Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-02-07
rhe Nsea ef enc nour.


century, and there is the same skies as
we have been setting forth as the bright
est under the sun. Our soil is one whose
has not an equal in any
zone of the earth. There is hardly a
crop that grows in any cline which does
not flourish here. Not only one harvest
q year blesses the labors of the granger,
a programme which has to satisfy him in
all other sections of the country, but here
there is not month in the twelve when
he fails to garner crop, to market the
products of his farm, and to bank the re-
suits of his sales. And we do not need
a section of land, to plant part one month
and part another. There are many crops
which may be produced in regular sue
cession here from the same acre of land.
Indeed there are some which are peren-
NAL in a practical sense, for as fast as
one crop is gathered the seed may be
sown for another in the very same bit of
land. Nor is this all. Not only may the
farmer reap crop after crop from the
same field in the same year, but our
soils produce crops whose returns
are larger in money value for
an acre than may be gathered
from ten acres elsewhere. 1t is not
necessary to go into details as to these
matters. They are all perfectly under
stood. 1t is too late in the day to tell
intelligent people that dozen sorts of
garden vegetables grow month after
month here and mature every day in the
year. 1t is we'll enough established that
stra awberries yield fruit at all seasons.
So it is that potatoes, cabbage and other
of the commoner sorts ofvegetables yield
two or three crops a year. Who has
not heard that our alfalfa meadows
are moved six or eight times
year? AS little need is there to
discuss the results of farming in money
measure. These same alfalfa meadows
pay as much as the gross sum Of $50 a
year. Potatoes sell here right along for
rs cents to 81 and $3.50 per hundred
weight. The practical farmer knows
what three crops year at these rates
mean. The orange groves of Los An
geles pay $500, $500 and even larger
sums per acre year in and year
out. Walnuts pay almost as large reve-
nues, and prunes pay quite as large.
Fig culture is in its infancy, but it will
be one of the most profitable of all our
industries.
Then there is the climate. Here are
skies far brighter than those which bend
over the Riviera of Italy. Here are
winter days milder than those of Naples,
balmier than those of any part of vine
clad Greece. Our gardens these Febru-
ary days are gay with roses, pinks. hello
rope and callas. The hedges of the
country are bright with masses of the
tenderest geraniums. In our surf at the
shore even little children enjoy plunge
all through the winter, when the sea is
as warm as in mid-August. As for
health, there is almost an absolute as
surance of it in the fresh breezes, so
gentle and pure, that come from over the
unpolluted expanses of the Pacific's tepid
seas. The diseases that flesh is heir to
in all other lands are either unknown
here, or they are of such rare occurrence
and of so mild type as to cause no
alarm, because the fatality from
them is almost nil. In these
balmy airs, beneath these smiling
skies, life is a continual inspiration
and benediction. There is here no such
thing as struggle for life because of the
severity of the weather in respect OF
either heat or cold. Nor is there strug.
gle for bread to sustain life because of the
barrenness of the land.
Such are the conditions that surround
this section. Is any so blind that he
does not see that these fertile valleys
will be all filed rapidly with a most
highly prosperous and consequently
satisfied population? Is any go
stupid as to doubt that the
affuent, whether ill or we'll, will flock
here in myriads to enjoy the beauty of
this landscape, the fragrance of our
winter flowers, the comfort of perfect
days the health that comes from mild
days and airs from the oceans purifying
laboratory?
1t is nonsense to say there is no money
here. The banks are full of coin. The
accounts of the depositors run up into
the millions and tens of millions. But
this money is in the hands of timid and
shortsighted people. Here are these broad
plains lying untitled and unproductive.
Here is the richest section in the Union
importing the products of our own soil.
We are enriching the farmers of the fro
zen plains of Kansas, and of the wind
swept prairles Of Nebraska With coin paid
for commodities that we can distance
them tenfold in producing. Surely to
the people OF this section the words of the
competitor of Casar may we'll be applied
1t is not In our stars
Put in ourselves, that we are underllngs.
Had we but the wisdom, the enter
prise and the economy of other commun-
tiles, dull times would not trouble US.
If we could only see the riches that lie
around us we would seize on them. II
we had faith in our opportunities equal
to their merits the busy hum OF industry
would not have died out in the most
phenomenally remunerative section of
Al