CHAPTER VII. 



THE CITRUS EXCHANGES OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 



IN all ages the orange grove has been the emblem of the 

 beauty and the poetry of horticulture, and in truth there 

 is not, in all cultivated nature, any sight more beautiful 

 than it affords. To the stranger, coming with imagination 

 already stimulated with glowing descriptions, the transition 

 from the icy blasts and leaden skies of the eastern winter to 

 the warm sun and the pleasant breezes of a February day in 

 California, is very grateful, and the next day's drive among 

 the laden orange groves completes the fascination, and makes 

 the wayfarer a willing victim to the combined seductions of 

 the climate and the landseller. The rise of southern California 

 began with the completion of direct rail communication 

 between Los Angeles and the East. The circumstances were 

 propitious. The large Spanish grants which covered the most 

 desirable lands had mostly passed into American hands, and 

 were available for subdivision, and capitalists or strong com- 

 panies, buying or bonding large tracts at low prices, could 

 afford to spend large sums in attracting immigration. The 

 owners of the new railroad, earnestly desiring traffic therefor, 

 joined hands with the land speculators, and their combined 

 efforts, in the course of two or three years, produced a land- 

 buying and orange-planting craze, which attracted the atten- 

 tion of the world. The attractiveness and productiveness of 

 the country were not overstated; indeed, it would be diffi- 

 cult to do so; the errors of investment which were made grew 

 out of exaggerated impressions of the cheapness of cultivation, 

 the certainty of large crops, and the assurance of the sale, 

 at high prices, of any producible quantity of the fruit. With 

 authentic statements before him, of orchards yielding many 

 hundreds of dollars per acre, the newcomer of a few years 

 since was in no condition to inquire into the drawbacks, if 



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