The newly reclaimed land being very light, suffers from the dry season, and is often irrigated, which, as it lies below the river-level, can be quickly and cheaply done.
Sherman Island was one of the earliest to be reclaimed, and there I visited the fine farm of Mr.Bigelow--a New Hampshire man, I believe, and apparently a thorough farmer.

He has lived on tule land ten years, and his fields were consequently in the finest condition.

Here I saw a three-hundred-acre field of wheat, as fine as wheat could be.

He thought he should get about forty-five bushels per acre this year.

He had got, he told me, between sixty-five and seventy bushels per acre, and without any further labor the next year brought him from the same fields fifty-two bushels per acre as a "volunteer" or self-seeded crop.
Here I saw luxuriant red clover and blue grass, and he had also a field of carrots, which do well on this alluvial bottom, it seems.