Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-10
THE NORTH AND SOUTH CONTRASTED.
THE COMING TIDE.

geles county. 1t is perhaps true that,
during the so-called "boom," prices
were run too high as to some grades of
property, although we doubt whether
this fact can be established by any fair
comparative standard. There has been
no time in which the price Of real estate
in the city of Los Angeles has been as
high, or within fifty per cent.of as high,
as the prices which now prevail in Seattle,
Tacoma or Portland. In the cities OF the
new state of Washington the figures
have been really so far ahead of the
boom prices here that there has been
nc comparison. In the residence quar-
ters of the cities named the lots are gen.
orally twenty-five by one hundred-as
against the fifty by one hundred and fifty
or one hundred and sixty feet of the
Los Angeles lots, and yet the Seattle or
Tacoma lots have sold at as high, or at
higher figure, as any which have been
reported here.
The HERALD would be greatly obliged
to some one who would give it a reason
for this discrimination. The state of
Washington has no attractions which
are not only equaled in Los Angeles
county but eciipsed one hundred fold.
The city of our lady the Queen of the
Angels has every right to exist that
Nice, Mentone or the other cities OF the
Riviera can plead, and these are the
smallest of our attractions for immi-
grants, and they are our smallest guar
antees of growth Climate is the least
of our resources, although our climate
is thing OF Incompatible significance.
The geographical position OF this city is
without a superior on the American
continent, while our railway advantages
are without peer. The coal, wheat
and timber which will minister to the
growth of Seattle and Tacoma will be
unspeakably surpassed by the mineral,
horticultural and agricultural resources
of Los Angeles and Southern California.
We can raise here all the grains and
fruits of the temperate zones, while our
brandes, wines, nuts, oranges, lines,
lemons, pomegranates, and other fruits
of the sub tropical countries, are special
ties of our own unrivaled land.
Then why should people be insane
enough to suppose that lot in Seattle
or Tacoma is worth more than one in
Los Angeles? The idea is preposterous
in the highest degree, and the inevitable
reaction will surely set in soon. We
believe that it will be recorded during
the present winter.
AS to country property in Los An
geles county, it has simply been
ridiculously low. There are lands
within ten miles of this city
which it would have been hard
to sell at $3.50 an acre, that, properly
farmed, at current prices for farm pro-
ducts, would have realized that sum to
the purchaser net the first year. In a
paper contributed by Prince Krapotkin
to an eastern magazine, that famous po-
litical economist mentions the rents
which are paid for some of the lands in
the neighborhood of Paris and other
leading French cities. They equal the
sums needed here to buy farm in the
San Felipe, Lugo or Merced ranches in
fee simple. Under the system of fertil-
izing and heating in vogue in France, in
the vicinity of cities, marvellous returns
are realized to the acre.
In Los Angeles we do not need these
devices. The fervent sun of Southern
California does the work for US without
money aud without price. As to i'm
mense areas OF our county we
do not need fertilizers, for the soil
is often one hundred feet deep. 1t would
require centuries of cultivation to ex-
haust the spontaneous productiveness OF
such hanunexampled an region. During the
past year Cinnamon have made from
$400 to $500 an acre from this soil in
what in the east is known as truck gar
dening. And yet, here and there, is en-
countered a fool, who has not been
brayed in mortar, who objects to the
cheap as dirt prices which prevail in
Los Angeles county today.
General Alexander, of the United
States corps of engineers, formed one of
a commission sent out by the United
States government to inspect and report
upon the irrigation systems of Spain,
Italy, the south OF France, and India,
China, and the other countries OF Asia,
in which irrigation has been in vogue for
centuries. One of the most in
teresting features of General Alex
der's report is that in which
he treats of the irrigated lands of
Spain. He shows that in that country,
which has not been supposed to repre-
sent any very progressive movement,
and which is amazingly poor as COM
pared to the United States, lands with
adequate irrigation facilities are worth
from $500 to $1,000 an acre. Why such
figures should prevail in Spain, and only
from one-half to one-third such figures
should be quoted in Los Angeles, would
probably puzzle any political econo-
mist to explain.
The fact is that Los Angeles county
and Southern California are but in the
infancy of their development. If lands
up in the states OF Oregon and Washing
ton, which only produce wheat and red
apples, are worth from $50 to $3.50 an