Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1870-09-15
Fruits of California.

y Pennsylvania Agricultural sOciety
c says in the Practical Farmei
Philadelphia--which, by the way
/, is one ol the most reliable journal
q in America-that the remark
t able size and beauty Of the CalifOr
A MIA fruit appeared very little shor
3 of a miracle indeed, / was total,
, unable to detect old standard var
t ictic5 time and again. Their enor
nous size and perfect shape, ,togeth
er with that peculiar waNen ap
pearance prOverbial to all fruit
tof California. was a continual pic
ture, and will not soon be forgot
ten. The grapes growing in the
air are all of foreign parontage
and the fine, large lunches Of BlacI
Hamburg, Muscat Of Alexandria
and Flame. colored Tokay. gave
evidence of their success. In the
markets, at street corners, and
everywhere, in fact, were these
delicious fruits offered for sale, and
at exceeding low prices. Cn the
slopes Of the Sierra Nevada, have
seen the little cleared rancho OF
the miners filled with luxuriant
vines literally, loaded with richly
colored clusters, and fig trees
growing vigorously in almost all
the enclosures. Plums, apricots,
almonds, English walnuts are here
in perfection, and small fruits of
every description are grown with
astonishing success. Occasionally,
in the gardens and protected yards
Of San Francisco, the oranges and
lemons will ripen moderately well,
but a few miles down the coast,
they succeed without failure. At
Los Angeles, all the tropical fruits
are cultivated in perfection. But
beautiful aud large as all these pro
ductions are, there is lacking the
delicious flavor, the agreeable
aroma, and the richness of our less
perfect but better fruits. We
search in vain for these requisites
beyond the Rocky Mountains, and
| very much doubt if they have the
more preferable acquisitions, or
that we would exchange our quail
ty for their appearance. Grape
vines are planted from four to five
feet a part and traiued in the sOuche
style, is a short stem, of from
one to three feet in height, and
the long, slender branches emanat-
ting frc m the top, forming a minia
ture weeping willow in appearance.
This system have no doubt
might prove successful with some
varieties at the East, or a modi-
fcation Gift at least Owing to
the mildness Of the climate, which
is subject to no material change
in temperature all the year round,
the various kinds of fruit trees
come into bearing in surprisingly
short time. Indeed, | saw apples
and pears but three or four years
bearing abundantly, and,
at the same time, perfecting aston
ishing growths. As an instance Of
5he heavy crops of fruit produced,
may mention in the town Of Oak
land situated on the opposite side
Of the bay from San Francisco,
lad the pleasure of wandering
through an extensive dwarf orch
lrd, several acres in extent. every
rec almost was actually breaking
lown with the immense weight Of j.;
ruit. and the ground appeared
covered with glorious specimens.
Not a fence or hedge of any kind ;
enclosed the tract, but all visitors,
With true western hospitality, were
invited to help themselves literally.
did not see a single imperfect
ruit and / am quite sure there were
many hundreds of bushels in the !
,rchard. A plate of Gloria Mundi J
pples attracted much attention tor {
heir fine appearance, our specimen '
p lbs. A plate ofPound '
ears adjoining, weighed p lbs. t
ach; a Cattalac pear weighed l {
b. l OF. We were shown q new t
eedling grape, one bunch orwhich .
'eighed Z lbs. In tropical fruits 7
he show was magnificent.
'hrough the nindness of the com t
littee in charge l was enabled to =
est the quality of several, but am t
bliged to add that. l did not con- b
der them of even medium quality 9
The following scene is said to :
ave occurred near Paris, according d
, French papers: Il
A Partisan and an American f;
ere about TO fight a duel. Only il
vo shots were to be exchanged, o
nd the lot was to decide who was p
, have the first shot. The Parish W
4 was the first to shoot, but missed Il
is adversary, When the Yankee II
Used his pistol the Partisan ex- n
aimed; t
"Hold on; what do you want s,
n that shot?" o
The seconds looked at him with CT
le utmost of surprise at this I
,eech, but the American replied W
How much will you give me7" c'
Give hundred dollars" W
Nonsense" said our American, m
I'd raised his pistol; 81 am good III
lot; your offer is too low" b.
"You esteem me too highly" i
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