THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 191 



A trip to Orange reveals the very same features, only we pass through 

 a more fertile country, with vineyards and orchards on every side, 

 orange groves of various ages, walnut orchards, fields of tall corn, 

 peanuts, beans and melons. Between all wind the shaded avenues 

 with pepper and gum, cypress, pine or yellow flowering grevillea. 

 The soil is everywhere of the richest kind, of a color between ashy 

 green and chocolate. Nowhere have we seen such magnificent Indian 

 corn, whole fields where the stalks are from twelve to sixteen feet 

 high. Orange is a more pretentious town than Tustin, but hardly any 

 more beautiful, and far less secluded and quiet. There are two 

 large and fine hotels, the one of brick being in town, while the 

 other, the family hotel, lies in the suburbs in bowers of evergreen trees 

 and gardens. In the middle of the town there is a plaza with a foun- 

 tain and an exquisite little garden well planned and better kept. The 

 lawns are like the softest velvet, and are bordered with blue and green 

 flowers, with beds of sweetest mignonette, while bananas and palms 

 spread their stately foliage in the center. 



The climate of this part of Southern California is excellent. The 

 thermometer stands at midday at eighty in the shade; in the evening 

 there is always a breeze. Many of those I meet complain as usual, 

 and greet me with the inevitable, " How warm it is to-day," and our 

 as inevitable answer is, that we cannot feel it, and that it just seems 

 delightful to us. People here observe and feel the changes of temper- 

 ature much more than we do farther north. With us they share the 

 habit of complaining even if there is nothing to complain of. 



The vineyards of Santa Ana have suffered much from a vine disease 

 which may be compared with consumption or the Oriental plague in 

 man. But every one thinks here that the pest will run its course and 

 become harmless, and even now some of the vineyards are being 

 replanted with fresh vines. The oranges do eminently well, but 

 they must be sprayed and constant watch kept for the red scale 

 imported here from Australia by an enterprising nurseryman. The 

 plantations of walnuts are being rapidly extended, and nurseries of 

 young walnut trees just appearing above the ground are seen in 

 many places, the plants probably amounting to millions. The walnut 

 generally planted is the seedling soft-shell and the common Santa Ana 

 walnut, than which there is none choicer and more valued on the coast. 

 Prunes are also a favorite crop, and pay well if not allowed to over- 

 bear, in which case the succeeding crop will be small. The same may 

 be said of the apricot. These trees are here fine and healthy, and of a 

 deeper and finer green than is seen almost any where else; but last year 

 the trees bore too much, and this year the crop is by far not what it 

 should be. 



The resources of this country are such that the partial failure of a 

 single crop will cause no serious injury. New resources are developed 

 every day; there are few plants that do not thrive here. In the gar- 

 dens as well as in the fields we see the tender semi-tropical plants, 

 which cannot stand any frost, growing close to varieties from the 

 North. Bananas, date palms, walnuts and oranges grow in the same 

 field with peaches, apples and prunes. Pepper and camphor trees and 



