The Nevada County picayune., 1920-08-26
NOT DESERT LAND.
Lower California Has Much Fer
 tile Soil.
Really e Region of Gres. Sesources That Only Await Development, Ae- coresinp ta Writer ln Los
 Angeles Newspaper.

Lower California is an expansive region thnt has never been well known and has long been misunderN stood. Even we Of Upper California, despite our close proximity. know little of the peninsula except it's sx. treme northern part, writes Arthur Berg, in the Los Angeles Times Few Of us realize that fl is not sn utterly barren waste; that 1t Is tropical country with salubrtous climate and many reefons of lururfsnt veeeta ton i; fhst It's northern and southern pares are utterly unlike one another, and thst rich resources abound that are only waiting to be developed.
 Despite its 1agge6, barren heights and cactus-clad rnesss, which glow in the fery rays Of sn unobscured sun, ii was land rich in history when the timbers of the MayAower were yet trees in the forest. Once sought and guarded for her ores and her jewels, this peninsula, which to the Spanish conouistadores was sn island glitter ing in the azure web of romance. . land for which the padres rave their lives in fanatic devotion to the crcss, now lies practically unnoticed, its TO- nance and history forgotten, and its possibilities, if not overlooked at least neglected.
 Between 1927 and 1882 Hesnande Cortez sent four expeditions en voy. ages of discovery up the west ccast of Mexico, but the first three accom-. plished nothing and the fourth failed to return. Finally, in lssa, Lower California was discovered by Xime~ nes, who anchored in the bay of Santa Cruz (now La raz,. Later Ccrtes himself visited Santa Cruz and se. cured a quantity of pearls and Indian eaaves. In is39 Francisco de Ulloa sailed up the Gulf of California and discovered the mouth of the Colorado river. In spite of this discovery, Lower California was known as an island for more than 100 years and ap- peared on European maps as an island un to as late as HAS.
 All attempts of Spain to colenize the California peninsula ended in dis astrous failures until the task was del eeated to the Jesuits, or Com. pany of Jesus, In 1897. These Jesuit missionary priests were possessed of the tact of the French explorers, the rerslstency of the English colonial set. tiers and the bravery of the American frontiersman.
 Padre Salvatierra made the first mission settlement in Lower Cali. fornia on October 15 1907, at the bay of San Bruno, on the east coast. For 70 years thereafter the Jesuits con trolled the peninsula, and those 70 years represented the era of Lower California's greatest activity and greatest prosperity.
 During their sojourn the Jesuits charted the east coast, explored the east and west coasts the islands adla. cent thereto and the interior In a manner that has never been excelled; founded 23 missions. of which 1A proved to he successful; formulated a system of mlSSton Ire never thefehItcS surpassed; not or'y instructed the Iu. dians in religious matters, but taught them many useful arts as well; cul- tivated and planted the arnble lands md insugurated n system of irrigation which. had they been given time for more northerly advance. would have given Upper California n marvellous agricultural development early In the nineteenth century.
 Tho establishment of the mission In Upper California was much easier task than that which the hardy Jesuit priests faced and conquered in Lower California.
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