Page:The Tourist's California by Wood, Ruth Kedzie.djvu/219

 STOCKTON. THE BRET HARTE COUNTRY 181 The city is at the head of the San Joaquin "Valley, a level expanse 250 miles long and 50 miles wide, containing about the same number of thousand square miles as the Valley of the Sacramento. The river, which rises in the southern Alps, flows in a northwesterly direction, joining at Sui- sun Bay its brother stream, born of Shasta's snows. San Joaquin County leads all California in the production of wheat. This fact will explain the presence in Stockton of a flour mill which in size gives precedence only to those of Minneapo- lis. The reclaimed Delta lands about Stockton are broken into island farms which resemble in soil and appearance the polders of the Netherlands. Barges ply the canals which branch from the San Joaquin River and form convenient waterways for the transport of dairy produce and cereals, fruit and vegetables. The butcher makes his deliveries to the farmer's door by boat. Holstem cows peer over the levees. One needs only the clack of sa- bots and the sight of a big-bodied windmill with distraught tossing arms to convince him that this is Holland, not California. Bret Harte Land and the Big Trees. The Calaveras Grove may be reached from Stockton by wagon-road via Milton and Angels, distance about 100