Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-22

Angeles county even in a season In
which the total precipitation was only
4.s5 inches. Up till that year the Cen
tinela Sausal Redondo ranchos had
only been used as sheep ranges or
all times this had been hit upon by
Mr.. Freeman for trying the experiment
Of growing grain. He made contract
with Farmer Flood to put in on the
shares thousand acres Of the Cen
tinela in wheat and barley. As the
days passed by Flood grew very much
disheartened. AS weeks and months
passed on with skies of brass and not
a drop of rain the farmer could stand 1t
no longer. He finally went to Freeman
and offered TO turn over to him his
whole plant, horses, wagons, ploughs
and the crop for a release from MS
contract and thousand dollars IN
cash. That gentleman had very little
hope of any crop outcome himself, but
he cheered up his tenant and succeeded
with great labor, in inducing him to
hold on. Strange to say an abundant
crop followed on land which, as most
people supposed, it would have been
impossible to raise one, no matter how
large the rainfall might have been. AS
a result of his yielding to FTeemans
advice Flood passed $4,000 to his bank
account as his share of the crop and
had his valuable plant to the good.
In this connection 1t may be well to
state that, at one time It was thought
in California that it was impossible To
raise wheat anywhere in this state. The
late Isaac Lankershim, the father of
our townsman, Col. James b. Lanker-
shin, was the great pioneer In the
wheat industry. His experiments were
conducted at first in the central coun'
ties and later he came down to the
south. He and his son-in-law, Mr.. 1.
N. Van Nuys, were the first wheat
growers of the San Fernando valley,
where for long years it was thought
wheat or barley growing was out OF
the question.
Early Disasters From Drouth
OF course while it is well understood
that absolutely reliable data as to the
weather in Southern California only
goes back some thirty years, there is
much tradition that has a basis of
fact. In the same way in which we
learn that there were tremendous floods
in 40 and so, we know of two excep-
tional years of drouth in the early six
tieS-two seasons of awful severity.
Coincidently with the full operation
of the American reign of twelve and a
half per cent a month compromising
monthly, these seasons of drouth
worked awful havoc amongst the
Sepulvedas, Sanchezes, Picos and other
old-time Southern California families,
compelling them to release princely
possessions to the stranger which had
been the center of native Californian
hospitality for generations.
BY all accounts this double vista
tion of the early sixties must have been
indescribably grievous. The sheep,
cattle and horses had been multiply
ing with more than the usual native
Californian heedlessness. The first dry
season did it's work of destruction with
great completeness. Hundreds of
thousands of dead sheep, cattle and
horses stretched from the Malibu ranch
to San Juan Capistrano and, for that
matter to the Mexican line. Many OF
them had been slaughtered, in a half
starved condition, for their hides. The
country must have presented much
such a picture as that painted of the
"Carnatic" by Edmund Burke, after it
had been swept over by Hyder Ali and
his still more ferocious son, Tippoo
Sahib