Mineral Point weekly tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1859-1868, 1860-01-10
The Fruits and Vegetables of California

= ~~'S NAA>& sStoSASs VI Sd11lOIuld
The first thing which attracts the motto
of the stranger who arrives at San Fran
cisco IN summer, is probably the last thin.
which he would expect to ind in SO re
Gently settled a country. The profusion
variety and quality of the fruit which be
sees displayed on all sides fills him with
establishment. What magic, be asks, has
evoked from this new soil such horticultur.
al splendors What undiscovered nutri-
ment has fattened these plethoric apples 2
Whence did these monstroUs, melting pears
gather their juice? What softer sun and
sweeter dew fed these purple nectarines-
| these grapes of Eshcol-these peaches. figs
and pomegranates?
California, in fact, is the Brobdignag of
the vegetable world. The products of all
other lands are Lilliputian compared with
hers. Erect your ears and expand your
| eyes, my readers ; for ] Gm going to tell
| the truth, aud nothing bat the truth. /
forget the exact measurement OF the peach
esi but there are none in the world so
large-with, perhaps, the exception of
those of Papigno, ie.She Appenninez The
size, however, is not procured at the ex-
pense of the flavor. Excessive irrigation
OF the orchards, it is true. dilutes their
rich, ambrosial quality; but the peaches of
Narysville and the lower slopes of the
Sierra Nevada are not a whit inferior to
those of New Jersey or Montreuil. The
skin has popularity winch have not
found elsewhere. Delicate % the silky
lining of an egg shell, it peeIs off at the
touch; and the royal fruit, with its golden
and ruby nerves laid bare, is flayed with
out knife. As you crush it upon your
tongue, you remember the ambrosial fruits
Ia ,1
Adam was fed; and wonder how soon your
breath, like his, will be able to turn the /
coarse growth of the thickets into CHINA /
mon and sandal wood.
Apples aud pears have been raised |
weighing .ilree pounds apiece; and | have |
been told of Instances in which the fruit !
upon tree weighed more than the tree |
itself An orchard begins to bear the !
second year after planting and the gratis |
upon al old tree have yielded two hun !
dred pounds weight of fruit in the same |
length of time. | have never seen a
single instance in which the fruit was
knotty, worIny, or otherwise imperfect
Nature seems to possess not only a fecun-
dity, but degree of healtl: not known in
any other part of the earth. In Santa
Cruz, peach tree two years old produced |
tao hundred perfect peaches. Apple trees
sometimes yield two crops in the course
of single season. The extent to which
fruit is already cultivated in California
may be inferred from the fact that the |
peach trees in the State number 1000, 900;
apple trees, $50, 600; and pear trees, 100,-
900. The number of 5rape-vines is esti-
mated at .hUe millions, the average yield OF
which is fourteen pounds Of grapes for
each vine.
A few days after our arrival at San
Francisco, the annual Fair OF the Horticul-
tural Society was held. 1t WIS singular
collection of vegetable monstrosities. |
saw, for the first time in my life, cabbage
heads weighing between fifty and sixty
pounds; onions as large as my head and |
celery that threatened to oTertop corn
stalks and sugar cane. Upon one table |
lay huge, dark-red object, about the |
thickness OF my body. At "a distance, |
took it for the trunk of some curious tree
but on approaching nearer, saw that it |
was single beet, weighing 10 pound -
The seed was planted in the spring of
1858; and when taken up in the fall of
that year, the root weighed - pounds
The owner, desiring to procure seed from
so fine specimen, planted Ii again last |
spring. But it wouldn't go t. seed 1t |
devoted all It's energies to growing bigger |
and here it was sound throughout, aud |
full of a life which seemed almost super /
natural. / was glad to learn That it will /
be planted again next spring, ard perhaps |
the year atter-the owner having declared /
that he would keep on plantius 1t until it /
reached thousand pounds, OF consented /
TO run to seed !-Bayard 1Ggl2r.