The Shasta courier., 1870-11-05
SHASTA COURIER
The Enchanted Land.


ent Age, published at Chicago, we find the
following excellent article on California
bearing the above heading;
Am | a sleep or awake?" many times
since coming to this State we have asked
ourselves the question. We cannot divest
ourselves of the feeling that we are on an
enchanted ground. Months have passed
and not drop of rain has fallen the hills
are brown and sere as though the wing OF
desolatlon had swept over them The
ground is dry and cracked, the streams
are dry as Zahara. A cloudless sky, and
sun that almost bakes the fruit on the
trees, ard does do it if it falls on the
ground, would almost seem to render one
home sick for the green hills of the East.
But no; there is strange fascination in
these sky kissing mountains, despite their
apparent desolateness. You are charmed
with their barrenness; you see not one
sign OF greenness, except few spires of
grass or weeds around some spring of water
You see fiocks of cattle, horses, and sheep.
Surely, you say, they must soon starxe
Nothing can save them. You approach
them, and To- tn are not even poor, but
fat and lusty. You look around-you 90
from place to place-all is alike dry and
desolate; and yet, these numerous focks
and herds are fat and -four shing. What
do they live on; queries the novice. Live
on! why on this dry and crisped grass.
this hay, which nature has cured and keeps
without serd ng rain or dew to injure it.
LA n, during these summer months. would
be an irreparable injury; for it would wash
out the life from the cured grass, and
perhaps swell the sown seed which is to
produce The next years crop; for, save in
some moist places, the 2 asses of California
are annuals and spring from roots Clover
is the same. Wesee these to be facts, but
we have to pinch ourself to be sure we are
not dreammg-thal we are not in land
of entertainments We convince ourself
for the time that all is real. but the doubt
revives. The vast fields of wheat. barley
and oats are harvested and we make a
surve Of the orchards We behold the
same dryness, but whist sights are here.
W hat trees OF only three or four years
growth, larger than twice those years
would q IN the East, and better still.
bearing abund.ntly in two or three years
nom the settling. Apples, pears, peaches,
piums, Gas lalge as peaches) prunes, pome
granates, ounces, figs, apricots, cherries,
and grapes IN endless p-ofusion
and variety. Such fruit, too! The most
of our eastern fruit would be thrown to the
swine in utter contempt. A Californian
would deem it an insult to be presented
with wormy fruit. 1t isn't here Every
apple, . pear aud peach is as tree from
worms as though t grew in the garden #
the Lord An eastern friend insisted,
b fore We left for here, that no good
apples, were, or could be, grown in Cali
fornia. We would like to take him
through some of the orchards in Santa
Clara Valley, and show him the vigorous
trees, and bunches OF beautiful fruit clus-
tering around the limbs; and when we
had partaken of its luscousness, bear its
Any one can see at glance
that fruit growing in soil almost entirely
dry, in climate nearly destitute of dew,
and no rain during its growth, must pos
sess high favor, and any one who has
eaten our plums, peaches, ETC., will testify
to the fact. Apples and pears are no ex
ception
1t was thought, when the first emigra.
ton poured in here from the states, that
these hills and valleys we're worthless
except where irrigation was practicable
and no suspicion ever crossed the minds
Of those seekers for gold, that these dry
and desolate looking hills and valley y-plains
were richer in resources of real wealth
than all their m ues, great as was the gold
en- stream flowing therefrom So thought
the indolent Spaniards, who divided the
country into vast ranches of thousands of
acres in extent; which are to this day the
curse of California. Over these leagues
of land, their cattle and horses mig ht r,am
and live, atfording subsistence for their
lazy owners. But the same genius, which
discovered the long hidd gold, could
not fail to finding in time, the latent riches
OF this wonderful soil And when one,
two hundred bushels of grain TO toe acre
'O"diVcu tue tliltI vi the Slll, Tue cal
greatness of California became known.
We are assur'd by the best of uthority,
of ole or two hundred bushels OF corn to
the acre, OF more than two hundred OF
barley. and sixty and seventy FIVE of wheat
And this too without irrigation. For il
is now ascertaiued that the necessity for
Irrigat On does not exist, except for garden
ing or some special purpose. For all large
crops proper cultivation is all that Is nee
essary.. Trees need no irrigating Ii
Injuries them, as it brings the roots to the
surface instead OF causing them 70 strike
deep in the earth.
But We are cure We are awake now