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I
think it may be useful and not uninteresting here to put down some
facts on the suitableness of Southern California as a field for
emigration. It is still true, as in the days of Martin Chuzzlewit,
that very misleading statements are put forth by interested parties
to induce the unwary to emigrate to colonial and other settlements,
and many an honest man has been involved thereby in great loss and
disappointment. I shall try to state things as they are.
People in Great Britain have very inadequate notions, for the most
part, of the extent of the state of California, it is seldom
apprehended that it is from seven to eight hundred miles in length,
and from two to three hundred in breadth. When the discovery of gold
was made some forty years ago in the northern part of the state, it
was to that part of it chiefly that the rush of emigrants took
place. It was San Francisco, in the north, that suddenly became a
great and wealthy city. It was there, too, that the usual
lawlessness of a mining population, dissevered from family life and
from the influences of Christianity and civilization, showed itself,
and gave a bad repute to Californian society. The notion got abroad
that every second man in California carried a revolver in one hand
and a bowie-knife in the other, and that no man who was not actually
on fire with the gold-fever ought to commit himself to such
dangerous fellowship. Even in the mining districts of Northern
California, however, things are now much changed for the better.
There is still a rowdy element, as there is in most of the new
states of America; but it is confined to a limited class—the
frequenters of saloons, the prize-ring, and the vile dens of sin—and
respectable men who mind their own business, and had quiet and
peaceable life, may enjoy throughout the state the same sense of
security and tranquillity that is to be found in most other
civilized parts of the globe.
About twenty years ago two things began to attract the attention of
Americans to Southern California—its wonderful climate and its
magnificent fruits. These two things are now doing for Southern
California what its gold-mines did forty years ago for Northern.
They are drawing to it a rapidly-increasing population, but in a
much quieter way, and of a much more varied character than that
which the gold-mines drew to the northern part of the state.
First, as to the climate, it is hardly possible to exaggerate its
qualities. During the summer half of the year little or no rain
falls, and you have an almost unbroken succession of bright, sunny
days. The heat is considerable, especially in inland places—from 80
to 90°
is not uncommon; but near the coast it is delightfully tempered by a
refreshing breeze from the sea, and, unlike most tropical countries,
the nights are comparatively cool. I found
myself able to walk considerable distances in the middle of the day,
not only without exhaustion, but with somewhat of the exhilaration
that one feels in Switzerland. Work, too, can be done in the fields
with a very high thermometer. Sunstroke is unknown, so is
dog-madness. The soothing, balmy influence of this splendid spell of
genial summer weather is felt by every one, and it, makes life
sensibly brighter and cheerier. One sometimes thinks
with a chill shudder of the eastern winds and cold fog that are not
unknown even in summer in one’s native land. Not that you require no
precautions against cold; the changes of temperature, as the daily
fogs fall and rise, are considerable, and have given rise to a
saying that you catch cold in Los Angeles twice a day.
But
it is winter which gives its best feature to the climate of
California. Except when it is raining, winter is like summer. The
nights are colder, but there is not much difference in the days. And
this is the great attraction to the people of the eastern states and
of Canada, many of whom are pouring into Southern California. They
get tired of the severity of the eastern and northern winter. Once
in California. they are loath to leave it. For consumptive people it
is like the elixir of life. Every second person you meet tells you
he came to Southern California for the health of some member of his
family, and in almost every case the benefit was remarkable. With
some precautions against the change of temperature between day and
night, and with due arrangements for exercise in the fresh air and
abstinence from exhausting toil, persons of weak chests and throats
are enabled to live comfortably, and if the disease has not gone too
far, they have every chance of recovery.
For fruit, Lower California seems destined to be the orchard of the
world, grapes, oranges, melons, apricots, peaches, plums,
pomegranates, lemons, citrons, figs, walnuts, olives, and I know not
what all besides, flourish amazingly. Of course, not all equally in
every place. There are conditions of particular districts, to be
learned only by experience, eminently favourable to some kinds, and
perhaps unfavourable to others. But on the whole it is an unrivalled
fruit region. If one kind of fruit be specified for which it is
pre-eminent, it is the orange; and experience is now showing that a
particular kind of orange, called the Washington navel, is the very
best that grows. It is to be noticed, as modify in the garden
character of the state, that Southern California presents a
remarkable combination of mountain and valley. It is in the valleys
that fruit is so flourishing. The soil, formed apparently in the bed
of ancient lakes, is marvellously fertile. The rich vegetable mould
extends in some places many feet—some say hundreds of feet—below the
surface. Year after year crops are raised—not of fruit only, but of
wheat, grass, and vegetables—without manure. If irrigation be
applied, two crops of grain may be got in one season, and of alfalfa
grass from three to eight, The soil is well adapted for farm produce
as well as fruit. In the larger ranches (the old Spanish word is in
constant use) cattle, sheep, and horses are reared, and ordinary
farm produce! is raised. It is more in the neighbourhood of towns
that the culture of fruit prevails. The quantity of fruit produced
is far greater than is required to supply the wants of the
population. The less perishable kinds are transported far and wide.
Every effort is made to convert what is perishable into durable
forms by drying and by canning.
For some years back grapes have been so abundant that the wholesale
price has hardly paid the cost of labour.
A cent (halfpenny) a pound is considered a good wholesale price. An
acre of vineyard usually produces from three to eight tons of
grapes. But it is a troublesome crop to rear, and involves a great
deal of labour. It is much more profitable to turn the grapes into
raisins, but this requires a dry climate, at some distance from the
sea, unaffected by the fogs. The orange is probably the most
lucrative crop, on ground well adapted for it. But the orange does
not bear well till about its eighth year, whereas vines have a fair
crop in their third or fourth.
We have yet to mention the most outstanding peculiarity of Southern
California, viewed as a field for farming, and especially
for horticulture. We refer to the extraordinary distribution of
water. Of rivers, streams, or surface running water of any kind, the
supply is most limited. Great tracts exist where more is none. This
is the more remarkable that the country presents great mountain
ranges, which are among the most striking objects in the landscape,
from the peculiarity of the soil, the water gets below the surface:
sometimes it is within a few feet of it, and at other places you
have to descend hundreds of feet before you come to it. If the water
is near the surface, the trees and other plants send down their
roots, sometimes to a great depth, and find the necessary supply of
moisture. Many kinds of fruit trees do not require more water than
they obtain in this way. The water percolates upward by capillary
attraction, but does not evaporate from the top. In the driest
weather the soil is moist a few inches under the surface. Vines do
not need to be watered. The opinion has hitherto prevailed that
oranges need an artificial supply: but this opinion seems to he
undergoing a change. In many places crops of wheat and grass are
also obtained without artificial irrigation. In some districts, and
especially where more than one crop in the year is sought,
artificial methods of irrigation are resorted to; and one of these,
I regret to say, is the employment of town sewage water, which in
hot weather is most dangerous, and in the neighbourhood of Los
Angeles has given rise to several cases of typhoid fever. Artesian
wells are not uncommon, and they yield a large supply. The American
Government is at present, devoting earnest attention to the best
ways of dealing with “arid tracts,” and trying to devise methods of
bringing such water as is available to bear on the vast districts of
desert, that, exist, in some parts of the country. if the water
difficulty could be successfully dealt, with, Southern California
would become more abundantly productive than any other part of the
globe.
Now, “just here,” as the Americans say, is the point where emigrants
are most liable to be misled. I have
before me a flaming advertisement respecting the land in a certain
valley, which is offered at from eight to fifty dollars an acre. The
land, it is said, has grown the premium wheat in the world; it has
grown parsnips seven inches in diameter; it has grown eight crops of
alfalfa in one year; it has grown two hundred and eighteen tons of
sugar-beets to the acre; it has grown deciduous fruits of all kinds
and vegetables of every variety in the greatest abundance and the
finest bloom; and it is capable of growing cotton, tobacco,
pea-nuts, and champagne and raisin grapes. The situation of the
valley is high; it is free from fogs, and eminently favourable for
health. Now, every word of this is probably true; but where the
results specified were obtained, there must have been an exceptional
supply of water—probably from an Artesian well. But Artesian wells
are costly; the effort to get water by them may prove, after all, a
failure; and irrigation by means of them is a laborious and clumsy
process. The valley in question is well known to the present writer,
and it is really a waterless plain. Men buying land there may fancy
they are to grow rich; but after having spent their little all, they
may be fain to leave it, go where they may. In general, we may say
that those settlers in Southern California who have been fortunate
in water arrangements have done well, and some who have had to wait
may be aided by Government measures and enjoy final success. But in
many cases the want of water has proved a fatal want, and it is well
for settlers to find this out in time, and act upon it before they
are penniless.
Before answering the question, What sort of emigrants should go to
Southern California? if is necessary to bear in mind the effects of
the “boom” of two or three years ago, and the influence it had on
the price of land. During the boom, all manner of artificial means
were taken to raise the value of land. Syndicates would buy up a
large ranch, lay it out like a town in blocks and streets, build a
large hotel, run a tram-line or a branch of a railway to it, and
invite the world to buy it up in detail. Sometimes the scheme took,
at other times it was a dead failure. But the effect of this was to
run up the price of the best land everywhere to a very high figure;
and, though it has fallen since that time, bargains in land are not
easily to be had now. The expectation prevails that there will be
another boom soon; but the wisest heads will do their best to
prevent it acquiring the wild proportions of three years ago. Thu
country is bound to prosper, for if there were nothing else to make
it attractive, its wonderful properties as a health-resort, will
always bring to it a great influx of people. But in time the mining
resources of the state will be developed; manufactories will be
established to supply the people with many articles now brought from
Chicago or St. Louis; the fruit industry will be placed on a more
systematic and productive footing; possibly a considerable shipping
trade will be established, especially if a project now talked of be
carried out, to make San Diego the Pacific port for the large
steamers that trade at present between China and San Francisco. No
part of the world seems more sure of future increase and prosperity
than Southern California.
Who, then, should emigrate to it? Certainly not all and sundry. I know
of an impetuous, well-meaning Scotch lady who brought out a lot of
women to the country so utterly unsuited for it that some ladies in
California had to raise money to send them back. People with
diseased chests need not come here, unless they bring with them the
means of living for a wilder or two; otherwise they will be unable
to do justice to their ailments. Skilled mechanics will get splendid
wages during a boom, but when the boom has “bursted,” they may get
no wages at all. Farmers who mean to grow grain and raise stock must
purchase a ranch, which can now be got at a reasonable rate only in
a somewhat out-of-the-way place, and if it has never been
cultivated, can yield but little for a time. Probably the kind of
thing that would suit the majority of emigrants best would be a
small fruit-ranch of some ten or more acres in the vicinity of a
town. Half of this might be an orchard; the other half would be a
small poultry and dairy farm. It would be amply sufficient to
maintain a horse, two cows, and a flock of poultry. A comfortable
wooden house may be built for from £100 to
£200.
A well and windmill to raise water for domestic and ordinary farm
purposes, with barn, etc., might cost other £80.
The land (near town) might run from £20 to £100 an
acre or more. There is always ready sail for eggs and butter. The
conditions of life; are easy: little fuel is needed, and little
clothing; and the climate is so dry and warm that cattle hardly need
any shelter, and buildings do not readily decay. A frugal proprietor
might almost live on the produce of his dairy and poultry, and have
the value of his fruit crop over and above. Service costs a great
deal, and is difficult, almost impossible, to be had. Four or five
pounds a month, with board, is the wages of a female servant; farm
labourers have more. Settlers must, be abundantly able to help
themselves. In the great majority of farmhouses no servant is kept.
There is but a very limited demand for clerks or professional men.
Southern California is not the country for loafers or for shiftless
fellows. Sharp men, who see what is needed, and can adapt themselves
readily to the circumstances of a new country, are the men to get
on. As in most other new countries, an immigrant ought not to be in
haste to settle; if he can spend a little time in looking about him
and studying the situation, so much the better.
The authorities make a most liberal allowance for education, and it
is free to all. There is usually a full provision of churches in
towns, and in country-places the church-going people generally
attend the church of the denomination which happened to be first in
the field. The settlers are commonly most neighbourly and obliging;
and as to honesty, the risk of losing anything by stealing in rural
districts is virtually nil. It
hardly matters whether the house-door is locked at night. A settler
may shut up his house, leave his live stock in charge of neighbour,
be absent for days, and have no anxiety all the time as to his
finding everything on his return just as he left, it, both inside
and out.
It is said there are
about ten thousand of her Majesty’s former subjects settled in
Southern California. Many of these are from Scotland, and most,
perhaps, are Scottish Canadians. Most of them are fairly
comfortable, many are rich, and all are high in praise of a climate
which probably, if both summer and winter be taken into account, has
no superior on the face of the earth. |
