Los Angeles herald. [volume] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1890-1893, 1891-10-12
AT THE THRESHOLD OF DEVELOPMENT.

AT THE THRESHOLD OF DEVELOPMENT.
No man OF observation and intelh-
gence can fail to see, in the great water
enterprises chat have been projected
and carried out in this section, the I'M
mistakable signs of a productive pros
perity which will in few years render
this part of the state the richest, most
fourishing and most populous division
of California. We are marching forward
at great strides. A territory equal to
the size of some of the large
eastern states, is being rapidly
brought under the fructifying
influence of irrigation. A few
years ago all this vast expanse of coun-
try was devoted to sheep on cat
tie ranges, and in the few places at
which it was farmed the soil was main
ly devoted to the raising OF barley for
feed.
From line at the eastern verge OF
| Pomona there was stretch of sterile
waste ten miles across what was known
as the Cucamonga desert. The county
road ran through that waste, and it was
| the dread of teamsters hauling
freight between this CITY and San
Bernardino. But little is left now of
that dreaded tract that has not been
reclaimed from the desert and made to
please the eye and delight the fancy
with it's orchards and vineyards-its
cosy homes surrounded with gardens
where all the beautiful flowers and
shrubbery of the temperate zone and
the sub-tropics make the air sweet with
their presence and the scene delightful
with the glory of their variegated colors.
This desert has been made beautiful
and productive by the development Of
water in the Cueamonga range and the
San Antonio caflon.
So 1t is for many miles, clear to the
city of San Bernardino. Where the
stage few years ago toiled its weary
way through solitude, the railway
carriages now pass through succession
of hourishing settlements dotted with
towns that show thrift and wealth of
architectural taste. This has all been
brought about in very short time by
bringing to the surface and distributing
to the lands water that was
before lost in subterranean passages,
or concealed in underground reservoirs
in the mountains. But the extent of
water to DE obtained to irrigate the
lands that lie below the San Bernardino
mountains is not confined to the springs
and numberless watercourses that rise
in and traverse the range through gulch
and ravine and cafIon. The great val
leys and depTessions that lie under the
shadows of the snow peaks of the San
Bernardino range form an exhaustless
watershed, where the melting SHOWS of
summer and the heavy rains of winter
can be stored in limitless quantities to
irrigate every acre of land from the foot
hills to the sea.
We are merely at the beginning of
this wonderful development. The water
facilities that have SO far been carried
to the underlying lands are only drop,
as it were, in the ocean of water that
will yet be stored and carried to the
vast stretches Of territory that can be
reached and made richly productive by
irrigation. If we have seen in
the past year one hundred thousand
acres of raw soil, heretofore
only devoted to the feeding of cattle and
sheep, supplied with irrigation, we shall
see in the next few years several hun
bred thousand acres made available to
the homestead settler for orchards and
vineyards.
OF the five million acres of land which
lie west and south of the San Bernardino
range and the line of the ocean, there
are not less than two million acres
that are either mesa or valley landsy
and capable of producing fruit and
other crops when supplied with
facilities for irrigation. The water is
available to reach every acre of this
land. And it will not be many years
before we shall see water districts null
tiplied in every direction, and the places
that are now solitudes covered with
fiourishing vim eyards and orchards and
Ae'i LIE, anu uosSOo OH oESr WIFI AaPPy
homes.
When land that is dear at five or ten
dollars an acre can be made worth from
fifty to one hundred by bringing water
to it, capital will not be found wanting
to accomplish this magical transforma-
ton.
The large yield and high price Of