Los Angeles herald., 1890-11-28
A London Papers Tribute to
Our Resources.
The Climate and Products
Warmly Eulogized.
This is Declared to be the Best
Orange Belt on the Earth.
The London Graphic Publishes the Arti-
Gle and the Scientific American
Copies it at Full Length.

its climate and its products, that is a
glowing eulogy on the subject. The
article was profusely illustrated, and
the Scientific American copied it at full
lenghth, with all the illustrations. The
article is so well written and so thought
iul that it is herewith presented in full
to readers of the HERALD:
Like all distant countries, California
has enjoyed sort of fuctuating repute
in the various reports which have
brought it into notice from time to time.
At one time a gold craze excites the fer
vid imagination OF European hearers
with dreams of wealth-qdicklyd depressed
again when the gold is stated to
have been overdone. At another,
wild rush is made for land,
which suddenly springs up to
unheard-of values, and becomes topic
of eager interest until within q year Or
so, the boom is said to have collapsed.
In their turn railwas come to the front,
and visions are presented OF unheard-of
developments in engineering. But amid
all these more transient Jurors there is
one point in which there has seldom or
never been any substantial variation,
and that is that California, in particular
the southern counties OF the state, pos
sesses characteristics of climate which
are undeniable. Most authorities agree
that, in that respect at least, South
Even visitors and settlers whose expert
ence has extended to the choicest do
mains of Australia and New Zealand
have been heard to say that California
bears the palm. And it, as is truly the
case, it does literallyt bear the palm, it
also bears at the same time other pro-
ductions of the vegetable kingdom of far
greater interest and concern to the agri-
culturlst, who is now beginning to ap-
preclate its marvellous qualifications.
The extraordinary increase in the fruit
production of that favored land within
the last ten years is a fact that filters
slowly through the 5000 miles which
separate it from England. for the reason
that the marsets en- route absorb nearly
the whole Of the present produce before
it reaches even the eastern states of
America. Our acquaintance with Cali
fornia fruits in London is confined
almost exclusively to those which come
to us in the canned condition and, how
ever excellent these in quality, the full
luxury of fresh fruits can hardly be con-
veyed in a tin.
Nevertheless, the forerunners of the
supply have reached us, now and again,
as strangers; and we are beginning to
ask when these misunderstanding, pale
pears and model like apples will begin
to come to US in greater plenty. Are
there not moreover, other products of a
soil giving such evidences as these,
which may be expected to grace our
shop windows in due time? Undoubt-
edly there are and when the American
continent is traversed with certainty in
four days and the ocean in six-as they
will be-some OF these will greet us al
most with the flush of the California sun
and the breath of its exquisite atmos-
phere upon them. In climate where
all gradatious OF temperature, except the
actually tropical, can be selected at will
for fruit growing, there are few species
which will not respond abundantly to
the influences OF such q soil, when the
locality is duly adapted to their nature.
''It is remarkable that some other
balmy and equable climates, such, for
instance, as those OF MADEIRA and tho
Canary islands, refuse to yield some
kinds of produce, among which may be
named several OF the common bush
fruits, and certain vegetables, as the
broad bean, caulitlower, etc. But Cali
fornia makes no such exceptions; she is
generous in all alike, and the gooseber-
ries, currants, raspberries and blackber-
ries-we rather disdain, by the way, to
cultivate this latter fruit in England,
chiefly because we only know it as the
wild blackberry of the hedgerows all
these familiar friends, we say, can be
raised on the uplands of California in
luxuriance unknown to our capricious
climate.
SIN Southern California, however, the
orange stands facile princeps-tlat is to
say, throughout all the regions best
adapted to its growth. AS one drives
through the seemingly endless tracts OF
teeming orange orchards in such dis
tricts as Riverside, Cotton or Pasadena,
during the winter months-that is, in
the full swing of the orange harvest
the sight will almost be allowed to rank
as worlds wonder. 1t will be remem-
bered that even in California the Young
orange tree takes five or six years before
it begins to pour its fruits into the lap
of the cultivator; and hence the vast
plantations formed within the last de-
cade are now adding, season after sea-
son, fresh hundreds OF acres of the actual
producing area.
''It has been stated on the authority
OF the Los Angeles chamber of commerce
that there are at this moment, in that
county alone, nearly 600, 900 orange trees,
of which more than two-thirds have
reached the bearing period. Compared
with the whole of California, Los Angeles
county is but as one of the counties of
England. The total number of trees of
the citrus class Gncluding lemons, lines
and citrons, as well as oranges) in the
same county is nearly 100000. The
value of this production is reckoned to
net four dollars per tree, or something
like $500 per acre; and this from land
which in some instances could have
been bought out and out ten or fifteen
years ago for not much more than the
hundredth part OF that sum! Such are
some of the financial results of the two
main factors in California fruit growing
industry and water. Twenty years
ago nearly the whole of the waters from
the vast and permanent gathering
ground of the Sierra Nevada range ran
to waste and were lost before reaching
the lands which thirsted for them, and
which are now, under the influence of
irrigation, beginning to unfold their
treasures.
''If the intending visitor to Southern
California time his visit to the month
of February, and will make it point to