The herald., 1897-07-11
! THE FUTURE OF
! SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
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the soil for profit was the most heart
less hoax on record. Many who worked
hard and used good business judgment
were making a living. but many more
were living on what they had brought
here, the farm. orchard or vineyard
being a steady loss. Here and there
q paper gave an account of some one
who was making something more than
. living, but it was often expressed in
an undertone that too plainly implied
1t was something unusual Even then
none of US believed it, in spite of this
bait for the readers confidence. People
used to laugh over the losses of others
and even over their own as a good joke,
and the length of time one had been here
was often numbered by the thousand
dollars instead of by the years.
Though some, like the founders of
Riverside, had faith in the ultimate find
ing of a market and freight rates some
where in the dim future that would en-
able them to reach it, the majority OF
those cutivating the soil and spending
the most money in experiments and va
rious kinds of development believed
nothing Of the sort. Many declared,
though not in print, that there was moth
in 1t, never would be, and they did not
care wheter there was or not. They had
come here to find health or comfort, a
land from which they would not have to
fee when the sun crossed the central line
in spring, and had found one where the
summer was, if possible, even more
pleasant and healthful than the win
ter. They were playing with soil mainly
for amusement. If some time it should
pay, so much the better, but IL not, no
matter. The loss was theirs and they
could stand it.
1t was under such discouragemen.s
that most Of the best waterworks of the
country were built, that Riverside. Po-
mona, Ontario. Highland, Pasadena,
San Gabriel valley and the country
about Santa Ana, Anaheim. Orange and
other places was brought to such high
state of cultivation and had such rapid
growth that it needed but slight accel-
GRAFTON to produce the great boom of
cherished memory. While this was in
many others a detriment. 1t beguiled
many a thrifty farmer into selling his
farm and investing the proceeds in town
lots on a margin with the usual result
of having neither farm nor lots 1t turn
ed the attention of many of the best
fruit growers from their orchards and
induced them to take out of their bus-
ness the profits of that business to in
late ,tovv
the line Of development, good enough in
itself, but too far ahead of the time for
small capital to carry. 1t extended the
orange belt upon thousands Of acres
that years had proved unfit for oranges
and led to the planting of thousands Of
acres in all manner of other fruit not
adapted to the locality, or of varieties
not suitable for the market, not to cul-
Mvate but to sell to the stranger.
In spite of these and many other mis-
takes. in spite of the great general in
debtedness left in the wake of the
boom, in spite of the fact that thousands
had paid fancy prices for their lands and
many still owed, in deferred payments
more than the land was really worth
Southern California prospered as no
land ever has, and continued to do so
ACtA6 al ecA eAeC Adl u lllilC6 lldQ ldlQ ~
heavy hand upon the whole line of its
customers. Most of that time the
orchards paid at rate that could be cut
in two. and often cut in twv again, and
then pay more to the acre than any land
outside of some parts Of Florida, and
some of the truck patches around the
great cities have ever paid. And yet
the cultivation Of many things, like the
and o1iVo acti cd fo
lead the American market when care
fully put up, was hardly begun, while the
cultivation of other things, like celery
and some winter vegetables that now
find a ready market at good prices, was
undreamed Of. In fact it was maxim
long after the boom that we could not
raise good celery. Yet this year we sent
over two hundred and fifty carloads east
that were conceded to be at the Top of
the market.
Even now, in spite of the hard times
and of the GROWERS, we can see no good
in anything that has lost the rosy tint
exuberant fancy had given it, Southern
California is prospering more than any
other section of the Union. Nobody pre-
tends that the profits of the soil are what
they were, but, measured by what others
are getting and measured by what
dollar will now buy of necessaries, the
falling off as whole has been less than
in any other line of general business out
side of the trusts, and eventhey have not
made what they would have made in good
times, Go to the places where people
raise good fruit and take pains in pack
ing it, and you will hear no complaint
today. Even where they have paid ex-
ira prices on account of beauty of To-
cation or other fanciful reason, such as
at Redlands, they are doing well today,
and paying good interest on the invest
ment; and so it is everywhere, where, a 8
at Redlands, people bought good land
with good water right, in a good To-
cality for the particular fruit.
OF course the times have hurt thoee
who were in debt. But that is always
so, was so in 1919, in 1897 in 1857 in 1873,
and the depression following each of
those panics. One must take his chances
anywhere on that, and neither Califor-
MIA nor the business of farming or fruit
growing has anything to do with it.
Others, too, are not adapted to cutiva-
ton Of the soil, any more than every
man is to run a circus. But those who
have paid for their land and who bring
to its culture the same business ability
and personal attention required to make
G per cent net out of the ordinary busi-