The Riverside Country
By BISHOP M. WRIGHT
Riverside is one of the most noted places in
southern California. Recently we organized a good society of United Brethren there. Having
spent some weeks at that place, I will try to present to our readers some of its
attractions.
Riverside is a small town, but quite a large city. This
paradox is explained by stating, that though the town is laid out only a mile square, its
corporation embraces fifty-three square miles. So, in territorial extent, it ranks with
New York city. Six thousand acres—about one-fifth of its corporate limits—are
now, under cultivation. About as much more is, or soon will be, accessible to irrigation,
and thus open to fruit-culture, though heretofore productive only of precarious crops of
barley
The Riverside country is the finest orange region in the
state, and, possibly, in the United States. Its dry hot climate, its soil of decomposed
granite, and its facilities for irrigation, make it emphatically the land of oranges. But
though this is its most profitable crop, yet lemons, olives, apricots; raisin grapes, and
some other fruits and nuts, are also remunerative. It is a good country for peaches,
pears, plums, figs, nectarines, limes, small fruits, English walnuts, and almonds.
An orange tree with its symmetrical forms and dark
evergreen foliage, loaded with bright, ripe fruit in midwinter, is surpassing in its
beauty. An olive tree, with its silvery foliage and dark fruit, is little behind the
orange. The lemon and the lime, with their pale-green leaves and yellow fruit, are also
beautiful. And, among the most beautiful shade trees, are the cypress, eucalyptus, pepper,
Australian fern, magnolia, and palm. A species of cypress forms a hedge, which, evenly
trimmed, presents an evergreen wall apparently continuous, and unbroken, which is most
captivating to the eye. Even a mention of the different kinds of trees, shrubs, and
plants, flowering and otherwise, which ornaments the gardens, is here inadmissible. Roses,
calla lilies, geraniums, etc. bloom all the winter through.
Riverside is seven miles south of Colton and sixty miles
east of Los Angeles. It is on the east side of the Santa Anna river, on table land about
one thousand feet above sea-level. It is connected directly by a new railroad with San
Diego, Los Angeles; Colton, and The Needles; all of these important railroad points. It is
a place of considerable trade, besides its fruit-shipping; for the country contains
several thousand inhabitants, many of them wealthy, and few of them said to be
millionaires. The town is laid out by wide streets crossing each other at right angles,
into regular squares, each containing two acres and a half. In the business parts of the
town, these squares are subdivided into lots to build upon, but most of them, are entire,
and planted in orange orchards, vineyards, etc.—mostly in oranges, with buildings
among the trees. This makes the town appear somewhat like a paradise
"Dry Side" a recent addition to the town site,
just across, the railroad, to the east, is by nature still more beautiful.
Not only is the town laid out with wide streets, but the
corporate country, which is much greater and more beautiful than the town, Is laid out
with broad avenues wider apart, traversed with streets at various distances. On either
side of these avenues are small fruit farms, of from five to twenty acres, called ranches,
with buildings from twenty; to forty yards from the sidewalks, and almost invariably
having in front them gardens ornamented with choice trees, shrubs, and flowers, and this
garden, bordered with a semicircular drive-way, which allows a coach to pass right by the
front door.
Some of these avenues are in a straight line for miles. Magnolia avenue
is perfectly straight, and seven miles long. It is one hundred and fifty feet wide,
including sidewalks, on either hand, of twenty-five feet. In the middle of the street is a
row of large shade trees, principally eucalyptus and pepper. Along the sidewalks, next to
the ranches, are rows of shade trees, among which are magnolias, palms, and Australian
ferns. This is one of the finest drives in the world, and is increasing every year in its
own beauty and in the charming scenery along its way. Several other avenues are inferior
to this in their own beauty, but equal in the delightfulness of the ranches bordering on
them. Some of; the ranches have buildings quite moderate in their pretensions, some, very
fine, and others have splendid mansions, the homes of wealth—a few the abodes of
millionaires.
Twice I had the pleasure, in company with several choice
people of our church, with Bro. Suman as a guide, of driving for hours along the wide
avenues amid the rural scenes of the Riverside country. Though in January, those days were
as pleasant as May. As we pass along one of those, wide avenues, we see, to our right, a
hedge of cypress, as if an evergreen wall, and, about every twenty rods, a house, with
barn to the rear, and all nestling in a beautiful orchard, covered with bright, ripe
oranges. To the left, we see a row of cypresses, so close as to screen almost entirely a
hermit scene of beauty. Next we see a tall row of pepper trees of exquisite evergreen
foliage bordering between the street of the ranches, and beneath their branches, we see
charming trees gemmed with oranges, and cottage after cottage reposing in the lovely
scene. And pasting on we see to the-right a row of olive trees with their silver sheen,
bordering a choice ranch, and, behind these sacred trees, a mansion, a little this side of
a barn (too fine for an ordinary dwelling) and a wind-pump near, standing sentry over all
this array of wealth. But these structures of man’s handicraft, are ornamented with
greater beauty of trees and fruit on every hand; and in front of the mansion, are
exquisite palms and shrubs and plants and flowers. But passing along, we see first a
border of eucalyptus, then of Australian fer, then of palm trees, then of magnolia, and
occasionally a tasteful fence, adorning the way. Yet nothing equals the orange grove, the
lemon orchard, the olive section, the Muscatel vineyard, and the never-to-be-forgotten
evergreen and everflowering gardens. Mile after mile we drive along, with the delightful
scenes ever varying, and still with nothing to mar it beauty!
At last ambition’s curiosity prompts us to climb a
lone mount four hundred feet in height, and from its rocky summit, look for miles over
orange, lemon, olive, apricot, and pear orchards, and over vineyards, and ordered avenues
and streets, near and far away. The whole scene was that of a rural valley of beauty in
sweet repose.
In the afternoon, after a bounteous repast at the home of one of our own
church families, we make our way to the western border of the town and leaving our vehicle
below, ascent Mt. Rubidoux, about five hundred feet in height, and look down upon the town
and over the beautiful ranches bordering the town to the north and to the south. We look
beyond the town, across the gently ascending plains, to the mountains, a few miles to the
east, and see the pass opening towards the San Jacinto country. And again looking to our
right we see to the south, the valley of sleepi8ng beauty, a valley of orchards and
vineyards and dwellings, till they grow indistinct in the distance. Turning toward the
west, we see the Santa Anna river meandering at our feet and stretching its length for
miles to the southward. Beyond the river, we see the plains with background of foot-hills
and mountains, "Old Baldy," with his hoary head, peeping over the summits of
nearer mountains, to see Rubidoux keeping watch over the beautiful valley.
To our right, we see Colton, seven miles away; and
beyond, San Bernardino, ten miles away; still farther, the high mountains, and toward
them, the Arrow Head, noted for its hot springs. But the sun was about to retire behind
the western mountains, so we descended and found home and repose at the nice residence of
our old friend, the guide, in whose family we had spent pleasant days nearly twenty-five
years ago. Indeed, to his knowledge of the geography and history of the country, a large
portion of the pleasure and profits of the day, to all our company, is largely
attributable. But no pen of ours can begin to do justice to the beauty of the Riverside
country. It is one of the most beautiful rural scenes that the human eye can look upon;
and a person poetically inclined might almost fancy an Eden restored. What may it become a
quarter of a century hence!
Riverside is in San Bernardino county, a county stated
by one encyclopedia to contain about 16,000 square miles, and by some, to contain 23,000
square miles. At the least of these figures, it is nearly half as large as the state of
Indiana, and more that twice as large as Massachusetts. But far the larger part of the
county is mountain and desert. Yet some of its valleys, in the south-western part, are
very fertile and beautiful.
For the successful growth of fruit trees and fruit crops
in the Riverside country, irrigation is a necessity. This is well, because an atmosphere
which would furnish abundant rains at all seasons would be so damp as to nurture the
scale-bug, the great enemy of orange culture. Canals, drawn from Santa Anna river, furnish
facilities for irrigation, costing the fruit farmer from fifty to seventy-five dollars,
annually, to irrigate a ten-acre ranch. During most of the year, monthly irrigation is
needful, followed in due time by cultivation. The water, furnished by a ditch company, is
measured out by ditch masters, to each ranchman, for which he pays from fifty to
seventy-five dollars a year for the supply of a ten-acre ranch, according to the quantity
of water he may desire for use.
An orange farm of ten acres, with trees of six or eight years growth,
from the nursery, furnished with fair buildings, is worth twelve to fifteen thousand
dollars. A common price for an orange ranch of twenty acres, with good buildings, is
thirty-five thousand dollars. Fancy prices are sometimes paid by wealthy men for choice
ranches, where taste rather than money is the object. Two thousand dollars an acre might
be considered a fancy price. Good land, eligibly located but entirely bare, is worth from
two to four hundred dollars an acre. Unless this is cheap, there is a scarcity of cheap
good lands anywhere in the Riverside country. But capital, with patient labor and waiting,
can make fine profits, by the purchase of bare lands, and their development into fruit
farms. He can now profit by the experience which cost others something. In some parts of
the country thought to be adapted to orange culture, good lands can be had at from fifty
to one hundred dollars and acre. But something of an experiment is yet involved in the
orange culture of those new settlements as it was at Riverside only six years ago. The real
orange region in California may not reach one hundred square miles. Other parts in the
same latitude produce other good crops, but not good oranges.
Orange trees of eight years standing, will produce
fruit, annually, to the net value of from one hundred and twenty-five to tow hundred and
fifty dollars to the acre. And the products increase from year to year with the growth of
the trees, which authorities on the subject state will do well for at least a century. But
no doubt, long before that time, fertilizers will be greatly in demand.
The church in Riverside is organized with god members, of whom Bros.
Peter Suman and Reuban Hall and their families are chief pillars, financially and
otherwise. Some good minister, adapted to just such a field, would receive about half a
support from our people there. Other points might be taken up, and, ere-long a good
self-supporting work established. This is a consummation devoutly to be wished for.