could be rented for wheat and barley crops | excellent quality has been proved for a peri at fifty cents per acre. The advantages of association are shown in many ways, most of all in the esprit du corps of a body of settlers aiming to secure comfort, competence, social, educational, and religious privileges, in the shortest possible time. od of fifty years. Some of the oldest trees have fruited annually for a much longer period, and are cotemporaries of the ancient olives of the mission gardens. Our oranges have been sent by rail and steamer to Europe, arriving in perfect condition, and really improved in flavor by long keeping; while in A literary and musical society was well no other of the orange lands can the crop be sustained, the churches and schools flourish-held for the market for so long a period. In January, 1879, there were shipped to various points from the San Gabriel railroad station, 2,475 boxes; February, 3,753; March, 7,536; April, 9,219; May, 9,552; June, 7,067; July, 1,371; August, 402 box es. It will be seen that the harvest is at its hight in May, or during the season when the regions of the North and North - west are destitute of fresh fruit. The average valuation of the crop of 1879 was $209.68 per acre, but some of the older orchards yielded a profit of $1,000. The crop of 1880 averaged about $22.50 per thousand at San Gabriel. With increasing railroad facilities, there is no reason to believe that the orange culture will not continue to be as profitable in the future as it has been in the past, for the consumers are growing faster than the orchards mature. But greater attention must be paid to the quality of the product. oranges, like the Washington Navel of Riverside, always pay handsomely. SWEET RIND LEMON. turist or farmer among the original set tlers who have made Pasadena fruits so famous, and who are demonstrating that fruit-growing is among the most certain and profitable of callings. Does the citrus culture pay? It has certainly been the most remunerative of all cultures for the last thirty years, in the very limited areas upon which it could be safely undertaken. The adaptation of what is known as the semi-tropical belt of Southern California to the production of oranges of Fine It is not strange that the orange culture should expand beyond its natural limits, or | kills's, where the depth of shade impresses one that it should suffer the vicissitudes which like the shadowy silence of a pine forest. have attended all other fruit cultures in this In the blooming season, the eastern visState. There is a wonderful fascination itors come in swarms to drink the fragrance about the orange-tree, never to be experienced as of Araby the blest, and to see the goldin its fullness outside such a grove as Wolfs- en glory of California in its hour of prime. labors of the year, as we gather in at every pore the finer harvest measured in song. The little "buds" seem like happy children waiting for a carèss, very human and lovable; but a tree in full maturity, holding with ease its thousands of golden orbs upon its clean strong limbs, every leaf polished and perfect, is a marvel of beauty, still further spiritualized by the fragrant snow of In the neighborhood of Pasadena, orchards covering a hundred acres are not uncommon; yet a single tree, if like the famous one at St. Michaels, from which twenty thousand marketable oranges have been gathered, might be made to support a family as large as that maintained by the Santa Barbara grape-vine. A young seedling tree eleven years old, in the grounds of Mr. Craig of Pasadena, yielded last year three thousand bright, fair-sized oranges. But, fortunately or unfortunately, the fascination of orange-growing, the over-stimulus given to it by exceptional profits, has been checked by one of the great retributive agencies with which deep tap-root and its ramifications. The Nature punishes the greed of man. Large annual crops are obtained upon young trees at the expense of their vitality. Devitalize a tree, and you invite parasitic growths, both animal and vegetable. fetted masses of these surface roots, continually torn by the plow and cultivator, could not bear their part in the elimination of healthy sap, and hence the constitution of the tree has become impaired. In the nuThe orange loves shade and moisture; and merous diseased orchards of Los Angeles city while we were compelled to rear our trees in and county there has been an enormous open sunshine, we doubled the dose of wa- oversupply of water for years; and now that ter, thus inviting the growth of a vast conge- the better system of sub-irrigation has been ries of surface roots, at the expense of the introduced, it is believed that the markets will no longer be flooded with inferior fruit. | tion; the catalogue ranges through the poIt is the belief of the most scientific observers, that the insect enemies of the orange do not infest the perfectly healthy trees. An intelligent culturist of Pasadena has not irrigated his orange-trees-Los Angeles seedlings for three years, but has kept the ground finely cultivated; there is no perceptible difference in their growth or healthful condition and those of his neighbors who have pursued the usual practice. The test will be in the quality and quantity of the fruit produced. All the deciduous fruits are grown to perfection in Pasadena, with and without irriga mological alphabet, from A-pple to Z-isiphus, or the jujube. Irrigation is not necessary, especially if the trees have sufficient space to grow in, and are well cultivated; but it is well to have water at command, in case of a dry season. I gathered on the first of December several varieties of delicious grapes, late peaches, guavas of two varieties, persimmons, and strawberries. Our cherries and currants fruited abundantly last year. Tea grows fairly, coffee has proved a failure, and only the Cavendish banana ripens well in ordinary seasons. All varieties of the fig bear well, but in this locality only a few have made a good commercial article of the dried fruit. tation, has tended to increase the acreage of the vine. Pasadena, a temperance colony in sentiment if not in profession, has plantThe check which the citrus interest has ed the raisin and table grapes almost exclureceived from the fear of insect depredations, sively; while all around us are the great and together with the inordinate cost of transpor-ever-spreading feeders of the wine-press. It LA BELLE CASCADE, SAN GABRIEL VALLEY, NEAR PASADENA. is estimated that there will be over thirty thousand acres of bearing vines in Los Angeles County in 1884, and not less than two hundred thousand bearing orange and lemon trees. How this enormous production shall be made to reach the world's market is one of the vital problems for our people to solve. The culture of the Malaga or Muscatel grape is comparatively new in this vicinity, and raisin-making is confined to three localities; viz., Riverside, Pasedena, and Orange. Both at Riverside and Orange the Muscat of Alexandria is the variety most used; and it must be confessed that the raisins produced Pasadena is that of the Sultana, or seedless raisin, so much in demand by confectioners, and also of the Zante currant. These are intended for Eastern markets. are not excelled in size or flayor by those of the central counties. The Pasadena raisin is made principally from a grape known as the Muscatel Gordo Blanco, which, in the opinion of Mr. West of Stockton, who stud- Perhaps there is no locality in the United ied it in Spain, is a distinct variety, from States more favorably situated for an extenwhich the Dehesia and other superior grades sive seed farm, like that of the Landreths of of Malaga raisins are obtained. The raisins Philadelphia. Many eminent Eastern hortimade by Dr. Congar and others from the culturists have given the opinion that CaliMuscatel, show the true purple bloom of fornia must ultimately be the great seedthe Dehesias. Another special culture of producing center, the climate being most favorable, its dryness tending especially | from the noble view it commands of the ma to favor the vitality of fruit and flower seeds. This is one among many openings for the enterprise of our new settlers. jestic San Bernardino, makes a continuous line of small fruit-farms for a distance of nearly ten miles. Its eastern limit is Santa Anita, the princely estate of E. J. Baldwin. What is now known as Pasadena includes two corporations; viz., the "Orange Grove Association," or the original Indiana Colony; and the "Lake Vineyard Land and Water Association," a thickly settled tract, upon which there is an orange grove covering two hundred acres, and also the orchards and vineyards of Messrs. Crank, Craig, Brigdon, Allen, and Kinney. A new settlement, named Sierra Vista, Eastern capitalists, borne hither by a sure Until recently, the higher foothills surrounding Pasadena have remained uncultivated. We loved to see the great patches of vivid coloring-blue of lupin, and gold of eschscholtzia-and to steal an hour in the rocky cañons to enjoy the ceanothus and manzanita in bloom. But all this is changed. |