Los Angeles herald., 1891-06-28
SQUARE AGRICULTURAL FACTS.

1t is pleasing to know that the capa-
bilities of Los Angeles county for farm
ing are being at last appreciated. Go
where one will, on every hand one en-
counters crops already harvested or
pregnant with promise of plentiful
gleanings. We have always wondered
that, with the ability to grow crop of
corn and a crop of potatoes in a single
year, or two crops of potatoes and one
crop of beans, the rich lands of Los An
geles county were not snapped up more
eagerly than they are, even from an ag-
ricultural poinU of view. The industri-
GUS man could very we'll afford to throw
fruit growing to one side when such
magnificent results awaited him in the
prosaic truck gardening and farming
line. As an example of what we mean,
we may state that Mr.. E. j. Baldwin,
during the current year, leased forty
acres of his rich San Gabriel valley
lands to farmer on the shares, stipu-
lating that he should receive one-third
of the crop, which latter, we will state
for the instruction OF the public,
amounted to sixteen thousand sacks, or
four hundred sacks to the acre. Pota
toes have been selling lately at from
sixty to sixty-five cents a hundred, de-
livered on the cars, so that the profits
can be we'll imagined. 1t is quite posi-
BILE that too many people rushed into
the business of raising potatoes this year,
but if by no means follows that this is
the case. The year is yet young. Last
year, when the potato crop was small in
in the east, the business was turned over
to Cinnamon; or, rather, the Caucasian
was not shrewd enough to see the prof
its involved in growing and marketing
''spuds." We are informed, on what
we regard as reliable information, that
one Mongolian cleared $4,000 off of
these tubers alone last year. The
profits in growing corn are also
not to be sneezed at. Some time ago we
were informed by Mr.. Unruh, Mr.. E. j.
Baldwin's agent, that that gentleman
leased lands on the San Francisquito
rancho, which were to be put in corn,
for one-third of the crop, and that his
third share amounted to fifty bushels to
the acre. Mr.. Baldwin's standing offer
was to lease these prolific acres to any
industrious man with a team, the lessor
furnishing feed and seed, and taking his
chances for being reimbursed these two
last out of the crop. Surely here is an
easy way for any man who is supplied
with elbow grease to make himself inde-
pendent.
We do not mention these facts in order
to boom "Lucky" Baldwin. That gen.
tleman does not seem to need any pc
cuniary boosting" just now, with his
tens of thousands of acres of the best
lands in Los Angeles, his Baldwin
hotel and theater in San Francisco,
his hotel Richelieu in Chicago, his
splendid stables of crack horses, and
other unconsidered trifes, that push
him away up in the line of plutocrats.
We call attention to them simply be-
cause we think that intending settlers
ought to know the facts, and we believe,
besides, that our other large landed
proprietors ought to be stimulated into
initiating his example which, in this
particular at least, is very good one.
What we need around Los Angeles just
now is ten thousand good, solid farmers
and truck gardeners, who have the
best opportunity on the footstool Of
acquiring easy completeness. Ii we can
only impel Senator John P. Jones, Col
Onel R. S. Baker, and half dozen
other possessors of broad acres to go
and do likewise, we shall have accom-
plished half of our mission. The other
half is to seek to attract to Los Angeles
county farmers whose intelligence and
thrift can nowhere else be so literally
rewarded as here. In the boom of pro-
duction, which has now set in in Los
Angeles, we need these people, and the
sooner they come the better for them
and for us.
THE denomination of Governor Boies