News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1901-07-10
LETTER FROM CALIFORNIA.

Redlands, the gem of southern Cal
itornia towns, is located in the south-
ern end of the oval valley of San Ber
nadine. For beauty of location,
scenery and climate, many who have
travelled extensively in our own and
foreign lands, say it is unrivalled.
The valley is nearly enclosed by noun
tains. On the northwest is Mt. San
Antonio, Familiarity known as cold
Badly" and east of this is the Capon
Pass, through which the Santa Fee
road enters the valley. Across the
entire northern horizon looms vast
mountain wall, which varies from
1000 to 1880 feet, the altitude of
Mt. San Bernadino, and 12600 that
of San Gorgonio or Gray Back. The
beautiful San JacintO, concentration
.er, lies to thesouth-east, while around
the south and west rise low noun
tains which finally run out into a
plain meeting the foothills of cold
Badly"
The coast is eighty miles distant
and so the town is free from fogs and
high ocean winds. The business part
of the city has an elevation of 1850
feet while the foothills south and
east, which form the most popular
residence section, reach a height of
1850 feet. Thus the air is dry and
light. AS is usual in towns among
the mountains, the temperature
varies much between day and night,
the average during the day for the
winter months being 7O0 and during
the night 400. Thepast winter which
has been unusual" would doubtless
show a somewhat lower average.
There we're several days when, in
places not exposed to the sunlight,
ice did not melt during the day. Yet
very few orange groves were touched
with frost enough to injure the fruit,
though lower lands, not far away,
had many young groves badly injur-
ed. Heliotrope plants, which for sey-
eral years had not been frost bitten,
were killed to the roots, but roses,
geraniums, violets and the harder
plants seemed none the worse for the
cool weather.
There were six days of cold, pour
ing rain about the middle of NOvem-
Der and then cloudless skies continu-
ally until after Christmas. Then came
the three weeks ofrain which delighted
the Californians, weary of the long
drought, but disgusted the tourist,
who, expecting nothing but warmth
and sunshine felt detrauded Of his
+,1p RI
once or twice and one morningit out
lined theirrigating bitches and gleam-
ed amid the green leaves and golden
fruit of the orange trees. When the
clouds finally lifted, our northern
mountains were white down to the
very valleys at their base, and how
beautiful! 1t was a strange expert
ence to go out in the sunshine, with
out need of wraps, and look up at
the towering wall of snow just across
the valley whose greatest width is
but nine or ten miles.
There were two weeks in February,
the usual February hotspell, " when
the heat was intense and like our
eastern July weather without the
humidity March is generally about
the coolest month and this year
the cool winds lasted until the middle
of April. The southern California
weather is capricious and full of sur
prises 90 that the eastern visitor does
we'll to be supplied with both heavy
and medium weight clothing.
Many of the boarding houses are
built for warm weather and heated
only by the fire places and oil heaters.
These serve i'll to protect from the
chill of the outside air, when there
are constant draughts through win
dows and doors and the wood is wet
from the rains, for no woodsheds are
deemed necessary. 1t is becoming
general now to provide new houses of
any size with furnace heat.
There is no better proof of the re-
markable resources of Redlands' soil
and climate than this fruit growing
city which has had but little more
than twelve years existence. From
q barren sheep pasture it has been
changed to q vast, luxuTiant garden.
Land which twelve years ago could
have been taken up under the home
stead laws or bought at $1.25 an
acre from the railroad companies is
now selling, with it's groves, at from
$1,000 to $4,000 per acre. The water
which was the necessary factor to
produce this change is brought from
reservoirs in the mountains. The
Bear Valley Irrigation Co. carried
out one of the most daring TRACTION
schemes in the history of California.
1t impounded the winter rains in the
bed of an ancient lake in the mount
aims and brought them for forty miles
along the course of the Santa Ana
river. The scheme and its attendant
expenditure of capital brought dis
aster to many investors but assured
the success of the city of RedlanCs. At
present there are several companies
which supply water for irrigation
purposes and also wells are being
sunk with good results.
This city of between five and six
thousand inhabitants has little of
business interest outside the orange
raising and packing. The absence of
manufacturing concerns does away