Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1900-03-15
FEET"IN THE GOLDEN STATE.
A. c. Bennett Writes About Adverse and
Rosy Circumstances N California,

Los Angeles, California, Feb. %,
1900.-A. l.. Fontaine, Grand Rapids,
Wis.-Dear Sir: Complying with your
request of. Dec. %. [: send you a few
items on Southern. California, / at
first felt somewhat disappointed. 1t
rained for the first two days here and
about all the time we were in San
Francisco, but not a drop has fallen
during the last two months and the
prospect now is that there will be no
more rain until next December. AT
San Diego only two and fifty-eight one
hundredthS inches have fallen this
winter. Barley, wheat and oats are
only a few inches high and dying out,
none of it being high enough to cut
for hay. Barley is the principle hay:
oats d0not fill and are always cut for
hay like the barley. Alfalfa grass re-
quireS rain or irrigation and both are
getting very uncertain; many Of the
large irrigating reservoirs are dry and
have been for many months, even the
Sweetwater dam and irrigating plant
that cost over one million dollars is
dry and steam engines and wind mills
are trying to pump water from the
sands below. Southern California has
the bOundleSS Pacific. Ocean on the
west. 1t is an irregular plain thirty
to fifty miles wide and two hundred
miles long. This plain is a great open
coast-land facing the sun and walled
in and protected from the inclemencieS
of the great desert, both from heat
and cold, by the Sierra mountains.
These mountains extend from the
coast of Santa Barbara, eastward,
shutting off the San Joaquin valley
and a portion of the desert, then
extends farther eastward separating
the MajO;i desert from the, plains of
Los Angeles and San BernadinO
counties, then turn to the south plac-
ing wall between San Diego county
and the Colorado desert reaching to
the coast at the southwest corner of
the United States to Mexico. .s
l. The Southern California plains face
southwark while in other portions of
the state the slope is at right angles
to the sun. The northern wall Of this
sunny territory is wide and high
averaging from five thousand to ten
Thousand feet above sea level. 1t is
/ from these mountain tops that the
plains are supplied with water from
melting snow and rain clouds which
are not able to pass over the
mountains, so they discharge the
water against their side after leaving
the top of the mountain bright and
sunny. On the other side of these
mountains and two thousand feet
higher than the ocean lies the desert.
On this side is TIE fertile valley
reaching to the ocean. Standing
upon one Of the mountain peaks you
can often see in winter time clouds
below you piling up against the
mountain side and soon it begins to
rain. You can look over them and see
the sun going down in the bOundlesS
ocean, above you countless stars soon
shine out with a brilliancy you may
never have seen before. Away up on
| the mountain side is big dam across
the canon. By this dam rain and
melting snow are here turned into
electricity that gives light and power
to the best lighted city in the world
eight miles away and runs their
| electric cars and all Kinds of ma
! chinery. This fertile valley once
produced only sage brush and cactus
and few grains and along the streams
: a few trees. Thousands of acres Of it
are still Alkali lands that are not
cultivated. After the water is used
! to make electricity it is used for
! irrigating purposes and city water.
/ None of it goes to waste, even the
sewerage of the cities are utilized so
there are no rivers or streams. The
! first man who finds water running by
him stops it and takes possession even
if it is on government land and / am
told that if the government sells that
: land to another the first man that gets
possession of the water holds it until
SINE one gets in above him and cuts
him off. g .--a
In the settlement of this paradise
many mistakes were made years ago.
Hundreds of Seeding orange trees
were planted for which the owners
= find no market. The Washington