202 THE RAISIN INDUSTRY. 



one can drive by and not know the nature of the town, for it looks 

 like any other country village, almost hidden in evergreens. 



In a few weeks the raisin harvest will commence, and from that time 

 on Riverside, along its whole extent, will be life and bustle. When 

 the grapes are all in, the oranges will be ready for harvesting, and the 

 country will again boast of its thousands of carloads of the golden fruit. 



REDLANDS. 



We have reached the object of our journey in the upper end 

 of the San Bernarnino valley. One of the features of South Cali- 

 fornia, not Southern California, as we in the center all used to 

 say, is the motor roads, not electric motors, but regular little steam 

 engines, that will pull you anywhere, and which will not shock you 

 with anything except perhaps with their smoke. Such motor roads 

 lead almost everywhere, connecting the outlying colonies way up in 

 the mesa with the headquarters on the regular railroad. And these 

 motor roads are neither neglected, nor do they go begging for custom- 

 ers and freight. They are as much or more patronized even than the 

 regular railroads, and they pay well. The cause of this is evident. They 

 are more accommodating; they can without inconvenience stop wherever 

 required, and passengers get on or off at almost every corner. The 

 little train stops with equal readiness at the call in front of the rich 

 man's villa, to enable him and his family to embark, as at the poor 

 man's garden, to allow him to get on with a load of greens or with a 

 basket of eggs. Thus managed, it rushes along with short and fre- 

 quent stops, always full of passengers and freight. 



Going up the San Bernardino valley from Riverside is a trip that no 

 one should neglect. It takes us through one of the best improved 

 parts of South California, through a veritable garden spot, with a 

 radius of six or seven miles. From Riverside we pass for several 

 miles over the level mesa land, just brought into cultivation through 

 the new Gage canal system. Over two thousand acres have been 

 planted here within the last two years to oranges, lemons and vines, 

 and the fine and regularly planted trees with the large distances 

 between show us how much the new settlers have been able to profit 

 from the experience of the older ones. For several miles there are 

 young plantations, each with its neat and substantial residence and 

 outhouses, indicating that the settlers mostly are people of some means 

 and of much refinement and taste, just the class of people that 

 we all would choose for our nearest neighbors. Everywhere are school- 

 houses of artistic designs, most magnificent ones in the older settle- 

 ments, smaller but tasty ones in those of almost yesterday. As we 

 pass along the mesa, the upper San Bernardino valley, closed in by 

 steep and lofty mountains, lies on our right, and in front the Santa 

 Ana river courses through the center of the valley, with its vast 

 1 broad river bottom covered with wild vegetation, pastures or cultivated 

 fields. We cross several ditches, one laid in cement, with the water 

 running in them as clear as that in the washbowl. 



Once across the river bottom we are almost directly at Colton on the 

 Southern Pacific Railroad. The first thing that attracts our attention 



