We have asserted, and adduced evidence to prove, that California is the most wonderful state in the Union, and making rapid strides toward the position of the empire State; and furthermore, that California is an empire herself.
Perhaps some writers, as well as readers, will demur to the claim that the San Joaquin, speaking of it as a whole, is the greatest valley in the world. The claim will be made that the great Mississippi valley, the Amazon valley, etc., are of greater area. This will be readily conceded; but the writer will not concede that greatness consists alone in area as applied to a country, and defies the world to show another valley of like area with the San Joaquin that is its equal in the general averages of all the elements of good quality, — soil, climate, health, adjacent mountain scenery and variety of productions, and a capacity to sustain so large a population. The writer has spent months in this great valley, has made its resources, and future possibilities a study, and has arrived at conclusions not only from observation and study, but from consulting travelers who have been over the civilized world; and when such have been asked the question, “Have you seen a valley equaling the San Joaquin in every respect?” the answer has been in every instance, “No; nothing that will compare with it.”
From Pen Pictures From the Garden of the World: Memorial and Biographical History of the Counties of Fresno, Tulare, and Kern, California. Chicago: The Lewis Publishing Company. N.d.
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