SIXTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 427 



v spot on the American continent, its water system is unrivaled, and it is 

 graced by a drive fifteen miles long, which rejoices in a double avenue of 

 pepper and eucalyptus trees which have attained a height and girth that 

 any species of tree would require forty years to register at the East. 



At that time, Pasadena was not in existence, Dr. Griffin having just sold 

 one half of the San Pasqual Rancho to the Indiana Colony at $8 an acre. 

 Wiseacres were standing around the street denouncing the doctor for hav- 

 ing taken the stranger in. Limited portions of this land, in the shape of 

 corner lots at Pasadena, have since sold at the rate of $23,000 an acre, and 

 the end is not yet. The dauntless men who developed the water and 

 pushed forward the colonization scheme at Pasadena have the double sat- 

 isfaction of having enriched themselves and of sitting under their own vine 

 and fig tree, not only with no one to make them afraid, hut with the agree- 

 able consciousness that they are in the most poetical spot in America, if 

 not, indeed, in the whole world. When I passed through Pasadena in the 

 fragrant opening days of April, 1873, the only house where now stands a 

 growing and progressive community of more than three thousand people, 

 was the old San Pasqual Ranch, built of 'dobie, and already beginning to 

 crumble into ruins. 



But the impulse of improvement has been confined to no single section 

 of southern California, or of Los Angeles County. Towards the south at 

 that time Downey City and Anaheim were the only considerable settle- 

 ments. In the same April I rode in the stage coach from Los Angeles to 

 San Diego. Between Anaheim and San Juan Capistrano there w r ere not 

 at the outside over half a dozen houses, where now stand the beautiful set- 

 tlements of Orange, Tustin City, and Santa Ana, with a present combined 

 voting population of over a thousand. Each of these places are noted for 

 a beauty and maturity of vegetation which could not have been achieved 

 in the trans-Rocky Mountain States short of fifty years. 



Of all these settlements, which I have briefly sketched, it may be said, 

 without exaggeration, that they have grown wealthy, as well as beautiful. 

 To them might be added Compton, Westminster, Florence, Santa Monica 

 (which did not come into existence until 1875), San Fernando, Pomona 

 (the latter the creation of the other day), and many others, with whose 

 enumeration I will not tax your patience. The appreciation in the value of 

 the lands in all of them has probably never been approached in equal period 

 of time on the American continent outside of Chicago and Kansas City. 

 Increased production has kept pace in all of them — with the ratio in en- 

 hancement in value. 



In my brief review of the changes of the past thirteen years it would be 

 unpardonable to omit one which amounts to a positive revolution — I 

 allude to the immense increase in the value of the cereal crops. At that 

 time farming proper was confined to the regions about Downey City, and 

 to limited areas of irrigated lands in the San Gabriel and other valleys. 

 Such regions as the San Fernando Valley, the Centinela, the San Vicente, 

 Santa Monica Ranchos, and others, were regarded as fit only for the pastur- 

 ing of sheep and cattle. For centuries their surface had been trampled by 

 countless herds and flocks, and their soil had been so impacted as to reject 

 the rain. Since then it has been found that all these lands have needed 

 to make them yield prolific crops of barley and wheat is the generous use 

 of the plow. During the coming season there is every reason for believing 

 that, in addition to her corn, wine, oil, brandy, the citrus and deciduous 

 fruits and raisins, Los Angeles County will yield between four and five 

 millions bushels of wheat and barley. 



