Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-22
MAGAZINE

Magi. The scene is made doubly effect
i've by the location Of the stately Pal
acio," or Capitol building, directly op-
posite the east entrance OF the plaza,
and the cathedral in the corresponding
position to the west
The illuminated orange grove consti-
tutes a perfect quadrangle around the
sidewalk of the well kept park. The
trees are planted in double row some
fifteen feet apart. Their luxuriant
growth converts their successive tops
into a completely interviewer arch, un-
derneath which is a promenade space
that easily accommodates five to ten
thousand people. A night of full moon
and music, when the good people OF
Hermosillo are out in their best. is
alone worth journey from the border
line. But these object lessons become
singularly impressive in their suggest
iveness when 1t is remembered that the
man who made the merry wheels go
round in a great flour MILL giving So
norans a chance to utilize their ancient
wheat fields to greater advantage than
ever before. establishing great home
seemingly successfully vie with the
day in pure light, is at the very hour OF
this writing installed in the next to the
highest office of the republic of Mex
leo. In all human probability Don Ra-
mon Corral of Hermosillo is the direct
successor of one of the most remark
able soldier statesmen ever produced In
the annals of the new world-the hon
orable Porfirio Diaz.
The difference in the career of the
Journalist, lawyer, governor and finan-
cier, Ramon Corral, and that of the ex-
ceptional soldier and executive states
man he will succeed, makes exactly the
difference of the two periods Of Mex
ico's recent historic evolution, from an
era of revolutionary unrest to period
of Industrial advancement and finan-
cial solvency, with a perfectly stable
government, trusted at home, honored
) and respected abroad.
), In the early eighties the very inn
) portant railroad extension known as
1.-THE Sonora road" was constructed
; from Benson, Arizona, thence via Mo-
gales, directly southwest to the princi-
: pal port of the state of Sonora, Quay
mas. Two factors were taken for
granted by the financiers backing that
pioneer railroad project of northern
Mexico. First, that Guaymas would
! become the leading city of Sonora; sec
] ond, that the great Hermosillo valley
sive irrigation system. Neither of
I these expectations have been exactly
realized Guaymas is, as she always
will remain, the chief port Of the north
half of the Gulf of California; but
! Hermosillo has become the commercial
center of the state, and will so remain
( One of the greatest of all factors in
this permanency are the lands of its
very extensive valley basin surround
ing her, and in the very center of which
she is located.
The productiveness of these lands Is
no uncertain quantity. The orange
} groves of Gen. Luis Torres, or Vice
President Ramon Coral, both cultivated
under modern methods, testify to this
in the amplest manner. But the orange
here as everywhere is chiefly valuable
as an economic thermometer by wnlcn
TO measure what the agricultural ana
horticultural possibilities of given
region is. Thanks to the absurd tariH
regulations heretofore mentioned the
natural export market for oranges mas
been destroyed. But the virgin soil OF
many hundreds of thousands of acres
; lies there slumbering in the sunshine
waiting merely for an irrigation ditch
! and a plow literally to 'laugh with
grand harvest Every product or
} Southern California and the Salt River
valley, Arizona, can be grown here,
, and not merely produced but the re-
} wards of the intelligent cultivator will
. be 1000 per cent increase, for this SOIL
: is not merely productive in the Or
, binary sense of the words; it's qualities
are extraordinary, and beyond the be-
lief of any one who has not made the
= subject a special study.
: There are two chief factors deter
| mining this condition which here can
!, only be briefly outlined. The geologi-
! cal origin of the soil through the subsi-
: dence of the gulf left behind it billions
t of disintegrated sea fauna. That inn
: plies the presence in abundance of the
a all-important fertilizing element OF
: phosphates. the bed rocks of which in
/ 1.-THE southern states of Carolina, etc.,
: are as valuable as gold mines. The
t second factor in the horticultural and
: agricultural evolution that lies before
$ the Hermosillo valley and which nature
has equally provided for is it's superior
natural drainage some ten feet to the
{ mile for ninety odd miles. clear to the
e sea. What the absence of drainage inn
plies i'm a semi-tropical climate one can
0 ascertain to best advantage in Fresno,
S central California. What perfect con-
O. dition of natural drainage means can
: be studied to superior advantage at
: Redlands, Southern California. which
I in less than twenty years has become
S the undisputed leader in horticultural