Rancho Palos Verdes: Desert Miracle

Rancho Palos Verdes Desert Miracle Editor, Arizona Farmer

SUPPOSE that out of the Arizona desert, amid ocotillos and chollas and saguaros, suddenly loomed a lush jungle of mango, cherimoya, sapota, orange and euca lyptus trees, of date palms, of vivid flowers on thousands of shrubs and vines of hun dreds of different kinds. Mirage, you would say. But it would be no mirage. It would be a miracle-Palos Verdes. Palos Verdes, a wonder spot without a counterpart anywhere in the United States. Unapproachable for beauty of verdure and grandeur of setting. Unequalled anywhere in the world, save perhaps in a few botani cal gardens, for variety of exotic plant life thriving and blooming and fruiting. It is hard to write or speak of Rancho Palos Verdes without becoming lyrical. From every standpoint it is unique. But no statement, no matter how extravagant it may sound, will be disbelieved by the preciate its unusual products, and buy those products at prices commensurate with their quality and rarity.

How well they have succeeded may be judged from the 1939 business, which exceeded $100,000. But that was not all profit, by any means. The payroll alone was over $20,000, for it takes much well trained labor to maintain a jungle in the middle of an Arizona desert. A large share of the receipts goes into nursery stock brought from the four corners of the earth. Mr.

testing out citrus varieties budded on such unusual rootstocks as trifoliata, calimondin, cirtumelo and citrange-not even names to most of us. Some of the ordinary strains of citrus, growing on these strange roots, behave almost like new varieties.

On Rancho Palos Verdes' 27 acres will be found 4,000 citrus trees of more than 40 varieties; 650 date palms of 60 varieties; 40 kinds of eucalyptus trees grown for windbreaks and to furnish shade. There are over 3,000 ornamental trees and shrubs; On Rancho Palos Verdes' 27 acres will be found 4,000 citrus trees of more than 40 varieties; 650 date palms of 60 varieties; 40 kinds of eucalyptus trees grown for windbreaks and to furnish shade. There are over 3,000 ornamental trees and shrubs; commerce but extra fine and extra delicious. Nothing is ever made in quantity, only a little at a time. No metal vessel is ever used, only agate cooking pots and wooden stirring spoons. Packed in fancy containers and assortments, they bring fancy prices.

Just before Christmas is the busiest time in the Palos Verdes shop. Frequently it is so crowded that customers have to wait for hours. Many of them simply leave their Christmas lists with Mrs. Reid, let At Rancho Palos Verdes, the Reids have experimented with citrus and have now 4,000 citrus trees of more than 40 varieties. Mrs. Reid produces rare jams and marmalades. Their "Tucson Sunshine Package" is sent all over the world during the Christmas season.

Reid thinks nothing, for instance, of paying $25 for a tiny mango tree in a pot. If it does not flourish he is out $25 and considerable care. But if it meets his expectations it will bear several hundred dollars' worth of mangoes in a season. He has paid out a small fortune in buying, transporting and replanting mature palms and avacado trees.

He also spends many dollars and much time in pure experimentation that probably can never return anything but the joy of discovery and creation. With his son, Gene, he has gone farther than anyone else in there are numberless flowering vines, in cluding bougainvilleas of every known shade from bright orange to deepest crimson.

Visitors are likely to decide that M. L. Reid is the hardest and most enthusiastic worker in the world, until they have met Mrs. Reid. It is she who converts Palos Verdes fruits into marmalade, jam, jelly, candied figs, spiced conserves, pickled kumquats, and scores of other confections. To enumerate the dainties from her kitchen would take almost as much space as to list the species growing in her husband's nursery. They are not the ordinary goods of her staff do the rest. Lucky indeed is the easterner who receives a Palos Verdes gift. Through such gifts, thousands have learned that Arizona is no mere waste of cactus, sand and rattlesnakes.

A typical assortment is Mrs. Reid's "Tucson Sunshine Package," containing 40 pounds of fresh grapefruit and oranges, dates, candied figs, citrus blossom honey, marmalade, candied peel, date cake, cactus candy, and several other items.

Because the Reids demonstrated so convincingly what water, care and intelligent planning can make of the Arizona desert,

Palos Verdes has become the center of a group of magnificent estates. No less than $2,000,000 has been invested in homes, grounds and citrus groves in the immediate vicinity by wealthy people who would never have thought of settling in Arizona but for the Palos Verdes example. Among neighbors of the Reids, who first admired Palos Verdes and were inspired thereby to become permanent residents, are the Countess of Suffolk; Miss Louise Grace of the steamship family; Albert Fink, noted Chicago Rancho Palos Verdes has developed into a great industry, with a payroll alone of $20,000. Water for this desert garden comes from two 230-foot irrigation wells. Here the Reids have met with great success in the growing of such delicate plants as gardenias and camellias.

attorney; and eight or ten others. Their groves, planted not for profit but merely for aesthetic satisfaction, total 200 acres. So the Reids, while winning happiness and security for themselves, have won new citizens and new capital for Arizona. In everything they undertook they have succeeded amazingly where others did not even dare to try. A large friendly sign on the entrance gates of Rancho Palos Verdes announces: "Visitors Welcome!" It is only a fifteen minute drive from the center of metropolitan Tucson to the ranch, and the trip is made over the new four lane highway to the Oracle Road and up onto the delightful mesa under the western slopes of the Catalinas. Here Rancho Palos Verdes, the desert miracle, greets you. From the mesa the visitor is afforded a sweeping panorama of the great valley of Tucson. The Reids are hospitable and friendly and a visit to their rancho is an education as well as an adventure in beauty. Nothing in your experience or nothing that you have read will prepare you for the surprise you get on your first visit to Rancho Palos Verdes. You can hardly believe your eyes. But it's no mirage. It's a miracle.