Year: 1879

Prices.


One Of the most experienced Wig
nerons in this county says that he
does not believe Los Angeles
grapes will ever command less than
a cent pound hereafter, and he
thinks they may do much better.
AT $40 ton a low estimate will
give the producer an average re-
turn OF SO to the acre. Where he
knows how to make his own wines
and brandies, and can hold them
till their quality has improved by
age-say from two to three years
this sum is at least doubled. Moth
ing but industry and perseverance,
and the ability to wait until the
vines come into bearing, therefore,
are needed to justify man who
owns q twenty acre vineyard in
regarding himself as the possessor
OF a modest little competency. Ger
tainly there can be no more pleas
ing business in the world than rails
ing grapes and pressing them into
wine; and the labor, from years end
to years. end, is of the lightest and
most agreeable kind-more frolic
than task. There Is positively
not a means of earning livelihood
on the footstool where soil, sun and
water are the leading elements,
which presents a less hazardous or
a less fatIguing ordeal to the begin
ner than the vineyard. There is a
little delay, but this Is hardly as
great q drawback as clearing
farm of timber in Washington Ter
ritory, and many of the Western
States, would be; and it is doubtful
IL the average income of lands so
cleared and planted in the cereals
would amount to over $40 or S12 to
the acre. The moneyed return to
the vineyardist being six or seven
times that of the Eastern farmer,
even when only the most primitive
departments of the business are
adventured upon, three years are
we'll bestowed In waiting till the
grape vine comes to maturity. An
other thing should not be over
looked. We have placed the yield
of the grape in our estimate at
about three and a half tons to the
aore. Localities can be selected
where, with the right grape, this
yield can be doubled; and, by the
purchase of cuttings of approved
foreign grapes, a much higher
price per ton can be realized than a
cent pound. Of course no wise
man expects to get lands. on which
such miraculous productions are
witnessed, for nothing. 1t is worth
his while, however, to strain a
point to own his twenty acre patch,
In unencumbered fee simple. He
knows, as q certainty, the facts OF
the large yield per acre, of the alb
ssnce Of the phylloxera, of the lack
of the necessity of buying expens.
i've manures and of the existence OF
great and steadily growing East
ern and European demand for our
wines and brandies. Admitting
that these lands will cost him from
forty to sixty dollars an acre, and
what then? They are undoubtedly
cheap at that figure, and fewer
acres will serve the settlers pur-
pose of providing himself with a
home and modest competency.
Twenty acres will bring him far
more revenue than he can get from
one hundred acres of the best lands
In the Mississippi valley. There is
good deal of instruction in the
consideration of this question of the
price Of lands in the Los Angeles
valley. Any one who will take
the trouble to read the report made
by the Commissioners of the State
of California upon the irrigating
systems of Asia and Europe will be
surprised at the comparative mod.
Grafton of the prices of our irrigat.
ed lands as compared with those ol
old Spain. Upon that Commission
were Gen. Alexander and Col.
Mendel, both members of the En-
gineer corps of the United States
army-men whose business is the
painstaking collection of hard, un-
distorted facts. They reported that
irrigated lands in old Spain, OF
about the relative value as to soil,
climate and water, as those of the
San Gabriel valley, sold for sums
ranging up to $500 an acre, while
adjoining lands without facilities
for irrigation brought only twelve
and fifteen dollars an acre.


The fact is that the best lands OF
Los Angeles county, considering
their virgin richness and what car
be done with them, are really sell
Ing quite low. Many an old mar
even will see the day when the
picked lands of the San Gabriel
valley will be thought to have been
dirt cheap at the present figures,
The gradual development of the
grape bonanza will open the peo,
ple's eyes.