Daily Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1876-1884, 1883-02-02
something About immigration.

ton to intending immigrants to Cali.
fornia, and says, in substance, that those
who contemplate taking up their homes
on the Pacific Coast, should look before
they leap. The HERALD has repeatedly
INDUCED in similar warnings, especially
as to those who design settling in Los
Angeles county and Southern California.
We have taken the liberty of saying, in
effect, that this Is no poor mans coun-
try, though, in doing so, we are con-
ironted with the fact that many poor
men have prospered exceedingly here,
and numbers Of them have become rich,
and very rich. We have used the ex-
preston ''poor man" rather in the sense
of n helpless person-one who has not
known how to handle himself at home.
While phases OF agriculture and horti-
culture, both remunerative and charm
ing, await the energetic in this State, a
certain amount Of capital is needed for
fair start in Los Angeles county. Hhe
day has long since passed when
lands could be had for song in this
section, and rightly so. Lands provided
with ample facilities for irrigation are
out of the reach Of immigrants of ordi.
nary means. When Gen. Alexander and
several other officers Of the United States
corps of Engineers were sent out to ex.
anime the systems of irrigation prevail
ing in Asia, and in those portions OF
Southern Europe where irrigation has
existed for time whereof the mem
DRY Of man runneth not to the contrary,
they collected number of facts bearing
upon the value Of irrigated, rs compared
with non-irrigated lands which, to say
the least, are quite singular. Thus, in
Spain, irrigated lands, planted in the
vine, command from $500 to 5000 on
acre, while contiguous arid lands only
bring SIS and go No such discrep-
ancy exists in Los Angeles county for
the reason that, outside of certain very
circumscribed regions, we have no arid
lands. But, all the same, the irrigated
and moist lands of Los Angeles
county have special and OK
ceptional value, because both are
absolutely independent of the season.
No intelligent intending settler in Los
Angeles county can expect to get such
lands without paying something like
their value for them which, is rs yet,
even where they are highest in price,
but mere approximation to the figures
OF the near future. But, for the man
who has from $4,000 to $4,000
even less capital-there is the certainty
that twenty acres of these highly en-.
lowed lands will yield him more, net,
in grapes or the citrous fruits, than a
thousand acres would in the far north
west, in the cereals, with all the draw
backs of heavy transportation charges.
A man who has twenty acres in well
selected foreign grapes, who has learned
how to make his wines properly, and
has capital enough to hold them and
grade them, can rely upon an income OF
5000 an acre;-indeed, if his means are
large enough to secure him from the
middlemen, he can achieve much more
remunerative results per acre. Whore
else, on the footstool, can this be done!
We decline to excite the imagination
of intending settlers of means with pic
lures of what may be done in the line
OF citrus fruits. There are, however,
authenticated instances of single acre,
in full bearing, yielding more than
$500 in single year. OF course, there
is a veSatious delay in waiting to see
tho trees attain the bearing stage; but
there is, nevertheless, the pleasant
knowledge that, when the orange tree
has once started fairly in on its work,
it will continue yielding politically, as
will the grape, for four generations or
more. The grape has this advantage
over the orange tree that, while its
money returns may be less, it reaches
the acme Of its bearing capacity in its
seventh year, and is as prolific at the
end of its hundreth year as it is in its
fret lnatral That t1a IL, d.
which have attended the growth of the
citrus fruits in the past will character.
i2e the future, we have no doubt,
and Tor three reasons. a. We now
have, by three or four transcontinenta
railway lines, access to the Eastern mar
kcts; and the California railway man.
ayers, at the request of our leading or.
chardists, have given us cheap and
popular rates OF freight to Chicago ans
other Eastern cities, (2) The Los An
geles orange will adhere to the tree, ant
improve with each passing month, al
through the summer, thus enabling u
to place the perfected fruit in the East
ern market at time when it will en-
counter opposition from neither tn
Havanas, Florida, Louisiana or Sicily
This is a very material point, indeed
The magnitude of the orange trade Q
the world, and the permanence and sc
curity of this Los Angeles interest, ma,
best be understood when we refer to tn
official fact that, from three ports o
Italy alone, twenty-five million dollar
worth of oranges are yearly exporte,
in response to exigent trade demands
The demand for good and merchant
able orange is simply Unsuitable, an,
Los Angeles county and Southern Cali
fornia are peculiarly able, from climate
considerations, to respond to this de
mand Our railway facilities are simpl
nonpareil. On this Coast we are onl
subject to the competition of the Sand
witch Islands and Panama, and the in
ferior character OF the fruit from both
when it reaches this Coast, has simpl
passed into proverb.
This brings us to the third and las
strong point of Los Angeles orchardists
Every one who has lived in this city 10
year knows that, ON one side of roa
or street, you can buy fig which on
would hardly throw to hog; while, o
the other, you can come upon super
purple fig of six times the size an
twenty times the lusciousness of il
condemned neighbor. The differenc
all lies in the variety which has bee