St. Landry democrat., 1892-07-09
Transformation Scenes.

One of the most prominent features
Of the recent trip of the National Ed
torial association to the Pacific coast
which, perhaps, attracted more atten
ton than any other, was tho startling
suddenness OF landscape changes. Al
one moment the train would be speed
ing over sandy wastes, dry, barren ant
utterly forbidding. Then suddenly q
sharp dividing line would be crossed
into region of comfortable homes, fine
orchards, vineyards and green fields
with every appearance Of bountifuI
prosperity.
Thus when California was first enter
ed at the Colorado river, the journey
for many miles thereafter lay through a
veritable desert, parched and burned
until eyes actually ached from gazing
at it. But with scarcely a moments
warning there stretched out the lovely
San BerDardino valley, a veritablc
garden of the gods, with its tens of
thousands of magnificent orange groves,
raisin vineyards, and orchards Of every
variety. The contrast between this
smiling valley, pcrfumed by millions of
flowers, and the drcary waste just left
behind, was sharper than pen can dcs-
cribc. A haunting depression accom-
panies the desolation of the desert fol-
lowed by IL delightful reaction at such a
vision of beauty as the fruitful San
Bernardino valley, with its silvcry
streams, artesian fountains, and evi-
dences of prosperity on every hand.
Going northward from Los Angeles,
a like transformation scene occurs.
Soon after passing through long tun-
mel, leaving the flower decked Los An
geles valley behind, the train enters the
Mojavo desert and for hours moves
across its monotOnous, dead level sur
face, relieved only 10y ugly cactus and
Yacca palms. Then surmounting a
wild and forbidding mountain range,
swiftly the travellers descend into the
Kern River valley, stretching its fertile
floor away to the north and west far as
the eye can pierce. Here are some of
the most remarkable features of life and
enterprise in the Golden State. The il
rigating canals of the south, of ten to
twenty feet in width, seem puuy by the
side of the great waterways eighty, one
hundred and one hundred and twenty
five feet in width that exist here, carry
ing life giving waters over the thirsty
plains to hundreds of thousands of acres
and bringing prosperity to all. Here in
-, IL,
alfalfa, upon which tens OF thousands
market and vast herds of blooded lor-
ses reared for the track aud road.
Here arc great stacks of hay, hundreds
of feet long, containing 500 to 1000 tons,
standing the year round without shelter
and without damage.
Here, too, are seen orchards of peaches
and other fruits, the trees less than
three years old, but heavily laden with
fruit vines not two years old prOmis-
ing an abundance of golden clusters,
and comfortable homes, embOWered in
shrubbery and flowers, where less than
three years ago was an uninhablted, un-
cultivated wilderness. Everywhere a
network of canals shows the moving
force of all this enterprise, and their
banks mark sharply the dividing line
between desert and garden. All the
successive steps in the suhjugation of
the wilderness, from cutting the first
furrow to.the lovely home surrounded
with all the improvements that taste
can suggest and means supply are here
to be seen.
1t is, indeed, veritable traDsfoi ma
tion scene, of greater magnitude than
perhaps, but typical of what
is going on in every portion of the arid
West.
1t must he confessed that in the &C.
Dial climatic conditions of Californiasthe
rapid changes effected seem little less
than magical.