The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1886-09-03

VI
their houses. Some lived for the first
year or two in tents; others constructed
plain little cottages out of rough boards
and have lived in them ever since.
Families who in the East were accuS-
toned to spacious rooms in we'll
furnished house were obliged to be
contented with one or two rooms in a
rough hut.
"Why," said married lady to me, as
she surveyed her narrow quarters, if
we were in the East and had neighbors
living in such shake-dOWn as this l
should be sending them in cold victuals
all the time, for l am sure they would
need them. But out here we do not
think anything of living in such place
ourselves"
The building era, however, is now
dawning on the town. Everybody is at
work upon the plans Tor "our new
house." and within one or two years
Riverside will probably have as many
fine houses as any town of its size in
the West. Five and ten thousand
dollar houses will then be quite COM
mon, as the majority of the orange
growers have accumulated wealth
quite rapidly during the past five
years.
Riverside is settled mainly by New
England people, with a sprinkling of
Indianians and Illinoisans. Two
thirds of the men came here for their
health and the other third for money
making. But in seeking health the
majority have been able to make COM
Portable little fortunes. A few Of the
early settlers who came here for health
waited too long before leaving the
East, and are now sleeping in the quiet
little cemetery at the foot of Mount
Rubldoux.
The soil in this vicinity is rich and
fertile and needs only water to make it
as productive as could be wished. Its
depth is one of it's remarkable charac-
taristics. You can dig down twenty
feet before reaching sand. This state
ment will hardly receive credence
among the Eastern farmers, upon whose
choicest lands the loan is barely two
feet in depth OrchardiStS tell me that
although they have been cultivating
their land for ten years its richness
seems undiminished Almost every
kind of fruit can be raised upon it.
from Strawberries and melons to
peaches and oranges, if water is only
plenty. The whole of the valley is
cultivated by the aid of irrigation. A
system of canalsWas established several
years ago by which thousands of acres
of hitherto desert land were made pro-
ductiVe. The canals were owned by
one man until recently, when they
were purchased by the citizens at a
cost Of $4,000. The system is now
being extended and enlarged at great
cost. The water is obtained from the
Santa Anna River at sufficient dis
lance from town to give it the required
head for irrigating purposes. The
supply is, however, insufficient to irri-
gate all the land in the Riverside basin,
and so company has been formed to
bring water to the town from series
of artesian wells at San Bernardino,
some twenty miles distant. Water can
be obtained in abundance from these
wells, and it is expected the new
system of canals will, within a year
after they are opened, bring into cult
walton some 10000 acres of unimproved
land lying in the eastern part of the
town. 1t is customary to irrigate the
land by the trench system once in four
or five weeks during the dry season,
beginning about the 1st of June and
ending in September or October. Tho
water is allowed to run over the land
for two or three days at each irriga-
ton.
Up to the present time SOC carloads
of oranges and lemons have been
shipped from Riverside this year.
This number represents fully one
third of all the oranges and lemons
produced in California. The total
shipments to date from the three
countries San Bernardino, Los Angeles
and San Diego is not far from 1000
carloads,
l have not been able to discover just
how many raisins were made last year,
but have been told that the number