There are thousands, if not millions, of people in the United States who, if asked how they accounted for the fact that there are so many millionaires in the United States, could not give us a satisfactory explanation of the phenomenon.
It is a fact that there are hundreds who have amassed fortunes ranging from $1,000,000 to $100,000,000 each, within the last thirty years, and but very few people have any idea how they have made such immense fortunes in so short a time.
Not only our own people have made these vast fortunes, but hundreds of foreigners have accumulated immense wealth in this country, and now hold it. To give an idea of the immensity of these fortunes, I will call the attention of the reader to some well-known facts. First, to the fact, as is shown by Poor's Railroad Manual, that there is now about $5,500,000,000 of railroad bonds and floating debt, and there is about $4,500,000,000 of railroad stock, making a total of about $10,000,000,000, and this vast wealth is in the hands of comparatively few people.
Then there are national bonds to the amount of about $600,000,000. In addition to these are the bonds that have been issued by the States, counties, cities, towns, and school districts, amounting in the aggregate to probably $3,000,000,000. Then there are, according to the last census, about 9,000,000 of mortgages upon the farms,homes, and property of the people. The aggregate of these 9,000,000 of mortgages is probably not less than $5,000,000,000, and all of this vast amount of bonds, stocks, and mortgages draw interest, requiring about $1,000,000,000 each year to pay interest.
All of this wealth is in the hands of but a small percentage of the people, and what is incomprehensible to the masses is the fact that a very large per cent of it is in the hands of foreign capitalists. Of the $10,000,000,000 of railroad bonds and stocks, it is a conservative estimate to say that one-half of it belongs to foreign, principally English, capitalists. The question is often asked, How did they acquire this property? What did they give us in exchange for it? Was it gold, silver, or merchandise? If neither of these, what did we get? To prove that they did not send us either gold, silver, or merchandise in payment for at least $5,000,000,000 of our railroad bonds, we have only to refer to the report of the Secretary of the United States Treasury for 1891, and we find that since the close of the war, in 1865, our exports of gold, silver, and merchandise have exceeded our imports in the sum of $872,000,000; so that it is very clear that we have been sending them an enormous amount of money and merchandise over and above the amount we have imported from them, and whatever may have been received from the railroad bonds is still to be accounted for. To understand how they have acquired this hold upon the resources of the country, imposing a burden on the people that is surely and certainly reducing them to the condition of paupers and serfs, we shall have to go back to the days of the war, and review the financial policy of the Government, and point out how the laws have been framed exclusively in the interest of capital.
During the war the Government issued many kinds of paper money, such as greenbacks, seven-thirty notes, one-yearnotes, compound-interest notes, and one, two, and three year notes, all amounting to nearly $2,000,000,000. This money was put in circulation by paying it out at its full face value to the soldiers, sailors, and creditors of the United States, but the Government would not receive it back in payment of duties upon imports, but would receive it from any one who wished to purchase five-twenty Government bonds, taking it at its face value.
The interest on these bonds was 6 per cent, payable in coin. This continued until February, 1863, when the laws were enacted that provided that after July 1, 1863, the paper money should not be received in exchange for bonds having interest payable in coin. The result of this was that shortly after the law went into effect the paper issued by the Government rapidly depreciated, and very soon it was worth only about 40 cents on the dollar, but our soldiers were still compelled to take it at its full face value, that is, 100 cents on the dollar.
At the close of the war, in 1865, our Government issued many hundreds of millions of their depreciated paper and paid it out to the soldiers, sailors, and other creditors of the Government at its full face value, 100 cents on the dollar.
After the soldiers had been paid off in the depreciated currency of the Government, and it had gone into general circulation, one of the most gigantic schemes ever concocted by the money-power was then devised.
The object was to destroy the money of the country, and issue in its place many hundreds of millions of dollars of Government bonds drawing 6 per cent interest in coin, payable semi-annually.
During the winter of 1865-66, an agent of the Rothschilds went to Washington and secured the enactment of a law providing that any person might take any of the depreciatedpaper that had been issued by the Government for the purpose of paying off the soldiers and the other expenses of the war, and exchange it at its full face value for bonds of the United States drawing 6 per cent interest in coin, payable semi-annually, and that the money paid for such bonds should be destroyed within three years after the close of the war. By this means nearly $1,000,000,000 of the currency of the country was withdrawn from circulation and destroyed, and an equal amount of 6 per cent coin bonds were issued in place of the currency that was so destroyed.
No laws that were ever enacted, and no decrees that were ever promulgated by any tyrant that ever sat upon a throne, ever enabled a few to amass wealth as rapidly as they were enabled to do under the provisions of these laws.
Under the provisions of the laws of 1863 the currency was depreciated to less than 50 cents on the dollar, and under the law of 1866 hundreds of millions of dollars were bought up by the Rothschilds and other English and European bankers, at from 40 to 60 cents on the dollar, and were converted into five-twenty United States bonds drawing 6 per cent interest in coin, the interest to be paid semi-annually. This was equivalent to 12 per cent upon the actual cash paid for the depreciated paper with which they bought the bonds.
But this was only a part of the profit they were enabled to make. The interest was paid every six months in gold. The interest on $1,500,000,000 every six months was $45,000,000, and as the law that required the duties on imports to be paid in coin had never been repealed, gold was for many years at a high premium. The bondholders could take their $45,000,000 every six months to the gold-room in Wall Street and sell it for 50 per cent premium.This was equivalent to 9 per cent on the face value of the bonds and 18 per cent on the coin they had paid for the currency with which they had bought the bonds.
But this was not all the profit they were enabled to make, for still other laws had been framed in the interests of capital and speculators.
Congress had assumed all the power that was claimed by the kings of old who claimed to rule by divine right; that is to give away the land of the nation to whomsoever they saw proper, and exempt it from all taxation for a term of years. In the exercise of this right they had given to individuals and corporations more land than there is in Great Britain; more land, in fact, than any king of England ever claimed to own. This land was given for the purpose of enabling these favored corporations to build railroads for themselves (not for the people); the people had no interest in the roads, and could only use them on such terms as the railroad companies might dictate.
Railroad companies could not build railroads with land; it took money to build them; but the English bondholders had $50,000,000 or $60,000,000 coming in every six months for interest on their United States bonds, and they were willing to lend it to the railroad companies and take railroad bonds, secured by mortgage upon the railroad and their lands. Now, as there were a great many railroad companies that wanted to borrow money, they began to offer extra inducements to secure loans; they offered their bonds at 10, 15, and often 20 per cent discount. These railroad bonds usually drew 6, 7, and even 8 per cent interest, which was paid semi-annually. The profits made by these English capitalists were immense. Never in the world's history had such profits been made. The wildest dreams of John Law and the South Sea schemers were more than realized.
To fully understand this, let us take the actual results of one year's operations. The English capitalists, we will say, in 1867, invested $500,000,000 in the purchase of $1,000,000,000 of our depreciated currency. They took it to the United States Treasurer and exchanged it for United States bonds drawing 6 per cent interest in coin. At the end of six months they drew $30,000,000 in gold coin, and took it to the gold-room and sold it for $45,000,000 in greenbacks. Then they exchanged their greenbacks for railroad bonds at 20 per cent discount. They would thus receive about $54,000,000 of railroad bonds drawing 7 per cent interest. At the end of the next six months they would draw another $30,000,000 in coin and sell it for $45,000,000 in greenbacks, and exchange them for another $54,000,000 in railroad bonds. They would also draw 7 per cent interest on the first $54,000,000 of railroad bonds, which, for six months, would be $1,840,000. The account of the first year would stand as follows: $500,000,000 in gold brought $1,000,000,000 of depreciated currency, and was exchanged for $1,000,000,000 of United States bonds; one year's interest on $1,000,000,000 amounted to $60,000,000. This was sold in the gold-room for $90,000,000 in greenbacks. Then the greenbacks were exchanged for railroad bonds at 20 per cent discount on the bonds. In this way at the end of the first year, for their investment of $500,000,000, they found themselves in possession of $1,000,000,000 of United States bonds, and $108,000,000 of railroad bonds, and $1,840,000 in cash for the first six months' interest on the first $54,000,000 of railroad bonds. Nor was this all the profit of the English capitalists, for in 1869 they secured the passage of a law by Congress pledging the Government to pay not only the interest but the principal of the United States bonds in coin. This rapidly increased the value of the bonds, and in a few years theywere eagerly sought for by English capitalists, and they rose to a premium of 25 per cent in gold on their full face value.
Within five years after the passage of the law of 1866, the bonded debt of the United States reached the sum of over $1,800,000,000. The interest was paid in coin, and was sold in the gold-room in Wall Street at a premium until 1878, and the profits realized upon the sale of this gold were simply enormous. These profits were promptly invested in railroad bonds at a discount of from 5 to 25 per cent.
In 1866 the bonded indebtedness of the railroads had got up to $2,165,000,000, and was in the hands principally of English capitalists, who had paid for them with the profits they had made on the United States bonds they had bought at a discount of from 40 to 60 per cent.
Not only the British capitalists made enormous profits, but our railroad corporations and speculators made still greater profits. For every dollar of the bonds they sold to the English capitalists they issued a dollar or more of the railroad stocks, so that in 1876 the amount of railroad stock reached the sum of $2,248,000,000.
From 1876 to 1890 the English and European capitalists continued to invest the interest they drew upon their Government and railroad bonds in the new issues of railroad bonds, so that, in 1890, they had secured the enormous sum of $4,828,000,000 of railroad bonds, and it took $219,877,000 to pay the interest annually. During the same time the railroads had increased the amount of railroad stock to $4,495,000,000 and it took $80,000,000 to pay the dividends.
The railroad people not only made vast fortunes out of the $4,495,000,000 of watered stock (for it was in reality nothing but water, for the actual cost of building the roads was no more than was received from the sale of theirbonds to the English capitalists), but they made hundreds of millions of dollars from the sale of the lands that had been given to them by the Government, and had not cost them one cent, not even for taxes. They ran their roads through their lands for thousands of miles, and wherever they thought proper they would lay out towns and cities and sell the lots at fabulous prices.
They also induced towns, counties, and cities to issue millions of dollars of bonds and give to the companies, as a bonus, to run their roads through such towns and cities.
When we look at these facts, that are matters of history and can not be gainsaid, is it not plain to every man of common sense, that the policy of the Government for the last quarter of a century has been in the interest of capitalists and speculators, and against the interest of the producing classes, who, either directly or indirectly, must pay the interest annually on this vast accumulation of wealth that is in the hands of the favored few?
And to pay this vast amount of interest in gold, as these capitalists insist upon, and are trying to compel the people to do by using every means in their power to prevent the free and unlimited coinage of silver, will, in the near future, reduce the producing classes to the condition of serfs.
The "Bonanza" State, young as she is to-day, has more towns and cities than such old and well developed States as Wisconsin, Illinois, or Minnesota had at a period in their history at which they might easily have expected to be far better developed, as regards population, than Montana could reasonably expect.
A half-century marks the time when the great Chicago of to-day was Fort Dearborn, planted, as it were, on a boundless prairie to watch a few blanketed Indians and traders at the mouth of the Chicago River. This was the nucleus of the great city—the second in rank of the many wonderful cities of the United States. Fifty years ago the pioneers of the Badger and Prairie States were doing what the old-timers and pioneers of Montana are doing to-day, building towns and founding cities. In the Eastern pioneer States where a few straggling hamlets were first fashioned by the efforts of the early emigrants, there are thousands of towns and cities, where the unpretentious log cabins and town sites were no more inviting than those of the early settlers of Montana.
Dating the first settlement of our State at twenty eight years ago, it may be said, without contradiction, that no Eastern State from its foundation to the twenty-eighth year of its age was half so marked or half so prosperous as Montana, with her hundred towns and cities at no greater age. If the State of Illinois has produced a Chicago at fifty years of growth, and Wisconsin a Milwaukeeat a less number of years, and Minnesota the dual cities of St. Paul and Minneapolis in a much shorter time, what may not be expected of Montana, whose boundaries embrace probably the richest country in the world, and whose area equals that of the New England States and New York combined?
We see with open eyes what a half-century of American genius and Western enterprise has wrought; may we not see by a prophetic vision a grander half-century's work as the future of Montana? As certain as history repeats itself, the prospector's wickie-up will become the mining camp, the corral of the round-ups will furnish the location for rustic villages, the villages will become towns, and scores of towns will become cities, each one of which must be larger than the other, and one of which must be the great metropolis of the Northwest.
Following is a list of the towns and cities of the State, arranged in counties, together with the assessed valuation of those counties:
Beaverhead County.—Assessed valuation for 1890, $3,175,949. County seat, Dillon; Bannack, Glendale, Redrock, Spring Hill, Barratts.
Cascade County.—Assessed valuation, $12,383,864. County seat, Great Falls; Sun River, Cascade, Sand Coulee.
Choteau County.—Assessed valuation, $5,364,264. County seat, Fort Benton; Chinook, Choteau, Harlem, Shonkin.
Custer County.—Assessed valuation, $6,350,915. County seat, Miles City; Rosebud, Forsyth.
Dawson County.—Assessed valuation, $3,025,332. County seat, Glendive; Glasgow.
Deer Lodge County.—Assessed valuation, $7,359,589. County seat, Deer Lodge; Anaconda, Beartown, Blackfoot, Drummond, Phillipsburg, Elliston, Granite, Helmville, New Chicago, Pioneer, Warm Springs, Stuart.
Fergus County.—Assessed valuation, $4,186,555. County seat, Lewiston; Cottonwood, Utica, Maiden, Neihart.
Gallatin County.—Assessed valuation, $6,170,381. County seat, Bozeman; Three Forks, Gallatin, Galesville, Madison.
Jefferson County.—Assessed valuation, $4,917,382. County seat, Boulder; Jefferson City, Radersburg, Basin, Placer, Elkhorn, Whitehall, Alhambra, Clancy.
Lewis and Clarke County.—Assessed valuation, $31,081,030. County seat, Helena; Marysville, Unionville, Rimini, Cartersville, Augusta, Dearborn, Harlow.
Madison County.—Assessed valuation, $2,948,046. County seat, Virginia City; Fullers Springs, Sheridan, Twin Bridges, Laurin, Silver Star, Pony, Red Bluff, Meadow Creek.
Meagher County.—Assessed valuation, $5,239,882. County seat, White Sulphur Springs; Neihart, Castle, Martinsdale, Townsend, Clendennin, York.
Missoula County.—Assessed valuation $8,815,854. County seat, Missoula; Demersville, Kalispel, Stevensville, Columbia Falls, Ashley, Grantsdale, Corvallis, Horse Plains, Thompson Falls, Camas Prairie.
Park County.—Assessed valuation, $4,936,451. County seat, Livingston; Red Lodge, Cook City, Cokedale, Big Timber, Melville.
Silver Bow County.—Assessed valuation, $32,426,794. County seat, Butte City; Melrose, Silver Bow, Divide.
Yellowstone County.—Assessed valuation, $3,823,140. County seat, Billings; Park City, Stillwater.
Wealth of Montana.—Nothing speaks louder for the future of Montana than the figures that tell of her wealth and of the rapid increases which the last few years, as they rolled along one by one, have shown.
The increase during the last year has been no exception to this rule.
From a total assessable valuation of $116,767,204 in 1890, her wealth has increased to a total of $142,205,428 for 1891, a gain of over twenty-five millions. The valuation of the State, given by counties, is as follows:
CountyofBeaverhead$ 3,175,949""Cascade12,383,864""Choteau5,364,264""Custer6,350,915""Dawson3,025,332""Deer Lodge7,359,589""Fergus4,186,555""Gallatin6,170,381""Jefferson4,917,382""Lewis and Clarke31,081,030""Madison2,948,046""Meagher5,239,882""Missoula8,815,854""Park4,936,451""Silver Bow32,426,794""Yellowstone3,823,140——————Total$142,205,428
But even this vast sum does not tell the whole story, for Montana's additional real wealth is not included in the assessable property of the State, as the vast millions of the intrinsic value of the silver, gold, copper, coal, and lead mines, and their precious output, are not assessable for taxation—only the improvements. So if the value of all of Montana's mines were put in the calculation of her wealth, what a vast amount of money-value would be placed to her credit. Of the hundreds of her gold and silver mines, two are valued at $25,000,000 each.
The above assessment value of $142,205,428 is made up of real estate, acre property, town lots, railroad rolling stock, road-bed and improvements, and personal property.
Montana's present ratio of population is not quite one person to the square mile, so with an assessment of over $142,000,000 with a population (according to the census of 1892) at 140,000, what will be the value of the State when its population shall have increased to ten persons to the square mile? The calculation is easily made—so within the next decade Montana's population may reach 1,440,000, and if the assessed value then is equal to the present wealth per capita of her citizens, the assessed value will reach the prodigious volume of $1,203,000,000—a calculation not unreasonable, since Montana's population in the last ten years increased 235 per cent.
Not only is California the land of gold, the garden of fruit, and the home of the vine, but its rich soil is the footing for the greatest trees in the world. The redwoods of California are known all over the earth, and their fame is deserved, for they are the loftiest, the grandest trees that ever raised their crests to heaven, swayed in the breeze, and defied the storm. Though usually spoken of as the redwoods, these big trees are of two varieties. The redwood proper is theSequoia sempervirensof the botanist, and the sister tree is the great WashingtonSequoia, WellingtonSequoia, orSequoia gigantea, being known by all three names, the last being the most correct. Another forest giant of a different nature to either, and yet commanding attention, on account of its giant size and age, is thePinus lambertiana, the great sugar-pine of California. These three are the greatest trees on earth.
To single out the largest individual tree, it is probable that theSequoia sempervirenswould have to be awarded the palm; while to the greatest number of very large trees, the palm would have to be awarded to theSequoia gigantea. Redwood trees (Sequoia sempervirens) are found only on the Coast Range, andSequoia giganteasonly in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. There are no redwoods south of Monterey County or north of Trinity County. The trees are different in foliage, and in their cones theSequoia giganteahas a larger, more compact, firm cone than theSequoia sempervirens, the cone of which is small and split open, thoughthe similarity in form of the cones is noticeable. It is not generally known that "sequoia" is the name of thegenus, just like oak, cypress, maple, and hence that thegiganteaandsempervirensare species of the samegenus. The namesequoiacomes fromSequoyah, a Cherokee Indian chief of mixed blood, whose wisdom raised him as much above his fellows as the redwoods tower above other trees.
As to the age of the trees, it is conceded by botanists that the concentric rings interpret their annual growth. Objection has been taken to this on the ground that the distance between the rings varies very much in different trees of the same species. This fact has, however, no weight. The closer the rings the thriftier the tree, and their distance apart has no more to do with their age than a man's height or weight have to do with his age. Differences in soil and location account for the closeness of the rings, but, unquestionably, every added ring represents an added year of growth. In some cases there are but six or eight rings to the inch, in others thirty to forty. The ages of the big trees in the Calaveras and Mariposa groves range from 1,000 to 4,320 years of age. One can scarcely conceive what this means; and the historic incidents of the days when these trees were already old may help to convey an idea of their age. When Carthage was founded some of these trees were centuries old; before Solomon built his temple, or David founded Judea, some of these forest giants fell crashing to earth, and have lain prone there ever since. All through the ages of Christianity the changing winds have shaken their tapering tops, and have swayed their crests in the gentle zephyrs, or rocked them to and fro in the gale, and now man, the pigmy, with his piece of jagged steel, his span of life three score years and ten, comes along, cuts through the forest giant, and the growthof thousands of years, that has defied storm and tempest, falls a victim to the pigmy.
The largest stump extant is in Mill Valley, Marin County, half an hour's ride north of San Francisco. This remnant of a great tree belongs to the redwood family; is, in fact, a genuineSequoia sempervirens. How high it may have been it is impossible to say. Its circumference now is 135 feet, and measures across, on an average, 43 feet 6 inches. The saplings which stand round the ruin measure from 3 to 10 feet in diameter. The largest standing tree is the "Mother of the Forest," in the Calaveras grove. It now measures, without the bark, at the base 84 feet, and the full circumference, with the bark, which was stripped off in 1854 for exhibition purposes, was 90 feet. Its height is 321 feet, and the tree is estimated to contain 537,000 feet of inch lumber, allowing for saw cuts. Close to it, prone upon mother earth, lies the "Father of the Forest." When standing, it is accredited with having been 400 feet high, with a circumference at the base of 110 feet, and he unquestionably was once king of the grove. "The living and representative trees of the Calaveras groves," says J. M. Hutchings, in "The Heart of the Sierras," "consist of ten that are each 30 feet in diameter, and over seventy that measure from 15 to 30 feet at the ground." About six miles to the southeast of the Calaveras grove (in Calaveras County, Cal.) is the South grove. It contains 1,380Sequoias, ranging from 1 foot to 34 feet in diameter.
In the Mariposa grove, in Mariposa County, Cal., there are many large trees, among them the "Grizzly Giant," measuring 91 feet at the ground, and 74 feet 6 inches three feet six inches above the ground, and is 275 feet high. Many very large trees and many interesting facts might be mentioned relative to them.
TheSequoia giganteain the Sierras, in addition to the differences in cone and flower from theSequoia sempervirens, has this one that, while the former grows only from seeds, the latter grows from both seeds and suckers, though mainly from the latter. TheSequoiasof the Sierras rise to a height of 275 or even 350 feet, and are from 20 to 30, or even in rare cases 40 feet in diameter.
For centuries the rose—the queen of flowers—has been a never ceasing inspiration to poets and writers. Every bard has sung his lay to the majesty of this peerless flower.
Every ancient country has its rose traditions. Fashions do not assail the rose, only in specialty and variety.
The unanimity characterizing its nomenclature is but another feature in the unvarying and universal popularity of the rose.
All research fails to reveal the white rose as known to the ancients; the Greek word "rodon," ruddy, being used synonymously by all countries.
It was the flower dedicated to love—to Cupid and Venus. Cupid bestowed it as an emblem upon Harpocrates, the god of silence, to bind him not to betray the evil of his mother, Venus. In consequence the rose became symbolical of silence, and was gracefully distributed on the guest-table as a delicate reminder that all confidences should be respected. Comus, deity of the table, Hebe and Ganymede, nectar-bearers to the gods, were crowned with roses. The rose is typical of youth as well as beauty.
During the greatest opulency of the ancient empires its purity was often sullied by effeminacy and sensuality.
Who has not heard of the roses of the valley of Cashmere? Who has not longed to behold their exquisite perfection? Who, in contemplating the forms and colors, the lights and shadows of Flora's choicest blooms, has not found language failing in fineness to express the delicateeloquence of the rose? Who, in cultivating it, has not felt solicitude and affection for these creatures of the garden? Who has not had his anger excited in beholding a bud ruthlessly torn by sacrilegious hands and has not looked upon the broken stem as he would upon a bleeding artery? Who, in cultivating roses, has not spiritually felt the better for it? The subtlety of its fragrance, the grace of its form, the perfect harmony of its tones appeal to the imagination like music to the soul. In the whole range of nature's variety and completeness nothing so satisfies the idea of perfection as the rose. 'Tis grace idealized and the quintessence of beauty in its flowing lines and curves.
The relative position of the rose to its stem suggests majesty; its color in contrast to its leaves, completeness; the unfolding of its petals, grace; its tintings fulfill that esthetic delight, harmony; its fragrance, the sublimated breath of a fairer existence. In all candor, does it not more than satisfy the degree superlative?
Nature has richly endowed the earth with roses. Every country can offer its wild-rose tributes on Flora's shrine, with but one single exception, and that Australia. There are over eighty varieties of the wild rose known, the greater number being indigenous to Asia.
With experimenting and cultivating, varieties of roses have multiplied by hundreds; and rose culture, like everything else in this nineteenth century, has become a science.
Roses are like children, requiring warmth and affection. In a mild climate, where the seasons do not vary greatly in regard to temperature, the rose outvies tradition itself, and unfolds and matures with a regularity quite astonishing.
California climate is nature's elected home for roses. In almost any portion of the State removed from the immediate harsh influences of the coast, roses revel, fromthe tiniest boutonniere rose, with its pert little face, to that great lusty fellow, big as a large saucer and as hardy as a cabbage.
To the old residents, no rose in California appeals more to the poetical sense than the old Castilian, one of the oldest varieties in the State, and one now greatly despised by its more fortunate and voluptuous sisters. The fragrance of this rose is incomparable, its color an intense glowing old pink, its foliage painfully disappointing. Having such a vigorous and healthy trunk and lusty system of roots, the Castilian is employed largely to graft other stock upon.
An ideal climate should produce nothing but ideal forms. This natural and just hypothesis is amply proven in presenting the full array of California roses as evidence. What better class of evidence could be desired?
There are several general groups into which California roses are usually divided: Tea roses, Bourbon roses, hybrid perpetual roses, China or Bengal roses, moss and climbing roses.
Of these classes, but several can be mentioned. Roses, as a theme, are practically inexhaustible, and the few kinds that appeal most strongly to the writer's sympathies will receive a passing word.
A rose-covered cottage, the material expression of peace, lowliness, beauty, and picturesqueness; a picture that most of us mirror in our minds in youth as connected with great and simple happiness. Many of the old Spanish houses of California are overrun with climbing roses. These old houses, simple in style of architecture, broad and square in appearance, are inviting abodes for the clinging loveliness of California's climbers.
Some fine April morning take a little trip to San Rafael, one of San Francisco's suburban villages. In this hill-girthtown blooms the fairest rose of all the climbers. Some call it the "San Rafael Rose," others the "Beauty of Blazenwood."
The trunk rises bare and sturdily from the ground; as it approaches the top of a porch it spreads and bursts forth into a cloud of tawny yellow loveliness. Each rose presses hard upon its neighbor until special fancy is lost in the bewildering mass of bloom.
In this rose, the palest cream tint to the richest glowing apricot tones are observable. Frequently here a dash of color almost vermilion is discovered; there a long slender-necked bud thrusts forth its head, as in derision to its closely-packed companions.
These roses are not very double, and a mass of their bloom presents features of ragged, wild grace; the vivid colors enthrall, hasty steps are slackened to gaze at this golden corona of smiling April.
The brilliant William Allen Richardson, the mellow-toned and sweet-breathed Salina Forrester, the lusty-growing and superb bearing Reve d'Or, the daintily flowering and enameled-leaved single white Cherokee, the prolific blooming and tiny-flowered Lady Banksia, and California's old stand-by, the Lamarque, a profusely bearing, many petaled white rose, perfect in all stages of development, and very handsome foliage.
In many of the old towns of California may be seen rose trees of really enormous size.
The writer saw a Duchesse de Brabant rose tree in Colusa County at least nine feet high and thirty feet or more in circumference. It was covered with hundreds of silvery pink roses; the trunk looked scraggy, and was probably twelve inches in circumference. Such a case is rare, however.
The Loretta is a rose of exquisite texture, of a creamytone, and petals as clear-cut and dainty as a cameo. Too much praise can not be showered upon this long-stemmed vigorous grower. Such a galaxy of beautiful roses, each clamoring for recognition, that the only way to render justice is to stop right short and write nothing more.
The La France roses, Perle de Gardin, Marie Van Houtte, Archduc, Charles Catharine Mermet, Homer, Papa Gontier, Jacqueminot, and hundreds of others that nothing short of a book can satisfy their vanity and express their many graces.
The western coast of Europe and the western coast of America have about the same annual mean temperature—50° Fahrenheit, with a limit of 51° 30" of north latitude.
The Pacific Coast has greatly the advantage over western Europe, in that the extremes of heat and cold are nearer together, a characteristic that is attributable to two paramount causes: Firstly, the Japanese current emanating from the Indian Ocean. The main body of this heated water sweeps toward the west coast of America, turns easterly and southerly, helping to produce a delightful insular climate along the coast of Oregon and California. Secondly, the mountain barriers upon the east and north; the sheltering influences of the Sierra Nevadas and Cascade mountains as they reach the coast of Alaska encircling its southern and western coasts, thus cutting off the polar winds that would otherwise flow over Oregon and California.
The State possesses three distinct climates, that of the coast, valleys, and mountains, similar in the matter of seasons, but otherwise totally dissimilar.
Degrees of latitude have no bearing upon fruit culture in California, for it is an ascertained fact that fruits ripen earlier in the north than in the south of the State.
Horticulture and geographical situations have nothingin common. In other regions one is quite dependent upon the other, but in California horticulture laughs at geographical boundaries.
These surprising conditions depend wholly upon topography, and consist not in parallels of latitude, but by topographical curves varying in direction and governed by deposit and natural formation, altitude, rainfall, and temperature.
What is known as the Citrus Belt of California is a great valley lying between the Coast Range on the west and the Sierra Nevadas on the east, and runs in a direction northwest to southeast, and extends from Red Bluff on the north to the Tejon Mountains on the south. The total area is about 17,200 square miles. This great valley contains about one-half of all the fruit trees and a third of all the vines in the State. Within the limits of this belt to the northernmost boundaries, in favored spots the orange flourishes side by side with the apple.
Immense tracts of this great valley are used for agricultural and pasturage purposes, and, as yet, orchards occupy but an insignificant area of this immense valley.
Several characteristics of the California climate and soil conjoin not only to produce glorious flowers, both wild and cultivated, but the greatest possible variety of fruits and berries. The abundant heat, almost perennial sunshine, and dry atmosphere, together with the fine adaptability of the soil and the great length of the growing season, join forces to produce fruits of superior size and excellence. The trees are amazingly prolific bearers, and also produce mammoth fruit.
All conscientious horticulturists resort to the "thinning out" process in order to preserve the quality and size of what they allow to remain on the trees.
The fruit industry in California, in spite of the immensecrops matured every year, is but in its infancy. Millions of trees and vines are not yet in bearing, or only yielding third, fourth, and fifth year crops.
Since the formation of the Fruit Growers' Union in 1881, when the first law was enacted to protect California horticulturists, there has been steady progress and practical expenditure of brains and money to further the interests, in every way possible, of the fruit growers of California.
Horticulture has been reduced to a science by disseminating knowledge and a hearty coöperation of fruit growers to extend the interests of the State in every way possible.
The history of horticulture in the State of California almost up to the present time has been one of experimenting, ascertaining the adaptability of the soil to certain kinds of fruits, and testing what European and Eastern trees do well in this climate, for many varieties make utter failures, while others are improved beyond recognition.
Californians have had to learn also that a horticultural precedent has been established here, independent of what obtains in other countries. Although ideas and methods have been gleaned from abroad, application to local and special needs have metamorphosed them to a great extent. Hap-hazard planting in California is humbug unless wedded to Yankee shrewdness.
Know your soil and its elements, the atmosphere, heat, and moisture and exposure; then ascertain what fruits do well under those limitations.
Clear your land, plow and sow a crop of something to mellow up the soil, the next year plant your young trees. Climate will be your fellow-worker and steadfast friend. Nine-twelfths of the year a man can sit down and watch nature work. The man who complains of climate in California should be banished from this paradise, for eventhe golden fruit of Hesperides would be but clay to one whose birthright is discontent.
What will constitute California's future glory will be the division of the lands into small holdings of from twenty acres up to about two hundred acres; where owners give their personal supervision; where the excellence of the fruits should be the consideration, over and above the profits; where men who resort to practices in the business that cheapen the standard of fruits should be forced out of the market; where every man works for the good of the whole; where the pride of the horticulturist, and not the greed of the speculator, obtains, and where the specialist and student flourish. If these conditions will not make California the greatest fruit-producing country on earth, then human ingenuity is at fault, and not climate.
Many a tourist in coming to San Francisco, and it might be said it is the exception when it is not so, has wondered if California fruits can make no better showing than the sour, half-ripened fruit he partakes of; last, but not least, the prices he pays for this fruit are so incredulously high that he wonders if it can be possible he can be eating imported fruit, and not the production of the California soil. Then he compares his experience here with that abroad; at the forts along the Mediterranean for a cent or two he can entirely satisfy a robust appetite with luscious fruit.
California fruit growers are so busy at present over their export trade that home consumption is relegated to the leavings, under the same principle a cobbler's children have no shoes.
Great things are expected of the olive industry of this State. Although the last returns showed but little over eleven thousand gallons of oil from the last crop, there are thousands upon thousands of young trees not yet in bearing. The oil produced is of a superior quality, and leadsthe sanguine to believe that the olive crown will yet rest upon our brows.
Fruit curing is, and will continue to be, one of the first industries of the State. The figures for the season just passed will aggregate 48,700,000 pounds of dried fruit, nearly four-fifths of which will represent French prunes; this is but a mere bagatelle to what the crop will be several years hence.
The prune industry is centered in Santa Clara County; the biggest prune orchard in the State is now in the Salinas Valley, San Luis Obispo County. In this orchard there are 300 acres of prune trees planted in a body, representing 324,000 trees. Prune trees make such quick returns, four-year-old trees bear heavily.
All temperate zone and semi-tropical fruits are raised with equal facility. Berries do superbly; strawberries, however, are too often forced.
Fruits in California, where irrigation methods are too much employed, depreciate in quality; the fine flavor is sacrificed for the early ripening—a too frequent method of producers, that should be cried down. Flavor is what makes fine fruit. Size and beauty do much in their way, but flavor is the nectar of the gods. Size and beauty constitute the shell, flavor is the subtle spirit that animates it.
In many localities the orchards are merely cultivated, that is, plowed and harrowed three or four times a year, but never irrigated artificially. In portions of the State where midsummer irrigation is required, and where the country presents a level surface, as in Yolo County, whole orchards are flooded with an abundant supply of water.
The raisin of late years has received a greater impetus than any other fruit in the State. The ease with which raisin vines are propagated, the early profits, immense crops, and excellent prices induce hundreds to engage in the industry.About a thousand acres are set to raisin vines. Fresno County is the center of this industry. Over 50,000,000 pounds were produced this year, and one-third only of the vines are in bearing.
The orange crop was enormous; lemons, figs, apricots, nuts, pears, peaches, and cherries each and all have made excellent records for themselves.
The shipping record for the year 1890 was 16,191 car-loads, which would make a continuous train of cars 123 miles long.
The report of the State Board of Horticulture says: "It is a significant fact that while our wheat output has not materially increased from 1880 to 1890, our fruit output has increased more than thirty times, and is growing with great rapidity. While the showing here made still keeps California in the front rank of wheat-growing States, being third in the rank, it demonstrates the great advantages of the State as a fruit-producing country.
"In 1880 our exports of fruit brought us probably about $700,000, while they now amount to about $20,000,000. This wonderful result has brought with it what is above all computation, to wit: the demonstration that fruit-growing in this State is very profitable, and is almost absolutely safe from frosts and other drawbacks, and has practically no limit."
It is a mistake to believe that, because Colorado has a high elevation, the mercury in the thermometer drops down below zero in the winter season and stops there, and that the snow mounts up with the altitude. The fact is that the average precipitation of moisture at Denver during the entire year is only 14.77 inches. With such a slight precipitation there is practically no danger of snow blockades on the railroads, save at a few points exposed to drifts, and these points have been amply protected. This is especially true of the through line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Denver to Salt Lake City and Ogden.
Facts speak louder than words, and the fact is that travel over "the Scenic Line of the World" has gone on with less interruption from snow during the last five winters than it has on the plains lines, which are popularly supposed to be more free from such delays than the mountain systems.
A winter's residence in Colorado will banish forever the false impression that this is a boreal region, given over to inclemency and snow-drifts. There is more sunshine in Colorado than in Florida; there is less snow than in any State east of the Missouri River. A single trip over the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad from Denver to Ogden, in midwinter, will disabuse the mind of the tourist or transcontinental traveler of the erroneous notion that mountain railroads suffer from delays by snow to any greater extent than do the trains upon the less attractive, and by far more bleak, plains.
The glories and pleasures of a summer trip by rail through the Rocky Mountains have been laudedad infinitum, and, indeed, too much can not be said in this direction; but winter adds new grandeur to the scene, lends a new charm to the massive bulwarks of the gigantic ranges, and introduces a new element of variety and beauty to these unsurpassed and unsurpassable wonders of nature. These sights can be enjoyed, these wonders witnessed, with no dangers of delay and no anticipation of vexatious detentions. There are those, however, who, knowing that the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad climbs great passes over the mountains, are apprehensive of snow blockades at these points. Here facts come to the rescue. The trains are not delayed, for the exposed places of this character have been amply protected, and the experiences of years prove that delay of trains from snow is a rarer event on this mountain-climbing system than on the level, and in fact more exposed, lines of the East.
For the benefit of those who are unacquainted with the peculiarity of the mountain-base climate, it may be well to mention some of its characteristics. In summer the days are seldom hot, and it is rare to see the thermometer reach 90° at Manitou. The farther one moves eastward from the foot-hills, the greater are to be found the extremes of temperature. Omaha, although much lower in elevation, experiences far greater extremes of heat and cold.
In the dry air of the Colorado plateau the feeling of heat and cold is much less marked. One is not oppressed at all by a temperature of 90°, nor does almost any amount of cold produce the chilliness in the open air, which is really the distressing and objectionable feature of a low temperature. The nights in summer are always cool and refreshing.
It must not be supposed that the climate of Colorado is an equable one, or that there is a distinct dry and rainyseason, as in California and on the Pacific Coast. The contrary is true. The diurnal range of temperature, as in all high countries, is great; and there are rains throughout the warm parts of the year and snows in winter, but both are moderate in quantity.
A glance at the reports compiled by the United States Signal Service shows the remarkable fact that 340 out of 365 were "sunny days" in Colorado.
It is not necessary to add an elaborate argument. The conclusion is self-evident and inevitable. The winter climate of Colorado, on the whole, presents advantages for the invalid and the pleasure-seeker that can not fail to command attention. The Denver & Rio Grande is not alone a summer road. Its trains run on schedule time all the year round, and give to the travelling public all the comforts, conveniences, elegancies, and luxuries to be found on any line, with the added attraction of scenery the grandest in the world.
Climate and health go together so closely associated that they have become almost synonymous terms. So beneficial have been found the climatic influences of Colorado that her fame as a sanitarium has become world-wide, and this reputation has been so well-founded in recent years that thousands of people from all parts of America and Europe—from many parts of the world, in fact—are now coming annually to Colorado for recuperation or permanent residence. The dryness and lightness of the air, and its invigorating character, together with the almost constant prevalence of sunshine, impart new energy to the well and a fresh lease of life to those whose constitutions are impaired. All the conditions of life to the newcomer in Colorado are fresh and inspiring, and even wasted and shattered constitutions are restored to vigor. This is illustrated daily by the experiences of thousands who have sought the benigninfluences of Colorado climate with scarcely a hope, in the beginning, of recovery. These climatic influences are especially beneficial to persons suffering from all kinds of lung diseases, except to those in the last stage of consumption. That the climate itself is a preventative of consumption is evidenced in the fact that phthisis does not originate here. The places of peculiar advantage in seeking health are the towns and cities on the plains, and parks and pleasure resorts on the mountains. The plains in some instances are the most beneficial for a permanent residence, while in other cases the mountains are preferable. There are not exceeding an average of sixty-five cloudy days per year in Colorado, while there are scarcely twenty days that the sun is all the day invisible at any given point. Summer weather usually continues till October, and the autumn till January. Usually the winters are mild, followed by an early spring. In summer the temperature rarely reaches 90° and is normal at 70°. Colorado climate is beneficial not to consumptives alone, but persons of kidney and liver and kindred diseases are benefited both by climate and the mineral waters which everywhere abound in the State, and are especially numerous and available on the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad lines.
The supply of coal in Colorado is inexhaustible, the lignite or brown coal area extending from St. Vrains on the north to the Raton Mountains on the south, about 220 miles in length and varying from twenty to twenty-five miles in breadth, along the eastern base of the mountains. Large portions of this field have been swept away by floods resulting from melting glaciers. The principal developments of this vast field have been made in the vicinity of Trinidad and Walsenburg, Cañon City, Coal Creek, Colorado Springs, Golden, Loveland, Erie, and Boulder. Lignite also exists in North Park and at various points onthe divide between North and Middle parks. Jet, or the black variety of coal, occurs in seams from one-half to six inches in width in the shale about Cañon City and Little Fountain Creek. The most important mines of bituminous coal are the Trinidad group and the mines at Crested Butte. Anthracite coal appears to be confined mainly to the coal basins in the Elk Mountain. Native coke is found near Crested Butte, where a dyke of lava has intruded the coal strata. Official geological surveys give a coal-bearing strata of 40,000 square miles, or one-third of the entire area of the State. In 1873, when coal-mining began to take shape as an industry, the output was 69,977 tons; to-day the output is 2,373,954 tons, which comparison gives the reader some idea of the rapidity of its growth.
It has been said, with a great deal of truth, that all of Colorado is a health resort. With its gorgeous peaks and lovely valleys, its beautiful cities on the plains, its forests and its streams, its broad green parks and charming crystal lakes amid the mountains, with its sunshine and pure air, it is certainly a land for man's health and pleasure. The most desirable resorts in the world are upon the lines of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. Only eighty miles from Denver, or five miles from Colorado Springs, and nestling at the foot of Pike's Peak, is situated Manitou, that delightful resort for health and pleasure seekers, as popular to-day as Newport or Saratoga, attracting tourists from all parts of the United States and Europe. It has wonderful effervescent and medicinal springs, and is surrounded by more objects of attraction than any other spot in the world, including the Garden of the Gods, Glen Eyrie, Red Rock Cañon, Crystal Park, Engleman's Cañon, Williams Cañon, Manitou Grand Caverns, Cave of the Winds, Ute Pass, Rainbow Falls, and Bear Creek Cañon, all places of great attraction to the visitor. Palmer Lakeis a local pleasure resort. Poncha Springs, five miles from Salida, are the noted hot springs—altitude, 7,480 feet—a great health resort. Wagon Wheel Gap, in the picturesque San Luis Valley; hot springs of great curative qualities. It is a favorite health and pleasure resort; the best place in the West for trout fishing. Glenwood Springs is a fine town and a watering place and health resort, having extensive hot springs of great curative properties. Formerly the Mecca of the Indians. Elevation 5,200 feet. Twin Lakes, a beautiful body of crystal water, a pleasure resort and place of entertainment; fine boating and fishing; near Leadville, and reached by the Denver & Rio Grande. Trimble Hot Springs, nine miles from Durango; hot springs noted for remedial qualities. Ouray, hot and cold mineral springs; summer resort. The Great Salt Lake, the famous hot springs of Albuquerque, and numerous other attractions are reached by the Denver & Rio Grande.
The number of irrigable acres in Colorado is placed at 35,000,000 in round numbers, an area fully one-seventh larger than the State of New York. Ten years ago there were but 600 miles of irrigating ditches; now, including canals and laterals, there are 34,000 miles, and $9,500,000 have been expended in their construction. With these figures one can not but be impressed with the possibilities of the future, and believe with the most enthusiastic in the ultimate reclamation of the so-called arid land. It has been by the aid of irrigation that agriculture has been made to vie with mining as the chief industry of the State, and in the future, through its agency, the waters of the mountains will be more generally distributed by reservoir systems. The first of these reservoirs is now being constructed on the line of the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad, between Castle Rock and Palmer Lake. It will irrigate a large portion of the divide country. Of so vast an extentis this reservoir that the projectors contemplate the erection of a hotel and the various appurtenances of a mountain resort. When the Government puts into execution its vast plan of irrigation the seed so modestly planted ten years ago will have its fruition. The number of square miles and the acreage under irrigation are found in the following table: