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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Our Italy,
by Charles Dudley Warner
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Title: Our Italy
Author: Charles Dudley Warner
Release Date: April 5, 2009 [EBook #28506]
Language: English
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OUR ITALY ***
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SANTA BARBARA.
OUR ITALY
BY CHARLES
DUDLEY WARNER
Author of Their Pilgrimage, Studies in
the South and West, A Little Journey in
the World With Many Illustrations

NEW YORK
HARPER & BROTHERS, FRANKLIN
SQUARE
Copyright, 1891, by Harper & Brothers.
All rights reserved.
CONTENTS.
CHAP. PAGE
I. HOW OUR ITALY IS MADE 1
II. OUR CLIMATIC AND
COMMERCIAL MEDITERRANEAN 10
III. EARLY VICISSITUDES.—
PRODUCTIONS.—SANITARY
CLIMATE 24
IV. THE WINTER OF OUR CONTENT
42
V. HEALTH AND LONGEVITY 52
VI. IS RESIDENCE HERE
AGREEABLE? 65
VII. THE WINTER ON THE COAST 72
VIII. THE GENERAL OUTLOOK.—
LAND AND PRICES 90
IX. THE ADVANTAGES OF
IRRIGATION 99
X. THE CHANCE FOR LABORERS
AND SMALL FARMERS 107
XI. SOME DETAILS OF THE
WONDERFUL DEVELOPMENT 114
XII. HOW THE FRUIT PERILS WERE
MET.—FURTHER DETAILS OF
LOCALITIES 128

XIII. THE ADVANCE OF
CULTIVATION SOUTHWARD 140
XIV. A LAND OF AGREEABLE
HOMES 146
XV. SOME WONDERS BY THE WAY.
—YOSEMITE.—MARIPOSA TREES.—
MONTEREY 148
XVI. FASCINATIONS OF THE
DESERT.—THE LAGUNA PUEBLO 163
XVII. THE HEART OF THE DESERT
177
XVIII. ON THE BRINK OF THE
GRAND CAÑON.—THE UNIQUE
MARVEL OF NATURE 189
APPENDIX 201
INDEX 219
ILLUSTRATIONS.
SANTA BARBARA Frontispiece
PAGE
MOJAVE DESERT 3
MOJAVE INDIAN 4
MOJAVE INDIAN 5
BIRD'S-EYE VIEW OF RIVERSIDE 7
SCENE IN SAN BERNARDINO 11
SCENES IN MONTECITO AND LOS
ANGELES 13
FAN-PALM, LOS ANGELES 16
YUCCA-PALM, SANTA BARBARA 17
MAGNOLIA AVENUE, RIVERSIDE 21
AVENUE LOS ANGELES 27

IN THE GARDEN AT SANTA
BARBARA MISSION 31
SCENE AT PASADENA 35
LIVE-OAK NEAR LOS ANGELES 39
MIDWINTER, PASADENA 53
A TYPICAL GARDEN, NEAR SANTA
ANA 57
OLD ADOBE HOUSE, POMONA 61
FAN-PALM, FERNANDO ST. LOS
ANGELES 63
SCARLET PASSION-VINE 68
ROSE-BUSH, SANTA BARBARA 73
AT AVALON, SANTA CATALINA
ISLAND 77
HOTEL DEL CORONADO 83
OSTRICH YARD, CORONADO BEACH
86
YUCCA-PALM 92
DATE-PALM 93
RAISIN-CURING 101
IRRIGATION BY ARTESIAN-WELL
SYSTEM 104
IRRIGATION BY PIPE SYSTEM 105
GARDEN SCENE, SANTA ANA 110
A GRAPE-VINE, MONTECITO
VALLEY, SANTA BARBARA 116
IRRIGATING AN ORCHARD 120
ORANGE CULTURE 121
IN A FIELD OF GOLDEN PUMPKINS
126

PACKING CHERRIES, POMONA 131
OLIVE-TREES SIX YEARS OLD 136
SEXTON NURSERIES, NEAR SANTA
BARBARA 141
SWEETWATER DAM 144
THE YOSEMITE DOME 151
COAST OF MONTEREY 155
CYPRESS POINT 156
NEAR SEAL ROCK 157
LAGUNA—FROM THE SOUTH-EAST
159
CHURCH AT LAGUNA 164
TERRACED HOUSES, PUEBLO OF
LAGUNA 167
GRAND CAÑON ON THE COLORADO
—VIEW FROM POINT SUBLIME 171
INTERIOR OF THE CHURCH AT
LAGUNA 174
GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO
—VIEW OPPOSITE POINT SUBLIME
179
TOURISTS IN THE COLORADO
CAÑON 183
GRAND CAÑON OF THE COLORADO
—VIEW FROM THE HANSE TRAIL
191
OUR ITALY.
CHAPTER I.
HOW OUR ITALY IS
MADE.

The traveller who descends into Italy by
an Alpine pass never forgets the surprise
and delight of the transition. In an hour he
is whirled down the slopes from the
region of eternal snow to the verdure of
spring or the ripeness of summer.
Suddenly—it may be at a turn in the road
—winter is left behind; the plains of
Lombardy are in view; the Lake of Como
or Maggiore gleams below; there is a tree;
there is an orchard; there is a garden; there
is a villa overrun with vines; the singing
of birds is heard; the air is gracious; the
slopes are terraced, and covered with
vineyards; great sheets of silver sheen in
the landscape mark the growth of the
olive; the dark green orchards of oranges
and lemons are starred with gold; the lusty
fig, always a temptation as of old, leans
invitingly over the stone wall; everywhere
are bloom and color under the blue sky;
there are shrines by the way-side, chapels
on the hill; one hears the melodious bells,
the call of the vine-dressers, the laughter
of girls.
The contrast is as great from the Indians of
the Mojave Desert, two types of which are
here given, to the vine-dressers of the
Santa Ana Valley.
Italy is the land of the imagination, but the

sensation on first beholding it from the
northern heights, aside from its
associations of romance and poetry, can
be repeated in our own land by whoever
will cross the burning desert of Colorado,
or the savage wastes of the Mojave
wilderness of stone and sage-brush, and
come suddenly, as he must come by train,
into the bloom of Southern California. Let
us study a little the physical conditions.
The bay of San Diego is about three
hundred miles east of San Francisco. The
coast line runs south-east, but at Point
Conception it turns sharply east, and then
curves south-easterly about two hundred
and fifty miles to the Mexican coast
boundary, the extreme south-west limits of
the United States, a few miles below San
Diego. This coast, defined by these two
limits, has a southern exposure on the
sunniest of oceans. Off this coast, south of
Point Conception, lies a chain of islands,
curving in position in conformity with the
shore, at a distance of twenty to seventy
miles from the main-land. These islands
are San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz,
Anacapa, Santa Barbara, San Nicolas,
Santa Catalina, San Clemente, and Los
Coronados, which lie in Mexican waters.
Between this chain of islands and the

main-land is Santa Barbara Channel,
flowing northward. The great ocean
current from the north flows past Point
Conception like a mill-race, and makes a
suction, or a sort of eddy. It approaches
nearer the coast in Lower California,
where the return current, which is much
warmer, flows northward and westward
along the curving shore. The Santa
Barbara Channel, which may be called an
arm of the Pacific, flows by many a bold
point and lovely bay, like those of San
Pedro, Redondo, and Santa Monica; but it
has no secure harbor, except the
magnificent and unique bay of San Diego.
MOJAVE DESERT.
The southern and western boundary of
Southern California is this mild Pacific
sea, studded with rocky and picturesque
islands. The northern boundary of this
region is ranges of lofty mountains, from
five thousand to eleven thousand feet in
height, some of them always snow-clad,
which run eastward from Point
Conception nearly to the Colorado Desert.
They are parts of the Sierra Nevada range,
but they take various names, Santa Ynes,
San Gabriel, San Bernardino, and they are
spoken of all together as the Sierra Madre.
In the San Gabriel group, "Old Baldy"

lifts its snow-peak over nine thousand
feet, while the San Bernardino
"Grayback" rises over eleven thousand
feet above the sea. Southward of this,
running down into San Diego County, is
the San Jacinto range, also snow-clad; and
eastward the land falls rapidly away into
the Salt Desert of the Colorado, in which
is a depression about three hundred feet