The herald., 1896-01-19

Southern California climate, the
natural richness of its soil, together
with the practice of irrigation, are con-
ditions conducive to the extraordinary
growth of vegetation. The soils are
mainly of the cretaceous and tertiary
periods, and are usually of great depth.
Often soil of one character will have
depth of 100 feet or more, as shown
in we'll digging, and in canyons where
landslides have occurred and in other
exposed places. This gives great fer
tility to the soil, making it possible to
raise crops year after year upon the
sameland, even twenty years, without
exhaustion, or the necessity of arti-
fetal fertilization. Crops even come
up without plowing or sowing. These
are called volunteer" crops, and they
are more common than anyone unfa-
miliar with them would imagine.
Thus we find here wonderful
growths, uneaualed elsewhere in this
country. At the various chambers of
commerce in many of the towns of
Southern California these products of
the soil are on exhibition, the exhibit
of the Los Angeles chamber Of COM
merce being esI Iecially fine. Nowhere
else in the United States is there such
a splendid collection of fruit, vege-
tables, nuts and various other
products. To give an idea of the
great size of some OF these things, a
few of them may be mentioned. In the
vegetable line there have been on ex-
hibition pumpkins weighing from 100
to 400 pounds each. Four pumpkins
growing on one vine aggregated 600
pounds in weight. Watermelons
weighing 118 pounds, s,cornstalks twenty
five feet high, sweet potatoes weighing
forty ponds, and Irish potatoes
eighteen pounds, beets 125 pounds in
weight, onions five pounds and cab
bages twenty-three pounds, tomatoes
eighteen ounces and missouri pump
kings which seldom weigh over thirty
or forty pounds in the east-175
pounds. In fruit there were peaches
twenty-five ounces and navel oranges
twenty ounces in weight. The delicious
cherimoya or custard apple. one
pound.
The San Diego chamber of commerce
also has fine display of Southern Cal
ifornia products. Among the "big
things" there exhibited we're water
melons weighing lib pounds, squashes
ITO pounds, cabbages 40 pounds and
sweet potatoes 30 pounds; pears that
were 1438 inches in circumference and
ounces l5 inches. There we're apples
which have been on exhibition thirteen
II onths anG shown no signs of decay
An immense beet weighing 159 pounds,
grapes five inches in circumference
and strawberries seven inches around
On five cornstalks there were eighteen
perfect ears. There was also exhibited
wheat which was part of 1000 sacks
grown from twelve grains in four years.
Great quantities Of vegetables aud fruit
are sometimes raised on 2, small acre
age. One man at Burbank raised 900
sacks of potatoes on five acres of land
without irrigation, and on a ranch in
Orange two crops Of potatoes were
raised from two and one-half acres of
land, the first crop being planted on
February 18th, which yielded 1884
pounds, and the second crop, planted
August 10Th, produced $500 pounds.
The first crop was irrigated once and
the second crop twice. One acre of
beets at Compton yielded 100 tons, and
the second year of the sugar beet in
dustry at Chino, although the rainfall
was light, $4,000 tons OF beets were
raised on $500 acres. On one ranch at
Pasadena five tons of peaches we're pro-
duced from one acre of four-year-old
trees.
A squash raised at Goleta, Santa
Do prL>o 81
cut open, the seeds and pulp removed,
and a young lady 1s years of age and
weighing 115 pounds got inside. The
placed together, making it apparently
whole again. In case anyone might
doubt this story, the young lady and
Che owner of the squash made oath to
the truth of it before notary public
Barbara, weighed 310 pounds. A lady
piemelon in her yard. 1t was an uu-
usually dry year, but the seed grew and
from the vine ia melons we're gathered,
their average weight being eight
pounds. On a ranch at Tustin five
acres of grape-cuttings were set out,
and in one year from that time ten tons
and 100 pounds of grapes were picked
from them, which made three tons of
raislns. The peat lands around West
minister, in Orange county, are very
rich and grow extraordinary crops.
One man there cut three tons of hay
from one acre, then planted the same
land to potatoes and corn, from which
he produced 1O5 sacks of potatoes and
1873 sacks of corn. After gathering the
corn he sowed the land to barley. all in
one year.
Nor are the "big" things confined to
vegetables and the like, for flowers,
vines, and plants of all kinds also grow
to an extraordinary size. Many plants
become veritable trees, and the vines
climb over the houses and onto the
roofs producing thousands and even
hundreds of thousands Of blossoms
each. Near Alhambra there is white
La Marque rosebush the trunk meas
uring thirty-nine inches in circum-
ference. The bush grows nearly to the
top of cypress tree which is about
one hundred feet high, and almost
completely filling it. The owner esti-
mates that when in full bloom the bush
contains one million blossoms. The
diameter of the bush ten feet from the
ground is forty feet Soma three
years ago a committee from the Ray
mond hotel made an estimate of the
number Of Gold OF Ophir roses on
bush in Pasadena. They counted the