Los Angeles herald., 1891-05-31
SUNDAY, MAY 81. 1891.
THINGS IN WHICH LOS ANGELES WILL
BE SUPREME.

prise no one who knows the marvellous
change which has taken place in Los
Angeles county since the corner lot
speculative craze ended. During the
lot boom, for instance, in its last year,
the Southern Pacific railway received
$4,000 for freight on the potatoes which
were brought here from the east to sup
ply our markets. During the past year,
however, we turned the tables. and the
same company received $4,000 in
freight for vegetables that were
sent from Los Angeles to the
east. The Santa Fe could doubtless tell
a similar tale. 1t is an indication of
the great business in early vegetables
that is destined to grow up between Los
Angeles and the east. For quite six
months we will have the eastern vege-
table markets all to ourselves, and they
cannot fail to be highly remunerative.
There is scarcely limit which can be
placed upon the consumption of the
winter and spring garden truck raised in
Southern California. Of course, the
railways can greatly facilitate this busi
ness by providing special service al, to
making schedules and cars adapted
to the transportation of our products,
and this will undoubtedly be done. The
demands of our fruit growers have
been met and all the improvements that
skill and experience have made possible
have been applied to the transportation
of the citrus products of this section. 1t
looks hazardous to venture the predic-
ton; but as matter of fact, we think it
is demonstrable that the sales by our
market and truck gardens of vegetables
consigned to the east will, with proper
encouragement, far exceed those of
oranges and lemons, although these last
will be of tremendous value. There is
scarcely limit to the demand for our
winter-grown cabbages, caulifowers,
tomatoes, roasting ears, string beans,
green peas and strawberries. Taking
the most prosaic article in the above
partial list, cabbages, and il can be
proved that single crop of this escu-
lent will yield the grower over 5000 an
acre at price which will create winter
market for it all over the United States.
After gathering and selling his cab
bages the gardener can raise two or
three additional crops, alternating peas,
string beans and corn, it being of course
advisable to employ irrigation where
such number and variety OF crops is
expected from the soil, whose natural
richness, supplemented by irrigation,
is so great that it is not necessary to
employ fertilizers. This is most valu-
able characteristic of soil which is
from eight to eighty feet deep, accord
ing to localities, and rich, beyond the
dreams of the eastern truck gardener,
everywhere.
A gentleman who resides in Los An
geles, and whose relatives live in New
York, thought it would be an agreeable
surprise to signalize a family gathering
at his old home on the 14th of January
by sending his sister box of vegetables
and fruits as they may be procured any
where in Los Angeles in midwinter. He
accordingly went to Mercadante and got
him to put up sixty-pound box, which
contained green peas, string beans, cauli-
Hover, fresh tomatoes, strawberries, and
perhaps half dozen other staples which
can be seen in our markets in midwinter.
He particularly requested his sister
to inform him of the exact con-
dition in which they arrived. He
was delighted to learn that they
reached her in perfect order, and that the
wonder and pleasure of the participants
of the family reunion knew no bounds.
Such box Of lnid-winter specialtles
would have created a sensation in any
city of the United States, and its con-
tents would have sold at an extravagant
price. Just here is line of production
that can be made to grow to incalcula-
BILE proportions. 1t is field in which
Los Angeles county will have, with her
sister southern counties, almost mo-
nopoly.
Not alone in the vegetable and fruit
line have the producers of Southern
California clear field. We can not
only supply the eastern folk with roast
ing ears, string beans, green peas, cauli-
flowers and strawberries, but we can
also fill their markets with spring lamb
and spring veal at Christmas and New
Years, and all through the winter and
spring months. Such shipments of Los
Angeles specialties would create veri-
table furore from Kansas City to New
York. There is no difficulty whatsoever
about it, and it constitutes this section
absolutely the most unique region of the
footstool. What Norfolk and certain
portions of South Carolina have done
for kNew York city and other eastern
markets during the.early spring months,
Los Angeles can do throughout the Sc
yerest winter months.
We have already fairly started out on
a career which means untold wealth and
abounding beauty and luxuriance. In
this article we have confined ourselves