Our Italy

A sudden change from desert to orchards gives Charles Dudley Warner his comparison between Southern California and Italy. In this illustrated travel account, he examines the coastline, offshore islands and mountain ranges before explaining how the Pacific and the Colorado Desert shape the region's weather. Scenery leads him into practical questions about settlement, cultivation and the prospects for people making a living from the land.

Chapters on irrigation, land prices and small farming sit alongside descriptions of gardens and fruit growing. Around Santa Barbara and Ventura, Warner records the expansion of orchards after railway construction and describes fields of lima beans, productive valleys and trees brought from many parts of the world. A flower show supplies another measure of abundance, with many rose varieties gathered from a single garden. Readers interested in California's development can examine his mixture of landscape observation and commercial optimism, including his insistence that successful cultivation requires sustained work.