The Newtown bee., 1904-04-22

l was met by pleasant woman of 30 or thereabOuts, of whom I asked some questions. She was born Californian,
 had one little boy; said their school
 house was only two miles away, that
 there were five children within reach.
 ing distance (which in California means anywhere within five miles for school, and anywhere within 50 miles
 for anything else). Said clergymen coming to give them religious instruc- tiOn; that her nearest neighbor was only half mile, away. A man who came out from Massachusetts a year ago for his health, liked it we'll enough so that he sent for his family, and that the wife with six children had just reached there that morning all the way Ofrom Boston. We had a pleasant chat, assuring her that my only object in calling was to come in personal contact with the people; that I was Connecticut Yankee learning what could of this great state and it's development. She thanked me for calling and seemed pleased. I must not fail to tell my readers why a DOT tion of the stretch of country through yOn, for was curious to know myself duu W00 lulOl uCu Uu0U "AVl UuC OCC- tion was first taken up, the ranchers lieu of everything else, and of it made a failure. Then, turning their at- tention to barley they succeeded bet ter, but after the canyon got it's name it stuck, and is likely to go by that name to tourists who want varied and interesting drives. Large stretches of barley were to be seen as we went along, but no barns or shelters to house it in when harvest time comes. In August the reaperS with their horses, harvesters and machinery, will swoop down..upon the country, bringing along, too, the camp wagon containing pro- visions, and, in a happy-go-lucky way, eat their ratiOnS sitting around on the ground, and rolling each one s self in a blanket, lie down under heavens mornings dawn calls for further effort. So the days will come and go, until the crop is harveted and the grain piled in sacks waiting con- venience for transportation. The sacks of grain can lie for months on the ground with no fear of rain, and from less of fear that any of it will be stolen, for it is all mans life is worth to meddle with stock or grain on these unsettled stretches of country. We passed several ranches devoted entire Iy to fruit: A 40-acre ranch of cherry trees, ranches of peach, apricot, almond and other fruits, all in full bloom, and near the end of our drive we saw the first apple orchard, and some trees in full bloom reminded me tion to me, as I had supposed the climate too hot in all parts of Southern California for apple growing. An orchardist, however, told me that in that locality the altitude was so high, some 5000 feet above sea level, the ex- pertinent of apple growing on small scale had encouraged them to experi- ment on large scale and several hun dred trees had been put out on adven- ture. The trees we saw were about five years old, and were under inten- Sive cultivation-no other crop allowed to grow among them and the ground as clean and mellow as the best titled garden-irrigating water turned on or off as necessity required.
 My letter has been so much taken up with soil, crops, flowers, birds and animals as to tire my readers perhaps. heavy up grade, and the driver said he had had no jollier load of tourists in many day. With me, speed did not count; our tally-ho, for me, was the observation car, and tried to make good use of it. When we turned in to drive up the gulch that led to the foot of the mountain peak where we were to have our spread for dinner, I was reminded somewhat of some parts of the drive through the Glen near Sandy Hook. It was hot where we were and the warmth was felt on the top most peak, 5000 feet above our heads, enough to melt snow sufficient, that, as the water trickled down the noun tain side, little rivulet of sparkling water, cool and refreshing, danced along at our feet, typical New Eng land rivulet out of which we drank and from which we dipped water to make the coffee. We built fire under a towering pine, sound, rugged, as we'll as hoary with age, six feet in diameter at the butt, and anchored where the ingenuity of man will hardly succeed in removing it from its mountain fast groomed, rested and fed, and our child like play in the rippling, snow-fed stream over, we gathered our belong ings and started on our return. Our
 time was speedy on such heavy down
 grade, and save one stop we made to
 pick more golden poppies, there was
 no delay, nor much undue excitement. One of the pole horses did fall on 8
 heavy down grade, and was dragged 2(