The Republican journal., 1883-09-06
NUMBER SO.
An Eastern Mans Opinions of California.


TIoNs OF TEMPERANCE WORKER. FRIENDS
FROM HOME.
Correspondence of the Journal
SANTA CLARA, CAL. Aug. IA, 1888. The
regular and most welcome visits of the journal
to our distant home, have been a constant re-
minder of my unwary promise to give It's read
ers some of the impressions received in this
wonderful country But Just there is the diff
Guilty. No kaleidoscope can work oil changes
and transformations more rapidly than this
region can reconstruct new comers' opinions,
and upset all preconceived notions The trouble
is to be sure CT ones impressions. When |
to outline my impressions supposed
should have some that would be definite and
susceptible of Ineligible statement. did not
apprehend how much there is for an Eastern
man to learn, on taking up his residence in Cali
forna. 1t amounted to Il vcritable revelation.
Nothing here is like the corresponding item in
the East. We come out here very wise. and
perhaps just little opinionative, yet it does
not take long to eliminate all our concet. We
soon discover that we know lust nothing at all.
Then we set ourselves to investigating the stua-
ton and looking for the bottom facts in the
case, but every days work but serves to undo
that of the previous day. Now you are certain
you know all about it; anon you are sure you
know nothing about it. And as | 10 not like to
put myself on record to-day in such way As
to require explanation or retraction Tomorrow,
l have simply deferred from time to time any
attempt to fulfil my promise.
But at last am reasonably sure that | know
something about California, and Will endeavor
to outline few of the things of which | feel
most certain. We arrived in this land of promise
about the first of November last. The
CLIMATE
most Strikingly arrested our attention at the
outset. The contrast is 50 marked between this
and the same latitude East that it takes some
time to get accustomed to it. Unusually early
and copious rains had already fallen and began
to freshen the face of the country, after the
rainless months of our long summer. But all
through November and December the sky was
almost uniformly c.oudless, and the spring-lke
weather of May and June in New England was
the daily order. 1t was simply ineXpressibly
delightful to enjoy an average midday temnera-
turc of 20 to - degrees in the purest and most
invigoratng Gf atmospheres, while YOU were
steadily cOngealing in Maine. In order to make
the change as little abrupt for us rs possible,
quite smart snow storm was gotten up for
our benefit on the first of january. AT least
know of no more plausible explanation. for
such a thing had not occurred before in a gen
Grafton, and we had not lived here before. Hence
It must have been for our benefit. We tried to
be grateful. We We're at church that tav at a
little Methodist chapel, on the lot adjoining our
ranch, and 50 great was the excitement that the
good pastor FASTENED to the conclusion of his
discourse and rushed out for snow-balling
match with his stewards. The whole congre-
CATION went wild, and the Sunday school was Il
long time in coming to order that day. The
boys and girls, young men and maidens. never
before had seen snow on the ground We alone
We're able to maintain our dignity and observe
the dccorum enioincd by the day Snow storms
of two feet in depth We're Of too recent and
numerous occurrence in our experience to per-
nit Us to be much moved by trivial two
inches.
After the snow and the succeeding rain dur
ing the first four days Of Jan. very little more
rain fell until about the first of April. The
weather was clear and cool, though sometimes
a little frosty in the morning; on few morn
lngs water was frozen over from an eighth to a
quarter inch thick. February was warmer and
Il delightful month. March was harsher again,
and III April and the earlier days of May con-
siderable rain fell. The total rainfall however,
was scant, amounting TO only about ten inches
for this valley The winter is considered to
have been an unusually severe one. though it
seemed astonishingIy mild to Us.
And here occurred the overturn of impression
No. /. We had supposed that light clothing
alone would be required in this section of Cali
fornia. On the contrary ladies wear furs and
gentlemen heavy overcOats the year round dur
ing some portions of the day. Not that one
would perish from cold if clothed in light gar
ments, but that warm wraps are comfortable
But the incongruty of ladies walking or riding
together, some dressed in heavy fur trimmed
garments and others in dresses of the ligbtest
material with no wraps whatever, is striking,
especially as both, apparently, are equally com
Portable.
But there came time when we We're all of
one mind about the weather. For three DAYS,
early in June, the thermometer registered lO6
deg. in the coolest room in our house 1t was
what they call a"IIot Norther," and is of rare
occurrence. 1t is occasioned by the steady
blowing of the wind from the heated valley of
Sacramento, scorching and withering every
thing in its track. This in question did con-
siderable damage to the maturing grain and
young fruit. Little apprehension is usually
felt on this account, because the trade winds
cool and refreshing from the Pacific daily tenn
per the burning power of the sun. Since then
the weather has been simply delightful; bright
and warm, but not TOO warm every lav cool
and refreshing at night. However, | will not
talk too wisely and positively about this climate
for there can be no more thoroughgoing sur
prise parties" than the weather of California
The oldest inhabitant is coDtin-
ually non-pIussed. The only item that all are
sure of is the entire absence of rain
or dew from May to oct. We are now in the
midst of the
FRUIT SEASON.
In the State, rs Il whole, there is a short crop
of fruit. Late frosts and insufficient rains are
the occasion of the failure. In the Santa Clara
valley, however, there is an average crop. The
yield of aprcots is fine in this vicinity and the
profits to the growers large. One orchard, in
which some of the trees We're seven wears old,
yielded at the rate of seven dollars Il tree or
500 per acre. The fruit in one young orchard
Of French prunes, near here has been sold for
$3.50 per acre, and in another for $500. Neither
of them are yet in full bearing. One gentleman
who owns Il young orchard of Bartlett pears,
of ten acres, which have just come into bearing.
has refused an offer of 81 900 for the same. |
give these items as indicative of the prevailing
opinion concerning the protitableness of fruit
growing. Other indications are found in the
rise in the values of land known to be adapted
to fruit raising. The appreciation has been fully
twenty-five per cent annually for the last five
years, and still the upward tendency is main
tanned. 1t has become difficult to buy land for
one hundred dollars per acre, without anv i'm
provements Good fruit lands are selling readi-
ly at from 1928 to $3.50 per acre, ten miles from
town.
~ lnya,,