Western Kansas world. [volume] (WaKeeney, Kan.) 1885-current, 1907-03-30
California Letter.

of March, and all winter long
we have had fresh vegetables on
our table every day. Each morn
ing the Chinese huckSter brings
the vegetables to the door just
from the garden. We have let
tuce, radishes, onions, peas,
young beets, caulif1ower and
other vegetables too numerous
to mention, and they are all de-
lightfully fresh and wholesome.
Those interested in horticul-
ture will be surprised to learn of
the rapid growth of trees. Fig
trees bear the second year,
oranges the third; also peaches,
apples, apricots and pears. /
don't mean when / say bear that
there is simply yield of fruit,
but an abundance. OF course an
orange grove is at it's best when
the trees are five and six years
old. In regard to fruits L be-
heve California fruit is as rule
disappointment to most people.
Apples and peaches, especially,
are tasteless and lack the real
fruit flavor, as also do straw
berries. The strawberries that
grew so abundantly in neighbor
Keraus' yard last year are far
superior in flavor and quality
than any of the California straw
berries I have yet tasted. Most
of the fruits attain a very great
size on account of being raised
largely by irrigation, and are
beautiful to look at but the flavor
is lacking. Grapes, oranges and
bananas are the best of the fruits
I think. Oranges sell for 35 and
40 cents dozen most of the year,
and bananas 25 and 80 cents a
dozen. The orange crop has
recently been harvested and
oranges are now selling for Is
cents good sized water pail
well filed, but this does not last
but little while. I am told they
are not of a very good quality
being left over from those Sc
dected for shipping.
Living is high here and L
would Judge that it would be
mighty poor place for poor
man. Rents are enormous and,
by way of little illustration l
will mention a few. articles just
to show how things sell-butter
is 55 cents a pound. eggs so cents
a dozen, milk, awful blue (may be
it has some of the water of the
Pacific ocean in it to give it such
a beautiful shade of marine blue)
sells for 10 cents a quart, and
potatoes are so expensive as to
be considered a luxury, chickens
sell for 20 cents a pound and
turkeys for 80 cents Other
things are proportionately high.
I'll tell you it would be a fine
country to live in if fellow could
subsist on the ocean breeze and
a mocking birds song.
Los Angeles is now in the
midst of real estate boom, and
California dirt is a valuable pos
session to have, likewise to get
hold of. Many people have
made fortunes and many people
have lost them iu real estate
speculations. But this city is
now steadily growing and is
backed by agricultural and min
ing country, so that land specu-
lations are safer than a few years
ago, when the out come of Los
Angeles was a little uncertain
4 Nearly every nationality is rep
resented here. Tt is really a
mecca for nearly all the nations.
There are the Spaniards, Mexi-
cans, Chinese. Japanese, Ital-
ians. Greeks, Jews, and even the
Turk. The Mexicans and Japa-
nese have so lowered the wage
question that white man stands
a poor chance of making much
more than a hand to mouth liv-
ing by day labor Expert ma
chinists, electricians, carpenters
and stone masons make the
highest wages of any of the
laboring classes.
The climate, as / stated in my
other letter, is a mild one, yet
l><- -<~< xrorf fn think that