St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-09-08
laistrllanu.
PRODUCTS AND POSSIBILITIES OF
THE GOLDEN STATE"
TConcluded.1

Passing to a more agreeable topic,
we come to citrous fruit IN South
ern California. For variety and
flavor the oranges here are famous.
The navel" species, which are seed
less, stand at the head. Henry T.
Flint, in his delightful book entitled
"The Pacific Scenic Tour" observes
shave squeezed as many as twenty
teaspoonfuls of juice out of a single
one of these oranges, a feat l have
never succeeded in accomplishing
with Florida orange"
Riverside, the "home of the or
ange," spreading itself over a terri
tory (orchards included) of 81 square
miles, is one of the grandest sights in
the Golden State" and a drive
along it's beautiful Magnolia avenue
one to be remembered with pleasure.
The orange crop of Southern Cali
fornia in 81 is estimated at 46, 900
car loads. She sends to New York
annually about 100000 boxes.
Lemons are easily raised and will ere
long find their way in large quanti-
ties to Eastern markets.
Of all California crops, that of
olives pays the best, one planter hav-
ing obtained from an orchard of sew
en- years growth $1,000 an acre.
Olive oil made here is regarded as SUI
perior to the imported article and
commands better price. Elwood
Cooper, an old Californian, lately
disposed OF his olive ranch of 5000
acres to an English syndicate for
100000. Omitting to speak par
ticularly of apples, peaches, nectar
ines, figs, prunes, cherries and nuts
diamonds and walnuts), l must not
fail to allude to the beautiful roses
which abound, Santa Barbara
alone furnishing three hundred va
rieties. The largest rose tree is in
Bentura, Lamarque, whose trunk
is three feet in circumference and
"often has 1000 roses art time"
Southern California has its pests,
(what country has not?) but she is
fighting them successfully. The fun
gus on fruit trees, caterpillars. white
and black scale, red spiders, borers,
etc, are conquered by science and
patience. Birds, such as larks, blue
u
swallows which, for a long time
were regarded as enemies, are now
found to be friends, for they devour
grasshoppers, beetles, grubs and in
sects which are harmful to fruit trees.
Within the limits of this article, [
cannot speak of the rich mineral re-
sources of California, its lumber in
dustry, and its huge dams made to
conserve water for its cities and pur-
poses of irrigation. Its rural popu-
lation is on the increase. Consider
ing the fact that she has had a his
tory OF less than half a century, the
developments are marvellous. What |
part of the globe presents great ter
possibilities and probabilities of ag
rlCulture and horticulture than this?
The chief complaint heard now on
every side is. transportation too
dear" This will be remedied and if the
canals completed, steamers
will take products of the country di- |
rect to markets on the Atlantic coast
at reasonable rate.
The salubritv OF CALIFORNIA; eli
mate is too we'll known to require |
comment. With the exception of
some parts OF South Africa, in which,
according to Remenyi, the distin
guished violinist, 1.-The climate is
simply perfection" | can think of
no locality that eclipses it. A Cali
fornian at Ell Cajon kept a record to
see how many days a man could |
spend out of doors in hunting, etc. |
1t reads thus from first to last there
were 159 rainy days; 112 were
warm and clear; 139 could bespent
out of DOORS" This might have
been true at Ell Cajon. l doubt
whether it would apply to other
places in the state.
Within year past there has been
a change in the climate Of Southern
California which some attribute to
the creation of a new inland sea,
called the Salton Sea. This sea was
caused by the filling up of a desert
gulf bed with waters from Colorado
river. Last December the orange
and lemon crops were seriously dam
aged by the cold, which it is said,
cannot be accounted for, except from
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