Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1886-08-06
ABOUT SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.


Composition of the Soii-Its Productive
ness-The C1imate-Lung Diseases.
About one-half of southern California
is desert, not "only in name" as Mr..
Nordhoff has said of some of it, but pitt
less, uncompromising reality; while
fully three-fourths of the rest will for
ever defy the pillow. Yet, nearly all that
is very barren or homely lies upon the
outside, and further acquaintance soon
reveals a large amount of land the rich
ness and adaptability of which to "a wide
range of productions are far beyond the
conception of any one accustomed only
to the eastern or prairie states. The soil
is mostly composed of disintegrated gran
lite, mixed in some places with disinte-
grated quartz. Tracts of red or dark
clay, known as adobe, are also common,
and this is the strongest of all soils, en-
during cropping with wheat longer than
any other. But the greater part of the
land is of decomposed granite, and this
is not only the best fruit land, but for
"all around" purposes for richness, com-
bined with ease of working, can not be
excelled anywhere. Soil that at a care
less glance appears to be almost pure
sand, or fine flakes of mica, proves sur
prisingly rich.
Southern California will produce with
proper care nearly every kind of tree,
shrub, grass, grain, herb or tuber that is
at all common or useful in the temperate
zone, together with a large number of
those of the tropics. While irrigation is
not always absolutely essential, it inva-
riably doubles or quadruples the yield,
and irrigable land therefore sells at from
three to ten times the price at which the
other goes begging for a buyer. Three
acres in alfalfa will keep an ordinary
family in milk, butter and pork, and
two more well managed will supply it
with vegetables and eggs. This is in case
the land is irrigated. On dry land one
may have to wait "a veal or two for rain
enough to plant anything from which an
immediate living may be had. With
proper irrigation combined with careful
cultivation, the most astonishing results
may be achieved, and now that irriga-
ton is being managed On scientific prin-
ciples and not on the old shiftless Next
can style the increase in production is
simply marvellous.
Nearly all that has been written about
the productiveness of southern California
Is literally true. Like all countries it
raises three kinds of ~frlit-good, bad,
and Indifferent. Its best fruit is the best
in the world; its worst, the very worst.
1t is a common remark in Chicago and
the east that California fruit is insipid,
and much of it is; not however, because
grown in California, but for the reason
that it is over-irrigated. The California
fruit grower knows that the world
Judges fruit mainly by its size. He
knows it is quite useless to tell the world
that smaller fruit may be of better
flavor, SO he bloats it with water under
a warm sun until it represents a fair,
but false exterior. But such mistaken
methods are rapidly disappearing. Fine
budded varieties of oranges have taken
the place of the sour and worthless seed
lings that formerly made of the Cali
fornia orange a byword and a reproach.
AT the New Orleans exposition the Cali
fornia oranges received the highest
a ward over their Florida competitors,
a thing which a few years since would
have been impossible. Last year 200
car loads of California oranges found a
ready sale in the country tributary to
Chicago. Almost an equal improve
ment is visible in other things. Raisins
well cured and packed no longer have
to beg "a purchaser, and California wines
are now beginning to ran as worthy of
consideration.
The climate of southern California is
very dry and bracing. Warm in the
daytime, it is always cool at night, and
the invali inc here a sure relief from
the biting changes of temperature, that
makes life in the east or middle west IA
constant source of irritation and danger
to them. And still the idea that south
rrn California is a vast sanitarium, a
cure-all for all throat and lung diseases,
in particular, is a great mistake. False
ideas of climate often spring not alone
from the invalid's own imagination, but
are propagated by fool friends.
Any one so far gone with consumption
that he can only sit dow in a hotel and
keep up his strength with tonics until
the air can cure him had better stay at
home. No part of the world can offer
him any hope. To one with sufficient
strength to live almost out of doors for
$50 days in the year, where every pros
pect pleases and temptations to walk,
ride, hunt or stroll are on every hand,
and where cold and dampness are re-
duced to a minimum-to one who can
take advantage of these conditions Cali
fornia holds out great hopes of benefit.
No climate offers any positive medicine
that can be honestly recommended, but
that of California offers a freedom from
exciting or ~aggravating causes of dis
ease, combined with a set of conditions
of cure, that no other inhabitable land,
taken the year round, can offer. RE
view of Van Dykes Southern Cali
fornia."
Brandy Aduiteration in Bordeaux.