Pleasantville weekly press. (Pleasantville, N.J.) 1890-1911, 1897-02-03
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.
A JOurney Across the Continent
By a PIeasantville Citizen.
IA LETTER NO FOUR.
To the Pleasantvi!Ie Press:

looking town where august Flower
Green of Woodbury., New Jersey, ha'
built fine large hotel. 1t is one hour
ride from Los Angeles by trolley.
A few miles farther, and near the foo
OF the mountains, is Altadena the ter
minal of a trolley road Here we saw
the most beautiful groves OF orange anC
lemon trees of any place yet visited
This part of the Country is LOCO feet
higher than Los Angeles, which gives q
splendid view, for many miles. OF the
surrounding Country. The orange trees
are shapely, and being all of an age are
all of a size. They are set in rows al
equal distance apart, the ground is kept
free from weeds, and with the dark
green foliage speckled with ripe yellow
oranges, presents most beautiful sight
| thought of our Pleasantville School
children and wished they could be here
and gather the ripe fruit that lay on the
ground beneath the trees. The lemon
trees are in bearing, but the fruit is not
so ripe yellow as the orange. Peach and
prune trees have no foliage on now.
Some of the orange trees are full OF
bloom as well as fruit. Rose bushes
adOrn and almost cover the fronts OF
| the houses, many of which are only one
story high, which is the style here for
many country homes. Our next visit
| was to Santa Monica on the Grand Old
Pacific, eighteen miles by trolley. The
scenery along this route is different.
The ground is all under cultivation
sown mostly with wheat and barley. The
| land ia rolling, and not fayorable for
irrigating Hence the grain crops which
can be grown from the winter rains.
| Along the moutain edges were large
fields of peas some in blossom and some
ready to pick There were fields of tOma-
toes, some in small plants and Others in
bearing. They are shipped to Chicago,
| New York and Boston, and other cas-
| tern cities during the winter months.
| In some farms they were blowing, and
they plow here in business way, with
three or four teams following each other.
Each team consists of six horses geared
to a four wheeled rig, with five plows
attached, and at every round fifteen or
| twenty burrows were turned. Grey
squirrels are numerous, and are seen all
along the route from the car windows, a
dozen at time, sometimes sitting as il
| watching the Cars, or scampering off
| toward their holes. When they get too
numerous the farmers poison them.
| When nearing the ocean we saw many
sea gulls, old winter gulls as we call
| them at home. There is no meadows at
| this place. The land terminates abrupt
| " at the sea front, and is Is to 90 feet
perpendicularly with hard clay soil.
full of squirrel holes. The beach is
coarse sand, and much sleeper than at
Atlantic City. Pelicans were flying to
| and fro skimming along over the break
er crests, then soaring up and coming
down in the water with splash after
| fish. Two fishermen launched a bateau,
or dory, and rowed through the break
ers perhaps mile from the beach. In
sbout two hours they returned with
some halibut, the largest weighing
about twenty pounds. Prosesor Baird,
Late United States Fish Commissioner
| declared Southern California to be the
greatest coast for fish both in numbers
and variety, of any place in the United
| States. Twenty seven miles seaward,
is the Mountain Island Santa Catalina
of volcanic origin. 1t is becoming quite
a summer resort, and will be more popu-
| lar when proper service is arranged for
| the transportation of travt lers. A visit
| to the Chinese 'truck" farms would be
interesting to our home truckers, Lear,
Collins and Gouldey. A trolley road
terminates where the truck farms begin,
and is easy to reach for nickel. The
land is nearly level, and is rich dark
loan with about enough grit in it if
pressed level, to make good grind
stone. 1t is leased to the Cinnamon at
a rental Of about $25 90 per acre, and
about 81. 90 for irrigation. The Sante
Fe Rail Road has freight depot handy,
and produce shipping Co., handles the
crops. They were loading cars for Bos-
ton, with cauliflower csbbage and Gel
cry. The freight is 90 cents per hundred
pounds to Boston. tried to get som5
| information from the Chinese truckers,
| but they cannot understand or speak
much English. Nine tenths of the truck
used in Los Angeles, is raised and ped
/ died by Cinnamon. The sewage from the
| city is used by the truckers for irrigation
| purposes. 1t flows through and across
| their farlns, and must be q sweet-scented
brooklet in the hot summer run. The
weather. is warm, and the Cinnamon were
| blowing barefoot. 1t is like May day
in Jersey. What the profits are in truck
! farming and who gets it, | was unable
to learn except that the produce is sold
here very cheap. The orange, lemon,
walnut, olive and other fruit farms
seems sufficient. until further demand is
created for their products. Flattering
stories reach the east, and men sell out
| their holdings and come here to better
| their fortuns There are thousands OF
| proper ties for sale in lots, or acres. The
I papers record daily mary sales, Los
Angeles and surrounding towns have
been much affected by .'booms" which
are not healthy in this or any other
climate for progressive cities. Ten years
ago great boom" swelled men 'shead /
and they sat in line. for 36shours to pay
| $1,000 for lots that now would not hiring
| $50. The linderthkere, (E'nneral Dfrec-
tors), have parl6rs tu:wliIch those. that
chose to do SO can have. their deceased
4 friends brought and funeral services held,
instead of at their homes. These con-
+ dftions are made necessary from the
many people roaming at hotels, private
houses or room houses Perhaps there
is. no place in the-Fnited States, where
SO large percentage of the people rent
'l-rooms and do light house keeping, or eat
Ht fable-board houses, or restaurants.
i.Ehereare mary stores where they sell
and wrap, steauiDg hot, anything from
Fbied mush, or. fish, to roast OK, in
quantities to suft. Saturday the 18th
was created by Governor Budd a legal
holiday to celebrate the defeat, in Con.
gress of the Funding Bill. In thesnalies
towns it was not generally observed
but in Los Angeles the merchants took
advantage by having the different trades
and manufactures parade, ,.a.plan Fhicl
lis worked for the .proaaotion sand
prosperity Of the city. All street carr
run on Sunday and the theatresAare also
open. The Salvation army holds forth
every day in the streets and about ever
things up. Fleas continue to torment
US, but lady on a trolley car gave me
tip which may take advantage of
She said, "Get dog, and every day
waeh him; with carbolic SOAP" So now
we want to borrow q pug. With kind
regards. 4. LAKE.