The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1911-02-15
Fred E. Thompson Writes of His
Visits to Apple, Orange, Prune,
Lemon and Pear Districts of
Oregon and California.

tary, are now in California studyine
the general fruit conditions in thai
state and all the numerous side issues
that have been evolved or are under
consideration. They are having al
excellent time They are member.
of the Puget Sound excursion to Ore.
gon and California arranged by the
o. w. r. & N. railway people. Writ.
ing to a friend in North Yakima Mr.
Thompson has much to say thai
should interest, not only his numer.
Gus friends here, but all progressive
people as we'll His letter is as fol-
lows
Our party was made up of 1875 per.
sons and we left Seattle by specia
train on January %; made up u
standard sleepers, two dining cars
one observation and one baggage
First stop was made at Portland and
to be candid, Portland is one of the
in general looked very prosperous and
but few "to LETT signs in the win
dows
Our next stop was at Medford, ORE
gon, and talk about a bunch of live
boosters, they are there. They raised
for publicity purposes 100000 for
this years campaign, and by the way
they pay their secretary $4,000 an
nually. They claim to have $4,000
acres planted in apples in their valley
some apples isn't itY
Oakland and Frisco
We reached the 18th Street depot
in Oakland on the night Of the 30th
of January, where the sights were
shown us under the direction of the
Oakland Chamber of Commerce. Oak
land has improved wonderfully since
the great fire in San Francisco and
the improvement, no doubt, IS at the
expense of San Francisco.
Frisco is very very slow and it Is
so noticeable to me owing to the fact
that l have been in San Francisco
every year or so for the past 90
years They all seem to think. how
ever, that it will greatly Improve
after the fair; there are hundreds OF
empty buildings, both business and
residential.
California has been deluged with
rain and our first four days IN the
Golden state was in a downpnur n%ar-
~ every minute of the time, but of
late weather conditions have b I'll all
that could be desired Betw eel Oak
land and San Jose hundreds Of acres
Of orchards could be seen covered
with water and torrents. running
through every ravine leading from
the mountains to the sea.
Prunes at San jose
We made a stop of ~ hours at San
Jose and took 80 mile ride through
the orchards in that district. You will
understand this is the great prure
district of California;; their crops
sometimes reaching the enormous
quantity of one hundred and twenty
million pounds cured fruit per annum.
They raise in addition a good many
apricots and pears. The trees look
pretty we'll run down and show ex-
haustion.
From San Jose our train continued
to Del Monte, one of natures great
est pleasure grounds. The Pacific I'M
provement Co., owns 1000 acres OF
land and the entire tract Is used as
a park. The hotel, which is fine
one, stands in the center Of a very
highly improved plot of 1875 acres, all
laid out most artistically and is very
beautiful indeed. We had 20-mile
automobile ride out through Mon
terey and along the shores OF the Pa
cific ocean. Monterey was the Next
can capital of California and was
captured from the Mexicans in 1846'
I believe, and the American flag was
raised by Commodore Sloat of the
United States navy. The old Mexi-
can custom house, built in 1914, Is
still standing and in very good re-
pair. The oldest wooden building on
the Pacific Coast is in this place anu
is still inhabited The lumber to
build the building came from Aus
trala, over 100 years ago.
Paso Robes Too Slow
A 5-hour stop at Paso Robes Hot
Springs; this was the place that ouI
late lamented Governor Cosgrovt
passed his last days. Paso Robes
may be good for a sick man, but II
would give me the "jimmies" If had
to stay there very long.
Santa Barbara is very fine and has
one OF Lne HDeSt HOtelS VII tiiO oSiii>
coast, located in a beautiful park OF
20 acres, washed by the breakers OF
the ocean. There has been second
hotel built at Santa Barbara of very
fine proportions and cost upwards Of
100000, called the New Arlington
The oldest mission in California I:
at this point, having been built y
1774. The walls are as good as the
day they were first put in place ant
the old Padre advised us the floors
etc, had been replaced three or foul
times since the structure was frs
erected.
Beautiful Redlands
Redlands was our next point of in
terest: 1t is in the center of the grea
orange industry of this state. Thu
Southern Pacific Co. furnished us con
veyances for drive through ant
ever Smiley Heights. Mr.. Smiley
the owner, Is a New York millionaire
and he has laid out a park on thu
side of the mountain of 500 acres
The whole tract is set in orang'
trees and shrubbery and artisticall!
planted and a part of this park lie
1900 feet above the City of Redlands
and from the highest point 1000 acre
of bearing orange trees can be seei