File:The Pacific coast scenic tour, from southern California to Alaska, the Canadian Pacific railway, Yellowstone Park and the Grand Cañon (1890) (14580231759).jpg

Identifier: pacificcoastscen00finc (find matches)
Title: The Pacific coast scenic tour, from southern California to Alaska, the Canadian Pacific railway, Yellowstone Park and the Grand Cañon
Year: 1890 (1890s)
Authors: Finck, Henry Theophilus, 1854-1926
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, C. Scribner's Sons
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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ion. Grain, if sown in winter orearly spring, ordinarily needs only the regular rains ofthe season to reach maturity, and there are localitieswhere many other crops can be raised without irriga-tion ; but these are the exception, and as a generalthing the semi-tropical fruits which constitute the spe-cialty of Southern California, need water for profitableculture. vSo well is this now understood that it is afavorite joke of the natives to say that if you pay forthe air and water, they will throw in the land gratis. Fortunately there are no fewer than six sources fromwhich crops are supplied with water, if we include rain.For small vegetable or flower gardens sufficient watercan be raised by means of windmills, which are kept inbrisk motion every afternoon by the sea-breeze in thewhole region within twenty or thirty miles of the ocean,except during two or three of the rainy months,when they are not needed. These mills also supply thekitchen, and it is curious to note how cold the water
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SOUTHERN CALIFOBNIA IN WINTER. 23 remains in the large tanlvs exposed all clay long to asemi-tropical sun. Much of the water used in town andorchard is supplied by artesian wells, which, however,occur only in certain belts, especially in Los Angelesand San Bernardino Counties, although none of these,I believe, equal one dug in Sonoma County last winter,which is one hundred and fifteen feet deep, cost onlytwo hundred dollars, and yields almost half a milliongallons every day. Rivers of the size of the Sacramento, or those of Ore-gon, Southern California has none, but there are somesmaller rivers and a large number of creeks, fed by themountain snows, which are tapped in two ways for irri-gating purposes, — on the surface and below the bed.The surface water is often carried many miles in ditches ;and wise is the community which lines its ditch at oncewith cement, else in summer it loses almost two-thirdsof its water supply by absorption on the way. TheSanta Ana River, which is quite a

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