Palisadian. [volume] (Cliffside Park, N.J.) 1906-current, 1919-03-29
W. R. GOODMAN WRITES
FROM DRY" BUT GODS
OWN CALIFORNIA
To the Editor of The Palisadian:

Dear Sir-A few days ago sent YOU
by express from Phoenix Il box OF
samples, part desert growth and part
irrigated, as follows
No. !. desert Palo Verde (green
stem). a good sized tree stem and
branches, all green, bears small leaves
with a mass of yellow blossoms.
No. 3, rabbit weed (deserD, grows
like brown corn heads.
No. 4, desert Arizona mistletoe. Il
parasite growth on the ironwood tree.
No. 5, desert, ironwood tree, large
and squat, on ironwood stick.
No g., desert, crucifixion thorn
Holy Land.
No. Z, desert, niggerhead candy cac-
tus.
No s, desert, giant cactus, top of a
80 foot cactus which had been chopped
down. very woody at bottom of trunk.
No 9, irrigated fan palm, will grow
very high and large in this climate.
No 10, irrigated date palm, the fruit
comes from thick growth in the cen
ter of tree
No. II, desert, CROSSWORD (creosote)
shrub.
No ID, irrigated olive branch and
fruit, small type grown for oil
No. IA, irrigated China berry. The
umbrella tree is similar and the berry
almost identical.
No Is, irrigated male date bud and
pollen, a medium size bud.
/ had few other samples, which I
could not get in the box, such as Il
stalk of Egyptian cotton about six feet
high with cotton still on. This cotton
grows to ten feet in height and is be-
coming staple
The desert samples | gathered in
Paradise valley north of Phoenix, a
level stretch about five or six miles
wide by ten or twelve miles long.
When this valley is brought under a
water system and prepared and plant
ed it will be worth $1,000 per acre.
After leaving Chicago l found we
were in sure enough dry" country.
Those little double swinging doors are
gone from Denver, Pueblo, Trinidad,
Prescott, Phoenix, Los Angeles, etc.
Somehow business is going on rs usual,
and the towns are clean. | have worn
one collar three days in Los Angeles.
Il city of half million, and | don't
know how many transients.
is noraI;sa for artas Tho
streets are wide, and machines by the
thousand are parked in laid out spaces
on every street
The war has brought all sections of
the country together in a great many
ways.
The uniform advertising of Liberty
bonds and stamps, Red Cross work,
returning soldiers, uniformity in talk
and song and the struggle everywhere
to get to the post Office for income tax
purposes, all this has obliterated the
old western VS.. eastern. Still there
are things you must come here if you
wish to see and get.
There are many more individual
home owners here proportiOnally, and
the homes are in the main compara-
lively inexpensive. The architects and
builders seem to go fifty-fifty with ma
ture. and they get wonderful effects
for the money spent.
Mrs. Goodman and | are staying
with her brother and sister at Van
Mugs, in the San Fernando valley,
which is now part of the corporate
city of Los Angeles, but we are as far
away as Palisade is from down town.
Van Mugs is about half the age of
Palisade It's limits make square
mile, and homes mostly are surround
ed by plots up to an acre covered with
gardens and fruit.
They have a $4,000 grammar school
and Il 100000 high school and church
es. also Il woman's club of 200 mem
bers with clubhouse
Bonds for the high school We're
passed without single contrary vote,
and yesterday / visited there and
found in operation two general study
rooms, classes in singing, manual
training, domestic science ca complete
llitchen) and Il girl practicing on the
pipe organ in the auditorium. The or
gan would compare favOrably with
that in any New York church of a
thousand seating capacity.
The above is common practice in the
West and may furnish an excuse for Il
trifle of impatience shown by western
ers sometimes as to eastern c0nserva
tiSm. Yours truly,
w. X. GOODMAN