says : "Olives are my best paying fruit. I 
 have two acres of three-year trees which will make a crop this fall, though 
 the olive is said to be a slow-bearing tree. I have picked $3.50 worth from 
 a five-year-old tree. Olives sold last fall to the pickle factories for $150 to 
 $250 per ton. I pickle my own olives and it pays better than to sell the fruit. 
 I buy more than I raise. My cherries at eight years yielded $20 from a 
 single tree, and my peach orchard at three years netted me $110 per acre, 
 and French prunes as well or better. I have 15 acres of almonds that are 
 producing heavily this year, for small trees. I have a few two-year walnuts, 
 on black stock, standing twenty feet high in the alfalfa. A neighbor has 
 some Persian walnuts that yielded $20 per tree at eight years old, and pecans 
 that yielded $32 to the tree. There is a big future for walnuts and pecans 
 
 [55] 
 
here." William McCreery has an acre of olives twenty years old. He does 
 his own pickling and last year sold over $500 worth of pickles and oil olives. 
 He has an almond orchard also, which promises a heavy crop this year. 
 
 Almonds and Alfalfa 
 Whether Oakdale is more famous for almonds or cherries, or alfalfa 
 or roses, it is hard to say. Anyway, they have a flourishing- Almond Grow- 
 ers' Association with about twenty members, and Secretary Wrangham, of 
 the California Almond Exchange, after inspecting the orchards last spring, 
 said that he had seen no finer almond district in California. One example 
 will suffice. Niels Lund has 100 acres in almonds, eight to ten years old. 
 In 1910 they yielded 4>^ tons; in 1911, 10 tons; 1912, 14 tons; 1913 (the 
 dry year), 5 tons. This year the crop will be large. Last year the price 
 went to $400 a ton, but the average price is nearer $250. A fair crop for a 
 mature orchard is three-quarters of a ton to a ton per acre. Mr. Lund also 
 has 65 acres of alfalfa on the river bottoms and cuts 8 to 10 tons to the acre 
 in five cuttings, besides pasturing in the winter. 
 
 Strawberries 
 Strawberries are the special pride of the Riverbank small ranches. They 
 have strawberries at Christmas, New Year's, Decoration Day and Fourth 
 of July. They show you a little place where a man came in last winter, built 
 a little bungalow or cabin and planted a patch of strawberries. In April 
 he was picking berries and they do not give him time to put his house to 
 rights. Robert Frick is one of the newcomers with a strawberry-mark. 
 From a patch 40x65 feet (or 1/16 acre) he sold $60 worth by the middle 
 of May and the plants were setting for a second crop. 
 
 Mult Hill in Parvo 
 Right in the town of Oakdale, within a ball throw, almost, of the 
 women's club house and park, is the little ranch of Samuel Turpin, a Penn- 
 sylvania veteran. This Liliputian farm is 87/100 of an acre, including build- 
 ings. It has a berry patch from which over $300 worth has been sold in a 
 season, an orange grove that netted $50 and is improving, a lemon tree that 
 bears a thousand lemons, worth $10, and a miscellaneous collection of de- 
 ciduous fruit, apples, peaches, apricots, plums and cherries, that are credited 
 with $80; three fig trees, $12; 11 olive trees (the product pickled), $116, 
 and two Persian walnuts, $25 ; total, $593. It should be explained that the 
 crops were peddled in town and everything was made to count. When Mr. 
 Turpin was in good health he kept a cow and some poultry. It is no wonder 
 that he said the place was too big, and should be divided (like Gaul), into 
 three parts. "It is too big for one man to look after," he said. 
 
 What Thalheiui Farmers Are Doing 
 Farmer Deichelbohrer plowed ten acres in the spring of 1912, sowed 
 barley, at a cost of $3.50 per acre for plowing, harrowing and seeding, and 
 
 1571 
 
cut one and a half tons of grain hay per acre, worth $18 per ton. He plowed 
 in the fall ($2.00 per acre), using no seed, and in 1913 cut a ton and a half 
 of volunteer grain hay per acre. He then plowed and seeded with Egyptian 
 corn, at a cost of $2.50 per acre, and threshed 15 sacks of corn per acre, 
 selling at $2.50 per sack. 
 
 W. Aker has two acres of Phillips Cling peaches that are showing what 
 fruit of this kind will do here. They produced last year, at four years old, 
 four tons per acre, selling at $25 per ton, and this year the prospects are 
 considerably better. Strawberries between the trees yielded $150 per acre. 
 A row of Himalaya berries, about 20 rods long, growing along the fence, 
 which is the general fashion here, brought $35 for the season's crop, besides 
 supplying the family. 
 
 Jerseys of High Degree 
 
 Daniel Wieland is the fortunate owner of Golden Marquis Girlie, a 
 Jersey of high degree with a record of 16 pounds 10 ounces of butter-fat in 
 seven days, and 14,000 pounds of milk testing 5.35, in 1913; equivalent to 
 759 pounds of butter-fat. Selling the whole milk to the creamery she 
 brought in $300 in a year. Mr. Wieland has been breeding Plymouth Rock 
 fowls for twenty-five years and has won twelve silver cups. Several of his 
 hens have a 250-egg record. 
 
 Near Riverbank is the Lester herd of registered Jerseys numbering 55 
 cows, producing, including heifers and strippers, 45 pounds of butter-fat 
 per day last April, and mature cows averaging a pound and a quarter 
 per day. , 
 
 An Ideal Poultry Country 
 
 The Oakdale district, from Riverbank to Thalheim on the north and 
 Knight's Ferry on the east, is an ideal poultry country. Levi French came 
 from North Dakota and after looking over the State for a location he settled 
 at Oakdale and established a poultry yard in the oak scrub. He carries about 
 2,500 White Leghorns, buys his grain from the farmers and feeds chopped 
 alfalfa. His hens have laid an average of 130 for the past four years, and 
 the gross return per hen, on the egg account alone, is figured at $2.71, with 
 a cost of $1.34. Chicks bring $10 a hundred, broilers 25 cents, and fowls 
 from $6 to $7.50 per dozen. Birds for breeding make an additional item. 
 As to cost of housing, it is estimated at 20 cents per bird here, against $1 
 in the East. 
 
 Poultry Deiiwnstration 
 
 Demonstrating in poultry is a specialty of Riverbank. One need not 
 be surprised if they put a poultry course in the Riverbank school. At any 
 rate, they aim to teach newcomers the art and science of profitable poultry 
 keeping.- The yards are neat, economical and practical, in the hands of a 
 manager of experience, and the 300 laying pullets manifest their appreciation 
 by laying 180 eggs per day. The breeds include pedigreed Buff and White 
 Orpingtons, White Wyandottes and White Leghorns. Electric incubators 
 
 [58] 
 
The Rivcrbaiik and Roberts' Poultry yards are good ohjeet lessons in suceessful 
 
 chicken farming. 
 
 and brooders are used. From this nucleus many other yards are being 
 started. 
 
 On an alfalfa ranch southwest of Riverbank, B. D. Austin is keeping 
 Pekin ducks, Mammoth Bronze turkeys and Red Orpington fowls. There 
 were over 300 ducks and fifty turkeys when the count was taken, and all 
 were doing finely. As the larger part of the sales are for breeding purposes 
 the receipts are considerably larger than in the commercial yards, but the 
 expenses also are larger. Regarding the ducks, they raised 500, marketed 
 250, averaging five pounds, at 17 cents, $212.50, at a cost of about $100, 
 leaving a profit of $112.50. They also marketed last year from 2 8/10 acres, 
 13 tons and 1,784 pounds of peaches at $30 a ton at the cannery, which was 
 at the rate of $140 per acre. This year the crop is much heavier. 
 
 Big Money from Cherries and Pears 
 The following data was given the writer on the ground by a practical 
 orchard man and may be relied upon as entirely correct : Cherries ; Casalegno 
 has 86 trees about 18 years old that have produced over 12 tons, selling at 
 from 7 to 8 cents, with the first hundred boxes or so considerably higher. 
 At 7^2 cents the crop is worth $150 per ton, or $1,800 for the 86 trees. 
 They make a crop four years out of five and have been known to yield 18 
 or 20 tons, and one tree a thousand pounds. The trees are large and healthy 
 and apparently good for many years to come. Pears : There are six acres 
 of Bartletts in* the Casalegno orchard that have produced 90 tons of canning- 
 fruit at $40 a ton. Blight is prevented by careful pruning. Peaches, in the 
 Coleman orchard netted over $1 a tree at three years old, producing a box 
 to the tree. The sixteen-year-old orchard is good for 12 to 14 tons per acre. 
 French prunes yield 12 and 14 tons to the acre and bring $30 to $40 a ton. 
 Apricots yield 12 to 15 tons, or 2^ to 3 tons dried, and the dried fruit, of 
 good quality, is worth 9 to 10 cents, and often as high as 15 cents. Almonds 
 will run from 1,800 to 3,500 pounds, — and some years no crop, or very 
 little. The Stuart and Coleman orchards, 8 to 12 years, will average a ton 
 
 [59] 
 
or more to the acre, and other orchards will do as well, or better. The above 
 data are for mature orchards, on the best of land. 
 
 On a Six- A ere Raneh 
 Some men have the knack of making things grow, and grow well, on a 
 small piece of ground, while other men have the hardest kind of a time to 
 make a living off 640 acres. Midway between Oakdale and Riverbank, 
 J. E. Stribling, on a little ranch of six acres, raised peaches, almonds, plums, 
 prunes, apricots, figs, grapes and all kinds of berries (especially straw- 
 berries) and general truck. He also had a patch of alfalfa and kept a horse 
 and cow, pigs and poultry and two hives of bees. He sold from $1,500 to 
 $2,000 worth of produce a year, besides making a living for his family. He 
 did all his own work except the berry picking, which cost about $300 a 
 season. The place is now in the hands of a new owner and the prospects 
 are that he will do cjuite as well as his predecessor. 
 
 Peas, Tomatoes, Ete. 
 Peas, tomatoes, pumpkins, etc., are profitable crops in the Oakdale 
 country. The Pacific Pea Packing plant is the largest of its kind on the 
 Coast and a million cans or more represent this season's pack. They have 
 over 500 acres in peas, 75 acres in tomatoes and 150 acres contracted. There 
 are 700 acres in grain, 75 acres in milo-maize and 60 acres in black-eyed 
 peas. A cement silo is to be built to take care of the pea hay for fattening 
 stock. Besides the above there are 40 acres recently planted with almonds. 
 
 Citrus Fruit 
 Citrus culture, in the thermal belt at the base of the foothills, has been 
 successfully demonstrated. At Knight's Ferry stands the first orange tree, 
 so claimed, planted in the county, a Washington navel, now about fifty years 
 old, and thrifty and vigorous. At Orange Blossom, just east of Oakdale, 
 there are several fine groves, that of Capt. W. A. Bain in particular, of twelve 
 acres, now sixteen years old, comparing favorably with any grove in the 
 State. Here the crop is marketed before Christmas and has the advantage 
 of the nearby and northern markets. Orange Blossom honey is true to its 
 name, exceeding in delicacy the famed honey of Hymettus. 
 
 Oakdale 
 
 Oakdale, lying with her cheek upon the brown hills of the Sierras and 
 her feet bathed in the cool waters of the Stanislaus, has few rivals in the 
 California beauty contest. Her Italian gardens, white in spring with the 
 bloom of orchards ; her oak-shaded paradise of poultry ; her berry patches 
 and pea farms ; her rose-bowered homes and efficient schools ; make her 
 singularly attractive among the many fine towns of the San Joaquin Valley. 
 
 [60] 
 
The Orange Blossom Colony, at the base of the Sierra foothills, is true to its name. 
 
 The center of a seventy-thousand-acre irrigation district, Oakdale is on 
 the east-side branch of the Southern Pacific, the Santa Fe Oakdale branch 
 and the Sierra R. R., giving- access to the mid-vahey and the bay cities on 
 the one hand and the mining and lumbering centers of Tuolumne and Cala- 
 veras counties on the other. Flour and feed mills, planing mills, gas works, 
 three banks with deposits of three-quarters of a million, a weekly and a semi- 
 weekly newspaper, municipal water plant and municipal swimming pool, and 
 a creamery that has increased its output in a year's time from three hundred 
 to eight hundred pounds daily and will be turning out a thousand pounds 
 daily before the close of the year. 
 
 Riverbank 
 
 Rivcrbank is on the Santa Fe, just half way between San Francisco and 
 Fresno, on the south bank of the Stanislaus River at what was called Bur- 
 neyville Ferry in the Argonaut days. It is a junction and division point, with 
 the Santa Fe's shops and roundhouse and a big water tank that assures the 
 best of fire protection. (The railroad's appropriations were about 
 $2,000,000.) Without any publicity or "uplift" work, Riverbank comes as 
 near being a model industrial town and "garden city" as they make them. 
 Where three years ago there was nothing but a grain field, there are now 
 shops and stores, a pay-roll of $25,000 a month, a fine brick bank with 
 $-K),000 in deposits, the best water (99 44/100 pure), electric-lighted streets 
 with wires in conduits, gas, sewers and cement sidewalks, an up-to-date 
 "open-air" school, a board of trade and a lively newspaper. Selling con- 
 tracts and public sentiment alike forbid saloons. Riverbank is not only in 
 the center of a rich agricultural and fruit country, but is a fine illustration 
 of the ancient phrase: rus in nrhs (for which see the school teacher). The 
 population, at latest reports, was 1,200. About the town are some of the 
 best soils of the Oakdale district. 
 
 Thalheim has no brass band nor any booster club ; it isn't in the adver- 
 tising books, nor, until recently, in the railroad, folders, but Thalheim is not 
 
 [61] 
 
worrying. If the tourist or the homeseeker conies to Thalheim he will find 
 nobody to welcome him ; all hands are in the field. Nobody is at the station 
 to see the train come in ; the alfalfa must be cut, the cows milked and the 
 stock fed. Thalheim is five miles north of Oakdale, 25 miles from Stock- 
 ton, and the most northerly town in the Oakdale district. The people are 
 mainly Germans, and their alfalfa farms, dairies and poultry yards are well 
 kept and profitable. Recently many acres of orchards, both fruit and nuts, 
 have been set out and will soon be in bearing. The shipments of produce 
 from Thalheim attracted the attention of the Southern Pacific officials last 
 year and they erected a $12,000 station. 
 
 Knight's Ferry, the county-seat from 1865 to 1871, when it boasted some 
 1,500 inhabitants, has an interesting record in the early history and literature 
 of the State. Here Bret Harte and Mark Twain listened to the stories of 
 the Argonauts from Occident to orient, and here the future hero of Appomat- 
 tox courted and won the sister of the trader and Indian agent. Knight's 
 Ferry has not so many people as in the days of the mining prosperity, but 
 its picturesque location, its fine mill-site and its beautiful gardens testify to a 
 bright future when Knight's Ferry shall be known as the foothill summer 
 resort of the Stanislaus. 
 
 The Waterford District 
 
 N THE north side of the Tuolumne River, overlooking the valley 
 towards the eastern foothills, is the old town of Waterford, where. 
 as its name signifies, there was a ford on the route of the old-time 
 travel to the mines and the mountain towns. The region round 
 about was known as a productive grain district, and when the Southern 
 Pacific built its east-side branch from Stockton south to Oakdale, Waterford 
 and Hickman, heavy were the freights of grain, hay and live-stock that were 
 taken out of this region. The ranches of enterprising farmers from the 
 Middle West, established a reputation for their live-stock and grain, and 
 higher up in the foothills flourished the orchards and vineyards of the moun- 
 tain farms. Recently an irrigation district adjoining the Oakdale, Modesto, 
 Turlock districts was organized under the Wright-Bridgeford act, taking 
 in about 17,000 acres lying between Waterford and La Grange. 
 
 Fruit of every kind, from the apple and plum to the fig and pomegranate, 
 thrive in this region. Apple and pear orchards, producing good crops of 
 the best quality, and promising young almond and walnut orchards may be 
 found scattered about the country. Especial attention, however, is called 
 to the advantages of this region for citrus culture, for which it is especially 
 fitted. See Prof. Wickson in "California Fruits." 
 
 Active, energetic men, with all of life before them, do well when they 
 go in advance of the procession. And Waterford wishes it to be understood 
 that theirs is a town of the new era, with good schools and no saloons, and 
 with a soil where everything will grow as soon as the water is provided. 
 
 [63] 
 
cAn Invitation 
 
 Brother from the East : We have gone together through the length and 
 breadth of this valley county ; on the east side, in the fruitful foothills ; on 
 the west side, in the sea of grain, and through the green alfalfa, orchards and 
 vineyards of the mid-valley. We have seen a productiveness and a pros- 
 perity not excelled and rarely equalled anywhere in the land. We have 
 shown you our resources and our records, and have tried to tell a plain, 
 unvarnished tale of our development, both agriculturally and socially. It 
 is such a wonderful story that despite the sincerest efforts to maintain an 
 attitude of reserve and moderation, we fear that we have indulged occasion- 
 ally in a little mild jubilation, not so much in pride as in a natural spirit of 
 thankfulness at being where we are, in a garden spot of the finest country 
 on earth. We have shown you our pedigree — 'average white Americans, 
 most of us, from "back East," either in this generation or the last, and we 
 try to be fairly hospitable, as far as the demands of our alfalfa, our fruit and 
 our stock will permit. We have met with some measure of success in 
 developing a fertile land and in building up a prosperous American com- 
 munity. We believe that Stanislaus County is about as near Paradise as 
 can be found on this mundane sphere — but it is no paradise for the lazy or 
 the inefficient. You have to get your bread by the sweat of your face, same 
 as we did. Sometimes it is hot — but it is hot, too, in the gardens of Hes- 
 perides ; sometimes there is too much water, and sometimes, in some places, 
 there is too little. We have some poor soil, even hard-pan and alkali and 
 drifting sand, but take it as it runs, by and large ; good Lord, what a land 
 it is ! Assuming that you are possessed of a fair degree of discretion and 
 "horse sense," as well as industry and perseverance, with a reasonable 
 amount of humility and willingness to learn, we invite you to come and dwell 
 with us, confident that before a twelvemonth has passed you will be joining 
 the chorus in singing the praises of California and Stanislaus County. We 
 offer you the right hand of fellowship and will do our best to guide you. 
 We want successful people for our neighbors, and the more the better. 
 
 Information on any particular section of Stanislaus County may be secured from 
 the following public promotion organizations : 
 
 STANISLAUS COUNTY BOARD OF TRADE MODESTO, CALIFORNIA 
 
 Newman Chamber of Commerce Newman, California 
 
 Crow's Landing Chamber of Commerce Crow's Landing, California 
 
 Patterson Chamber of Commerce Patterson, California 
 
 Oakdale Chamber of Commerce Oakdale, California 
 
 Waterford Chamber of Commerce Waterford, California 
 
 Hickman Board of Trade Hickman, California 
 
 Riverbank Board of Trade Riverbank, California 
 
 Empire Improvement Association Empire, California 
 
 Hughson Board of Trade Hughson, California 
 
 Denair Board of Trade Denair, California 
 
 Salida Chamber of Commerce Salida, California 
 
 Modesto Chamber of Commerce Modesto, California 
 
 Ceres Board of Trade Ceres, California 
 
 Turlock Board of Trade Turlock, California 
 
LIBRftRY OF CONGRESS 
 
 017 168 792 5 
 
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