Supreme court of the United States. No. 135. The United States, appellants, vs. John A. Sutter. Appeal from the District court U.S. for the Northern district of California.

416 The United States vs. Sutter.
Q. 42. State, if you know, what is the general opinion among
farmers on the Sacramento as to the effect of overflows.
A. I have never conversed with any on that subject.
Questions by Judge Burnett.
Q. 43. Have you been lately along the R street levee and noticed
where the east line of the tule terminates, in the vicinity of Sixth
street?
[Answer deferred until the witness can make an examination.]
Q. 44. In the fall of 1849, were there many emigrants encamped
in the vicinity of Sacramento city?
A. There were a great many, all over the city plat.
Q. 45. Where did their stock run for pasturage; on the high lands
not subject to overflow, or the low lands subject to occasional overflow?
[Same objection by United States.]
A. The company I belonged to picketed our mules out between N
and 0; mules were picketed all over through the thickets; tents
were scattered all over the place; they pastured all along the city
plat below the ridge; there was no grass on the ridge.
Q. 46. How was it in the fall of 1850, with reference to emigrants
and pasturage of cattle?
A. The emigration of that year was very large; their cattle run
over the city plat, where Ferguson's field now is, and all over.
Q. 47. Are you acquainted with the general character of the soil
east of Sutter's fort, for the distance of four miles?
A. I am.
Q. 48. What is the general character of that land as to fertility?
A. Well put in and well conducted, it would raise crops; portions
of it are very good; have seen crops on it.
Q. 49. What is its general capacity to produce natural grass, as
compared with that of the land occasionally overflowed in the vicinity
of the Sacramento, and not included in the tule swamps?
[Same objection by the United States.]
143 A. The bottom lands produce better, and more of it, than
that would.' Q. 50. Supposing you had been locating for yourself, for the purposes of a stock farm, two leagues of land south of the American
fork and east of the Sacramento, and extending down as far as the
southern boundary marked on the plat of the official survey, would
you have left out the overflowed lands between Sutter's fort and the
river, including the city of Sacramento and vicinity?
[Objected to by the United States, because it asks the opinion of
the witness about stock farming; because it is not shown that the
witness is an expert in that branch of industry; and because he and
Sutter might entertain different opinions as to the lands best adapted
to that purpose.]
A. From what I know now I would have preferred the land from
the fort to the river than that back, for the reason that it is now