The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1901-02-21

tt1sE = ~ =. : ! : II
$4,000. He took off IS tons of prunes
last season. These he offered at two
cents per pound but found no bidders.
The prune men have an association
and he has put his prunes into the
pool: They retail in the stores at
eightpounds for Is cents. -.
I noticed that all the roofs are
painted, whichzistruck me as singular.
found some outbuildings not painted
and saw at once why it is necessary.
They were covered with green mould.
Implanted roofs will rot inside of five
years. Many orchards are unproduc-
tive on account Of the scale caused by
dampness and must be fumigated to
save them. saw some ice one morn
ing and parties were spraying to take
the frost out before the sun got to the
vines We have to have a fire most of
the time on account of the damp, chilly
air. This is rich mans country, a
beautiful country to visit, but poor
man can do better among the stumps
in Mile Laos county.
Next we struck for Fresno and barely
escaped trouble in a washout. l have
read so much about the sandy desert
being converted into garden by irri-
cation that I wanted to see the line
between. We crossed miles of sage
brush, cactus and gray sand before
getting to Fresno. I got acquainted
with Fresno man on the train and got
lots Of information. He showed me
strips Of land worth nothing-alk
land-other strips good for nothing for
other reasons. and many get badly bit
ten in buying. It takes an expert to
pick land on this DESERT There is lots
OF good raisin grape land and land
adapted to all kinds of fruit. but you
must be careful in buying wild land.
We saw miles of irrigation bitches
with their head gates to distribute the
water, and just before we reached the
city saw flock of rabbits in vege-
table patch. I called my friends at
tention to. them and he told me they
were a=great pest, destroying hundreds
OF acres OF crops. They had a rabbit
drive one day last fall and killed over
5000.
We remain two days in Fresno and
rode out.all over and around the pretty
little city. The streets were full of
working men from the fruit farms, the
late heavy rains having stopped all
kinds of work. I was told that they
sold last season over 100000 worth
of raisins and S.. 100000 worth of other
fruit, one man getting a draft from
Liverpool for $4,000. If you want to
know how a vineyard looks at this
time: take some grub oak stumps, turn
them over the short roots up, place
them in a row about four feet apart
and you have facsimile of it. Well,
I got on the line with one foot on
waves OF gray sand, sage-brush and
cactus on one side, the other foot on
green sward, barley four inches high,
thick as a mat. where it Had been ir-
rigated and cultivated. The pictures
we have seen are not oYerdrawn, in
fact they do not show up as we'll as the
original, because we can see here hun
dreds of acres at one look, all laid out
artistically like landscape gardening,
first great orchard Of oranges, then
one of lemons-and at present the
trees are loaded with fruit-then a
prune grove and then one of nuts-and
all kinds, one after another, the ground
as level as a floor and irrigated, every
thing rank and green, with palm trees
looking like pineapples set in the
ground. By the way the apples and
Irish potatoes are very poor,in Califor-
nia-dry and spongy.
We left Fresno on the 9Th and came
through the Sierra Nevadas by day
light, over that wonderful loop. where
the road crosses itself, the second
crossing 100 feet above the first. We
got into big snowstorm, met another
train and both had to stop on account
of some obstruction, and the passen-
gers got into SNOWFALL fight, one
train against the other. Both sides
were badly wbipped-I got it in the
neck, too. We have been here week
and are keeping house at 311 West
Third street. have lots that will in
terest you but have written enough for
the present. SAX - ~~
= - G. b. CHADBoURNE. p
Los Angeles, Feb. Is.
IT, Here's a Wolf Story.
The ST. Cloud Journal Press last
Monday published an account of the
depredations of timber wolves in the
vicinity of Stanchfeld which we can
not vouch. for. It claims its authority