Los Angeles herald., 1890-07-16
Glend0ra the Beautiful and
Her Products.
Gladstone and COvina and Their
Great Improvements.
Oranges in November and Green Peas
in February.
A Valley of Fertile Soils, Fine Climate,
Abundance of Water and Great
Prosperity.


many ways. The Azusa valley proper
reaches from the San Gabriel river at
the mouth of the caflon to the San
Dimas pass, distance of about ten
miles, and from the base of the noun
tains to Baldwin's Puente ranch, nearly
ten more. The Puente is really part
of the valley, but is usually ranked with
the rest of the Puente country. The
valley known for years as the Azusa
contains over half million acres of fine
land. Its fertility has been proverbial
matter in this section for the past fifty
years. Lying as it does at the mouth of
the San Gabriel cafion where the river
debouches on the plain it has at all
times enjoyed the use of an abundance
of fine water. The San Gabriel is the
second largest stream in Southern Cali
fornia. 1t is fed by the eter-
nal SHOWS of the mountain peak
San Antonio, and never fails. Twenty
five years ago the oranges from the
ranch Of Henry Dalton had
reputation second to none in Los
Angeles, and Mr. Dalton made the first
raisins ever cured in this section. That
was about twenty-five years ago. They
were made of the Muscat grape, and
were of fine flavor and excellent in all
respects.
Let us begin at the Azusa depot,
where D. A. Shaw keeps an excellent
house known as the Hotel Azusa. 1t
belongs to the Azusa Land and Water
Company, and is very well planned
and executed house, which Mr.. Shaw
conducts in an excellent manner. The
town of Azusa has number of very
pleasant houses, and two or three large
brick blocks built by the company.
This company has a very large body Of
fine land around the depot, with a river
of water for domestic and irrigating pur-
poses. Reference will be had to this in
detail at another time. ~
Just east of Azusa the first place
visited by the scribe was that of J. G..
Preston, an enterprising nurseryman.
He has 5000 fall-budded orange trees
in nursery rows, good part of which
he has already sold for next winters
planting at good round price. He has
1000 spring-bud oranges. These are all
IN q CoAPaA aIAf0Ay cnldii d1Co VI eAouHu,
but the whole stock is worth about
$4,000. That is about'the way farmers
In the Azusa count up their profits.
The next place visited was that of MI.
L. M. La Fetra. 1t lies high up on the
mesa in fine oak park, the
most beautiful in the section.
The place comprises 500 acres OF
this splendid woodland. There
is a good orange orchard on the place
and about l 900 fine prune trees loaded
with fruit. These prunes are worth $5E
. ton in their natural state, and will net
more if dried by the growers. Mr.. La
Fetra will bud 1900 peach trees with
prune buds next winter. Living springs
of water rise on the place, and the
water is piped all over the place in the
vicinity of the house. This is branC
new edifce, and one of the handsomes
in the country. The house and it's 5Ot
acres are worth a large sum of money
If they were owned by millionaire NJ
price would buy them. 1t is an idea
place for fine home.
Passing eastward beautiful Glendor,
was approached. Now the fruit countr,
was reached. Apricots were in thei
prime last week, and were being driet
in great abundance. There are severa
establishments in the valley, some o
which handle twenty tons day. Fo
many days the whole valley dried per
haps forty tons day. The growers were
getting $25 ton, five tons to the acre
being the usual crop. The farmers were
happy pocketing $125 an acre for theil
apri;ots.
Near Glendora lies the place of Mr.
William Forbes. He has eighty acres
of fine land, and from foul
acres of apricots he has just
sold twenty tons of fruit fol
the snug sum of $500. Mr.. Forbes has
300 prune trees in full bearing, that will
net him about three times as much az
his apricots. He sold 500 sacks of pota-
toes for the eastern market at $1.25 per
sack, or $625 to add to the $500 for the
apricots, and to be increased later on by
81 200 or 81 800 from the prunes. That
is the way Glendora farmers get rich.
He has grapes and oranges besides.
Mr.. J.J. West has sixty acres, ten OF
which are set to apricots and raisin
grapes, all in excellent condition. He
was drying his own apricots. Five tons
of green fruit will make one of dried.
The prepared fruit commands about IL
cents pound, or $240 for the product Of
one acre. That is better than selling at
SIPS an acre to the dryers. A brother OF
Mr.. West, Mr.. j. G. West, lives close by.
He has forty-three acres of mesa land,
and large body of hill land for grazing
purposes, near the Dalton cafion. OF
his mesa land ten acres are planted to
oranges and lemons, which are doing
well.
Directly east of Mr.. West, and adioin-
ing him, is the place of Mr.. John w.
Cook. He has sixty acres, thirty
five of which are planted to oranges and
lemons. There is an abundance of water
for these ranches from the Dalton caflon
and from cienegas or springs on or near
the land. At the citrus fair
in this city last winter Mr..
Cooks oranges were conceded to
be the best in the whole exhibit.
When the National Grange officials Wis
tied this section a couple of years ago in
the smonth of November, J. w. Cook
sent them oranges perfectly ripe. This
shows how very early these mesas
along the foothills are. Ten boxes OF
fruit were sent to the grange officials,
and even at that early date they were
high-colored and OF fine flavor. It is
difficult to get oranges of good color for
the Christmas markets of the coast, and
the fruit is not generally considered ripe
before March. The warm soils and
southern exposure of these Glendora
foothills do the work as early as NOvem-