254, WITH THE FLOWERS AND TREES 



an acre; they're worth that as income property to 

 the owners; and I can show you lemon and orange 

 groves around Los Angeles that pay twenty-five per 

 cent, on two thousand an acre in good years. But 

 let me tell you, my boy, we're seeing the good end of 

 it. It's wonderfully fine now to feast your eye on 

 square miles of practically unbroken orchards, and 

 feed your poetic soul on the fragrance of orange 

 blossoms; but thirty years ago it was a different 

 matter. This paradise that entrances us now has 

 been bought with hard work and money at ten per 

 cent., and the blood of millions of gophers and jack 

 rabbits. I put my money on oranges, and the little 

 trees the size of a walking stick cost us two to three 

 dollars apiece. Well, sir, those orange roots were 

 something new to the gopher palate but the quality 

 in their estimation was superfine. We'd go out on 

 the dewy summer mornings to size up the growth 

 over night the real estate people had posted us 

 about the rapidity of growth in California and 

 we 'd notice a wilting tree. 



" * Needs water,' we'd think, and give it some. 

 Next day, more wilt. 'Queer,' we'd think, and give 

 it a shake. Over it would go, not a root to it. 

 Gophered, and three dollars gone. I tell you it 

 kept a man busy setting gopher traps in those days, 

 and poisoning. Why, every rancher then carried 



