Los Angeles daily herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1873-1876, 1874-06-06
LETTER FROM SAN FERNANDO.
Valuable Suggestions TO Farmers and
Fruit GroWers-The New Town and
Its Prospects.

EDITOR HERALD. III MY pefhulDu-
lations around the country that | have
chosen for my permanent home, and
noting anything which L think would
be of interest to the outside world and
more especially to the farming COM
munity, my thoughts naturally ran in
channel of what the prospects of
Southern California are in the future,
and l thought, why is this: we have
here beautiful crops of grain that have
never received drop of water except
what God has given them without ar
tificial means; here have we an extent
of territory perfectly adapted to the
culture of all the small grains, more
especially so for that great staff of life,
wheat. Now, l thought, why not
produce this necessary article our
selves, instead of importing the same
from abroad.
If THE CHANGERS
Are in earnest, let them 60 to the bed
rock, not take for granted some idea
of their ancestors or the old residents
of the country that you cannot raise
this particular article of food in this
place and that you cannot raise it in
another. l was particularly struck
with this some months since, on read
ing in an article in one of our periodi-
Gals that oranges could not be pro-
duced near salt water. Now, / know
to the contrary; for on the coast of
Brazil many years ago, ate as fine
fruit of this description as I think
was ever produced from trees and
they were growing down to the very
waters edge of salt water.
LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Imports from abroad annually some
one thousand barrels of flour. Here
we can raise grain as good as else
where. l say this from actual expert
ence. I never saw finer field OF
wheat than saw yesterday; beautiful
golden grain that would yield, if al
lowed to remain until matured, fully
twenty-five sacks to the acre; but,
alas, it must be cut for hay, and when
that hay is cut, baled and hauled to
market it brings but eight dollars per
ton. Who gets the profit of this, the
producer, the middleman, or the con-
sumner? I say neither. First, the pro-
Queer loses by not getting the real
value of what he sells; the middleman
has to handle greater bulk than he
otherwise would do to make the same
per centage; the consumer receives an
article which he calls cheap at the
time, but which would not be as cheap
to him for feed, even if he had to pay
A GREATER PRICE
Per ton for the same as some other
kind of provender for the simple rea-
son that he might procure provender
better adapted to the wants of his
stock for less money. Who ever heard
of man in any of the Eastern States
feeding wheat hay to stock? The
most improvident of them all would
not do it, except in a dire necessity.
They by long experience have dscov-
cred that article of food best adapted
to their wants, and we must do the
same. 1t is well known that wheat
exhausts the soil sooner than any
other grain, and if we wish to keep
our lands productive we must have u
rotation of crops. Cultivate roots, l
say, by all means. They do 50 in
England with great success; and we
all know they are famous as nation
for their fine stock Durhams, Devons,
etc.
TuETD IYOpCES
Also are superior in the field and on
the turf; as draft horses there are none
superior. Their swine are known all
over the world for their excellence.
Now why is this? We have as good if
not better soil than they; a more
genial climate, and without arrogance
more intelligent community, but
they profit by experience, they know
the character of the soil they are cul-
tivating by trying it. If an English
farmer finds his soil to wet, cold, sour
or clammy, he at once sets about to
repair it by proper system or drain
age. If he finds it too dry and gravel
ly be looks about to see if it can be ir-
r:gated. If he finds that to be impossi-
BILE he will make the most of it, but
never allow it to remain idle. If it
wants manure or any fertilizer what
ever, he has made himself so CONVEX
SAINT with its wants that he immedi-
ately applies it, and he perhaps is an
ignorant man. Nor like our farmers
of America, who are in the habit of
taking all the papers that will serve
to enlighten him in his business of
life; but new for one that has written
but few agricultural articles in his life,
l must close this portion of my SUBJ
ject and turn to the business of Los
Angeles County, and its future pros
poets in the cultivation of the fruits.
WHEN A BOY,
In our morning prayers we always
used to hear our rector pray for God
to give us the fruits of the earth in
abundance, and that part Of the SER
vice admired very much mot saying
but do the other. Here in San Fer
nando, with two of the most
beautiful olive orchards in California,
and seeing the trees laden with their
beautiful blossoms, no one can think,
that has the least spark of humanity
about him, how good an all-wise,
over-ruling Providence we have, send
ing us just what we need at the time
appointed. A f0w days since, by invi-
tation, l visited friend about mile