Los Angeles herald., 1890-07-20
AN ENCOURAGING OUTLOOK.

We have every reason to believe that
our section is on the eve of revival
that will be far more lasting and more
substantial in its results than anything
we could hope to come out OF any num-
ber of adventitious booms. The past two
years have witnessed our people awak-
.ening from the delusion of premature
enhancement of values, and resorting
with will and determination to the only
means that bring permanent prosperity
to an agricultural community. They
have entered enthusiastically the field OF
production, with a result at once so
gratifying and astonishing that the eyes
of the whole union are turned toward
us. Hundreds of thousands of new
acres have been brought under the
plow, and hundreds Of thousands of
acres of orchards and vineyards have
been planted out. Old orchards that
had been neglected have been carefully
inursed back to their original perfection,
and we'll have their owners been repaid
for their wise and timely re-
turn to reason. The returns from
the field, the orchard and the vineyard
will now be such as to demonstrate
value to the soil that will exceed any
thing it could reach by the boom pro-
cess. The fruit yield this year will
place our producers upon an easy fnan-
cial footing, and they will be stimulated
by the profits realized to expand their
cultivated acres and to enlarge the
measure of their productions.
The HERALD has kept its readers con-
stantly posted upon the astonishing
increase of tree planting that has been
done this year. Everywhere in this
section may be seen new orchards
that have just been planted out, and
the diversity in the variety of fruits that
have received the attention of our horti-
-culturists is significant departure.
Few orchardists now confine themselves
to the propagation of the orange alone,
but the apricot, the peach, the pear, the
nectarine and the English walnut all
come in for attention. The result in a
few years will show the wisdom of this
diversified tree planting. If the orange
crop is short, the apricot or walnut crop
will be large.
As an evidence of the interest the
revival of industry and production in
our section has enlisted abroad, we may
cite the fact that a company has been
organized in Chicago with capital of
$1,5O0,O00 to irrigate and improve fruit
lands in this section. Wherever this
company may determine to carry out
their enterprise they will be sure to sue
eeed. If it be to convey water to the
arid lands of the Mohave desert or to
take it to stretches OF our dry mesas,
they cannot make mistake. A
Detroit company is about to
take water out of the New
river near the Monte to carry
it to Whittier and the lands below
that colony. Here is the germ of
scheme of tremendous possibilities.
There are ninety square miles of land
lying between the Whittier foothills
and Artesia, and between New river and
Los Coyotes creek, every acre of which
is as susceptible of as high productive
results as the mesa upon which River
sides magnificent orchards and vine
yards flourish. There is a uniformity
of richness in onr mesa soils which rem
ders them the most productive lands
in the country when supplied
with water. They are the allu-
yium of the rivers that have been grad
ually raised by overfows until they
have got beyond the reach of the an
nual freshets. When we say that they
are the river bottoms raised, we convey
in word clear idea of their richness
and fertility. All they lack is water,
and when that is supplied they will yield
abundantly of fruits or other crops.
Let us say that not one in hundred
of these 10000 acres of mesa lands
is worth more than $40 an acre.
That would, indeed, be large
price for them, if we should
measure their value according to their
present possibilities without irrigation.
But place water upon them and at once
their value is increased to from 500 to
$50 per acre, and cheap at that; for