Collection: Directories and Documents > Pamphlets

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Title: Report on the Agriculture Experiment Stations of the University of California (PH 4-16)(1890) Collection Type: Directories and Documents Collection Name: Pamphlets Catalog #: PH 4-16 Author: E.W. Hillgard Published: 1890 # of Pages: 211 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Printed or handwritten: All printed text Date Scanned: 2024-10-31 16:19:15 Scanned By: Shelby Figueroa Scanning Equipment: CZUR Book Scanner OCR Software Version #: tesseract 5.4.1 Item Sourced From: JPGs First Created: 2025-03-17 05:48:55 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 05:48:55

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 211  

. 0 SOUTHERN COAST RANGE STATION. 103 Improvements Thus Far Made on the Station Grounds. The tract has been inclosed with a substantial “ six-board” fence, of redwood posts, with Oregon pine planks. The latter had been go disposed that _ it was hoped rabbits would be excluded; but experience showed that this was not the case, and it became necessary to interpose in each of two lower Spaces a strand of barbed wire. Unfortunately considerable damage to young trees and vine cuttings occurred before this additional protection could be given. The buildings on the station grounds consist of a dwelling and a barn; the cost of the former was defrayed by subscription from citizens, chiefly of Creston, Templeton, and Paso Robles. The region being very thinly settled, more could not reasonably be expected, hence the barn was erected at the expense of the Station Fund. fede The dwelling house is a neat two-story frame cottage, rustic-finished; dimensions, about thirty by thirty-eight feet, inclusive of verandas in front and rear; it has eight rooms and bath. The front faces south, toward the county road and main entrance. Several groups of oaks have been left aha around the house and outbuildings, for shade and protection from wind, The barn is placed near the east line of the tract some distance in the rear of the house; is also rustic-finished, sixteen by sixteen feet, with three Stalls, and hay loft giving room for five tons of (baled) hay. Adjoining the stable are wagon and tool sheds, each sixteen by fourteen feet; a space sixteen by forty-eight feet is in addition covered by a lean-to roof, forming an open shed, affording additional space for storing implements, etc., from the weather. Between the barn and the house is a dug well about one hundred and five feet deep and four feet in diameter (with wooden curbing down to forty feet,and brick for seven feet from bottom), which, as a rule, contains about five feet of excellent water. It is at present raised by horse-power with a deep-well force pump into a redwood tank of three thousand gallons capacity, raised on a trestle twelve feet high, for the supply of house and stable. It 1s intended to supplement the horse-power, so far as the light winds prevailing in the region will permit, by a windmill, in order to save the time of team and men and obtain a larger supply; since at present the latter is ra scanty to permit of its free use in such irrigation as is absolutely needul. As this well is the first one sunk on the plateau near the river, its features and measure of success are of somewhat extended interest. Unfortunately the record kept by the well-digger is very unsatisfactory as to the nature of the materials encountered, but subsequent inspection coupled With it leads to the following result: The greater part of the material penetrated was bluish or whitish clay, very plastic; it alternates irregularly with thin-bedded strata of hornstone, mostly soft but some quite hard, and containing, or alternating with, more or less of calcareous materials. The water comes in through (mostly whitish) hornstone gravel, near the level of the Salinas River bed. It does not appear that any well defined fossils were found here, although at some points, as near Cashin Station above Templeton, oysters and other fossil shells are quite abundant in the siliceo-calcareous strata exposed in the streams. Hornstone gravel conglomerate crops out PS aetly on the bluffs of the river opposite Templeton, and also near Paso Robles, and doubtless represents the continuation of those found in the station well. The water is somewhat hard (calcareous), but good for all domestic uses.