The Abbeville messenger. (Abbeville, S.C.) 1884-1887, 1886-06-29
"A WONDERFUL FARM.
"Lucy Baldwin's" Grea,
Ranch in California.
a Princely Domain, Fourteen Miles Long,
Containing $4,000 Acres.

A letter from California to the st.
Louis Globe Democrat says: Lucky
Baldwin's possession from the control of
mines on the Comstock have gradually
grown until now he has n half Il dozen
great enterprises under full h:adw way.
He owns the largest and fincss hotel in
San Francisco, with the SINCE exception
of the Palace, and which contains a the
atre within it. He has n fine summc
hotel ON Lake Tahoe, and he has shrcwd-
ly bought up q large strip Of the shore of
this beautiful lake. which in q few years
will be sought after for villa sites. Fin
ally, he WINS the great Santa Anita ranch,
near Los Angeles the breeding place of
the string of swift footed flyers with
which he goes East to contest for the
prizes On the chief racing circuits, aad
one of the best general fruit and stock
ranches in the State. This pr.ncely
domain extends fourteen miles east and
west and twelve miles north and south,
and embraces SO, 900 acres. He shears
thousands of sheep every year, raises
wheat enough to charter entire ships for
conveying it to Liverpool, and makes
more brandy than any one else in the
State, besides turning out a large quaint
ty of wine.
The men who are boarded on the ranch
get 81 u day, and the few Chinese who
remain-not over a dozen, all told-get
81 a day and board themselves. What
adds to the likeness to the Southern
plantation is the appearance of young
darkies driving carts or hcrding stock.
These are members of a colony of North
Carolina negroes whom Baldwin brought
out here from their old homes two years
ago. He paid their fares and made a
contract with them to work for him
for a term of years. He built them
neat houses, and here are installed the
ten families comprising about sixty mem
bers. They lave made excellent hands
in the field and the orchard, because tao
women and children can be counted on
for good work in cultivating and pick
ing fruit.
The man who has charge of all the
practical details of this huge place is J.
F. Fully, ashrewd, energetic Californian,
who knows wheat growing and fruit cu!-
turc so thoroughly that he is a terror to
all incompetent hands, and who keeps
his small army Of workmcn under regular
military discipline. Judged by the re-
suits, his management is the best of any
that I saw in the southern country.
The wine ccllcr is always an object of
curiosity to the average tourist, but even
though one enjoys the companionship of
the manager aud the hospitality of the
ranch, it is very dangerous to sample
California wines. There is so much
''trength in the juice of these lusty grapes,
even when mellow with age, that unless
n is a seasoned vessel the chances are
that he will be overcome before he knows
&. The cellar is piled high with them
fsn years old. AL tn, latest machinery
fnr distilling is here, and the place is in
charge of a French expert, Of lifelong
experience in wine and brandy making in
his native country.
After one has seen the orange groves
tEe orchards, vineyards, and the other
features of the home place, he is prepared
tn extend his observations to the great
wheat and sheep ranches on the Santa
anita. You may drive for miles through
Fields whera the wheat is now knee high
n1d shows an even stand which would
delight the eye Of a Dakota wheat grow
CT. Beyond the wheat farm the visitor
m to the Puento sheep ranch, COM
prises about 80, 900 acres of gently roll
ing foothill land reaching back to the
mountains. The old Scotchman, named
Cameron, who has cared for sheep all his
life, going from Scotland to New y .aland
and from New Zealand coming here. He
is a man Of wide information, and he
seemed liked an anachronism in this free
and easy California life, for he adheres
to che alvinism in which he was bred.
An example of the rigid insistence Upon
his creed was furnished last summer
when Baldwin had a party of friends at
the ranch. The supply of meat ran out
n the millionaire sent over to old Cam
eron to slaughter four sheep. The an
swer was returned in broad Scotch:
s'There will be na killing of the sheep on
the Sawbath," and Baldwin had to send
to town for his meat.
BALDWIN is engaged in splitting up a
portion of the ranch into small tracts of
from twenty acres upward and selling