The progressive farmer and the cotton plant., 1905-07-04

III VII W oUOO1uGO1y IO
rain until next fall. Summer or winter, the tenn
perature is very nearly the same. After fourteen
years here, mine host in Pasadena said he had not
experienced a half dozen nights when a blanket
was not needed, while every night except three
last wear his family slept in comfort out on the
open veranda, and I myself have drawn on my
winter underwear, have put on a vest again, and
have been walking about in the June sunshine
warming my hands in my pockets! Just this
minute two men have passed me in overcoats, the
ladies with them also having winter wraps. A
plunge In the Pacific this afternoon found the
water so cold that we three Tar Heel editors soon
sought the warmer bathing inside the bath house,
and for this very reason the surf has no such at
fractions as it has on the Atlantic. But the
winters are so warm that people do go bathing
here Christmas day; and Pasadena often has it's
beautiful festival, the "Feast of Roses" on New
Years eve. Out on the Pacific yesterday I SILVER
ed a little, shut my eyes, and easily imagined it
late October in North Carolina-the trees half
naked, the cotton fields white, the grass frost
bitten, and the 'possum dogs ready for a hunt in
the forest! But the papers which our over
coated citizens opened here yesterday morning
told af prostrations by heat in New York City
with mothers roaming the street for hours in
search of cool breezes for heat-stricken babies.
At the Bottom of the Sea.
Two or three days ago we went out about
thirty miles on the Pacific to the beautiful Gaia
lima Islands. About the Pacific itself I do not
know that there is very much to say, except that
it's waves are the bluest of blue-never that
greenish-blue coat of the Atlantic, but dark sap
phire blue against which the white foam breaks
with the finest possible effect. Nor is there much
to say about the Catalina Islands: rather what I
wish to mention here are the wonderful marine
gardens reached by glass-bottomed boats run
ming out from the harbor. These gardens sur
prised me I know, of course, that some sort of
vegetation was to be found at the bottom of the
sea here, but l expected only some fern-like sub
stances clinging to the rocks. Instead, there
were moses, ferns, flowers, shrubs and trees
sure-enough trees such as the iodine help used in
the manufacture of iodine. This yellow, broad
leaved plant grows to the height of from 100 to
200 feet; it seems to be the largest of all marine
plants in this part of the world. Among the flow
ers the blue sea-violet is most noticeable, the
nebulous, fowerlike MOSES, however. lacking the
definite shape of the earth-grown blossoms. The
iodine help grows so high that our boat grazes the
tops as we glide along, and masses of it's foliage
are foated in by the tide. But most of the sea
plants are only a few feet in height.
In Another Mission.
At Santa Barbara yesterday we visited the old
mission 1875 years old, and talked with the "fath-
er" in charge. At one time more than 1000 lndl-
ans were dependent on this INSTITUTIONAL like
one great family" as he said-and more than
1000 red men are buried in the grounds. The
names of the priests here show them to have been
chiefly foreign and largely Spanish-Manuela,
Loureyo, Latitude, etc. There is something pic
turesque and romatic about the old mission life,
and when I get back home 1 hope to read Helen