Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1877-04-21
FROM CALIFORNIA.

| EDITORS CHRONICLE-AS | was
born and raised in the State of
Tennessee, and consequently hav-
ing many friends in the State who
are readers of your valuable paper,
who have asked me several times
for description of Sonoma county,
California, the place of my residence
at present, / have concluded to give
them some facts of the county
through your valuable paper, if you
think them worth publishing. I
have been a resident of this county
since my arrival in the State, now
about two years. Sonoma county
is fifty-five miles long, north and
south, and will average about
twenty-five miles in width, and
comprises an area of nearly $50, 900
acres. Its western boundary is the
Pacific ocean, and its southern the
Bay of San Pablo and Marin coun-
ty. 1t has several large valleys of
as rich and productive land as can
be found anywhere in the State.
These valleys embrace an area of
about 100000 or 275,0O0 acres, and
produce in wheat or barley from
twenty to fifty bushels per acre, and
in corn from forty to seventy-five
bushels. The remaining portion of
the county is hill and mountain
land, a good deal of which is now
used only for grazing purposes, but
which is well adapted to the growth
of fruit of all kinds, including al
mOnds, oranges, lemons and lines.
The climate is pleasant the year
round. A little ice in exposed
places during the coolest nights of
winter is the extent of the cold sea-
son, and a few hours occasionally
during the warmest summer days
when the thermometer gets up in
the nineties, is the extent of the
warm season. The evenings, even
during the hottest days of summer,
are always cool enough to render a
pair of blankets comfortable for a
bed covering. 1t rarely ever goes
much above or but little below
these points. Wind storms are I'M
known, and thunder and lightning
are of very rare occurrence. One
of the chief attractions of this coun-
ty other than its climate, particu-
larly to farmers, is the fact that
there is always a sufficient rainfall
to insure crops. The rainfall during
the season is from IL to 80 inches,
and it is estimated by farmers of
observation that IL or IA inches is
enough to give good crops. This is
a matter of considerable import,
when it is remembered that in many
counties in the State a failure of
crops occasionally happen for want
of rain. Almost anything that can
be raised anywhere else in the State
can be raised in Sonoma county. 1t
is known as one Of the finest grain
and grape counties on this coast,
the grape, for it is known
that SOnOma county is the natural |
home of the grape, but potatoes,
fruit, grass, hops, and vegetables of
all kinds, do remarkably well and
yield large crops, and l am told by
those who have tried it that tobacco |
will do well, and if it will do so
well, why some of the farmers do |
not engage in the business L cannot |
tell, unless there is too much work
to it, and they can make |
money easier some other way. 1t |
is also a great county for dairying,
and many persons are engaged in
that business. TO show those who |
read your paper something of our
products, L copy from the SOnOma
Democrat table estimating the
wealth of the county produced in
one year from some of these !
sources:
Annual