SOCIETY. 79 



tains, unfit for tillage, and the eastern two-thirds is desert, 

 though much of it may be reclaimed. The rivers are small 

 and short, and their valleys narrow. Not one irrigating ditch 

 is reported for San Diego County, though the average annual 

 rainfall is only four inches. The soil is rich in the valleys, 

 and, where moist, is very productive. 



The town must rely mainly on the railroad for the fulfill- 

 ment of its hopes of active business, though, as a health resort, 

 it will always remain in favor. It has excellent accommoda- 

 tions for travelers, and is a touching point for the mail steam- 

 ers between San Francisco and Panama. 



51. Anaheim. Anaheim is the only German town in 

 the State. It was laid out by Germans, built up by Germans, 

 and is in the main populated and owned by Germans. But it 

 will never have the foreign character which marks many Ger- 

 man villages in the valley States of the Mississippi, where the 

 English language is not known to any of the people. None of 

 the Anaheimers have come direct from Germany : all of them 

 have lived for some time elsewhere in the United States, and 

 most of them speak English iiuently. The English language 

 will be the predominant tongue, although German will long 

 be cherished. Anaheim is a tract of land a mile wide by a 

 mile and a half long, in the valley of the Santa Ana River, 

 Los Angeles County. It was unoccupied, and supposed to be 

 of little value in 1857, when it was bought for two dollars an 

 acre by a German company of fifty members, mostly residing 

 in San Francisco. They were incorporated as a joint-stock 

 association. The land, containing one thousand one hundred 

 and sixty- eight acres, was divided into fifty lots of twenty 

 acres each, with a little town plat in the middle, and conven- 

 ient streets. The place was given in charge of a superintend- 

 ent, w r ho held his position two years, in which time he 

 planted and cultivated eight acres of every lot with vines, and 

 put willow hedges (nearly all the fences in Los Angeles 

 County are of willow) around the outer boundary of the tract, 



