Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-06-19
Land values ia semi-Tropic"'
California


property have been unduly expanded
in the city OF Los Angeles, the TACT
remains that there is great vitality
in real estate operations in Los An
eeles county and in the Southern Cai.
Ifornia country at large. There are
still almost unlimited opportunities
for making money in the city, but
this money will be made by ludicious
investors at the approved current
market rates-such rates as VIII lg-
more speculative kite flying, Any
one who pays precisely what the prop
erty Is worth well ont on Spring ana
Main streets will make enormous
sums during the next ten years. IAis
journal, however, would like at TINS
stage to counsel extreme moderation
in the current quotations for valuable
city real estate. We believe that they
are nearly all bona fde; but, in rare
instances, we are tempted to discern
a disposition to overdo the matter.
We believe that the owner oil a lot on
either Spring or Main streets, beyond
sixth, will, in ten years, be easily
able to get from thousand to fifteen
hundred dollars front foot for 1t, but
there may be incidents OF oyer-specu-
lation in the interim which will force
weak holders 10 the wall. We would
suggest that the value OF real estate
for business purposes after all de-
ponds upon the rental returns IN
yolyed in capital invested in land and
buildings, and that the pace ought
not to be crowded. As to the country
property in this county and in South
ern California at large the tendency
is towards rapidly expanding figures,
and quite naturally. The splendid
lands of this county, with the price
less attachment Of climate superadd-
cd, have been held hitherto at alb
surdy low figures. Lands which
might reasonably, considering their
possibility OF returning large per-
centage upon an Investment, have
been held at from $500 to $1,000
an acre, have until lately been
thouehtlessly parted with by Ange-
lefios for next to nothing. Such an
infatuation could not last long, and
the reaction has not been extreme.
Many years ago the government OF
the United States appointed a com
mission, amongst whom was Gen.
Alexander, OF the Engineer Corps OF
the United States Army, to go over
Europe and Asia with view to in
vestigating the several systems OF ir-
rigation prevalent in those countries,
and reporting their experiences to the
Washington department. Their mos'
interesting field Of inquiry related tt
Southern France and Spain. In the
latter country they discovered the
fact that lands which had a perfect
irrigating right were worth from $500
to $1,000 an acre. The arid lands adj
joining were comparatively valueless,
As to the three million and three
hundred thousand acres of Los Ange-
les county there are at least two mil
lion. acres which, for vineyard and
grain raising purposes, need no irri-
cation. For hundred years these
lands, whose soils run from eight to
eighty feet in depth, have been
trampled by countless herds Of
horses, bands of cattle and herds Of
sheep. Quite naturally such soil
80 impacted, required thorough open
ing up before it would produce crops
Before the bold experiments oil the
late Mr.. Lankershim, in the San Fer
nando valley, followed by those O.
Mr.. Daniel Freeman, on the Cen
tinela rancho, it was supposed to be
impossible to raise wheat and barley
on these old sheep ranges. Mainly
as result of the discernment anc
enterprise OF these two gentlemen
nearly ten million bushels OF the
cereals will be garnered in Los Ange
les county this year. In addition t.
these immense spreads OF reliable
agricultural lands we have in Lo
Angeles county prodigious stretch
es of what are known rs moist
lands; that is to say, lands wher'
there are very extensive cienegas
bottom lands and lands where waite
is at but tritiing depth from tn
surface. On these soils one hundret
bushels OF corn can be raised to tn
acre. When they are put in alfalfi
it is no infrequent thing to recort
from six to eight crops to the acr
annually-crops that in yield ar
quite up to the average OF Orang
county, New York, and which, il
butter and cheese-making properties
perhaps exceed those choice portion
of the Empire State. When thes
lands are devoted to the raising c
the grape the yield is simply prodig
ious as compared with any know
vineyard region of Europe.
Itseems to be established, OF late
in the favored portions of LOS Ange
les county-a region which has quit
as much rainfall as the Sacrament
valley, with the need OF much less
that irrigation is only really needed
in the cultivation of the orange. Thu
Late Col. B. D. Wilson assured tn,
writer that even the orange was mon
strously over-irrigated. He gave i
as his deliberate judgment tina
eighty gallons year, properly az
piled TO each tree, was all that an
branch OF the citrus family needed.
Under such circumstances it
hard to apply limit to the possibl
value of an acre OF land in Los Ang,
les county, with a good water RICH
where it is planted in a fine yariet
of oranges. Col. B. D. Wilson one
sold $500 worth OF this deliciot
fruit from single acre. Three yea
ago Mr.. Dalton, now dead, sold $st
from quarter OF an acre Of his o
grove, which was located in Il
southern portion OF the city of Ia
Angeles.
Certainly progressive America,
represented in Los Angeles count
will not be behind old Spain in Il
value which will attach to such pric
less lands