112 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



less man partakes of the quiet and contentment all around him 

 and stops, while the smoke of his pipe makes ascending circles 

 in the air, and feels that it is pleasant to be, and that this is a 

 good land to live in. The higher peaks of the mountains, like 

 San Gorgonio, in the San Jacinto range, ninety miles away, and 

 "Baldy," nearer by, have their winter caps of snow, giving us 

 winter pleasantly distant, while here the orange tree is loaded 

 with its golden fruit, and the kitchen garden is in full growth. 

 Here it is spring; there it is winter. Little do we realize the 

 many advantages and blessings we are enjoying. The farmer 

 here has all winter to plant, and all summer to reap, enabling 

 him to accomplish twice the work and twice the production that 

 he could anywhere outside of the Pacific coast, and that with 

 the least possible amount of sickness. Here every day brings 

 with it to him renewed life and health. 



These are facts that are nothing new to any one of us. We 

 all know them if we but stop to think. Many of us may be 

 hard pressed for money ; we may have been too sanguine, and 

 gone too fast ; we may be in present difficulties ; but, if the past 

 lessons are heeded, a bright future is all before us, and that the 

 future of our county is very bright is to me a certainty. Never 

 has the immediate prospect for the southern counties been so 

 full of promise. The* "boom" seems to be here. In a year we 

 will probably have a new railroad; certainly railroad connec- 

 tions. Already we are beginning to feel the trade that is coming 

 to us from Arizona, and each mile of the new road increases it. 

 Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado are countries of limited 

 agricultural resources, but a large population, by reason of their 

 mines, will be consumers. Southern California is great in agri- 

 cultural resources, and it is the nearest place for them to get 

 their supplies. The railroad company have given us a/avorable 

 tariff of freights. In the near future our harbor will be im- 

 proved, so that it will be sufficient for all our wants. We will 

 have rail and ship connection, and do away with lighterage, in 

 all of which the railroad company have kindly promised to aid 

 us. Then we will have direct shipping to all countries. We 

 will be on the free highway of the world's commerce. We will 

 have all that a country can have. With these advantages, with 

 a most fertile soil and a climate unsurpassed in the world, what 

 is to prevent us from being the richest and the happiest people 

 on the globe? 



But I am reminded that you wished me to write about the 

 grape, and that I am spinning out these pleasing prospects and 

 self-evident facts too long. I turn with pleasure to that subject, 

 not that I believe I will say much that is new. Many of my 

 confreres who may read this may smile at the many details as 

 being an old, story to them, yet a few may find something to 



