STOCKTON, Cal., city, the metropolis and chief distributing centre of the San Joaquin Valley, county-seat of San Joaquin County; 78 miles east of San Francisco and 397 miles north west of Los Angeles.
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 lines of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe and the Western Pacific and two lines of the Southern , Pacific run through Stockton, connecting it with San Francisco and its bay region, the San Joaquin Valley to the south, the Sacramento Valley to the north and eastern points. Branch lines of the Southern Pacific extend from Stockton to the mining regions on the Mother Lode and the lumbering districts of the Sierra. One hun dred and seventeen passenger trains daily enter and depart from Stockton. The Yosemite Val ley, the Tuolumne Grove of Big Trees, the Calaveras Big Trees, Mercer's Cave and Lake Tahoe are readily reached by automobile from Stockton; Yosemite Valley and Lake Tahoe also being connected by rail. 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 two and one-half miles in length. To San Francisco by water is 94 miles and daily steamer service is maintained. The leading articles, in the order of their valuation, are general merchandise, millstuffs and grain, potatoes, barley, beans, vegetables, wheat, horses, sheep, vehicles, lumber, onions, fuel oil, machinery and canned goods. Since the beginning of the grain industry of California, Stockton has been the principal grain market of the great central valley. The 14 grain and produce warehouses of Stockton have an aggre gate capacity of 165,000 tons and there are another 10 warehouses in the outside districts which bring the aggregate storage capacity up to 200,000 tons. All of the local warehouses are 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. Forty-nine commodities are shipped annually from Stockton in carload lots, the most important being agricultural im plements, grain, beans, engines, flour and mill stuffs, hay, livestock, onions, potatoes, wine, brandy, grapes, fruits and leather.
Manufactures.— Abundance of raw ma terial, cheapness of power, low transportation rates and location as a distributing centre have developed the manufacturing interests of the city, and there are 157 manufacturing establish ments in Stockton, with an annual output valued at $11,293,000. 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-half of a cent per horse-power per Electricity, coal and gas are also used as sources' of power. From the source of power on the
Mokelumne River, 45 miles distant, a line with the capacity of 30,000 horse-power delivers elec tricity in Stockton for lighting and manufactur ing purposes. A second line of the capacity of 6,000 horse-power extends from the south fork of the American River to Stockton, a distance of 80 miles. Fourteen natural gas wells, vary ing in depth from 1,800 to 3,000 feet, supply gas for home and factory use. This city is the centre of the flour, cereal, poultry and dairy feed industry of the State. The mills have daily capacity of 2,000 barrels of flour, 1,500 barrels of cereals, 100 tons of poultry and dairy foods and 600 tons of by-product foods. Large export shipments are made to the Orient, Europe, Alaska, Central and South America and the Southeastern States. "Caterpillar" and traction engines, combined har-. vesters, rice harvesters, seed cleaners, pumps,. plows, harrows, scrapers and other agricultural machines and implements are manufactured in Stockton. Stockton has the largest traction engine plant west of the Mississippi River and its product is shipped to every country in the world. This combined harvester factory covers approximately nine acres and is the largest of its kind in the world. This type of machine combines header and threshing machine, cut ting, threshing and sacking the grain by con tinuous process. The so-called drain used with such effectiveness by the British army in the European War, were nothing more than armored Stockton °caterpillar)) tractors. Notable among Stockton manufactures is the bean threshing machine that performs every opera tion from threshing to recleaning the beans. Stockton contains the only window glass fac tory west of the Mississippi. Dredges and ditch digging machinery, which have played so important a part in the reclamation and irriga tion of the San Joaquin delta, are manufac tured in Stockton. Stockton contains one of the four electrical steel furnaces west of Chicago. Machine works and foundries supply machinery and castings throughout the Pacific Coast. A large cannery uses a substantial part of the output of the numerous orchards and truck gardens near the city. Other important manufactures are sole, harness and other leathers, paper, scoured wool, boats and barges of varied descriptions, paving machinery, com mon and fire brick, engines (marine, gas, gaso line, distillate and crude oil), ice, beer, wine, brandy, olive oil, butter, insect powder (Bu hach), macaroni, pumps, windmills, wagons, gloves, soap, paint, jewelry, soda water, medi cines, cigars and bread and candy for a large territory.