OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 453 



Here wlicre tlie harvest's always rich and full, 



Because man's labor breaks the need o!' rain; 

 Here where he sweetly sleeps amid the lull 



Tliat comes from rustling of the golden grain." 



That this bit of tliorny garden among which gleam blossoms as 

 white as the snow upon the mountain tops — that this Hesperian Vale 

 of Cashmere was only that short time ago so bleak, so barren, and so 

 desolate. Yet Avhat we welcome you to to-day is but a premonition 

 of the future harvests. The garden grows wide and wider — a new 

 orchard is planted to-day where but yesterday a lizzard skurried 

 across the rusty land, and to-day a rose tree sheds its perfume where 

 but yesterday the tar weed flaunted its raggedness in the air! From 

 the chilly regions beyond the mountains of gold come a people seek- 

 ing a fairer sky, to find it here, and them we welcome as we welcome 

 you. 



Out of the richness of the land the harvest speaketh, telling that 

 this people is making the world better because they are making it 

 lovelier — for loveliness is a prime virtue — and to it all, through me, 

 they extend to you that good old Saxon greeting of welcome — -which 

 means a hospitality broad as the skies, and as warm as one of our 

 own matchless sunlit days! With all modesty — and I take the lib- 

 erty now of speaking more for myself than those I represent — we 

 hope the example of this people may be a good one to those of other 

 sections — that our glorious State, rich in all that man can ask — in 

 the gold which glistens in its streams and seams its mountain ledges 

 — in the air which drafts down from its snow-clad heights, or which 

 rolls in from the sea fragrant with spices of the far-off isles — in the 

 soil which touched by the hand of toil blossoms into the heartiest 

 harvests, may reach up for greater fruits than these. Fruits of the 

 blessing of peace; liomes upon every fiower-dotted breadtli of foot- 

 hill, and plenty in every valley, with a humanity rich in the grace of 

 learning, and rich in the grace of love: 



"And the night shall be filled with music, 

 And the cares that infest the day 

 Shall fold their tents like the Arabs, 

 And as silentlj' steal away." 



H. J. Rudisill then read the following paper on orange culture: 



No branch of fruit growing offers so many attractions, or is so 

 much deserving of the care of the intelligent and aesthetic cultivator, 

 as that of citrus fruits, and of these especially the orange. 



Considering the centuries to which it will attain in age, the beau- 

 tiful symmetry of trunk and top, its evergreen wax-like foliage, the 

 delicate perfume of flower and leaf, the grateful and beautiful char- 

 acter of its golden fruit, and the many uses to which the latter can 

 be applied, it certainly can be ranked as the noblest and most 

 attractive of fruit trees. 



Is it, therefore, a matter of wonder and surprise that in favorable 

 localities, as in southern California, Florida, or Louisiana, hundreds 

 of enthusiastic cultivators will gather from the manufacturing vil- 

 lages of New England, the farms of the Northwest, and even the 

 busy streets of New York and Boston, and devote their time, their 

 labor, and their talents, both mental and metallic, to the cultivation 

 of this noble fruit, especially when their labor, patient industry, and 

 waiting are so much encouraged by such magnificent displa.ys as are 



