STEEP TRAILS 



here I shall stay while I live. The geographical 

 position is exactly right, soil and cUmate per- 

 fect, and everything that heart can wish comes 

 to our efforts — flowers, fruits, milk and honey, 

 and plenty of money. And there," he con- 

 tinued, pointing just beyond his own precious 

 possessions, "is a block of land that is for sale; 

 buy it and be my neighbor; plant five acres 

 with orange trees, and by the time your last 

 mountain is climbed their fruit will be your 

 fortune." He then led me down the valley, 

 through the few famous old groves in full bear- 

 ing, and on the estate of Mr. Wilson showed 

 me a ten-acre grove eighteen years old, the 

 last year's crop from which was sold for twenty 

 thousand dollars. "There," said he, with tri- 

 umphant enthusiasm, "what do you think of 

 that? Two thousand dollars per acre per 

 annum for land worth only one hundred 

 dollars." 



The number of orange trees planted to the 

 acre is usually from forty-nine to sixty-nine; 

 they then stand from twenty-five to thirty 

 feet apart each way, and, thus planted, thrive 

 and continue fruitful to a comparatively great 

 age. J. DeBarth Shorb, an enthusiastic believer 

 in Los Angeles and oranges, says, "We have 

 trees on our property fully forty years old, 

 and eighteen inches in diameter, that are still 



138 



