Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-02
THURSDAY, F. EHUAaY =, 1855
Spring In Southern California

THURSDAY, F. EHUAAY =, 1855.
Spring In Southern California.
Readers OF the HERALD must not
take fright at our ominous headline.
This is not spring poetry. Yet were
the poetic faculty ours no worthier
theme could we'll be found than to
sing of the fields and skies OF the semi
tropics as they look these spring days.
For spring it is in all its freshness, de-
spite the fact that yesterday was only
the first of February. The rain OF
the night before last was heavy, and the
dampness extended to all parts of Los
An geles county. By 10 A. NJ. the pre-
cipitation had ceased, and the sun
came out warm and glorious. The
season has brought US plenty
of rain. The total to-day will
run at from say, twelve
to nearly twenty inches, according to
the locality. On the high mountain
ranges there has fallen on an average
perh APPS twice as much moisture as on
the mesas and low plains. This is
gu ite enough to insure most prolific
sc ason should there fall no more rain
excepting a couple OF showers next
month to keep the top Of the ground
from baking. The temperature in
rain and shine during the past ten
days has ran.ed from fifty to
sixty degrees. This with the
plentiful supply OF moisture makes
ideal growing weather. The re-
suits are quite what might
he expected. Here within the high
walls of the city we are not impressed
with what lovely work Natures lavish
and skillful hand is doing in the fields
and on the hillsides. The grass is al
ready several inches high, and it is OF
the tenderest, most vivid green the eye
ever rested on. Yesterday the recent
rains had left broken masses of clouds
in the sky, like white banners Of truce
hung out to indicate the capitulation
Of the elements to their king who rode
sublime and brilliant in the high
heavens. The shadows OF these clouds
as they sailed athwart the sky before
the gentlest of breezes, were as foils
on the countryside to bring out into
bolder relief the new-springing grass
es.' Already the new-sown barley is
we'll above the ground, and its bright,
fresh hue is as sure sign of vigorous
vegetable health as would be the pink
in the cheek of any buxom damsel in
the land. Wide areas OF land have
alIe ady been seeded, and under such
splen weather as we have had for
the last couple of weeks, it requires
but few days to make the grain ger
innate and sprout above the ground.
1t is such facts as these that empha
sise the whole world of difference
there is between this favored land OF
ours and all other sections of the
Union. Where else in the Nation
will you find day-remember the
date, February frst-whose lowest
temperature is above fifty and whose
highest is we'll into the sixties?
Where else is the barley sown since
tn. new year set in, above the ground? ?
What other region has its hillsides all
aglow with the loveliest verdure the
eye could feast upon? There is no
rival to South California in these
respects.
The farmers are making the
most of these matchless oppor-
tunities. They are busy as
nailers in all their manifold enter
prises. In some of the large vine
yards there is small army at work.
One contingent is pruning the vines.
These are followed by others who
with the help of teams haul through
the vineya rds great cauldrons into
which the long canes cut from the
vines are cast and burned. Then fol.
low the plowers in dozens, each with
one horse turning up the soil and
burying the weeds. And these weeds
grow apace. So rapid is their devel-
opment under such auspicious skies
that well it behoves the agriculturist
to turn them down before they
get too much start of him.
The man who has not seen weeds
grow in a South California February
does not know what growth is. Still
the plows are busy turning up the
fields for more barley and wheat.
In other places the orchardists are
getting their trees into shape. All
the old lin bs and rubbish are being
burned, a nd the soil "tict led" in order
to insure a more prolific yield in the
summer. The fruit-grower knows he
must be up and doing now, for in a
few days more the blossoms will all
be out. As if by magic the buds
burst. ard when one awakes in the
merning the orchards are as white as