The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1895-12-26
southern California.
FRUIT RAISING THERE UNPROFITABLE
UNDER PRESENT CONDITIONS. FER

FRUIT RAISING THERE UNPROFITABLE
UNDER PRESENT CONDITIONS. FER
TILE SOIL AND DELIGHTFUL CLIMATE.
NO PLACE FOR THE POOR MAN, BUT A
PARADISE FOR MEN OF MEANS.
Our North Searsmont correspondent
sends us the following extracts from a
letter received from friend in California
81 will give you few ideas in regard to
Southern California which may be inter
esting. 1t has the best climate | ever
saw. Eight months in the year no rain,
and then the soil would be no more parch-
ed or dryer than Maine would be with six
weeks drought. Our winters are perhaps
the most delightful. as the rains make
everything green and beautiful. Our
winters are called the rainy season, simp-
ly because it don rain at any other time,
and yet we do not get half as m UGH rain
during those four months as you do in
Maine. Many people like the summer
here better than the winter, among the
number. One would think, SO far south,
that the summer would be hot, but the
heat is not excessive. Indeed, no summer
since have been here have l suffered so
much from extreme heat as did at times
in New England. Our nights are always
cool. You want blankets over you dur
ing the whole summer. When | have
said that, | say the most that can be said
in favor of Southern California, as a
home. 1t is true we raise fine fruit, and
lots Of it; but as fine peaches as you ever
saw, and finer than | ever saw in Maine,
lie rotting on the grou:.d. have small
orchard of peaches which have tried to
give to my friends, and there are more on
the ground than were taken from the trees
for use. 1t is the same with my oranges.
had some very fine ones, speaking in the
parlance of the farmers of Maine. | had
thirty or forty bushels, and by picking
them myself | could give them away, and
the ground under the trees was yellow
with golden fruit. Transportation is SO
high that it eats up all the profit, and yet
people are coming here all the time
Men of means come here and build fine
houses, to spend the remainder of their
lives in the bright sunshine. Misguided
poor men come here and remain poor.
growing fruit. They make mistake. No
one should come here unless they have as
much as s., 900 in cash. and anyone who
has home in New England, among
friends, makes mistake coming here.
When we get transportation opened up,
and can get our produce to market so
that the ranchers will have something
left, then this country will be filled with
those who want milder climate. The
Soil is very rich and responds literally to
kind treatment, but the railroads absorb
the fruits of the labor of the tiller of the
Soil under the present system. If man
has money enough to live on, | don
think he can find better place to live on
this earth than this The country has
reputation for grand climate, and it brings
in every body and everything. Business
is all overdcne, wages low and the poor
and middle classes find it hard work to
get along. California is poor place for
a poor man. To anyone who is doing
well in Maine, and who may be- talking of
going to California to better their con-
dition, | would say don't" If man of
means, who has worn himself our in the
harness, and is getting old and feeble,
wants to Eve i'll The best climate on earth.
where he can bask in sunshine ten months
in the year, but where it costs more to live,
and where the comforts of life are niue h
greater, if he talks Of going to California
tel him by all means to 60 | don't think
there is better place on earth for the old,
and feeble, and sickly, providing they have
the means, to live. than Los Angeles coun-
ty, California. The Sierra Madre range Of
mountains on the north shields us from
the hot winds Of the desert, and we
always have cool ocean breezes through
the summer months, that make the sum
mer more delightful than the winter.'