Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1891-07-06
CORRESPONDENCE.
The Orange Crop of Southern CaIifor-
nfa-The Big Stories - Distant Mar
kets-WilsoR,s Peak.

PASADENA, Cal, June *.
To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
Now that the orange crop of Southern
California has been nearly all gathered and
most of the shipments completed for this
season, it is possible to get fair idea of
what it amounts to in quantity and also its
value in dollars and cents. 1t is estimated
by those who are well informed on the
subject that the shipments amount to at
least four thousand car loads, or about one
million and two hundred thousand boxes,
which has brought in net return to the
growers of from fifty cents to two dollars
or more per box.
The gathering, packing and shipping of
this great quantity of oranges has fur
nished employment for many, and the
large amount of money which has been re-
ceived for this and other kinds of fruit
has been of great benefit not only to the
fruit growing and farming portion of the
community, but also to all the other trades
and professions, and has relieved many O
bursted boomer and helped to lift the
mortgage from many piece of property.
1t is perhaps hardly necessary to say
that most of the remarkable stories occa-
sionally seen in some of the eastern papers
as to the wonderful productiveness of Cal
ifornia soil and the princely income to be
derived from few trees, either citrous or
deciduous, should be taken with proper
allowance and due consideration had for q
stretch of imagination which seems to be
not at all unusual, and though many or
ange orchards bring in a large income it is
mostly because much labor and money are
judiciously expended upon them.
A great drawback in regard to the sue
cessful production of many of the ordinary
crops of this country is the long distance
from the great markets, making the cost Of
transportation a very serious item and a
heavy tax or the income.
This difficulty will probably be over
come in time, and the question as to the
advisability of dumping carloads of pots-
toes into San Francisco bay simply to get
rid of them, at time too when potatoes
are scarce and high in New York-may
cease to be problem-so that the farmer
may be able to get fair price for his pro-
ducts at all seasons, instead of occasion
ally, as now.
One of the problems which just now
seems to exercise the good people of this
vicinity good deal is in regard to the
best way of making the ascent of Wilson's
Peak tolerably easy and comfortable. AT
present the only way of reaching the sum-
NIT of this high mountain is by means of
the sure footed but dilatory and generally
balky "burro," unless indeed one prefers
to go on foot, the different modes of pro-
gress being merely choice between two
| evils. This mountain, which is supposed
to be the place where the great telescope
now making will be located, is indeed a
| slightly elevation. Not only from the
| summit, but also from various points on
| the way up the trail, the clearness of the
air and the entire absence of clouds during
| most of the year making it especially de-
sirable for astronomical observation.
1t is proposed to improve the trait 80 az
| to make of 1t a wagon road, rather steep
perhaps, and with not q few awkward
| turns, and it is also proposed to have an
| electric railroad to the summit, which
| would probably be a more enjoyable ride
| provided, of course, the electricity held
out all right and did not get into any un,
pleasant complications. The telescope
which was there last year, in temporary
observatory, and which belonged to Har.
ward college, has been removed, 80 that at
traction no longer exists, but constantly
increasing number of people make the as
cent in the old-fashioned way, remaining 6
day or two or longer at the camp near the
mountain top, where food and lodging are
provided for reasonable consideration.
J. f. B.