big garden with pretty homes scattered all through its shade and
flowers, then Riverside is an immense orange grove, having one city-like
street, with substantial business blocks and excellent stores, two
banks, one in the Evans block, especially fine in all its architecture
and arrangements, and the rest is devoted by the land-owners to raising
oranges and making them pay. You will see flowers enough to overwhelm a
Broadway florist, every sort of cereal, every fruit that grows, in prime
condition for the table ten months out of the twelve. Three hundred
sunny days are claimed here out of the three hundred and sixty-five.
They are once in a while bothered by a frost, but that is "unusual."
Before 1870 this was a dusty desert of decomposed granite. What has
caused the change? Scientific irrigation and plenty of it. Or, as Grant
Allen puts it, "mud." He says: "Mud is the most valuable material in the
world. It is by mud we live; without it we should die. Mud is filling up
the lakes. Mud created Egypt, and mud created Lombardy."

Yes, one can get rich here by turning dust into mud. It is said to be
the richest town "per capita" in all California of the same size, $1100
being the average allowance for each person. This is solemnly vouched
for by reliable citizens. And they have no destitute poor--a remarkable
record. The city and district are said to enjoy an annual income of
$1,500,000 from the fruit alone, and there is a million of unused money
in the two banks.

Irrigation is better than rain, for the orange growers can turn on a
shower or a stream whenever and wherever needed. It requires courage
and faith to go straight into a desert with frowning mountains, big,
little, and middle-sized, all about, and not an available drop of water,
and say, "I'm going to settle right here and turn this desert into a
beautiful home, and start a prosperous, wealthy city. All that this
rocky, barren plain needs is water and careful cultivation, and I will
give it both." That was Judge Brown's decision, and the result shows his
wisdom. No one agreed with him; it was declared that colonists could not
be induced to try it. But he could not relinquish the idea. He was
charmed by the dry, balmy air, so different from Los Angeles. He saw the
smooth plain was well adapted for irrigation, and Santa Ana could be
made to furnish all the water needed. So that it is really to him we owe
the pleasure of seeing these orchards, vineyards, avenues, an