EVOLUTION OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 



they became the fathers of scientific farming in Europe. 

 They wrought a marvellous revolution in the methods 

 of cultivating the soil. " When Catherine of Aragon 

 wished for a salad she was compelled to send for it 

 across the Cliannel by a special messenger." The civ- 

 ilization founded upon this wonderful agriculture main- 

 tained its high character through the whole range of 

 their economic life. The habits of skilful industry 

 which grew from the intensely cultivated soil conferred 

 the same prosperity when adapted to the workshop and 

 the store. The thread of co-operation spun from their 

 common labor on the dikes ran through the entire in- 

 dustrial fabric of the crowded little nation. The influ- 

 ence of neighborly association involved in the conditions 

 of existence on farms of petty size colored and shaped 

 their social life. As it was in Holland, so it is in south- 

 ern California. 



The men of the southern valleys made the small-farm 

 unit supreme. With marvellous patience and intelli- 

 gence they worked out the highest methods of watering 

 and tilling the soil known to the world. Tempering 

 their speculative instincts with love of home, they de- 

 veloped towns and surroundings of rare beauty and com- 

 fort, and made them centres of high social and intellect- 

 ual life. To compare these conditions with those which 

 prevail in the great wheat- and cattle-ranches of the 

 North, where labor is mostly servile, and where beauty 

 has never laid its hand upon the home or dooryard, is 

 like comparing Holland to Paraguay. Although the 

 South has by no means escaped the evils of the single 

 crop, it has vindicated irrigation and the small farm, and 

 the extraordinary social possibilities inherent in both. 



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