CAe RURAL NEW-YORKER 
275 
California 
A State of Great Diversity of Conditions 
r.ACK OF Real Knowledge. —As a boy 
when going to the little red school-house 
to begin to get u start in obtaining some 
knowledge through the methods of educa¬ 
tion then in vogue, the only thing that I 
can recall about California in the geog¬ 
raphy class was an attempt to give the 
boundarj' lines of the State. For at least 
a period of a quarter of my life, any 
knowledge of California outside of those 
meaningless boundary lines committed to 
memory, was practically a blank. A boy 
who could at the close of the day. go out 
with the others and enjoy the opportunity 
of throwing some boy’s cap. over the fence 
or up in a tree, obliging him to climb the 
tree to get it. was happy compared with 
the one who had to stay after school to 
learn over again the name of some city or 
river, or boundary he had forgotten in his 
class. The old system of studying geog¬ 
raphy by trying to learn about a country 
through memorizing unimportant things, 
when there was so much in the .subject of 
real vital interest, has without doubt, 
been one of the causes that helped to lead 
boys away from the country about which 
they had learned so little, and to the city 
where some of them did not belong. 
Many Attr.\ctions. —Having covered 
several thousand miles of this State by 
auto, in a study of its topography, its 
soils, mountains, agricultural and other 
industries, its thousands of miles of good 
roads and its excellent schools, it is not 
difficult to discover some of the reasons 
why such large and increasing numbers of 
people are coming to the State, many of 
whom become permanent citizens. Re¬ 
cently six sections of limited trains left 
Chicago, on one date, for I.os Angeles, 
while for several weeks two and three lim¬ 
ited sections have left that city daily for 
this State. 
Topography. —Many Eastern people 
have the impression that ('alifornia has 
yet large areas of dry, sandy desert, 
stretches of level land covered with cactus 
and sage brush, while about some of its 
cities or towns are green fields and gar¬ 
dens, and groves of oranges and lemons, 
that are irrigated by the water from 
storage reservoirs. It is not generally 
known that the distance from the most 
southern point of California to its 
farthest northern part, is as far as New 
York to Chicago, and 200 miles beyond, 
and that all of the New England States, 
New York, Ohio, Delaware and New .Jer¬ 
sey, could be put inside of the boundary 
lines of the State. To one who travels 
over it, the territory seems more like an 
empire than a State. The soils of the 
State which, like its climate, are widely 
variable, make possible the great diversity 
of its products. 
Varied Products. —There is no other 
country in the world where live stock, 
cereal and grass crops, deciduous, tropical 
and sub-tropical fruits all thrive equally 
well together. The Summer temperature 
is cool, while the Winter is mild, which 
make conditions favorable for the highest 
development in agriculture and horticul¬ 
ture. Through the formation of its moun¬ 
tain ranges, and an extended exposure to 
the Pacific Ocean it has an a.stonishing 
variation in zones of climate. While 
writing this letter the Sierra Madre 
nmuntains are in full view, but six miles 
away, with sixteen inches of snow on igh 
peaks of 0,000 feet, and at fourteen miles 
away, three feet of snow on peaks 11,000 
feet high, while close up to their base roses 
and other flowers are in continual bloom, 
and orange and lenjon groves are heavily 
loaded with ripening fruit, as far down 
the valleys as the eye can reach. These 
valleys, some narrow and some wide, ex¬ 
tend out. fan-shaped in form, which have 
been made from the .soil from disinte¬ 
grated rock that for ages has been carried 
out from great canyons. The fertility of 
the soil, judging from the growth of vege¬ 
tation, seems inexhaustible. Borings for 
wells over one hundred feet deep, have 
shown the soil at such depth to be as rich 
in plant food, as the surface. The mag¬ 
nificent live oaks, the stately palms, and 
graceful pepper trees, the climbing roses 
that are planted on one side of a hou.se 
growing up to and over the roof, and down 
upon the other side, and when so trained 
cover three sides of a house, like a Bo.s- 
tou ivy, are but illustrations of the profli- 
galit.v with which the soil has been en¬ 
dowed with the elements of plant food. 
Here at the present time one may reach 
out from the open window of a second- 
story and pick blossoms from a geranium 
plant which might very proi«?rly be called 
a tree. To realize upon the value of this 
enormous amount of plant food in the soil 
the one great problem in California is that 
of water. 
Rainfall and Irrtgat'on. —While in 
our Eastern States there is an average 
rainfall, ranging from B7 to 42 inches, in 
California, the range is from 2^ inches 
in the Imperial Valley in the most south¬ 
ern part of the State, to 7(5 inches of rain 
and 45 inches of snow in one of the more 
northern counties of the State. The land 
in Southern California is supplied with 
water from irrigation systems. Although 
Imperial County was oi'ganized but eight 
years ago. since being supplied with water 
from the Colorado River, 500.000 acres 
have been brought under cultivation which 
are giving marvellous production. 
Fruit and Truck Crop.s. —Early in 
February. 1910, carloads of green peas 
were shipped to New York that sold for 
$2,500 a car .and netted the growers 
$1.9(X) a car. While grapes, apricots and 
grapefruit are being grown on a large 
scale, cantaloupes are being produced 
enormously of the finest tpiality, 5,(XK) 
cars having been shipped out of the 
county annually the past three years. A 
large poultry industry is developing, tur¬ 
keys being shipped to the value of $250.- 
(XX) yearly from this valley. The Long 
Island and New .Jer.sey vegetable growers 
and farmers may well consider what is 
ahead when 1.200,(XX) more acres are to 
be brought into production as fast as the 
water from the Colorado River may be 
spread over them. 
Eastern Advantages. —When the sea¬ 
son opens later, as it does for shipping, 
the Eastern farmers and gardeners have 
the advantage of a difference in freight 
cost of close to $(5(X) a car. which is a 
pretty good profit to start with. It will 
become increasingly urgent upon Eastern 
farmers to take up most vigorously, as 
they have already begun, a campaign to 
make their demands felt for a better sys¬ 
tem of transportation, di.stribution and 
marketing of their products, in whiefi 
better roads will be'most important. 
Handling Market Problems. —The 
marketing problem is better handled in 
California and other far Western points, 
for the reason that these markets are a 
long distance away and producers have 
learned the value and necessity of co¬ 
operation, in methods of culture, picking, 
grading, packing, shipping and marketing 
their products, of which a full account 
will lie given. One is impressed by the 
spirit of the peo()le of this State. All 
are interested in their work, and in the 
place where they live. This faith in the 
land and in those who live upon it. is 
what makes farm life desirable where this 
spirit exists, whether it be on the rugged 
hills of New England, the plains of the 
desert, or the inch, sunny slopes of the 
Pacific. 
liOOKiNG To The Future. —In these 
troublesome times the momentous prob¬ 
lems that have overtaken the warring 
nations of desolated 7urope, are facing our 
own country. These problems require at 
this time not only the most able states¬ 
manship, but in their right settlement the 
interest and support of those who live 
upon the land, from which families and 
homes are supported, and who in addition, 
are contributing to the support and pros¬ 
perity of our entire nation. The present 
paramount need of our country is the pro¬ 
duction of more plowshares to aid in 
feeding a hungry world, rather than can¬ 
non, to destroy human life and its pro<luc- 
tive forces. George t. poweli.. 
