GARDENERS' CHRONICLE 



OF AMERICA 



DEVOTED TO THE SCIENCE OF FLORICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE 



ADOPTED AS THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF 



THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GARDENERS 



Vol. XVI. 



.VU(iUST. l''l. 



No. 10. 



A Southern California Estate 



By P. D. 



Soutliern California in its primitive condition was a 

 desert, and where not brought under cultivation by the 

 artificial application of water (known as irrigation) it 

 is so yet. 



Along the streams, which, after they leave the moun- 

 tains, are mostly dry during the rainless season, willows, 

 sycamore, cottonwood and a species of elderberry which 

 attains to the size of a large tree abound. Live oak of 

 several species, some of which are dwarf and scrubby, 

 grow on higher ground in some localities, and the native 

 black walnut covers the hills in some sections. The 

 ravines are filled with native shrubbery in great variety, 

 over which climb two species of clematis, or a trailing 

 species of blackberry, which I have never seen fruit, or 

 a wild grape, the fruit of which is small and sour. All 

 this vegetation luxuriates to an astonishing degree, sus- 

 tained during the rainless season by the fogs which roll 

 in from the ocean during the night and remain during 

 the fore part of the day. 



It has only been about thirty-five years since any at- 

 tempt was made to beautify this jiart of the state with 



Barnhart. 



trees, vines, shrubs anil herbaceous plants. When the 

 work was begun by courageous pioneers, it was a labori- 

 ous task, beset with many discouragements, for the reason 

 that water was not to be had in sufficient quantity to 

 establish and maintain exotic plant' life for si.x to eight 

 months, during which time there is neither rain nor dew. 



Only within the last quarter century have the sub- 

 terranean streams which tlow beneath the surface of this 

 Southland been drawn from by pumps, installed in wells 

 of varying depths and diameters, to supply the water 

 necessary to redeem the desert, make it fruitful, a pleas- 

 ant habitation for man and beast, and to blossom as the 

 rose. Moreover, greater progress has been maade in the 

 development of water during the last decade than all the 

 previous years of the settlement of the State by the 

 Anglo-Saxon race. 



I have deemed these preliminary remarks necessary to 

 a correct tuiderstanding of these which are to follow, by 

 the reader who is not familiar with California climatic 

 conditions, which of themselves are so entirely different 

 from the climate of the Atlantic cuast that mani,- of the' 



VIEW 1.— PART OF THE GROUNDS, HUNTINGTON ESTATE, SAN GABRIEL, CAI.., WITH .M.S.VSION IN THE DISTANCE. 



