STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 139 



GRAPE CULTURE. 



BY L. J. ROSE, OF LOS ANGELES. 



Sunday morning, after the rain, again all is lovely. The rain has 

 made a good season almost assured, and all is brightness and content- 

 ment. Even the air is washed out clear and pure. The land is 

 covered in every part by the tender green of the new growing grass; 

 flowers have their faces washed, and the rose, jasmine, heliotrope, 

 and geranium have a fresher and brighter look, and with a fresh 

 fragrance perfume the air. Even the birds are animated by a now 

 life, and flit in and out among the branches of the pepper trees, 

 almost bursting their throats with their spring melodies. The sun 

 shines brightly, the air is soft and balmy, and not a breath of wind 

 is stirring; the bee hums lazily in the casement; the eagle soars 

 slowly over Sierra Madre Villa, and even restless man partakes of 

 the quiet and contentment all around him, and stops, while the 

 smoke of his pipe makes ascending circles in the air, and feels that 

 it is pleasant to be, and that this is a good land to live in. The 

 higher peaks of the mountains, like San Gorgonio, in the Sail 

 Jacinto range, ninety miles away, and "Baldy," nearer by, have their 

 winter caps of snow, giving us winter pleasantly distant, while here 

 the orange tree is loaded with its golden fruit, and the kitchen 

 garden is in full growth. Here it is spring; there it is winter. 

 Little do we realize the many advantages and blessings we are enjoy- 

 ing. The farmer here has all winter to plant, and all summer to 

 reap, enabling him to accomplish twice the work and twice the pro- 

 duction that he could anywhere outside of the Pacific Coast, and that 

 with the least possible amount of sickness. Here every day brings 

 with it to him renewed life and health. 



These are facts that are nothing new to any one of us. We all 

 know them if we but stop to think. Many of us may be hard pressed 

 for money; we may have been too sanguine, and have gone too fast; 

 we may be in present difficulties; but, if the past lessons are heeded, 

 a bright future is all before us, and that the future of our county is 

 very bright is to mo a certainty. Never has the immediate prospect 

 for the southern counties been so full of promise. The " boom " 

 seems to be here. In a year we will probably have a new railroad; 

 certainly railroad connections. Already we are beginning to feel the 

 trade that is coming to us from Arizona, and each mile of new_ road 

 increases it. Arizona, New Mexico, and Colorado, are countries of 

 limited agricultural resources, but a large population, by reason of 

 their mines, will be consumers. Southern California is great in agri- 

 cultural resources, and it is the nearest adapted to the production of 

 all kinds of fruits (semi-tropical and temperate), vines, and the whole 

 range of farming crops, and that all of these varied productions can 

 be grown on the same piece of land. A man who plants an orchard 



