Daily Los Angeles herald., 1884-02-13
fnkSng stock OF Los Angeles
County.

+
apidity Of Los Angeles Is necessarily an
ibject Of great interest to multitudes OF
,cople. This section is to-day full OF
,crsons who are but imperfec,ly acquaint-
ID with the past and even the present oil
10th the city and county Of Los Ange-
es. 1t Is proper, therefore, that jour
sals Published here should occasionally
,ublish articles calculated to enlighten
: The stranger within our gates.
The county of Los Angeles contains
.buper6cial area of three million three
&undred thousand acres. 1t first at
tracted attention from the abundance Of
hides and tallow which was always
Found here by adventurous English and
Yankee shippers. 1t was, until very
lately, a genuine ''cow" county. I'm
nense bands Of cattle, herds Of horses
md Aocks Of sheep roamed at will over
tHe almost lmitless pastures OF Los An
Q5les county. 1t was owing to the heed
DaAsness in allowing these animals to
multiply beyond all precedent that Los
Angeles county got the reputation Of be
- subject to occasional drouths. Hav-
3tnf no store OF food accumulated for dry
years and depending entirely npon the
spontaneous grasses OF the country there
would be some years in which the NOR
sAlity amongst the cattle, sheep and
horses would be immense and the casual
Visitor, who on going over the county
1wonld come across the carcasses Of ami
malls which had starved to death, wonld
have terrible yarns to tell about the dry
5eason in Los Angeles county. All the
Rhile the fault was not with the county
but with the people.
The first invasion OF the pastoral life
III Los Angeles was the planting Of vines
|nnd orchards of tho citrus fruits The
Mission Fathers, who introduced the
|&fApe Of that name, also raised, on n
|hmAll scale, little wheat and barley.
The growth of the orange and lemon
I md the making OF wines and brandies
- q considerable scale proved elements
- great wealth. While the old time
oxtravagant profits no longer attend the
Ho1ltivaton Of the citrus fruits they are
E1tIll and will always remain source of
Eereat profit to those who cultivate them
|ihtelligently and who take care to raise
none but the first quality. The market,
ln,tead Of contracting, will steadily cx-
pand for the orange, the Los Angeles
staple ripening at q time when it will en-
Eetunter no American competition. This
- OF itself a great advantage
nd will insure romunerative and
olinble market for our citrus
nits. The region OF country adapted
y the profitable cultivation Of the Or
lnge. lemon and lime is very limited,
HSSn in Florida and Louisiana the frost
Nag at times so severe that not only
= fruit but the tree itself is destroyed.
A. to our wine and brandy interests,
hey were never before in so prosperous
> state as now. Owing to the immense
fnprovemont which has taken place in
Aslr quality, they command ready
he al over the United States. The at
)bnpts Of croakers and fanatics to bclit-
~ them nre very completely refuted by
he fact, cleaned from wine men, that
gthe market could have readily absorbed
this year 5000, 900 more of the Califor.
mia wines If they could have been se-
cured. Grapes for winc-making pur-
poses bring twice the price now which
they commanded ten years ago. The
vineyardist who is careful to plant only
the best variety of foreign grapes can
rely upon splendid income from his
acres. This amount ranges from SIS to
1850 per acre. Where the grower of the
grape also makes his own wine, even the
last figure is sometimes doubled. The
future for Los Angeles wines could
scarcely be brighter than it is.
Perhaps the most astonishing trans.
formation which Southern California has
ever witnessed is the development of Los
Angeles county into first-class farming
region. The old sneer, SO usual in the
northern and central counties, that this
was nothing but "cow" county, where,
In addition, q few oranges and grapes
and considerable corn were raised, has
hong ago fallen fiat, and our northern
neighbors are witnessing with uucon-
cealed amazcment our rapid progress to
the front as producer of the cereals.
The yield of corn here has always been
great since the American occupation,
and to-day we raise nearly as much as
oil the rest of the State put together.
But the progress which has been made in
the production of barley and wheat has
surpassed the most sanguine expectations
OF those who never accepted the idea
that nothing could be grown here with
out irrigation. The advances which
have been made in this county in all
lines cannot be more perfectly shown
than in the following table, which we
take from the last issue of the Illus
1RATED HERALD: