Southern California

Editor of Thb Eegistee: Your correspondent from San Fran-' cisco, under date of April 26th, 1889, makes what we know to be a very unfair statement in regard to this section of our state. After speaking of the abundant rains in Northern and Central California, he says in substance that Southern California has no annual rainfall and that our immense grain fields require artificial irrigation in order to make god cíops, thus causing the farmera to resort to an expensive system of irrigation. Having been a resident here for 16 years, I can say that such statements are wholly untrue and if not made intentionally to injure or deceive, they must have been written in complete ignorance of the climatic and agricultural conditions of this part of the ■tato. The average annual rainfall in Southern California, has been eighteen inches; at San Francisco about one third more and in the extreme northern part of California, about doublé our average. Ten inches of moisture will give us good crops of grain and since I have been here only one failure has occurred. That was in 1876-7 when we had five inches of rainfall and a drowth was the result. One year of failure out of 1G! Can this be said of inany farming communities either in California or elsewhere? Even then the drowth affected only the surface rooted crops. Our orchards, excepting those of Citrus fruits, were not irrigated as a rule but were given more thorough cultivation and the result was fruit of excellent quality but not up to the average in quantity. If your correspondent will visit us, he will find there is no system of irrigation provided for large tracts of grain land. It is rare that a grain farmer uses any water on his land and when he does do so, it is to irrígate a small tract of one to five acres in the months of September or October so as to have green feed before the heavy rains. In the dry season, May to November, our water comes from springs arising in the mountain canons and they afford us a supply sufficient only for domestic purposes, and for summer irrigation of our orange and lemon orchards, vegetable gardens and tracts of alfalfa. With thorough cultivation our vineyards and orchards of deciduous trees do not need irrigation and ás a rule are not so treated. The soil under proper treatment will retain enough of the winter rains to mature good crops. Such being the case, why attempt to irrígate grain land, especially as it is doing its work of producing at the time when the ground has sufñcient mositure. Los Angeles County alone is larger than some of the States and from careful estimates just made, there are at least 300,000 acres of wheat and barley now maturing. Öf this, 75,000 are in wheat and 225,000 in barley. 4C.000 acres of the barley will be cut for hay and the balance for grain. Taking a low estímate of 12J centals (or 20 bushels) per acre, this county will produce 2,225,000 centals. Estimating 1,225,000 for home consumption, we shall have 1,000,000 for export. Besides the above, we will have a large erop of corn, the low lands in the southern part of the county giving80and in some cases 100 bushei to the acre ; also fair crops of oats and rye and heavy crops of alfalfa - the latter yielding 4 to 6 tons per acre. Add to the above an enormous fruit erop - 15,000,000 lbs. having already been shipped from this southern country during the months of January, February, March and April, 1889, and one can see that there is something more here than a delightful climate. Pasadena, Los Angeles Lo., (Jal.,