News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1886-08-05
COLONIES In CALIFORNIA
A PICTURESQUE FEATURE OF Pa
CIFIC COAST LIFE.
The Anaheim Colony--Difficultie En-
countered by the Early Squatters
The Cultivation of Fruit.

for the first time, is the colony system,
which has done so much to develope the
country and to demonstrate the c9pablll-
ties of the soil and climate. Los Angeles
is the centre of large number of colonies,
all of which have made great progress,
while the last few years have seen imita-
tions of these started on several other
counties with equally good results. The
colony system bas manifest advantages
in a country where water for irrigation is
indispensable. No man, unaided unless
he be a large capitalist, can develop
water supply sufficient even for a small
ranch. The principle of cooperation
holds good here and has been adopted
by all these colonies, Without water the
land in most of the southern counties is
worthless save for the growing OF grain;
with water it will produce beautiful
crops, and the fruits of the tropical and
temperate zones flourish equally well.
Hence, the first requisite for the success
of any colony is full supply of water.
Given this, with fairly good land, and 1T
is the fault of the managers if colony
does not thrive like green bay tree.
Perhaps the oldest colony in Southern
California is Anaheim, about twenty-tiv
miles from Los Angeles. 1t was started
on the cooperative plan by Germans
nearly thirty years ego. Nothing could
be more forbidding than the stretch OF
cactus-covered country which they Sc
Iected and obtained for a small sum, be-
cause the owners of the ranch supposed
that it was the poorest land on the place.
Even the cattle gave this tract a wide
berth, and in the estimation of men who
held the land as valuable only for the
growing of grain or the grazing of cattlei it
was as i'll adapted for the. making of
homes as a slice of the Colorado or Mo-
jave desert. But these German cOlonists
we're not frightened by the cactus grow
ing in great clumps on the sandy soil,
nor by the doleful predictions of failure
which they heard on every side. They
parceled out the twenty acre plots by lot,
and each man set to work to develop his
domain. They were mainly men who
had been bred to wine making, and they
naturally chose the grape as their chief
reliance. The years brought many
changes. Other colonies started in what
was originally regarded as little better
than desert; the railroad came to them;
about one-half of the original settlers de-
parted for various causes and their
places were filled by Americans; ths
land increased in value as its capabilities
were tested and found not wanting. In
a word, the men who came to Anaheim
with small means have now an ample
competence, and many of them may be
ranked as wealthy With German phicgm
they did little for many years 10 enC0ur-
age new corners to make their homes in
A oh 70 "a of
the richest men of the colony bear no
comparison to those in the more enter
prising calonies near by. But for sub
stantial results this old colony need fear
no comparison with its younger rivals.
The Anaheim colonists were wise in
their generation when they placed their
chief dependence on the grape. To be
sure, they planted literally of many
fruits, not neglecting the orange, but the
was their first care, and it has
probebly paid them better even than the
citrus fruits would have done. The Ana
helm of to-day presents many charming
homes which are revelation to Eastern
people of the rapid growth of fruit trees,
and ornamental shrubs under this South
ern sun. Many of them have charming
grounds and come as near to the ideal of
q perfect suburban home as one ever gets
in this world. Naturally in the colonies
about them, and notably in Orange and
Santa Ana, more attention is paid to
architecture and to the ornamentatiOn of
grounds. Perhaps of all the colonies i'll
Southern California Pasadena stands at
the head for the beauty of the grounds in
which each of its handsome villas is
placed. In many of the places in early
April may be seen hundreds of varieties
of roses Just coming into bloom, the rich
towering almond and scores of shrubs
These, with the orange and peach in full
bloom, make paradise of floral lowell
ness which it would be difficult to paral.
lei in any climate.
No California colony has received more
generous advertisement than Riverside,
in Bernardino county. Every Eastern
tourist has heard of it and has it down
on his itinerary. The place is well worth
a visit and careful inspection, for it GER
tainly demonstrates, beyond all others,
the miracle which may be wrought by
irrigation on the Southern plains. In
the colony from Celton one
passes over portion of the San Bernar-
dino plain, cultivated in spots where
water is available, but for the most part
sterile and desolate. Suddenly one
reaches a slightly elevated plateau of
land and enters at once upon series of
orange groves, which stretch along i'll
unblollen succession for about eleven
miles. No transition can be more start
ling than this leap from the dusty and
wind swept plain to the highly cultivated
mesa land above, with hundreds of valu.
able orange groves and its evidences of
wealth and culture on every hand. Mag
nOlia avenue-which, by the way, is
lined with pepper trees and eucalyptus,
and not with agnola-furnishes an adj
mirable drive for eight miles. On either
side are handsome villa residences, each
by its orange grove or vine
yard And the orange trees of Riverside
are well worth looking at, with the deep
green foliage and the straight, smooth
trunk, as large as mans leg. Every
where, too, are signs of that careful cul-
ture which the Eastern farmer would
consider almost too painstaking for his
onion bed. What one does miss at River
side, however, are the flowers and bits
of green lawn which make Pasadena so
to the eye. Very few of the
Riverside people seem to have a taste for
flowers, if one may judge from the
chary planting of roses and other flower
ing plants in their front yards. In
Of the places the orange trees
como up to the house, aud, aside from
the + foliage, there is not bit of green
to be seen. rs the soil is dark, heavy
loan, the contrast is not pleasant, and
one feels that the sacratice of a half dozen
orange trees in front of most of these
houses and the planting of flowers in
their stead, would add immensely to tho
general attractiveness. 1t would go far
to remove the air of artifcIality which
pervades the colony ana which makes
one homesick for green grass and bit OF
the wildness of unassisted nature.
Land in Riverside, as in most of these
southern colonies, has reached an extra
ordinary price. The enthusiasts In
orange growing and raisin making are
preplred to demonstrate that it pays to
buy improved land in bearing oranges or
grapes at 81, 900 per acre. Certainly nu-
merous sales have been made at this
price, and the purchasers have thus far
realized good returns for their invest
ments. As there is no prospect of glut
in the orange market so long as the heavy
sbinmcnts to the east continue and as
the main industry is simply in its in
fancy and capable of unlimited develop
ment there seems no good reason to
doubt that five wears from now grove
OF VINEYARD will b. any less remunerative
than at present.-lSaR Francisco ChroH-
icie.
How Italians Cure the Earache.