USA > California > Los Angeles County > History of Los Angeles county, Volume I > Part 8
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The interior plain of Southern California thus affected comprises the long reach which includes the San Fernando Valley, the Pasadena Country, the valley of the San Gabriel River, the Pomona and Ontario Uplands, the valley of the Santa Ana River, in which lie Colton, the San Bernardino country and Riverside, and the long plains of San Jacinto River southward. Unlike the inward plain of Central California, it is very irregular in out- line, branches out in many directions, and often merging almost insensibly into rolling upland mesas. This plain with its irregular windings, is about two hundred miles in length, with a width of from thirty to fifty miles. The whole country is therefore in a great open coast land facing the south, . and with the high Sierra for a background.
The Sierra, which north of the so-called Mojave desert, makes a great curve westward around the south end of the San Joaquin plain, turns southward again opposite Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and, dou- bling back on its course, walls in the west end of the desert, then, turning directly eastward, separates the desert from the Los Angeles and San Bernardino plains. Turning southward again, it stands as a well between the Colorado desert and the west part of San Diego County. The range varies in height from five to seven thousand feet with peaks reaching from eight to thirteen thousand feet. There are several passes in these Sierra which are less than three thousand feet in altitude; and this feature has a
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
perceptible influence upon the climate in this portion of the state. The Mojave desert, with an area of several thousand square miles, averages about two thousand feet above sea-level, while the Colorado desert, with a less area and lying opposite the passes leading eastward, has some of its surface three hundred and fifty feet below sea-level.
The term "winter" with the associations it has in the minds of the East- ern people is not applicable to California. Even the term "rainy season" conveys the idea of too much rain; the phrase "rain season" might be better signifying that portion of the year during which there is some rain. The cause of the "dry season" is evidently the excessively heated air of the inte- rior plains, which absorb and carry away all the moisture brought thither from the sea, while the current from the sea meets with no cold air to con- dense its freight of moisture until the sun has nearly reached its southern tropic in November.
The counter trades of the North Pacific coast following the sun during
VENICE CANAL
the autumn, reach the coast of Southern California shortly after the rains have begun in the northern portion of the state. The first rain may come anywhere from the middle of October until the middle of November. A south wind comes in from the sea; clouds bank up along the southern horizon and then about the mountain tops, and broken rainy weather lasting for several days, follows during which time the precipitation amounts to from two to three inches. The first rain may also give snow in the moun- tains, but not always, nor to any great depth.
After three or four weeks of pleasant weather comes another rain, much like the first, and this time with a decided snowfall in the mountain, as the temperature is considerably lower. These rains clear the atmosphere of much of its dust, so the mountain many miles away seem near enough to approach in a morning's drive. With the coming of the rains the land begins to turn green from the springing grasses.
About the latter part of December may be expected one of the heavy winter storms. Setting in with a strong south wind from the sea, laden with moisture, this is condensed by the cooler air of the mountains and uplands, and rains fall for a week or more in almost daily showers which come
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
mainly during the afternoon and night. The precipitation may amount to six or eight inches. On the mountains it will be snow.
January is often a month of clear skies, and to many the pleasantest portion of the year as the air seems to be fresher and more bracing. In February another storm, like that of December, may be expected; then scattering rains, of two or more days duration, at intervals of several weeks, through March and April; and then the "rainy season" is over.
The annual average precipitation at Los Angeles is eighteen inches, while along the base of the mountains, back of the plains, it is thirty to forty inches. The amount of rain per year therefore varies greatly, from almost none on the plains in the interior to forty or more inches about the coast mountains, whose cold summits first capture the moisture from the warm currents fresh from the sea. Northward, the rainfall at Visalia averages ten and a half inches; at Stockton, fifteen; Sacramento, nineteen; San Francisco, twenty-four ; Portland, Oregon, fifty-three ; and Sitka, one hun- dred and ten. To compare with the principal States of the East, we will mention that the average precipitation in the Lake states is about thirty inches, and at Mobile and Pensacola about sixty inches. The reason that Los Angeles County has more rain than the counties just north is the peculiar configuration of the coast line and the mountain ranges. But here there are only about forty rainy days in the year.
In common with the whole Pacific coast, the short-line of Southern California has, from May to September, the night fog, which comes rolling down from the sea, in the evening, and remains in the form of clouds just over head until about nine or ten o'clock the next morning. This fog, as such, however, does not always come from the sea; for often it is formed from the cold air above coming down in masses amid the moist warm air on the ground. This fog is not so chilly and disagreeable as that further north, while, in a manner, it takes the place of rain in its effect on vegetation. The per centage of humidity (invisible moisture) in the atmosphere at Los Angeles is sixty-eight, San Diego, seventy-one, San Francisco, seventy-six, Mojave and Colorado deserts probably sixty or below, Yuma, forty-three, Salt Lake forty-four, New Orleans, seventy-nine, Florida, seventy-five and New York, seventy-two.
Dr. J. P. Widney, in his book called "The California of the South," says : "The average number of cloudy days per year is found to be at New York 119; Salt Lake 88; San Francisco 79; on the more southern line, Florida 51; New Orleans, 97; Yuma, 14; Los Angeles 51 and San Diego, 85.
"On the Pacific Coast the winds are more regular than in any region east of the Sierra. The winds here are never as violent as they often are at every point in the East, but neither is there so great an extent of dead calm. Nearly always there is a gentle current ; never a departure from this. The sea breeze starts in on the land about the middle of the day, and the land breeze sets into the sea during the night and continues until from nine to ten o'clock in the forenoon. The northeast Trade wind is an upper dry current off shore, dropping down at night to become the off-shore land breeze. While it is on high, the sea breeze is coming inlandward. Thus the stagnant, lifeless air of the heated spells of the Atlantic slope and of the Mississippi Valley is here an impossibility.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
"From a table of observations taken during the years between 1877 and 1889, it is found that the lowest temperatures of the winter months were from twenty-eight degrees to forty-two degrees and the highest, for the warmer months, eight degrees to one hundred and five; but during that period the thermometer rose above a hundred degrees only twelve days, and above ninety degrees one hundred and sixty-eight days. Half of those days, however, were in September and October. It was below thirty-two degrees only seven days.
"The maximum velocity of the wind ranged from seventeen to forty- six miles per hour, but was over twenty-five miles per hour only forty-three times. The daily movement ranged from one hundred to one hundred and eighty-three miles-that is, the average movement just over the tops of buildings ranged from a slow walk, by a man or horse, to a fair trot."
CHAPTER IV AGRICULTURE AND HORTICULTURE
This county contains many kinds of soil, some of which are not dupli- cated in any other part of the United States, so far as we can learn. In the lower lands the soil is usually a rich alluvium, the supposed deposits of streams during ages long since past. The lightness or heaviness of this alluvial soil depends on the proportion of sand and clay. In some places the "moist land" contains much alkali. Such land is generally considered unfit for cultivation; though more recent practical tests demonstrate the fact that much of the so-called alkali land is really good for many crops, including grains and vegetables. It can nearly all be reclaimed by proper drainage. Apples and pears that won the first premium at the great New Orleans Exposition in 1889 were grown on strong land, where the strength was due solely to alkali soil near Long Beach, this county. The yields per acre were something wonderful. Many valleys far above the sea-level contain similar grades of alluvium and also, in some localities, a darker soil known as adobe, which is composed largely of decomposed matter of vegetable nature. This is the heaviest soil we have here, and in wet weather the mud makes it so tenacious as to produce a powerful strain on the boots and also on the morals of pedestrians; if not, in instances causing words akin to profanity. In summertime this soil bakes to an almost rocky hardness, and cracks open, so that the larger fissures remind one of a recent earthquake's work. A quarter of a century ago, and, in instances, even at this date, many dwellings and a few old mission buildings, made of this adobe soil, still remain intact as relics of an earlier and cruder civilization. The soil was mixed with straw, made into bricks and then dried in the hot sun during the dry seasons of the year. Buildings thus constructed, it is stated, will stand for a century or more. But this peculiar soil is suitable for other things than building material. Though not good for many fruits, it is excellent for grains and cereals of various kinds. Wheat, barley and oats-as fine as the world produces-can here be grown on this soil.
In the upland, or mesa, there is found still another kind of land. This consists largely of sediment washed down from the mountains, mixed with vegetable accumulations. It is good soil for fruit growing, but not well adapted to cereals.
It may readily be supposed that with such a variety of soil and climate, Los Angeles County products are of many varieties. Almost everything in the way of food products which man could wish for is raised here, more or less abundantly, according to the attention given to their cultivation. A few facts and figures showing the products from the soil within this county will not be out of place in this connection : In moist land a person can raise from seventy-five to even one hundred bushels of corn to the acre. The tableland has water from twelve to thirty feet below the general surface,
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
and this is just what is needed for citrus fruits. As far back as 1890- nearly a third of a century ago-there were growing more than 800,000 orange trees in a bearing state; 2,000,000 grape vines, and 20,000 English walnut trees. At that date it took five years to cultivate orange and lemon trees, and the cost of such work was $200 an acre, while the land itself then cost only about $150 per acre. After the fifth year from planting, the land produced $350 per acre. Of alfalfa, not less than seven crops were grown annually, and the average product sold for $250 per acre. The farmer along in the later '80s was raising two crops of excellent Irish potatoes each year, worth $200 per acre. Peas, cabbage, etc., were then grown in the winter months and the next summer the land was covered profitable with vines, such as cucumbers.
In more recent years, large quantities of oranges, lemons, walnuts, beans, vegetables, hay and various kinds of grain have been annually pro-
WALNUTS NEAR WHITT
duced in this county. The various official reports made by both State and Federal departments give the acreage and values, in a better form than can be attempted in a work of this character. Sufficient to remark that agricul- ture and general horticulture are successfully conducted in Los Angeles County, from year to year, by thousands of husbandmen. The old-time large ranchos are rapidly being reduced and cut into smaller tracts, many of which are cultivated by foreigners, including Mexicans and Japanese.
Before time shall have bedimmed the early records, let us note the facts concerning the cultivation of fruits away back in 1850 and for a number of decades thereafter : All the oranges in 1850 were from the old Mission Orchard at San Gabriel, and the gardens of Louis Vignes and William Wolfskill. On June 7, 1851, Mr. Vignes offered for sale his "desirable property, El Alizo"-so called from the superb sycamore tree, many cen- turies old, that shaded his cellars. He said: "There are two orange gardens that yield from six to seven thousand oranges in the season." It is credibly stated that he was the first man to plant the orange in this section, bringing young trees from San Gabriel to the city of Los Angeles in 1834. He had 400 peach trees, together with apricot, pear, apple, fig and walnut, and added: "The vineyard, with 40,000 vines, 32,000 now bearing
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
grapes, will yield one thousand barrels of wine per annum, the quality of which is well known to be superior." Don Louis, a native of France, came to Los Angeles by way of the Sandwich Islands, in 1831. One orange cultivator after another came in, and in 1876 there were in the county 36,700 bearing orange trees, and 6,900 bearing lime and lemon trees. The ship- ment of this fruit grew rapidly. In 1851 there were in this county one hundred and four vineyards, exclusive of the one at San Gabriel-all but twenty of which were within the limits of the city of Los Angeles. In 1875 the grape vines within this county were placed at 4,500,000.
In 1851 grapes in crates or boxes, brought twenty cents a pound at San Francisco, and eighty cents at Stockton. Shipments continued at such rates for a number of years; very little wine was shipped. In 1851 not to exceed a thousand gallons were shipped from the county. Soon the north- ern counties began to forestall the markets with grapes equally as good as those produced in Los Angeles County. Then the gradual manufacture of wine commenced here. Wolfskill had at an early date shipped some wine, but his general aim was to turn his grapes into brandy. In 1857 Louis Wilhart had on hand considerable wine styled "white wine," that was then over twenty years old. In 1850 there were a number of grape vines in the famous Hoover vineyard that were over one hundred years old and still bearing well. About 1855 the grape and wine industry took a new impulse. At San Gabriel, William M. Stockton, in 1855, had extensive nursery of grape vines and choice fruit trees. The same year Joseph Hoover engaged on a large scale in the manufacture of wines at the Foster vineyard. In 1856 Los Angeles yielded only 7,200 cases of wine; in 1860 it had increased to 66,000 cases. In 1861 shipments were made to New York and Boston by Benjamin D. Wilson and J. L. Sansevaine.
Now that the recent prohibitive amendment to the U. S. Constitution prevents the manufacture and sale of wines, etc., it may be well to refer to the leading producers of wine in December, 1859, for whatever of historic interest may cluster around this industry-once one of this county's most profitable-the dates must necessarily be prior to 1919, when the present law went into effect. Before their family names be forever forgotten, let this list show who were the leaders in a legitimate industry here just prior to the Civil war: Matthew Keller, Sansevaine Brothers, Frohling & Co., R. D. Wilson, Stephens & Bell, Dr. Parrott, Dr. Thomas J. White, Laborie, Messer, Barnhardt, Delong, Santa Ana Precinct, Henry Dalton, P. Serres, Joseph Huber, Sr., Richardo Vejar, Barrows, Bellerino, Dr. Hoover, Louis Wilhart, Trabuc, Clement, Jose Serrano. Total amount of wine produced in 1859 was about 250,000 gallons.
In 1890 the most extensive vineyard in California (next to that of U. S. Senator Stanford in Tehama County, the largest in the world) was Nadeau vineyard, covering an area of more than two thousand acres ; it was planted midway between Los Angeles city and Anaheim. The first year's yield was sent to the still, and turned out 45,000 gallons of brandy, which Mr. Nadeau warehoused and thus paid the Government a revenue of $40,500. The three next largest vineyards were at and near San Gabriel, owned respectively by "Lucky" Baldwin, who had over 1,000 acres in Mission and other vines; Stern & Rose (Sunny Slope vineyard), over 1,000 acres of numerous varieties of grapes, and J. de Barth Shorb (San Gabriel Wine
A SIXTEEN YEAR OLD WALNUT TREE NEAR WHITTIER Many miles of Los Angeles County's fine roads are bordered with stately walnut trees.
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
Company), about 1,500 acres of Missions, Zinfandels, Mataros and other varieties. These concerns all kept European wine experts and offices in the larger Eastern cities, where their products found ready sale.
In a history of Los Angeles County, published about 1890 appears the following relative to the products of the soil and other items connected with agriculture and fruit growing at that date: "Fruits and vegetables are maturing every month in the year. Of the garden products, green peas are in the market the year round ; new potatoes, carrots, cabbages, salsify, asparagus, lettuce, cauliflower, turnips, onions, beets, and radishes, monthly maturing ; cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, and melons are in the markets from June to December.
"Of citrus fruits Southern California is the natural home, both soil and climate being admirably adapted to the culture of oranges, lemons, limes,
DAIRY SCENE
etc. Some of the finest and largest of these fruits are grown in Los Angeles County. The crop requires thorough irrigation and a great deal of care and labor, yet the crop is profitable. . The orange industry here is coming to be immense in it proportions and magnitude. Grape raising and production of raisins are also increasing yearly. There are now (1890) over 16,000 acres in grapes within this county, the fruit including every known variety produced in Southern California.
"Of the one hundred and three proprietors of town-farms in 1848, eight were foreigners: Abel Stearns, Louis Bouchet, Louis Vignes, Juan Domingo, Miguel N. Pryor, William Wolfskill, Louis Lemoreau, Joseph Shooks-an Englishman, a German, three Frenchmen, three "Yankees" --- so has the city ever been cosmopolitan. The increase of culture of fruit trees-and ornamental, too-is indeed remarkable. In 1857 probably were set out two hundred young walnut trees. The almond was unknown. San Fernando and San Gabriel had a few olives. Long before 1840 California had the fig, apricot, peach, pear and quince. Plums were introduced by O. W. Childs. Seeds of the sweet almond, in 1855, were first planted by William Wolfskill, which were brought from the Mediterranean by H. F. Teschemaker, of San Francisco.
Vol. 1-2
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
"O. W. Childs in 1856 introduced bees. He paid one hundred dollars for one hive and bees in San Francisco. Afterward, Sherman & Taylor brought hives here for sale.
"In 1850 there was one pepper tree, lofty and wide-branching, over the adobe house of an old lady living near the hills a short distance north of the Plaza, the seeds of which came from a tree in the Court of the Mission of San Luis Ray. January 31, 1861, John Temple planted a row in front of his Main Street store. All the city is adorned with this graceful variety of trees."
When one contemplates the progress made in the production of fruits and flowers, trees and vegetables within the last thirty years in Los Angeles County, the above quotation reads strangely indeed.
STOCK-RAISING
Before it was fully understood that this county was well adapted to the growth of fruits and nuts of great marketable value, stock-raising was its chief industry, as in almost all other Southern California counties. The lands of the county were believed to be unfit for anything but stock ranches, consequently immense herds of cattle and sheep roamed in the valleys and browsed among the foot-hills. However, the more attention was later attracted to fruit growing, yet stock-growing was never dropped from among the important industries of the county. In modern years, from the growth of alfalfa, with its numerous annual crops, much live stock has been kept, including the finest of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, etc. Many thoroughbreds are found in Los Angeles County and are the pride and profit of the communities in which they are kept.
THIS COUNTY LEADS IN AGRICULTURE
The Chamber of Commerce at Whittier put out a publication in the early months of this year in which the following paragraphs appear, and should be credited, coming, as the statements do, from the United States reports : "Los Angeles County ranked first among all the counties in the United States in the combined value of crops and live-stock products in 1919, the total value amounting to $71,579,899. The value of crops in this county was $61,864,479, which was greater than the combined value of crops and live-stock products in any other county. Oranges contributed slightly more than one-third of the combined values of the crops and live- stock products of the county. Other important items were lemons, walnuts, hay and forage. Fresno County ranked second among all counties, with a value of $55,000,000.
CHAPTER V
RAILROADS OF THE COUNTY
Of the steam railway systems of Los Angeles County let it be stated that their complete history, including many interesting details, would fill to the covers a large volume; so the account to here follow will be the "boiled down" and briefly-told story of how the roads originated, when built and such other important historic items as naturally find place in a work of this character. In this connection it may be said that the great Union Pacific, the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe systems really control the territory of Los Angeles County and now transact the railway business of this locality, and to their building is due much of the wealth and commer- cial prosperity of this part of the Pacific coast.
As to the origin of a system of steam railways from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast, from extended accounts, now the subject of large volumes found in most of our public libraries, the following facts have been care- fully extracted for the use of the reader of this volume of general history on Los Angeles County : The first agitation of the Pacific railroad ques- tion began two years after the first passenger railway was put in operation in the United States, says one writer. The originator of a plan by which trade might better be carried on with Asia, through the medium of a trans- continental railway from one ocean to another, was Hartwell Carver, who published articles in New York newspapers in 1832, expressing his ideas along this line. He first brought the matter before the United States Congress. This road was to be built of stone and was to have its western terminus on the Columbia River in Oregon. The first division of such a line was advocated by John Plumbe, then of Dubuque, Iowa, who sought to have a railroad constructed from Lake Michigan to Oregon. This project was proposed in 1838, and Plumbe asked Congress for aid to build as far as the Mississippi River ; at least asked that that body pay all preliminary survey expenses for such a route. The country was then in no financial condition to give such question a serious thought; hence the attempt failed. Asa Whitney, of New York, was the first to ask the gov- ernment to appropriate every other section of land, for a number of miles each side of the proposed railway, to the corporation who should construct the road. In Congress this project met with opposition from the Southern states, as they feared it was a scheme to make a number of free states in the then undeveloped West.
The first railroad completed in California was the Sacramento Valley road, originally designed to run from Sacramento to Mountain City, in Yuba County, via Placer and Sutter. Its length was forty miles, but it came to a sudden stop when constructed a little more than half way. It was completed to Folsom February 22, 1856. The road cost $700,000. Money was then worth five per cent a month-sixty per cent a year-and
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HISTORY OF LOS ANGELES COUNTY
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