Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1883-07-22

gent gentlemen in Los Angeles who be.
llevo that we have been having some
thing that may fairly be called "boom"
hereabouts. We think that they are
mistaken, and that we are really only
experiencing the natural reaction from
tho unusual and unwaTantcd deprcs.
sion of some years since. There are
Others of our people who think that
orange growing and vine planting will
be ovordone. No doubt this is trne as
temporary proposition, but it is a
thing that will correct itself. II will
not hurt any of our leading interests to
take those natural "rcsts" which are
inevitable incidents Of enthusiasm in
pastoral and agricultural pursuits. They
enable ms to pause long enough to take
''stock," and to consider old methods
and deliberate upon new ones. A man
who gets rich all Mt once-a country
which develops like a mushroom are
none the better for the feverish ordeal.
No man can burn out Of us the convic-
ton that, during the next fifteen years,
Los Angeles county will contain fully
three hundred thousand people.
During the process by which we shall
attain that snperb result there will be
undoubtedly, at intervals of every two
or three years, movements which will
correspond to the inward and outward
rushes of the sea at high tide. There
will be the curling breakers and the
retrocession, but every wave will go
higher than that which preceded it.
There may be occasionally years in
which our orange groves and our vine.
yards may languish for time, but these
capricious fluctuations will not prevent
our production of wines and brandies
from rising in value to sl0O00,0 900 a
year in the same decade and a-half
which will witness the increase OF popu-
lation in this county from ifty-fve
thousand to three hundred thousand
inhabitants.
Diminishing eursorily this view oil the
matter, we wish to dwell for while on
new aspect of Los Angeles county.
Seven years ago the HERALD placed
itself upon record as believing that Los
Angeles would ultimately prove to be
one Of the best grain counties
in California. We were confirmed in
this view by the late Isaac Lankershim,
than whom there was no man in this State
more competent to form an intelligent
and even authoritative Judgment. Year
by year our provision has been con.
firmed. Even in dry years, in those
areas Of Los Angeles county which have
been rescued from chapparal and grease.
wood, we have had fair crops OF wheat
and barley, thus disproving the north
ern estimate of the capabilities of this
county, which was thought to be a re-
gion only adapted to tho growth oil the
grape and the orange and to the depas-
turing Of cattle. As matter of fact, in
the present, the third dry year which
has visited Southern Californ n, we
have raised heavy and very remunera-
tive crop of the cereals, We risk moth.
ing in saying that, for the area seeded to
t.ghant and horta.F hn.~a raonha1 in
yield The standard of the most produc-
tive counties of northern and central
California, leaving the San Joaquin val.
ley out as really not at all entering into
the comparison.
II is curious circumstance, in view
Of our splendid crops, that the average
rainfall OF Los Angeles county during
the past ten years has been fully sixteen
inches per annum. Last season we had
only within fraction OF twelve inches,
and yet our farmers will be enriched, al
lowing for an exception of those who
inhabited narrow stretch OF country,
beginning near Compton and Florence
aud reaching to the neighborhood of
Gospel Swamp. Our people have dem
onstrated the ability of the farmer who
plows and sows early to make money,
even in so-called bad years,
For some years to come we shall have
copions rainfalls. The coming season,
particularly, will be one of plenteous
downpour, and an immense area of Los
Angeles county will be devoted to grain.
For this reason we say that this is the
transition period in our experience. If
every grape vine and orange tree were
uprooted and sold for fuel, we are now,
nevertheless, in condition to take rank
with any producing section OF California.
Our farmers have at last learned that
the right thing to do is not to wait uMtil
the rains were ended before they made
up their minds whether or no to put in
crop. They now break up the ground
and commit their seed fearlessly to it
with the knowledge that even moder-
ate rainfall will bring them eompensa-
tory crop, while fair rainfall will re-
nunemte them handsomely.
1t is in the variety of the products of
Los Angeles county that our safety lies.
Hereafter one interest will buoy up
another; and, besides, there is pouring
into both city and county an amount Of
wealth and business aptitude that augurs
most happily for the future. The peo-
pie who are at present going in such
multitudes to Oregon and Washington
Territory, in addition to eneountering an
execrable climate, are putting all their
eggs into one basket, in that they are
depending upon the cereals exclusively
for their outcome, In variety and am.
plitude OF resources as well as in trans.
continental railway facilities, to say
nothing of climate, Los Angeles county
is an incomparably more attractive field |
for investment than either Oregon or
Washington Territory. OF late, we are
pleased TO say, this fact is being realized
with resultant most gratifying immi-
grafton to this section.
--
Iowa, which has always been a Re-
publican State, and one of the most pros
porous, enterprising and moral sections
Of the Union, has just paid the last dol
lar of her war debt, and has handsome
sum in the treasury. While Democratic