around for help. One of the enigmas of the age is why men will slave 

 along (on starvation wages in many cases) in big cities at uncongenial 

 work, while here they could be in God's country, in the open air, at good 

 wages, — why they should voluntarily prefer poverty and squalor to health 

 and happiness. You may think the wages are the cause, but this is not so. 

 I know personally of Japanese making right now from $5 to $6 a day 

 picking prunes, of children making from $2 to $3 a day at that or similar 

 work. You may say that these are exceptional cases, as prunes, hops, 

 and so on are not to be picked every day in the year. True, but "steady" 

 work is to be had at $1.50 a day and board. As the mild weather makes 

 the cost of clothing and living much less than in less-favored climes, and 

 as there Is not the temptation nor the opportunity to squander money as 

 there is in big cities, it is easy to figure up how much more a man here 

 at $1.50 and board can save than his fellow in the dark, damp cellars In 

 Eastern packing-houses at $1.50 to $1.75 without board. 



Colusa County, about 70 miles north of Sacramento and about 140 

 north of San Francisco, is favored with a great soil, that will grow almost 

 anything — luscious grapes, splendid oranges, lemons, figs, prunes, olives, 

 almonds, berries, pears, and apples, — why, it would be tedious to enumerate 

 them all. Colusa oranges ripen long before those in the southern part of 

 California are ready for market. Being first in the market, they command 

 fancy prices. At the San Francisco Midwinter Fair they took first prize 

 against all comers. 



Our prunes have been shipped away under the pseudo name of Santa 

 Clara prunes, and were admitted to be the best that "Santa Clara" ever 

 shipped. The joke was on Colusa County. Our raisin grapes, and our wine 

 grapes are now admitted to have no superior in the State. 



Ask any one familiar with California what Colusa County is known 

 for, and he will say: Cereals, Colusa sandstone, and mineral water. But 

 in a few more years the answer will be: Prunes, grapes, and oranges. 



In some tracts they wanted to find out how deep this splendid alluvial 

 soil ran, so they bored as far as forty feet, and still found it. They bored 

 twenty more feet, and had to give It up, for it was still rich soil. One 

 grape-raiser near the town of Williams in this county just sold his grapes 

 at $65 for the Muscats and $95 for the Sultanas per acre. He has only 

 eighty acres, but pity him not, for he Is putting another tract in grapes. 

 A rancher near Colusa sold his pears from one acre for over $400. Another 

 nearby sold his blackberries at over $400 per acre, and this is only his 

 second year. And what is such land obtainable for, you will ask. Knowing 

 that a six or seven per cent investment is considered something mighty 

 good, it seems almost cruel to blandly inform you that just such land — 

 land that will produce from $50 to $250 per acre per year — can be bought 

 at from $40 to $100 an acre. And $250 maximum is putting it very mod- 

 estly, for nearly twice that sum is nearer correct in many instances. 



All through Colusa County flows the beautiful Sacramento River, use- 

 ful as well as ornamental, for two lines of steamers to San Francisco via 

 Sacramento are kept busy transporting the wealth our soil produces and 

 bringing hither from the two cities named the thousand and one manu- 

 factured products and luxuries that we have to buy from them. 



Figs grow so abundantly here that people scarcely eat them. I have 

 seen them swept off the sidewalks, just like so much worthless dirt. 

 Oranges In your front yard and walnuts along the towns' roads in such 

 bewildering abundance that it makes one ashamed to speak of it, for fear 

 of being accused by the cynic of bragging. We see these things, but when 

 we put the facts on paper can hardly believe that our senses do not mislead 

 us. We see them so much that we hardly give them a thought. And so it 

 is with the roses and other flowers, which grow here in such profusion 

 and in spite of people. A new-comer will pick bouquets and adorn his 

 rooms; aher he is here a while he gets so used to these glorious, blessed 

 gifts from the lavish hand of the Creator that he too becomes calloused 

 to his advantages. 



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