The islander. [volume] (Friday Harbor, Wash.) 1891-1899, 1896-04-02
WASHINGTON AND CALIFORNIA.
Their Respective Advantages Ably
Compared by an IOwan.

The Post-Intelligencer recently COLI
tanned All interview with Mr.. HI. w.
Mcneil, who was for some years resi-
dent manager Of the Oregon Improve
ment Co., at Seattle, who, it appears
has been hunting for Il Utopia i'm Cali.
fOrnia. He didn't find it and has gone
back to his home IN Iowa. His COM
nents Oh the situation i'm California
are very racy and well illustrate among
other things the changeableness of hui
man nature down there, as well AS in
some other localities on the coast. The
whole interview Is we'll worth reading
but The ISLANDER can only give
space this week to a few especially
pertinent extracts as fOllOws:
II am disillusioned. have been
searching for some place where God had
fOcuSsed all things that are good. find
He doesn't do that. l went down to Cali
fOrnia with a sort of notion that if found
ni ce that som ,body wante to sell be-
cause ha IN j st, although it ii all the de-
lights of lie embraced within its limits
except work, one of those places where
everything grows without labor, and like
Interest, grows while man sleeps, I
would take it in. l thought pc. haps
money would buy that sort of thing,
where, in addition to climate, the finest
on earth, man might have beautiful
farm, where everything grows of itself,
and live at the Coronado hotel.
1T is all more or less of a mistake,
more or less of an error. The walnut trees
there have mean trick of running a tap
root until they reach water, and then they
die; the ALMOND make crop when they
have mind to, every three, four or five
years just as they feel like it, and the
Oh. nK hat
enough to pay for waiting; the fruit trees
have tendency to bad company and lice;
and if they make up their minds to be
industrious at all. the frost nips their in
dustry in the bud. as it has this year.
II found people there were satisfied
that the country was all right, but that
OF anges were not just the thing. So they
were tearing up orange orchards that had
been established for many years, and set
ting out lemons. 1t is just the country
for lemons. At the same time, it is only
fair to say that some people there are
tearing up the lemon trees and putting in
French prunes. There's nothing like
that part of the country is full of climate
But then. prunes are prunes, and some
fellows there find it don't pay to grow
Them and that the citrous fruits are not
worth the time one has to spend on them.
To these people fruit growing and nut
culture is all a mistake, and the only
thing one can be sure of a profit in is
olives.
II did find, however, several small
ranches where they had all these things
under proper cultivation, and proper
philosophy with them. But these pc ,ple
discovered by keeping close cases that al
falfa would make hay three or four time
year, providing the soil was right and
they had water enough to food it, and
that a ia fa the riUhf crOn If ia too
if there is anybody within short range to
sell to, for shipping it on the road they
have down there is out of the question"
Then after few amusing comments
on the variableness of the climate which
he says is quoted in average" and is
ain evidence at all the hotels, Oh
every floor and in every room" ETC.,
Mr.. McNeill grows serious and says:
II would say if man was searching for
climate to farm in in a light way, to
raise fruit, run chicken ranch, grow
wheat and potatoes and enjoy agricult,i-
raj life in it's many forms; he should Sc
lect the state of Washington. / mean to
say, without any exaggeration, that there
is better climate in Washington than in
any part of CALIFORNIA; better climate to
livesin, and better climate to grow things
in. Also, ifa man raises anything, he has
much better chance to sell it here at
profit than he has there. He can raise. a
short distance from the coast, berries;
further in, peaches and prunes; up the
country little, apples and every variety
of fruit Of fSr better quality than can be
raise in California. The climate is bet
ter. 1t is not SO enervating, and the vari-
atoms of the temperature are not so ex-
treme. 1t is - better place for the strong
man to stay, and the weak man to come
to, than California"