Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1883-09-28

In her graphic illustrated article in the DC.
tober Century, on Outdoor Industries in
Southern California" II. H. describes one OF
the great ranches rs follows 'The South
California statistics of fruits, grain wool,
honey, etc, read more like fancy than like
fact, and are not readily believed by one un.
acquainted with the country. The only way
to get real comprehension and intelligent
acceptance of them is to study them on the
ground. by single visit to great ranch,
one is more enlightened than he would be by
committing to memory scores of Eaualza
ton Board Reports. One of the very best il
not the best, for this purpose is Baldwin's
ranch, in the San Gabriel valley. 1t includes
large part of the old lands of the San Ga.
briel Mission, and is a prncpality in itself.
There are over hundred men on its paw
roll, which averages $1,000 month Anoth
er $1,000 does not more than meet its running
expenses 1t has $4,000 worth of machinery
for its grain harvests alone. 1t has dairy
of forty cows Jersey and Durham; one hun.
dred and twenty work horses and mules and
fifty thoroughbreds.
1t is divided into four distinct estates the
Santa Anita, Of 1G, 600 acres Puente, Is. 900
MERGED, 10000; aud the Potrero. q. 900
The Puente and MERGED are sheep ranches
and have 10000 sheep on them. The Po
trero is rented out to small farmers. The
Santa Anita is the home estate On it are
the homes of the family and of the laborers
1t has fifteen hundred acres of oak grove
four thousand acres in grain, five hundred in
grass for hay, one hundred and ffty in
orange orchards, fifty of almond trees. sixty
OF walnuts twenty five of pears fifty Of
peaches, twenty Of lemons, and five hundred
in vines; also small orchards of chestnuts.
hazel-nuts, and apricots and thousands of
acres of good pasturage.
From whatever side one approaches Santa
Anita in May, he will drive through wild
garden-asters, yellow and white; scarlet
penstemons blue larkspur monks-hood lu.
pines, white and blue gorgeous golden escb.
seholtzia, alder, wild lilac, white sage-all in
riotous Towering.
Entering the ranch by one of the north
gates, he will look southwark down gentle
slopes OF orchards and vineyards far across
the valley, the tints growing softer and softer,
and blending more and more with each mile.
till all melt into blue or purple haze. Driv
ing from orchard to orchard, down half.mile
avenues through orchards skirting seemingly
endless stretches of vineyard, he begins to
realize what comes of planting trees and vines
by hundreds and tens of hundreds of acres
and the Equalization Board Statistics no
longer appear to him even large. It does not
seem wonderful that Los Angeles county
should be reported as having sixty-two hun
dred acres in vines, when here on one mans
ranch are five hundred acres The last Equal
ization Board Report said the county had
25G, 1856 orange and II, $50 lemon trees. II
would hardly have surprised him to be told
that there were as many as that in the Santa
Anita groves alone. The effect on the eye of
such huge tracts planted with a single sort of
tree, is to increase enormously the apparent
size of the tract the mind stumbles on the
very threshold of the attempt to reckon its
distances and numbers, aud they become
vaster and vaster as they grow vague"