Mr. DRESCHER. The lands in the valley produce from four to five crops of alfalfa a year, each crop giving from 1 to 2 tons per acre, making a total production of from 7 to 10 tons a year. Two years ago this hay brought $12 and $13 a ton on the banks. Barley, they can produce 20 bags to the acre, each weighing from 100 to 110 pounds. That would be a moderate estimate. Potatoes, from 80 to 150 bags to the acre, weighing about 110 pounds to the bag, or about 2 bushels to the bag. Onions, from 125 to 300 bags to the acre, 100 to 110 pounds to the sack. Vegetables of all kinds are raised and they run from 6 to 10 tons to the acre. With barley and wheat it is about 1 ton to the acre. With intensified farming it is seven-fold. One man at Meridian said his crop of sugar beets would be 15 to 20 tons per acre. The average production of Colorado is 10 tons to the acre, of California, a little over 10 tons to the acre. Two hundred and eighty pounds of sugar are produced from 1 ton of beets.

JULY 24, 1915.

NOTE. We departed from Sacramento this morning at 8.30.

Mr. CURRY. Ninety per cent of all the asparagus canned in the United States is grown in this district from Courtland down. Two hundred carloads of fresh asparagus has already been shipped this year. Out of Courtland last year there was $10,000,000 worth of all kinds of deciduous fruits shipped, mostly pears, peaches, and fruits of that kind. The asparagus carloads consisted of 10 tons each. It costs about 7 cents a pound to land it in New York. The farmer gets 4 cents a pound for the asparagus in crates on his ranch. The crates weigh 7 pounds. Three cents is for handling, freight, and refrigeration. It is shipped by buyers and middlemen. They assume all the responsibility, paying the farmer 4 cents a pound, and they pay 10 cents a crate to sell it after it gets to New York. Three cents includes handling, hauling, refrigeration, and haulage at both ends. of the route. We grow more potatoes, more beans, and more onions in through here than in any other section of similar size in California. The people on the east side have taken better care of their land, and all this produce is raised there. It is cultivated a little more intensively than other lands. This is all shipped by water, most of it going to San Francisco and Stockton, and is shipped by railroad from those points.

There is a mosquito fleet on the San Joaquin, as well as on the Sacramento, the tonnage of which can not be gotten. Every farmer has a landing place, and if they have got freight for this line they will put up a flag which will invite boats of this line to drop in and pick up the freight. Each line has its own flags. The boats will stop for one bag of potatoes. Every town or city waterfront on the river is owned by the municipalities. All the levees that have been put up have been put up by the owners of the land themselves. Around Sacramento and Marysville a levee is made. Sacramento contributed $75,000 toward purchasing a point 65 miles below for improving the navigation of the river. The land back of the levees slopes down as it goes back to about 22 feet below the high-water level. That land has a sedimentary deposit of about 12 to 14 feet. Below that is a muddy deposit. They do not have to irrigate that land out there at all, but if you do irrigate it a little it will do better.

The land here does not need fertilization, but there are some very peculiar streaks in the soil along here. On the east side of the river is a famous cherry belt. In the cherry belt, which is a narrow strip about 12 to 14 miles long, these trees grow very well and bear very well, but when you get out of that strip you can not grow them at all. They have experimented with the land, so that they have got it planted in what it will grow the best and most of. They raise fruits and berries of all kinds. The citrus fruits are not raised here, but they do better farther north. Almonds and English walnuts are raised here. It takes a nut tree five or six years before they bear good. They find here that it is best to take the pear trees out when they are 20 years old. They will bear when they are 30 or 40 years old. The pear tree will be growing at its best when it is from 8 to 20 years old. Here they take them out when they are 20 and put in a new tree. The best the farmers can get this year for their peaches is $10 a ton for about one-third of their crop. They will get $25 a ton for their pears. Last year they got $40 for pears and $25 for peaches.

Capt. ANDERSON. In 1909 the River Improvement Association paid $120,000 and the State appropriated $80,000 for rights of way down here, which have been turned over to the United States. These rights of way are in territory now being worked by the United States dredges.

Maj. RAND. The dredges take out 300,000 yards a month each. The dredges cost about $50,000 more than the estimate.

About $4,500,000 is to be expended on dredging down here, and the other $1,300,000 is to be expended on wiers.

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