File:Pacific service magazine (1918) (14780957274).jpg

Identifier: pacificservicema1019paci (find matches)
Title: Pacific service magazine
Year: 1912 (1910s)
Authors: Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Subjects: Pacific Gas and Electric Company Electric utilities Electrical engineering Public utilities
Publisher: San Francisco : Pacific Gas and Electric Company
Contributing Library: San Francisco Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: San Francisco Public Library

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been accomplished by hand work.The greater portion of the soil is ofpeat formation, the peat varying in depth/rom one foot up to a maximum of aboutforty feet. In flood times the high watersreached a level probably less than twofeet above the surface of the land, so itwas thought by the early reclamationiststhat if they could put up small leveesthree to four feet high they would beable to keep out the water and cultivatethe soil. Many thousands of acres in dif-ferent tracts were attempted to be re-claimed in this way, and in the seventieshundreds of thousands of dollars werespent in putting up leveesand attempts made tocultivate the land behindthem. But all such at-tempts proved failures.The peat was of such aporous character and ofsuch a light formation(being of such lightnessthat it will float onwater) that the weightof this small amount ofmaterial put on the landlor such purposes hadthe effect of compressingthe foundation on whichit was laid, so that the Pacific Service Magazine 37
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Hemp ready for the mill. Rindge tract. levee settled until it was impossible tokeep it materially above the natural sur-face of the ground. Practically all of thereclamation undertaken under these con-ditions resulted in an absolute failure,and it was soon realized that differentmethods of reclamation must be adoptedbefore any success could be made infarming these lands. As a result, in theearly eighties, the clam-shell dredgercame into existence as a practical propo-sition in this territory and a start wasmade in constructing levees with thesemachines. Further difficulties, however, devel-oped, as it was found that the additionalweight of material put onto the peat soilby the dredger only ag-gravated the settling ten-dency, so that the mate-rial disappeared about asrapidly as it was put up.As time went on, how-ever, improvements weremade in the clam-shelldredger until, about 1892,the improved clam-shellwas developed into itspresent state of effi-ciency, the only materialdifference be

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