been $800,000 for one work. Taking the streams from San Joaquin river north, that come out of the Sierra Nevada, up to the northern end of the valley where the Sacramento river enters it, every important stream comes into the valley within a deep gorge. The beds of several of the northern streams are so filled up with mining debris that diversion from them would be comparatively easy, but in their natural state there is not an important stream north of the San Joaquin which could be utilized for irrigation by any other means than through the agency of capital in large amount. On the west side of this great valley the tillable strip is comparatively narrow. It is on the lee side of the coast range of mountains. Precipitation is made first on the seaward face of the Coast Range, and then crosses the valley, dropping upon the inland face of the outer range very little more than upon the valley itself, where the precipitation is only about 10 inches. So that we have no streams coming out of the Coast Range into the southern part of the interior valley specially noteworthy as irrigation feeders. But as we go northward the Coast Range becomes wider, and the big mountain basin containing Clear Lake furnishes a large supply of water to Cache Creek, probably enough for 10,000 acres. Stony Creek flows between two ridges of the Coast Range, and out on to the plains, furnishing about the same amount of water; but still there are no streams from the Coast Range into the valley that are comparable with those of the Sierra Nevada. In the northeastern corner of the State, on the great plains of Modoc, we have the Pitt river, a stream of very considerable volume, but its waters are in comparatively deep channels, not very well adapted to diversion, and the consequence is, they have been utilized to a very small extent, only on small bottom-land farms. The whole stream can be utilized, however, and the country is thirsting for water.
The practice of irrigation in California is as diverse as it could well be. California, as you know, covers a very large range in latitude, but a greater range in the matter of climate and adaptability to the cultivation of crops. In the southern portion of the State, the orange and the banana and many other semi-tropical fruits flourish. In some localities along the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, also, those fruits flourish, particularly the orange and the lemon. In the valley of San Joaquin, wheat is grown by irrigation, and in some places profitably, and in Kern county quite profitably (were it not for high transportation charges), because
