THE ADVANCE OF CULTIVATION SOUTHWARD.
The immense county of San Diego is on the threshold of its development.
It has comparatively only spots of cultivation here and there, in an
area on the western slope of the county only, that Mr. Van Dyke
estimates to contain about one million acres of good arable land for
farming and fruit-raising. This mountainous region is full of charming
valleys, and hidden among the hills are fruitful nooks capable of
sustaining thriving communities. There is no doubt about the salubrity
of the climate, and one can literally suit himself as to temperature by
choosing his elevation. The traveller by rail down the wild Temecula
Cañon will have some idea of the picturesqueness of the country, and, as
he descends in the broadening valley, of the beautiful mountain parks of
live-oak and clear running water, and of the richness both for grazing
and grain of the ranches of the Santa Margarita, Las Flores, and Santa
Rosa. Or if he will see what a few years of vigorous cultivation will
do, he may visit Escondido, on the river of that name, which is at an
elevation of less than a thousand feet, and fourteen miles from the
ocean. This is only one of many settlements that have great natural
beauty and thrifty industrial life. In that region are numerous
attractive villages. I have a report from a little cañon, a few miles
north of Escondido, where a woman with an invalid husband settled in
1883. The ground was thickly covered with brush, and its only product
was rabbits and quails. In 1888 they had 100 acres cleared and fenced,
mostly devoted to orchard fruits and berries. They had in good bearing
over 1200 fruit-trees among them 200 oranges and 283 figs, which yielded
one and a half tons of figs a week during the bearing season, from
August to November. The sprouts of the peach-trees grew twelve feet in
1889. Of course such a little fruit farm as this is the result of
self-denial and hard work, but I am sure that the experiment in this
region need not be exceptional.
[Illustration: SEXTON NURSERIES, NEAR SANTA BARBARA.]
San Diego will be to the southern part of the State what San Francisco
is to the northern. Nature seems to have arranged for this, by providing
a magnificent harbor, when it shut off the southern part by a mountain
range. During the town-lot lunacy it was said that San Diego could not
grow because it had no back country, and the retort was that it needed
no back country, its harbor would command commerce. The fallacy of this
assumption lay in the forgetfulness of the fact that the profitable and
peculiar exports of Southern California must go East by rail, and reach
a market in the shortest possible time, and that the inhabitants look to
the Pacific for comparatively little of the imports they need. If the
Isthmus route were opened by a ship-canal, San Diego would doubtless
have a great share of the Pacific trade, and when the population of that
part of the State is large enough to demand great importations from the
islands and lands of the Pacific, this harbor will not go begging. But
in its present development the entire Pacific trade of Japan, China, and
the islands, gives only a small dividend each to the competing ports.
For these developments this fine harbor must wait, but meantime the
wealth and prosperity of San Diego lie at its doors. A country as large
as the three richest New England States, with enormous wealth of mineral
and stone in its mountains, with one of the finest climates in the
world, with a million acres of arable land, is certainly capable of
building up one great seaport town. These million of acres on the
western slope of the mountain ranges of the country are geographically
tributary to San Diego, and almost every acre by its products is
certain to attain a high value.
The end of the ridiculous speculation in lots of 1887-88 was not so
disastrous in the loss of money invested, or even in the ruin of great
expectations by the collapse of fictitious values, as in the stoppage of
immigration. The country has been ever since adjusting itself to a
normal growth, and the recovery is just in proportion to the arrival of
settlers who come to work and not to speculate. I had heard that the
"boom" had left San Diego and vicinity the "deadest" region to be found
anywhere. A speculator would probably so regard it. But the people have
had a great accession of common-sense. The expectation of attracting
settlers by a fictitious show has subsided, and attention is directed to
the development of the natural riches of the country. Since the boom San
Diego has perfected a splendid system of drainage, paved its streets,
extended its railways, built up the business part of the town solidly
and handsomely, and greatly improved the mesa above the town. In all
essentials of permanent growth it is much better in appearance than in
1887. Business is better organized, and, best of all, there is an
intelligent appreciation of the agricultural resources of the country.
It is discovered that San Diego has a "back country" capable of
producing great wealth. The Chamber of Commerce has organized a
permanent exhibition of products. It is assisted in this work of
stimulation by competition by a "Ladies' Annex," a society numbering
some five hundred ladies, who devote themselves not to æsthetic
pursuits, but to the quickening of all the industries of the farm and
the garden, and all public improvements.
[Illustration: SWEETWATER DAM.]
To the mere traveller who devotes only a couple of weeks to an
examination of this region it is evident that the spirit of industry is
in the ascendant, and the result is a most gratifying increase in
orchards and vineyards, and the storage and distribution of water for
irrigation. The region is unsurpassed for the production of the orange,
the lemon, the raisin-grape, the fig, and the olive. The great reservoir
of the Cuyamaca, which supplies San Diego, sends its flume around the
fertile valley of El Cajon (which has already a great reputation for its
raisins), and this has become a garden, the land rising in value every
year. The region of National City and Chula Vista is supplied by the
reservoir made by the great Sweetwater Dam--a marvel of engineering
skill--and is not only most productive in fruit, but is attractive by
pretty villas and most sightly and agreeable homes. It is an
unanswerable reply to the inquiry if this region was not killed by the
boom that all the arable land, except that staked out for fancy city
prices, has steadily risen in value. This is true of all the bay region
down through Otay (where a promising watch factory is established) to
the border at Tia Juana. The rate of settlement in the county outside of
the cities and towns has been greater since the boom than before--a most
healthful indication for the future. According to the school census of
1889, Mr. Van Dyke estimates a permanent growth of nearly 50,000 people
in the county in four years. Half of these are well distributed in small
settlements which have the advantages of roads, mails, and
school-houses, and which offer to settlers who wish to work adjacent
unimproved land at prices which experience shows are still moderate.