Daily Los Angeles herald., 1879-12-06
AN imperial County.

From tho S. f. Chronicle, Dec. 81
1t is claimed that Los Angeles
county has an area CT 3,300,000
acres, or 5,156 square miles. 1t is
as large as three States like Rhode
Island, or two and and II quarter
like Delaware. 1t is ebout half the
size of Maryland or Holland, two
thirds as large as the Kingdom of
Wurtemhurg, and one-third the
size of that famous country of
"Schlessen," which Frederick the
Great exhausted Prussia in seven
years. war in wrestling from Aus
tria, and thought it mole than
worth all it cost. The now Ger
man State of Alsace- Lorraine,
which Bismarck would not give
back to France for a billion dollars,
is just the smallest fraction larger
than the county of Los Angeles,
aud does not contain within itself
as many of the natural elem ents
essential to an enlightened and
wealthy community as Ii 8 An
geles, whatever superiority age,
frugality, capital and industry may
have given the German province.
1t is worth while, in this connee-
tion, to present some comparative
statistics on the subject.
Twenty-Five or twenty-seven
years ago, when San francisco,
Sacramento, Yuba, Nevada and Ell
Dorado counties contained about
nine-tenths of all the taxable prop
erty of the State, Los Angeles,
though an old county comparative
ly, had no commercial or agricul-
tural standing, and was not taxed
for much over million dollars. In
1874 the Assessors returns to the
Surveyor-General gave these fig
ures of valuations:
Real estate. -. ............... S7,749,4l
| improvements. s......,.......... 2,577,705
Personarproperty.. ............. 4.693,S64
| Total assessment. SIS, ,019, ,614
And this, no doubt, was % per
cent. below the full cash values.
The total population in 1874 was
1900. In 1878 the returns showed
a total assessed valuation of $16,-
160e9S9, which was $5,000,0 600 below
ths cash values, and q total popu-
lation of 1880. The increase in
population was 40 per cent. In four
years, or 10 per cent. per year. No
other county in the State shows an
equal increase. In 1874 Los An
geles had but $4,000 acres under
cultivation. In 1878 there were
l1O, 500 acres cultivated. She pro-
duced cereals that year as follows:
BJfHELs
Wheat t.................. 100000
Barley. ..................... GAS ,00l
Oats 1900
Corn. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS., ....l ,OO0 ,uUl
hye'''t'' ....,.....,........... obuul
Buckwheat. ......... ....... 1,20t
II is notable that the corn crop is
put down at q figure which implies
random, and, as in 1874 1t was
nearly u million and quarter
bushels, the true statement tor 1875
would be nearer two millions than
one million bushels. Los Angeles
contains large area of the besI
J corn land in the United States, and
she is capable of producing, wher
all these lands shall be brought
under cultivation, over 10000 ,OOC
bushels of corn per year, which Il
three times as much as the Who'll,
. State produced in 1878. Her othel
leading agricultural resources ant
productions last year were returned
as follows:
Castor boans-p pounds. ........ 10000
, Potatoes--tons. ns................. 500
Beans bushels. ............... 2700
; Hay-tons. Observation-Disclosures. 1850
Sweet potatocs-tons,. s,............ l,5O