Los Angeles herald., 1890-03-27
A PASTORAL.
A Section of Our County of Tremen-
dous Possibilities.

seen this part OF the country look SO rich
and luxuriant. The mesa for miles, as
far as the eye can reach, is covered with
grass, dense and high, and one regrets
that all this luxurious feed must be lost
for the want of herds to crop it down.
The Puente hills, too, present a most
picturesque prospect, covered as they
now are with vegetation which changes
its soft and grateful shades of green with
the glints OF the sun as they strike upon
the varying heights and slopes. Beauti
full. scenery may be seen almost
anywhere in California, but /
dosbt if there can be found a
more lovely landscape, more diverse and
striking in its contrasts, softer in its
hue, or grander in its majesty of back
ground of snow-capped mountains than
can be had from the upper portico Of the
! Santa Fe Springs hotel. Ii our local
artists want an unapproachable subject
for grand landscape picture, they viii
find ii here.
All old residents OF Los Angeles re-
member what we used to call the dry,
hard-pan plains between this point and
the Coyote rancho. In very exceptional
wet years, a thin crop OF grass and burr
clover would make its way through the
caked surface. This would afford feed
| for short time to the rowing bands OF
sheep belonging to our Basque borreger9s.
But the dense anu lush growth of this
years vegetation would feed countless
! herds and hocks for the whole season.
| This is the result of the tremendous and
unprecedented rainfall this winter,
which has brought the water line within
a few feet of the surface where it was
formerly three or four score feet
below, even at the best of times The
| pressure OF the vast volume of mountain
rains that have fallen this year upon the
underground moisture will, in the iudg-
ment of the writer, maintain the water
line SO near the surface on these mesas
that vast area of heretofore neglected
land will be available for all kindsof
cultivation. Mr.. Charles J. Shepherd,
who purchased all the orange crops in
this Immediate neighborhood, is my
authority for saying that these mesa
lands are destined to become famous for
their orange orchards, and for the quail
ity of their fruit. He saws that the
magnificent developments in this partie-
tular industry at. Riverside, Redlands
etc., will be eclipsed by the orchards
yet to be in this entire mesa section. We
all know that the Riverside orange lands
were a dry mesa until water was brought
to them in canals, and see what enter
prise and capital, intelligentiy directed,
have done for that paradisiacal spot!
Returns last year of over one million
dollars from the orange crop alone, and
half as much more from the raisin and
nut crops, tell the story in a few words,
There is another phase OF the prob
lem OF citrus development in this par
ticular region, which will strike the
reader as forming q very consequential
and important factor. The New river,
recent otfshoot from the Old San Ga
briel, has, during the past few years,
taken, as it We're, the Bit in its mouth
and run away with the major part OF the
waters of the original stream. Whilst
the San Gabriel, below the Monte, has
become a mere creek, the New river has
developed into an immense stream, wild
ening its banks and deepening it's chan
mel, until now it is only surpassed in
size by the Santa Ana itself. Whereas
few years ago the New river contained
only enough water to irrigate small areas
of the lands aligning it's banks on the
left side, it now carries enough,
if properly piped, to render the entire
mesa, reaching to Anaheim and from the
Whittier hills to the Coyotes, a garden
of loveliness. And who will say that
the imprisoned waters under the surface
with the added lateral pressure of the
percolations of New river and the tre-
mendous force of the subterraenous
waters bearing down from the noun
tains, will not turn this entire mesa belt
into an artesian range? Some of the
finest and largest artesian flows are now
in operation from here to Norwalk, and
the imprisoned stores from season
like this must naturally extend the area
of this artesian belt far into what has
heretofore been considered the dry mesa.
In the inscrutable designs of Providence
there is not more hopeful sign of His be-
nightly than the meteorological changes
he has worked in this section within the
past few years. Where, score of years
ago, dry seasons were the rule, now they
are the exception. And there is no part
| VI Jul NllOiO lCSlOil' tidO Will OK
perience more positive and remark
able benefits from this wonderful change
than the ninety square miles OF neglected
mesa lands in this vicinity Canals
from the increasing volume OF the New
river, and artesian wells from the in
creasing moisture beneath the surface.
would make this section one of the most
inviting seats of citrus industry in Sou
thern California. The virtue of the irri-
eating waters in bringing into vegetable
life the fruitive elements OF the mesa
soil might be fairly contrasted with the
wonderful healing powers OF the waters of
the Santa Fe springs, where many who
have failed to find relief in the healing
waters of the celebrated springs Of
America and Europe have come on
crutches and gone away on health-res-
tored limbs with robustious bodies.
What a splendid opportunity there is
here to put in operation the Wright act
upon vast and promising theater.
j. j. A.
Santa Fe Springs, March %, 1890.
For Durability and Beauty,