Los Angeles daily herald., 1874-07-14
Compton snd Vicinity.

A railroad depot, country tavern
and store, one blacksmith shop, neat
little church costing So, 800, a nice pub
lie schoo house which cost nearly
$4,000, two stories high, for graded
school, with q few farm houses
scattered over the surrounding coun-
try,constltutes the village of Compton,
if village it may be called, situated in
as beautiful section as can be found.
This settlement is eight miles north
Of Wilmington, and twelve miles
south of Los Angeles, on the Los An
geles and San Pedro Railroad. The
social and moral condition of the peo-
pie of Compton is first-class. Regu-
lar preaching is s, stat red every Sab
bath in the church, . large and inter-
esting Sunday school is maintained
tie year round, and good graded
school is kept up regularly, ten months
each year. The school district num-
bers nearly two hundred children of
school age. This settlement lies with
in the limits of the artesian we'll dis
trict, and it does one good this warm,
dry season to see the wells flowing,
throwing their cooling streams into
the air, glistening in the sunlight and
filling the channels marked out for
them by the husbandman who util-
ICES it in the production Of as fine crops
as grow anywhere.
Thanks to Mr.. G. D. Compton, who
met us at the depot with his carriage
and drove US first east, out across the
Los Angeles river to the San Gabriel,
m ,king a circui Of q few miles through
rnis celebrated corn-prsducing region.
This section is similar to the Los Me
tOs country and is about equally re-
nowned for its immense yield of corn,
barley, vines, and all kinds of vegeta-
bles, and as far as the cultivation of
fruits have been tested, they prove
great success. We passed by macy
fields which yield annually one hum
dred bushels of corn with very little
cultivation, one hundred and twenty
have been produced here, and frequent
ly eighty bushels with no cultivation
no labor but the planting and har-
vesting. With good cultivation, one
hundred bushels Of barley can here be
DIOudCCu, SlAty W SlShly OClIS
an average yield. Six crops of alfalfa
are cut in twelve months, yielding
from twelve to fifteen tons to the
acre. Here on the wild, unimproved
lands is growth of mustard standing
ten or twelve feet high and beneath it
is heavy growth of blue-joint grass,
burr-clover and al-filerea, forming
growth Of several tons to the acre of
the best feed upon which stock can
subsist. In the bed of Los Angeles
river and adjoining its banks and all
along the course Of the San Gabriel
river, as well as in the low tracts,
have sprung up growth of willow,
since the Americans commenced the
settlement of this country, about six
years ago, and the growth has been so
rapid that one acre is now considered
constant future supply for fuel for a
family. 1t is estimated that some of
the heaviest growths of this siX-year-
old willow timber land will cut one
hundred cords of wood to the acre.
Who can estimate the value of this
element of prosperity III this compar-
atively timDerless country? No irri-
CATION is needed in all this section for
the production Of grains or fruits or
even corn. We ought to give the i'm
mense yield of the potato crops which
have been produced here. From 800
to 700 bushels to the acre have been
rails ed in enc crop. Mr.. Compton told
worth of potatoes from two acres OF
land. OF course this was an extra
yield. Flowing wells, although really
not necessity, here can be easily OBJ
tained. Here / think we saw some of
the most perfect Usage orange hedges
that ever grew. Before speaking Of
the price and more fully of the quail
ity of these lands, we will mention,
further, some of the extraordinary
productions of this neighborhood.
These statements, together with the
foregoing, were given to us by truth
full men, and may be relied on. Cab
bage-heads have been raised here
Weighing thirty-six pounds; fifty-one
pounds of sweet potatoes have been
taken from one hill; three crops of
barley from one sowing, being two
volunteer crops, the third crop yield
ing fifty bushels to the acre, have been
produced. Thus we might particular
i2e, but tits unnecessary.
Now for the price Of these lands ly-
ing from one to three or four miles
from the depot at Compton, in the
neighborhood of the Los Angeles and
San Gabriel rivers, and almost all the
unoccupied lands, ready, or nearly
SO, for the plow, and the lots or tracts
are so laid Off that road or street ac-
commodities almost every forty acres:
These lands can be bought in forty
acre lots or any size above that, to suit
purchasers, varying in price from
twenty dollars upwards; unimproved
large tracts for the figures just named,
while choice forty-acre tracts are held
as high as thirty-five and forty dollars.
We passed by one improved fine forty
acre tract for sale at fifty dollars per
acre, including buildings, crops, etc,
or less the crops, for forty dollars. If
stock men would consult their inter
ests they would pay twenty-five or
thirty dollars for these lands, rather
than go back into the foothills or out
on the mesa, or table lands, to buy,
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