Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

Bakersfield, neighboring Kings County enjoys some oil and gas production accounting for about $20 million in annual revenue. Both counties are highly irrigated and intensely farmed in cotton, various field crops, fruits and nuts. Both are strong in cattle, dairy and poultry farming while Tulare County also has substantial truck garden, olive and timber income. Farm income for Kings tops $66 million; Tulare County, $222.5 million. Tax reports on retail sales, which do not cover food purchased for home consumption nor gasoline, showed that for the first six months of last year retail sales in Tulare County totaled almost $54 million, 26% above the same period in 1950. Retail sales for Kings in the first half of 1955 totaled $19 million, 25% over 1950. About half of the land in Tulare County is owned by the U. S. Government, chiefly comprising the Sequoia National Park, where thousands of tourists flock to see the giant trees and romp on the slopes of 14,502-ft. Mt. Whitney, highest mountain in the U. S. County seat of Tulare is Visalia, with city population of 13,200 but serving a population of 50,000 within its trade area. Retail sales exceed $32 million. FRESNO Walk along Fulton St. or past the court house square on Van Ness Ave. in Fresno and it will look like downtown America most anywhere. Cars and people. Moving. Stores, shops. Some old. Others new, smart. Then a branch of E. F. Hutton & Co., stocks and bonds. You almost missed it. Like the others here and there. But after a couple more San Joaquin Valley towns you won't forget them. Major investment houses with branches on main streets everywhere. Farmers, oilmen, cattlemen, merchants, food processors, winery operators and manufacturers are making big money in this rich valley and they plough their surplus dollars back into the big fields of industry to reap still another havest of profit. There is plenty of extra cash in Fresno. There should be. Fresno is the trading center for the heart of the valley. Geographic center of the state. County seat for Fresno County — the richest agricultural county in the entire U. S. An estimated annual farm income of $318 million for a county population of 300,000. Lower farm prices have dipped into farm income some, as Fresno farmers grossed $350 million in 1952. First in the U. S. in total value of agricultural production. First in the production of cotton. First in production and value of grapes and figs. First in number of turkeys raised. "Here is great agricultural wealth coming from great diversity of farm crops," Dick Moore, Fresno Chamber of Commerce pointed out. This is the home of the largest raisin processing and packing plant in the world. The Sun Maid Raisin Growers of California, a pioneer agricultural cooperative. This is the home of Roma Wineries Inc., the largest winery in the world and a Schenley Industries interest, as well as several dozen other wineries and fruit distilleries. With family incomes among the highest anywhere in the U. S., Fresno citizens spend more than a quarter-billion dollars each year in retail channels. Total spendable income is estimated at more than a half-billion. Among the large counties of California, Fresno spreads its 6,005 square miles from the 14,000 ft. Sierras in the East, across the rich and highly irrigated valley floor to the 3,000-ft. Diablo range in the West. The eastern Sierra and Sequoia National Forests and Kings Canyon National Park take about 40% of the area, but in return give Fresno a substantial income each year from 1.5 million visitors. Construction for the 1960 Winter Olympics is underway at Squaw Valley. Two rivers make irrigation and intensive farming possible. The San Joaquin River, which divides Fresno from Madera County to the North, and Kings River, which originates in the Sierras and flows through the southeastern half of the county. The richest agricultural lands are along the Kings and on the west side. Friant Dam, fourth largest in the world, builds up a huge water backlog on the San Joaquin northeast of Fresno. It is part of the Central Valley Project and supplies water for two great irrigation canals. One is the Friant-Kern Canal, a "river" that takes 5,000 cubic feet of water a second to thirsty farm acres for 150 miles southward to Bakersfield, where it supplements the Kern River. The other is the Madera Canal, a l,000-ft.-persecond waterway that puts life in grapes, cotton, figs, alfalfa, vegetables and grains along a 37-mile swath in Madera County. Just east of Fresno is a newer mountain of concrete and steel. Pine Flat Dam, which bottles up 1.1 million acre-feet of Kings PAUL H. RAYMER. NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVE Broadcasting • Telecasting January 30, 1956 • Page 115