Los Angeles daily herald., 1875-01-22

where the heliotrope grows to such
size that it can be trained over the
second story of house, blooming in
mid-wintcr, and where California ca
naries and knocking birds sit on the
boughs of the orange and lemon trees
| and pour out their delicious songs in
February. But the five thousand per-
sons who are coming into Los Angeles
county annually are coming here to
make money, and We propose to take
q glance at their chances. These last
are numerous. In tile first place, and
we would proclaim it in Gath and an
nounce it boldly in Askalon, Los An
geles county is capable Of containing
one million prosperous people; and,
some day or other, she will hold that
number. The area of productive farm
ing land In this county is simply
| prodigious. Hitherto the ridiculous
idea has been held that only such
lands are available as can be irrigated.
That is the idea held by strangers. 1t
is as aerial and unfounded as the base
less fabric of vision. To show how
entirely absurd it is, it is only neces-
sary to instance the fact that, in the
worst years Of drouth, 1868 and 1864,
over four hundred thousand dollars
worth Of produce was shipped from
this county. There are extensive
tracts of land in Los Angeles county
which are as completely independent
of irrigation as the bottom lands of
the Mississippi or the farms of Ches-
ter county, Pennsylvania. In the Sec
ond place, until twenty years ago, no
one ever heard of drouth in this coun-
ty, and we are likely to have a success
sion of q dozen years characterized by
the copious rains of the present sea-
son. Old Californians, who have
lived in this county for nearly three
quarters Of century, affirm that
within their recollections there have
been but five seasons of drouth within
the last half century. 1t was at first
thought that no lands in California
admitted of cultivation, and yet this
erroneous idea did not prevent a young
farmer, who began in 1865, from real
izing $4,000 from the cultivation in
wheat off of 600 acres of land in Santa
Cruz county, thing which could not
be done with 5000 acres in the East.
Another farmer who purchased in the
beginning of last year, 100 acres of
land lying near the Centinela Rancho,
for which he paid S25 per acre, sowed
the whole to barley, and the crop
netted him S37 so per acre. In con-
sidering the rainfall in Los Angeles
county it should not be forgotten that
the rain-gauge for several years past
has shown less rainfall than comes
throughout more than half of the
State of Pennsylvania, Ohio Indiana,
| Illinois, Missouri and Kansas. Besides
here we have no grasshoppers to make
us afraid, and no potato bug to recall
to our memory PHARo and the lean
kline. Not only can great portions OF
Los Angeles county be farmed without
irrigation, but if it We're established
that irrigation be needed, artesian
water can be obtained at slight
depths over large portion of this
| county, and ineXhaustible surface
wells everywhere. This, of course, in
wolves some slight outlay, but the re-
suits are immense. We are prepared
to demonstrate that an industrious
man can make more money off of ten
acres in Los Angeles county than off
| of fifty acres in Ohio or Pennsyl-
vania. 1t is a we'll known fact that,
in these States, the average yield of
| wheat to the acre has fallen to eight
or nine bushels. This would give q
gross yield to the acre of from SO to
Sill, or net yield Of less than SIS per
acre. Compare this with the results
in the case of the two farmers instanced
above. Take ten acres of grapes in
Los Angeles county, raised for the
purpose of being converted into wine.
The yield from General SToNEMAN's
one hundred acre vineyard for the
year 1874 was $4,000 gallons of wine
and 1000 gallons of brandy. These are
staple articles all the world over, and
need never fear glutted market. The
taste for the pure wine of California is
constantly On the increase in the East.
General SLOVENIAN sold his wine in
the watts for fifty cents per gallon,
making for the whole crop of wire
and brandy some $4,000. The total
outlay was S1,640, leaving a net profit
per acre of $l54. The General only ir-
rigates his grapes once year, and he
says they will grow to perfection
without irrigation anywhere in Los
Angeles county. AS they bare pro-
lificalsy in their third year the Vine
yardest is well rewarded for his wait
ing. The enormous profits of orange
lemon and lime culture are well un-
derstood. As the orange tree does
not yield n paying crop until it has
attained the age of nine or ten years,
persons OF small means are restricted
to growing them merely in their gar
dens. But it is a rare delight to an
Eastern person to be able to surround
himself with oranges, lemons, figs,
walnuts and almonds, all of which
will, in few years, be q source of
profit, and in every stage of growth
are a source of delight. Tobacco will
yield five crops in the year, and will
pay profit of from $500 to $500 per
acre. At the recent sales in Louis
vile, Kentucky, California tobacco
sold at from so to 100 per cent. above
all other brands. With millions of