Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1938-04-28
MORE LETTERS FROM
DIR. III. III. SCOTT


In The Land OF Ceres And Pomona
A few days ago we visited the
national orange exhibition at San
Bernardino. At great cost proud
people brought together here end
less citrous fruits from all parts OF
the orange and grapefruit belts;
They were wrought into beautiful
and fantastic forms, so interesting
and fascinating we never left the
show until late in the evening. To
get there we passed through exten-
sive orchards of luscious fruit. The
real ripe orange or grapefruit is
something quite different when
plucked from the tree from the
green product that ripens after it is
shipped. Nearby Riverside is the
less, or navel orange. We are told
the beginning of this delicious fruit
at Riverside is due to Judge John
Wesley North, in 1870, who. fore
saw the possibilities of irrigation.
The navel orange is native OF
Brazil. A woman of Washington
City sent here two trees from Bahia,
Brazil and these two trees are the
ancestors of millions Of others. The
stock was grated on the native
trees, and the shoots We're given
away, and each one shared with his
neighbors the precious advantage
given by the first benefactor. But
alas the man who was so generous
himself to his friends and neigh
bors, died poor and unbefriended,
like Sutter who discovered that 9TH
er golden product, and like Com
stock who for a time owned the
greatest lode in the world, the Com
stock Lode.
On the way to San Bernardino
we visited the Spence family at Ana
helm, and found them recovering
from the very severe damage they
paint and wall paper making their
beautiful home look like new. An.
aheim is German name, and the
city was founded by Germans, in
| 1857, who turned cactus waste
! into a rich citrus garden by irriga-
| tion from the Santa Ana river.
| That same evening we attended
wedding party at Ontario, the CEN
ter of the fig industry, and found
| the people living in fine home,
where the oranges grow at the very
door, as is often the case. We pass
! ed through a town called Guasti,
where there is a grape farm Of 500
acres, but that seemed small in
comparison with another Of 5000
acres, we heard about soon after
ward, at Fresno, where they turn
/ the grapes into raisins. Prunes,
raisins and all dried fruits are cas-
! lily prepared because of the long dry
summer from June to November,
when no rain at all occurs. AS they
say it is "one-half the year clouds
and flowers, one-half the year dust
and showers However the eli
mate is a delightful one In some
places you may live all the year out
of doors, and the valleys serve the
table the year round with some
kind of luscious fruit. 1t is land
milk and honey. And everyone may
dwell under his own vine and fig
tree, to use the phrases Of scrip
ture.
Olives are everywhere. There
are 800 kinds. When ripe they are
not yellow or green but blue, or
black. We love the fine avocados
here. The name comes from the
Mexican ahuacatl, and the tree is a
laurel Burbank chose well, wheh
he came here to produce his marvel
Gus creations, and still other rare
and choice foods may be expected
from this wonder land of Ceres and
Pomona.
Making The Colorado Flow Up Hill
In capturing the unruly Colorado,
and bottling up its water at Boulder
dam, the smaller half Of a great
, drama is enacted The other half
delivered to the great coast cities of
California and elsewhere. The wa
ter is impounded in the greatest
man-made lake in the world, Lake
Mead. But at Parker. 155 miles
south on the river, is Parker dam,
where the water will be distributed
to 13 cities, namely, Los Angeles,
and seven other cities suburban to
Los Angeles, Compton, Long Beach,
Parker dam aqueduct will be the
largest aqueduct the world has ever
had. Being at the boundary of Ari-
Zona, that state may also hereafter
reap it's benefits. AS it is, the peo-
pie here will soon be drinking wa
ter brought from at least six differ
ent states, the states included in
the Colorado basin, some 1000 miles
away
How great the undertaking is
will be better understood when We
consider that the water is brought
24O miles, is lifted 1900 feet, and
is conveyed by means of tunnels,
canals, bridges, siphons, pumps.
pipes and power plants, galore
Over one-third of the power gener
ated to Boulder dam will be utiliz-
ed for this. The Santa Ana river
flows under the bridge that carries
the aqueduct. Adozen tunnels
pierce the mountains, for there are
These tunnels will be nearly a rod
wide and deep, 13 by Is feet.
Five pumping plants will lift a
billion gallons of water day over
the mountains and valleys at max
imum height of 1000 feet. The nor
NAL delivery will be some five hum
dred million of gallons a day,
through tunnels made in Whipple,
Eagle, Iron and San Jacinto noun
tunnel under San Jacinto. Here
they struck an underground river,
which has to be sealed up again,
and this has retarded greatly the
work. The present cost is estimat.
ed at 100000, 200, and $4,000 men
are engaged. 1t is financed by
bonds of the r. F. c., or in other
words the government is loaning
the money
which have so long furnished the
water for this region are dwindling.
1t took milleniums to store them.
and they are gradually running dry.
and it would be the work of ages to
restore them. On the way here
from Death Valley we saw many
times the immense Owens Lake
aqueduct, 295 miles long. But all
these means of supply are INSULT
cient, as this great metropolis grows
at such an alarming rate in popu-
lation 1t is thought the time is
not far distant when even the addi-
tional water from the Colorado riv-
er may be insufficient for all needs
and purposes. The people here
have always been fearless in the
face of great problems. We may be
sure that the children of the brave