STOCKTON was captured by the British and confined in the common prison at New York. The unusual severity with which he was here treated broke down his strength, and eventually caused his death. Stockton, Robert Field, American naval officer and politician: b. Princeton, N. J., 20 Aug. 1795; d. there 7 Oct. 1866. He served in the War of 1812 and in the Algerian war 1814-15; in 1821 commanded the Erie on a cruise to Africa, where he secured the territory which now forms the present Liberian republic, and in the autumn of the same year was instrumental in the suppression of pirates and slavers in the West Indies. He strongly advocated a steam navy and drew the plans for the sloop of war Princeton on which an exploding gun killed the secretaries of war and the navy in 1844. He was commander of the Pacific squadron during the Mexican War, when he took possession of California in the name of the United States. After his resignation from the navy in 1850 he devoted himself to politics, and in 1851 was elected to the United States Senate, and introduced a bill, subsequently passed, abolishing flogging in the navy. On leaving the Senate in 1853 he turned his attention to the improvement of the Delaware and Raritan Canal, an enterprise he had previously encouraged. Stockton, Cal., city, the metropolis and chief distributing centre of the San Joaquin Valley, county-seat of San Joaquin County;.78 miles northeast of San Francisco and 397 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Climate and Health. The climate of Stockton is even and healthful, being practically the same as that of southern California and of the countries of southern Europe bordering on the Mediterranean. Under the influence of the prevailing westerlies the winters are mild, while in summer the local sea breezes temper all extremes of temperature. The nights are always cool. Within a radius of five miles from Stockton may be found practically all products of both temperate and sub-tropical countries. The orange and the cherry, the grape and the pear, the fig and hardy grains, the palm and the prune, are seen growing equally well side by side. Flowers are in bloom in the open air twelve months of the year. The mean average temperature (United States Weather Bureau Records, 1871 to 1904) varies from 46.4 degrees Fahrenheit in January to 72.7 degrees in August; average mean annual temperature 60.1 degrees; average annual rainfall, 15.54 inches. In 1903, there were 46 rainy days, 56 cloudy days, 34 partly cloudy days, and 275 clear days. During the same year Los Angeles had 148 clear days; San Francisco, 178; San Diego, 247. All sewage is pumped into the San Joaquin River, three miles distant. The rain water system is so distributed as to drain all parts of the city of surface waters. The water supply is excellent. Besides the water from deep wells supplied by a private corporation, many residents secure water from wells that vary from 80 to 125 feet in depth. Average death rate per thousand inhabitants, 13.3. Transportation and Commerce.-Stockton is favorably situated to command the trade of the San Joaquin Valley and of the mining and lumbering districts along the eastern rim of the valley. The main line of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and two lines of the Southern Pacific connect Stockton with both San Francisco and points in the San Joaquin Valley to the southward; the Stockton and Copperopolis Road and the Sierra Road extend from Stockton to the lumbering and Mother Lode mining regions of the Sierras; the Central Pacific to Sacramento, 49 miles to the northward; the Alameda and San Joaquin to the Tesla Mines, 36 miles to the west; a narrow gauge feeder of the Southern Pacific extends from Lodi (12 miles north of Stockton) to Valley Springs, 27 miles distant. Stockton is on the surveyed line of the Western Pacific (1904), a transcontinental line to connect San Francisco with Salt Lake City. The Yosemite Valley and the Calaveras and Tuolumne Groves of Big Trees are reached by rail and stage from Stockton. Within 25 miles of Stockton are 200.9 miles of railroad, 263 miles of navigable channels and 1,200 miles of improved wagon roads. The city is at the head of all-the-year navigation on the San Joaquin River system, being connected to the river by a navigable channel 21⁄2 miles in length. To San Francisco by water is 85 miles. Steamers discharge passengers and freight at the head of the channel in the geographical centre of the city. For a distance of one mile to the western limits of the city, the channel harbor is lined with flouring mills, lumber yards, ship yards, warehouses, coal bunkers, etc. River traffic was carried on from Stockton as a centre by about 15 stern wheel steamers, 36 barges, 77 schooners, and 7 tugs. Two lines of steamers ply daily between Stockton and San Francisco. A report printed by order of the United States Senate Committee on Commerce showed that the regular daily traffic on the San Joaquin River between Stockton and San Francisco averaged 5,000 tons daily, and that 144,000 passengers were carried between the two places by steamer during the year. The central point in the city is 18 feet above mean tide in Suisun Bay. The waters in Stockton Channel are affected by the tides, the greatest variation between high and low tides being 40 inches. The general government maintains a depth of 9 feet in the channel at mean low tide. To protect Stockton Channel from shoaling, Congress, in 1902, appropriated $225,000, to dig a canal to divert all tributary waters to the Calaveras River. The California Legislature appropriated $60,000 to purchase the rights of way. All wharf and tonnage dues and 4 per cent of the revenues of the city are used in building permanent bulkheads and in otherwise improving the harbor. Since the beginning of the grain industry of California, Stockton has been the principal grain market of the great central valley. The 13 grain and produce warehouses in the city have an aggregate capacity of 175,000 tons; its hay warehouses, 25,000 tons; all conveniently located to handle shipments by both rail and water. Grain is transported from Stockton to ocean vessels in San Francisco Bay for 65 cents per ton. Terminal rates are given shippers by all transcontinental lines. In 1902 the district of which Stockton is the terminal point, shipped from California by rail 105,178.4 tons of fruits (green, dried and canned), vegetables (green and canned), nuts, wine and brandy. Forty-nine commodities are shipped STOCKTON annually from Stockton in carload lots, the most Manufactures.- Abundance of raw material, cheapness of power, low transportation rates, and location as a distributing centre have developed the manufacturing interests of the city. By the census of 1900 there were 293 manufacturing establishments with an annual output valued at $6,907,839. Fuel oil from the upper San Joaquin Valley is the most common source of power. With fuel oil at recent current prices, power can be generated in Stockton as low as one fifth of a cent per horse-power per hour. Electricity, coal, and natural gas are also used as sources of power. From the source of power on the Mokelumne River, 45 miles distant, a line with a capacity of 15,000 horse-power delivers electricity in Stockton for lighting and for manufacturing purposes. A second line completed in 1904 with a capacity of 4,000 horsepower extends from the south fork of the American River to Stockton, a distance of 80 miles. Fifteen wells, varying in depth from 1,800 to 2,300 feet, supply natural gas for home and factory use. The city is the centre of the flour industry of the State. The four mills have a daily capacity of 5,500 barrels. A large part of the output is shipped to China, Japan, Alaska, and other Pacific countries. traction engines, disk harrows and other types Combined harvesters, of agricultural machinery are important manufactures. The combined harvester factory covering about nine acres, is the largest factory of its kind in America. The harvesters made here cut, thresh, and sack the grain by a continuous process. The only window glass factory west of the Mississippi River has an annual capacity of 75,000 boxes of glass. A woolen mill manufactures cassimeres, cheviots, tweeds, flannels, and blankets, and markets more than two thirds of its product in New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. A coal briquette factory (the only one in the United States) with a daily capacity of 600 tons consumes the entire output of the Tesla Coal Mines. From the time the coal is ground until the finished briquettes are dropped into the bunkers, the process is continuous. chine works and foundries supply ore cars and Maother mining machinery throughout the Pacific coast. A large cannery uses a large part of the output of the numerous orchards and truck gardens near the city. The only wheat starch factory west of the Mississippi River is now (1904) being completed. Other important manufactures are leather, dredgers, barges, engines (gas, gasoline, marine, distillate and crude oil), ice, beer, wine, brandy, olive oil, distillate oils, butter, insect powder (Buhach), macaroni, pumps, windmills, stages, gloves, soap, paint, soda waters, medicines and cigars. Tributary Region.-Stockton is situated in the centre of a rich grain, orchard, vineyard, produce, and dairying section. miles of the city are Within lages. On the upland tributary region the most 22 towns and vil20 common soils are adobe and black and sandy loams. West of the city is the largest area of peat lands in the United States. In the natural state these lands were covered with a thick growth of a coarse reed called the tule, and were overflowed each year. By means of levees an area of 160,000 acres has been reclaimed. Many of these reclaimed tracts are surrounded by navigapeat lands are especially adapted to dairying and ble branches of the San Joaquin River. These to the growth of potatoes, beans, onions, asparagus, celery, chicory, and grain. Ready Island one herd of Holstein-Friesian cattle has 68 cows in the advanced register. From On Rough and this herd Juliana De Kol, a 22-year-old heifer, in a recent thirty-day official test, established a new world's record, giving 1,852 pounds of milk, making 92 pounds 71⁄2 ounces of butter. Of the chief agricultural crops of California 28 lassified under tities near Stockton. All the chicory produced 36 heads (census are produced in 1900), marketable quanthe production of wheat, barley, rye, asparagus on the Pacific coast is grown near the city. In and potatoes, this region leads all other sections of the State. More barley is grown within a radius of 25 miles of Stockton than in any other area of the same size in the United States. Other leading agricultural products are alfalfa, beans, onions, truck farm products, sugar beets, fruits. The yield and value per acre (census table and wine grapes, almonds and deciduous 1900) of important crops were: Beans, 35.5 bushels, $55.03; onions, 402.2 bushels, $232.28; potatoes, 124.1 bushels, $62.05; barley, 17.4 bushels, $9.57; almonds, 461 pounds, $41.34. power. grain and many other crops. Three canal sysThe winter rains are sufficient to mature kelumne and Calaveras Rivers, respectively, irritems drawing water from the Stanislaus, Mogate 40,000 acres near the city. Many small farms are irrigated by pumping plants operated by gasoline engines, windmills, or electric On the peat lands water is secured through flood decade from 1890 to 1900 (census 1900), the gates constructed in the levees. During the number of irrigators in the area near Stockton increased 392.9 per cent; the acres irrigated, 719.3 per cent, the greatest proportionate increase in California. ton is an attractive city having II public Utilities, Public Buildings, Finance.- Stockparks, a well-equipped electric street car sys109 miles of streets, of which II miles are tem, a complete rainwater and sewer system and improved with macadam, 5 with bitumen, 2 with basalt blocks, and 15 with gravel. At the southern terminus of the street car system are mineral baths from warm artesian waters. is one of the best shaded cities in California, the most popular trees along the streets and in the gardens being the elm, the maple, the acacia, the orange, the palm, the oleander, and the umbrella tree. It from 250 to 1,100 feet, water is pumped into employees and three steamers, two chemical en- |
