Daily Los Angeles herald., 1883-12-27

One OF tho most marked effects OF the
''boom" which characterizes oil portions
Of California Is tho eager quest all over
this State for land. During the past two
years we have known what this Is in Los
Angeles county. People of means, who
desire perfect climate, and have han
kering to rcpose amidst their own vines
and fig trees, have been pouring into
this county at rate which threatens to
knock the calculations OF the Federal
enumerator for the census of 1890 into a
cooked hat. But this impetus of settle
ment has by no means exhausted itself
on Los Angeles county. 1t ramifes
throughout the whole OF Southern Cali.
fornia; and, candor compels us to admit,
Central and Northern California, rs we'll
Tho way things are drifting, California
will not only have approved herself pop
ulous enough for two commonwealth
(her size will not be disputed) inside of
the next six years; but we are in danger,
between the old State and the new, of
having more members Of the House of
Representatives than New England, by
that time. Texas is the only State OF the
whole sisterhood which is growing rs
rapidly as California is now.
SO strong has been this movement
that the tide of population has over
flowed iuto Antelope Valley, in Los An.
geles county, running up to the borders
Of Kern, and into many regions which
were formerly disprized. 1t has led to
the development Of the splendid water
resources of Fresno county, and to an
increase in the value Of real estate there
which is positively magical. The great
opportunities for enhancement of real
estate values, at galloping figures of five
hundred to thousand per cent, having
passed In Fresno county, attention is
now being turned upon the adjoining
county 81 fulare.
The Swamp Land Act has greatly in
creased the interest in Tulare county.
The lake OF that name, by the tremen-
dous food OF 1862, was augmented to a
superfcies of twenty-one miles broad
by thirty-three miles long. That was n
,urely abnormal circumstance. Through
he action of the usual seasons which
followed, and the great volumes of water
which have been diverted from the
rivers which feed the lake to supply
gigantic irrigating canals, its superiicies
has been reduced to width of twelve
and length OF thirteen miles. An
island, to which, of resent years. n
steamer used to ply, is now surrounded
by dry land, and the island itself is the
center of prosperous farming region.
Through the operation of the causes
we have named, nearly one hundred and
fifty thousand acres of land have become
liable to pre-emption. This soil is incon-
seivably rich and deep beyond prece-
dent. 1t is liable to pre-emption, by
bona fde settlers, to the extent of six
hundred and forty acres per capita.
This law has been very extensively
availed of. of late, and Mr.. w. II. Nor
way, Deputy Surveyor of the United
States, is now engaged In surveying the
bed Of the old lake, and in locating the
pre-emptors who have swarmed there in
multitudes which recall the passage Of
Milton, which runs:
As when in Egypt's evil day,
The rod Of Abrams potent son. waved round
The coast, upcaled pitchy cloud Of iocusts,
warping on the Eastern wind. -
In truth, the Eastern wind has borne
hosts of people to California seeking
cheap lands, and they are fighting for
locations on the sometime bed of Tularc
lake.
An interesting circumstance Of this re.
gion is that artesian water is being de
veloped there in great abundance.