THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 199 



grapes culled from the vineyards, enormous bunches and berries 

 almost as large as plums. These grapes are a revelation to me, grown 

 here within the reach of the fogs of the ocean, and irrigated with 

 water from the dam or flume. Verily, I have never seen choicer 

 grapes anywhere, and I am satisfied that they could not be surpassed 

 by any for raisins. What a fertile country this will be when irrigation 

 is better understood and more practiced. Could we but see it when that 

 time comes. 



RIVERSIDE. 



There is no place in Southern California where the effects of a close 

 and intelligent study of horticultural matters are so visible as in River- 

 side. Money alone may build villas and mansions; but the intelligent 

 and ever watchful horticulturist alone can, out of climate, soil, water 

 and capital, produce a Riverside. It is charming beyond description; 

 it must be seen to be realized. The best time to get a full and good 

 view of Riverside is early in the morning, just at sunrise, and there is 

 no better place to view it from than the hill on which the Hotel Rubi- 

 doux was to have been built. I arose before sunrise, and struggled up 

 the steep hillside. It well repaid me for the trouble, as few more beau- 

 tiful views can be had. The whole settlement can be taken in at 

 a glance, the town close by imbedded in orange groves and vine- 

 yards, and the dense verdure of the country stretching for ten miles 

 down the valley, and almost connecting with the yet farther off 

 South Riverside. On the eastern side we see the San Bernardino 

 Mountains, with the "Old Greyback," and between the mountains and 

 the settlements a lower range of steep hills appear, which in a continu- 

 ous range either bar the way or like isolated islands shoot boldly up 

 from the mesa land. 



The Riverside colony forms a continuous settlement along the mesa, 

 skirting the river, the deep green of the orange orchards harmonizing 

 splendidly with the lighter green of the vineyards. At close intervals 

 there are houses in every direction-, with the bluest smoke rising 

 straight up from their chimneys, and thence carried in long, tiny bands 

 and columns down the valley just level with the tree tops. It is a pity 

 the hotel on this hill was never finished a great many more would 

 then have enjoyed the almost unequaled view. An extension of the 

 main business street in town leads up to this hill. On both sides of 

 the street there are fine orange orchards and neat houses, real country 

 homes, sidewalks of cement where rows of fan-palms take the place of 

 regular shade trees along their sides. The business portion of River- 

 side is confined to two streets crossing each other at right angles. If 

 we stand in the center of this crossing we take it all in, the houses 

 extending a block and a half in the four different directions. Some of 

 the houses and brick blocks are very large and expensive, while many 

 again are smaller, but all are costly and elegant, with new and perhaps 

 startling ornamental designs. Whatever Southern California does, it 

 does well, and even the cheapest structures have an air of character 

 and taste which can hardly be too much admired. 



