Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1911-05-20
Money in Flowers.

Money in Flowers.
The cultivation Of flowers and plants Is
also q profitable business. On the main
street an entire block is occupied by 1.-The
Southern California Acclimatizing Asso-
ciation." which imports shrubs. vines,
plants and trees from everywhere. and
acclimates them for California. You can
see forty kinds of palms, camphor and
cinnamon trees. papyrus. bamboos OF all
sorts and sizes, HIBISCUS. agavas. bread
fruit and other strange plants that you
read about in Robinson Crusoe the Swiss
Family Robinson and other tales of the
South Sea Islands.
Out In Montecito the next door neigh
Dor of Henry Strong OF Chicago, Mr. Gill
lespie has a palm park. and has been
travelling the world over for many years
hunting for new varieties of that plant.
He now has seventy-nine distinct varie-
ties and has sold single plants for as
much as $500.
The next town to Santa Barbara. called
Summerland, is a colony of spiritualists
and looks like one OF the old-fashioned
oil towns OF Pennsylvania. The first pc
the hillside. and the veins were followed
down to the ocean, where what the people
call submarine wells have been bored
and piped and are now flowing regularly.
| The oil comes up first through the sand
and then through the water and Isl carried
| by the pipes to the reservoirs on shore.
| The people of Summerland were the
| first to discover the adaptability of crude
petroleum for making roads. 1t was an
accident however, and they have no
| right to boast.
| The first man to use crude petroleum on
a road was SO lazy that he shoveled
the refuse from an oil tank into the
street to get rid of it when he should
ground. The oil Immediately absorbed
| the dust and the heavy wheels which
passed over 1t packed it down into hard,
smooth surface like asphaltum, which
shed the rains and was never muddy or
dusty. His neighbors put oil on the road
ways In front of their houses to keep
down the dust, and the practice finally
| became general and Is now used effect
| lively in every part OF the country.
Cameron Rogers. who wrote the words
| Of 1.-The Rosary" which Ethelbert Nevin
set to music, is an artist living In Santa
Barbara and that immortal song was
| composed in his studio.
Some Fine Grapes.
Some Of the finest grapes In California
are grown here, the vines having been inn
ported from Spain in the early days by
| the Franciscan fathers, who taught the
| natives how to make wine as We'll as
olive oil. The largest grapevine In the
world, II we are to accept the evidence
OF local authorities. grows in Carpin-
terra valley. a few miles from Santa
Barbara. 1t was planted in 1913 by a
Spanish farmer and has yielded ten tons
of grapes in q single season. 1t spreads
over nearly acre of ground and Is
| supported by seventy-eieht posts. If 1t
were not pruned so closely every season
| 1t would cover much larger area. Six
inches from the ground the trunk OF the
vine measures eight and a half feet in
| circumference, and where 1t reaches the
trellis and begins to spread, about six
| and half feel from the ground. the
girth is five feet seven inches. There are
several other very large vines in this
| neighborhood. One of the largest ever
| known was cut down and sent to the
Philadelphia centennial exposition in
| 1876 as sample Of California products.
1t was a great advertisement for the
state.
Between the mission and the sea runs
the main street of the town. a wide. we'll
paved thoroughfare more than two miles
| long. which Is lined on both sides with
| business blocks. banks, mercantile estab-
| lishments and the best book stores and
curio shops I have seen on this coast.
The high class of goods they keep is an
| index to the wealth and culture of the
community. There is line of trolley
cars running from the beac h to the mis-
| sion and wide and beautiful boulevard
follows the shore line for several miles.
At the northern end are lighthouses, and
a bathing pier near a plaza where a
band plays every afternoon.
| Nc city in California or elsewhere has
so many beautiful drives and trails for
| motors. carriages and saddle horses. The
Santa Inez range of mountains is broken
by innumerable canyons and gorges and
between them lie broad mesas, or table
lands, which are occupied as ranches,
olive groves and walnut orchards. There
is a drive or a trail through every can
yon and one of them. known La
Cumbre trail. twelve miles long. offers .
continuous panorama Of glorious scenery.