Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-02-02
What a Young Tennesseean and
Two WiscOnsinners Think of
Southern California.

tropic paradise at hearing at his elbow
three persons abusing the country
without mercy. Alter running fire
of adverse criticism had been in
dulged in at our expense for some
time, one of the visitors asked the
other, care you from Chicago?"
"No," replied he, Il am from Ten
nessee."
"How long have you been in Cali
fornia?"
~ have been here'four days, and l
am going back as soon as | can"
"Well," replied one OF the others,
eve are from Wisconsin, and we have
been here a few weeks. We came to
see friend who bought some land at
Santa Ana year ago. He wants to
sell it and go back, but he can't"
eyes," said the other tourist from
Wisconsin. "and since be has been
on the place he has not been able to
raise anything to SELL"
"Oh," broke out the young man
from Tennessee who had been here
four days, "the boom, as they Call it,
is about over, people are finding out
it is better to live in Il country where
you can grow something on your
land"
TO THE RESCUE.
The California newspaper man
thought the point had come where
patience had ceased to be virtue,
and stopping his attempt to write. he
turned to the man by his side, saying,
"Will you pardon me if |
ask permission to make this
one-sided discussion Of my State more
interesting to you all by putting in a
word in our defense? ?" With excel
lent good grace the young gentleman
from Tennessee said, "of course, we
will be pleased to hear anything there
is to be said about this country"
Very well them" said the Cali
fornian, Sin the first place,
here is this mornings paper.
Let us take yesterday at hap
hazard. You say the boom
is about over" See there the sales of
real estate in this county yesterday
aggregate $3.50 900. That is more
property than was sold in your whole
State in the past month. 1t is more
than will be sold in any county in
your State during the current year" "
eyes, but," broke in one of the
Wisconsin tourists, eve do not have
to sell our land to make money off it.
We make money off our crops"
81 heard you say, Madam" replied
the advocate of the semi-tropics,
"that your friend in Santa Ana had
raised nothing to sell in year. Now,
/ know Santa Ana. | know there is
hardly an acre OF soil in that fertile
section which will not produce tre-
mendous crops, if it is only cultivated.
As to a market, there are so many OF
you visitors focking in here from the
East we are at our wits ends to sup
ply you with all sorts OF products OF
our soil. l know your State, too,
Madam. know its most fertile sec
tions as we'll as | know Santa
Ana. | know from actual expert
ence that on a forty-acre farm on
Elkhorn Prairie, in Walworth county,
Wisconsin, family cannot get ten
dollar piece in year to spend out
side the barest and simplest necessi-
ties of life."
The Tennesseean Clipped in at this
point with the queery, "What can
you grow here excepting a few
oranges ?''
"You have been here only
few days, and therefore such ques-
tion is not surprising" said the scribe.
81 will tell you what we can raise
here You name yoIr crop, the hest
you can raise in your State, and we
will raise "a better crop of the same
product here, and then turn around
and raise another crop of some other
sort, which will pay more money than
your best efforts will come to-
With an all too confident smile, the
Tennesseean said, "Well, let us take
corn. Can you raise corn here?"
His astonishment was profound
when told that Los Angeles county
produces vast quantities of corn
enough for home use and leaving a
large supply for shipment to San
Francisco. The reporter pointed out
the fact that from Santa Ana val ey
there was very cheap freight rates 20
San Francisco by sea, and that in the
Bay City corn always commanded a
price sufficiently high to justify i'm
portations from Omaha. This is
owing to the fact that only Los Ange
les and Alameda counties, in the
whole State of California, produce
much of this cereal. "Why,"
sad he who pleaded for Los Angeles.
81 am pretty tall specimen of hu-
manity, and | have stood in corn
fields of wide extent and | could not
reach the tops of the stalks even
when on horseback. No longer ago
than yesterday l saw an ear OF corn
grown near that very section. Ii lay
on a real estate agents table with
several others, and taking it up
l remarked that it was an 1S-row
ear, but its owner said it was
only 16-row ear. l counted it and
found it was q 20-row ear. 1t did not
lack one grain from the but to the
point. We raise tons OF such
corn in this ounty."
The discussion took a wide range
over these subjects, and three more
astonished people would be hard tc
find than those when they learned
that we produce wheat in marvellous
quantity for export, barley in like
proportion; that our alfalfa pro-
duces six crops year, aggregat
ing twelve tons an acre, and
selling at $l20 That we grow apples,
peaches, pears, apricots, plums, and
other deciduous fruits was quite
as. astounding. The apologist for the
semi-tropics was forced to challenge
the party to make a trip to the Sants
Ana Valley where he promised tt
show them apples in store whose
equal they would confess they hat
never seen. He also offered to be-
that there was not a county in Ten
nessee or Wisconsin--or that Illinois
would be thrown in the scale to furnist
one county, whose exports OF product'
would equal in value those of Los'An
geles county.
Our climate was attacked as las