The herald. (Smyrna, Del.) 1870-1871, 1870-12-24
Picture of a California Home.

A correspondent of the Pacific Coast
Woman's Journal, writing, froul Yuba
City, furnishes the following pen pic
ture of n beautiful California home
Fifty five miles from the bay-window
where we write, the snow.covered heads
,ost clear and sharp against the eastern
sky. Here in the foot hills, furhsias, ge-
rahiams and re ses are bright with half
open buds and blossoms. In the closet
are crisp, hard ounces of last years
crop; along the borders the quince trees
are thlckly covered with blossoms. The
purest crystal waters como leaping from
the hearts of tho hills, and all the mead
ows laugh with the geyest colowed flow
ers. Hunmng birds and swallows, cal
lalillies and verbenAs, orange trees, lime
trees, lemon trees. are all mixed up in
,w.et confusion. Yonder are olive trees
in perpetual green, and ii littlo further,
English walnuts and grapovines, Wit,
leaf buds fast swelling.
The apple trees do not believe summer
time has come, and patiently hide their
time and season, but peaches and april
cots and nectarines tossing too the
breese sweetest perfumes. Fig trees
generally giye three crops year, and in
these early March have pushed out all
along their naked arms hundreds of figs
as large as an Infants thumb. Pone-
al,
grow in the same border as penceably AS
if they had been lifelong friends. Ole
ander and sweet cassia trees are from
ten to twenty feet high, out of doors all
winter. DowT"the garden walk 1 see
sckberries, rsspberries, currents and
gooseherries. There, also. are half-grown
strawberries. In the vegetable gardens
the beet, carrot and cabbage do no: seem
to know when summer leaves off, and
81 they keep on growing all the year,
until surprised out of all propriety by
being ruaely puffed and thrust into the
market. Down tho hill slope there is
one acre of estfafa ard red clover, six
inches high which gives three crops, and
furnishes IN average of eight tons year
of sweet and tender hay. Around those
boulder rocks are grape vines that every
wear rejoice in ten-pound clusters OF per-
feet frnit.
A little furtser along, against the
fence, is a aav-n-year old vine, three feel
nigh, with three or four short arms from
its head that annually bears 100 pounds
of grspes. There is ratch of raisir
grapes, three years old, the old wood
three inches in diam'ter headed three
feet from the grounl, with triangular
frames around theu to support the fruit
After the children and chickens and
wasps had pickel at them last year,
they yielded ten poun Is each of perfect
~ luscious dried raisinS. The quality
AMI qusntity of pears plumS AMI cher
ries il to Us so marvellous we dare not
risk cur reputation for untruthfulness
by repeating the items as they were told
to us. Aroud the east porch is soli-
tary rosebush, trained in festoons, reach
ing over seventy fect-at that roint cut
back, because it was encroaching upon
the rights of its neighbor, who was am
bilious to share the honor of covering
this sweetest of homes with buds and
blossoms. The owners of t1is paradise
are working people. The wife is equal
ly at home in the Kitchen, nursery, or
CHICKEN yard, at the pnno, or in the par
lor. The husband is the son of Puri-
tan sire, and pioneer Californian, who,
in addition to his daily work, has usad
the early morning hours to transform
this rocky hillside into fruit ul flower
crowned paradise.