Los Angeles herald., 1890-05-28
ONE OF THIS SECTIONS FUTURE EN-.
TERPRISES.

The telegraphic news to the papers
yesterday conveyed the intelligence
that the first tomatoes of the season
had reached the San Francisco market,
that they had come from the Cahuenga
district. northwest of Los Angeles, and
that they sold for forty cents a pound.
The first noteworthy fact in connection
with this announcement is that the sea-
son this year is unusually late. 1t is
month late on an average, but it is
nearly two months late in these ship
ments of tomatoes. Doubtless it will
seem early to the people OF the north
west, where at this time little
show of grass is all there is
to indicate the presence OF spring.
The trees about St. Paul are not in leaf
vet, and it will be weeks before any new
crop of vegetables will appear in the
markets of that city. But here the
winter was severe and wet, the spring
was late, and there has been next to
nothing in the way OF warm weather up
to this time. The excessive rains pre-
vented farmers from getting their work
done, and from getting their seeds in the
ground. The lateness OF the spring pre-
vented the development of the germs
after the seeds were sown, and the
continued chilly atmosphere has retarded
the growth OF the plants, and the
maturing of the fruits. Springs when
the farmers have been able to get their
work done during the later months Of
winter, and when good growing weather
prevails in March, vegetable crops ma
ture as early as the first part of April.
Indeed, along the warm slopes of the
Cahuenga tomatoes, peas and even
strawberries ripen all the year round.
This not in small quantities, but in
abundance, at least excepting the ber-
ries. But by the early part of April
tomatoes can be obtained from such
favorable exposures as these Cahuenga
foothills in carloads. The same is true
of peas, and by May string beans
may be had in abundance. Caulifower,
celery and other vegetable crops may be
had by the hundred tons all winter
long. These are well understood facts
here.
At 40 cents a pound tomatoes are
worth $500 a ton. 1t would not take
many acres of the crop to make man
rich at that rate. A farmer might we'll
afford to sell his crop at half that price.
At quarter, an eighth Of it, there is no
end of money in the industry. At five
cents pound they come to 500 ton.
In these facts, thus briefly stated,
there is the suggestion of untold wealth
for this section of ours. All that is re-
quired is to open up the markets of the
great northwest to our farmers, and the
stream of money now flowing in here
for the orange crop or the walnut crop
may be fully duplicated from the vege-
table crops OF the section that ripen in
the early spring. From the first Of
December to the end of April
caulifower, celery and cabbage should
be shipped from here by the
hundred tons. From the first OF April to
the end of June, tomatoes, green peas,
new potatoes and string beans ought to
be shipped. To these may easily be
added strawberries and many other
products of our fertile soils and sunny
skies. All these need to back them are
energy, intelligence and capital to de-
velop sources of wealth here that will
astonish even the most sanguine of US
all.