Los Angeles herald., 1905-01-22
TRB@UT A S@z@RLLED DRY @@UNTRY
RecOecfOns California DrOufS by Colonel Joseph d.

Sudden and great was the visitation,
but the hand of Providence was to be
laid still heavier on this devoted peo-
pIe still another drouth must be en-
dured. We may be sure that whatever
little might have been left by the first
drouth was gathered as an aims of OBJ
livion into the wallet of time by the
next. Never were a people so grievousiV
tried as those of Southern California IN
those opening years OF the sixties. lt
speaks volumes for the recuperatVe
powers of the people who inhaplteu
the country south of the Tehachapis
that they were not swept off the race
of the earth, root and branch.
1t was in those days that the fore
handed man found his opportunities
for loading up with the realty of Soutn-
ern California. During the first drouth
land went abegging. but during the
second you could hardly give it away.
Even such men as old Don Abel
Stearns was obliged to let go of his real
estate by the hundred thousand acres,
and Don Abel had been looked upon
as being as solid as the eternal hills.
1t was during these terrible times that
the San Joaquin ranch, now OF Orange
county, and consisting of 10000 acres,
was purchased by the Irvines for about
$37, 900, in greenbacks, at a time when
greenbacks were only worth 40 cents
on the dollar. These figures may not
be exact, but they are nearly So
enough so for all practical purposes.
On portions of that superb ranch the
prosperous cities of Orange and Tustin
now stand, and others are destined to
grow up Even the hard-fisted and
hard-headed Don Abel Stearns had all
he could do to prevent himself from
emerging a bankrupt from those times
which tried mems souls.
1 have advanced the theory that we
shall this year see the advent of a wet
season. In my opinion, Hatfield has
his money as good as in his pocket. IL
his $1,000 were ten times as much l
would not discount 5 per cent of 1t for
the ready cash. He has as much to do
with the eighteen inches and upwards
of rain which will have fallen in Los
Angeles by May 1 as any grounding
or coyote which may lurk in the Sierra
Madre range. 1t is my belief that the
current wet year will prove to be the
return to a cycle which will give us
succession of them, and renew the
productive capabilities of the country.
We shall never again know the mean
ing OF the word drouth in its old-time
significance. A failure of crops under
present conditions means merely
loss to the farmer and not a depriva-
tion to an entire people. Actual suffer-
ing on an extended scale is no longer to
be expected. A failure of crops in any
portion of California can readily be
made good by the abundance in other
sections of the state. Our facilities of
communication by local and transcon-
tinental railway lines assures abun-
dance from Kern and other counties,
where the facilities for irrigation are
unlimited. In ten years from now
| indeed in a much less time-the old,
dread Colorado desert itself will fur
nish abundant supplies to tide over a
dry season. In all likelihood, the word
drouth in Southern California will in
ten years have become as infrequent in
daily conversation as it is today in
New York, Philadelphia, Chicago or
any of the leading cities of the United
States. We have entered into entirely
new conditions in which we are meas
urably independent of the weather
clerk, and in which Jupiter Pluvius
will be regarded with no more awe
| than old Neptune