River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-01-13
A Letter From California

That IL was ABOUT time that some
one of the RIVER Falls Californians
had something to say about them
selves and the country, or you would
think we had lost all interest in the
old home.
At present everyone here is much
interested in knowing how cold it
is each morning and whether the
weather is the orthodox brand for
this time of the year in the old state.
1t is fortunate for some of US that
the weather is a pertinent subject
at all times.
Our Fall rains were slow in be-
ginning, but have not been back
ward or neagre since they began,
as about every week we now have a
great rain, and a number of times
the boards have been white with
frost, and one morning l found in
the chickens pan ice as thick as a
worn dime. But when the sky is at
all clear all we have to do is to lift
up orr eyes to the Sierr Madre
mountains TO the north of us, to see
them white with snow, and lower
down their sides than we have no.
ticed during our California stay.
To-day we are having great rain.
The thermometer at midday is So,
which is ten degrees colder than
yesterday.
The grass is now about as it is
with you about the middle of May,
and the old hymn is made true here,
that December is as pleasant as
May" This is the season of the
barley seeding on the high lands, or
mesas, as they are termed, which
provides the bulk of the hay for
horses. A great deal of alfalfa is
raised in the summer, but that is
generally used for COWS. So that
an abundance of rain means less
costly hay.
The southern portion of Orange
county is now making a specially of
sugar beets, ten thousand acres be-
ing planted between here and Santa
Ana, fourteen miles away, where a
new sugar factory was built last
season and must be enlarged the
coming season. 1t seems very
strange how the beats yield, both
in quantity and sugar, and how lit
tie trouble they make raising them.
Numbers of men have from 200 to
500 acres each. A gentleman inter-
ested in a sugar beet factory in New
York state was brought here recent
| ly by one of the attorneys of Santa
Ana to interview the ranchers. One
of the heaviest growers among them
asked him what the yield was in
New York and he replied about IA
tons to the acre and about IA per
cent sugar. Mr.. N. then said to
him, why don't you come out here
where you can do better?" He ex-
pressed his doubt about that being
possible, when the attorney said to
Mr.. M, "How many acres had you
this year?" "Only $780," what
percentage did you get?" Twenty
nine and eighty one hundredths. "
"How many tons to the acre?'
MANY acres went forty tons" If
l hadn't driven along these fields
while growing l should think that a
fish story" but knowing the men
and the superintendent of the fields
l am compelled to believe it. Mex
leans and Japs do the thinning at
from So. so to 81, SO an acre; the bal
ance of the work being done with
teams. This great amount of beets
cuts into the celery, of which only
| 5000 acres is being raised here this
winter, and of this twenty cars day
are being shipped out, and will be
until March.
| used to hear about having Cali
fornia climate in Wisconsin, but that
is mistake; you may have mild
weather, but of the southern Cali
fornia brand, that cannot be either
exported or initiated, and is pecul-
lar to each locality. 1t certainly is
both genial and healthful. 1t was
hard for me to reconcile myself to
to leave Wisconsin for good, bus as
| it was deemed best, having sold out
my Sparta holdings, | am now look
ing to find all of the excellencles
that you have there. Nobody here
| is falling on the ice and sustaining
| fractures. Nobody is putting in ten
or fifteen cords of winter wood-one
cord will do. No cellars are filled
with vegetables or fruit, because
vegetables are fresh all of the time,
vet confessed to surprise when |
came to know the extent to which
the prudent housewives here go IN
canning fruit for winter. The
great cooks of River Falls and vi