Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1885-06-26
tCopuriOht Secured. Au Rights Rcscrred.l
Driven From Sea to Sea,
Or, JUST A CAMPIN'.
CHAPTER vI.-coNrrNuHp.
By O. O. POST.
PuBLIsHED ny PERMISSION OF J. T.. DowNEY
Co., PUBLISHERS, CHICAGO.

CHAPTER VI.-CoNTINUED.
The first rains, however wash the
greater portion of the nourishment out
of this dried grass, and although the new
shoots spring up at once, it is difficult,
fora time, for stock to get at ii through
the heavy coating of old and worthless
growth which falls down over it, and is
not very nourishing when obtained.
A portion of the settlers had COW
each, but those in whom we are most
interested were without. Among those
who were so fortunate as topossess one,
however, was Rltchie; and as Mr.. Par
sons and Erastus were enabled to give
him needed assistance in the erection of
his shanty and the cutting of grass for
his team and cow, it was agreed that
the milk should be divided between the
two families for the next year, Jenny
and Lucy making regular trips for their
share every night and morning.
The shanty up, and a sufficient
amount of grass secured, the settlers
next turned their attention to the
breaking of the soil. the planting of
trees and vines, and, at the proper
time, of vegetables. For the first year
they. expected to live largely upon wild
game and the few provisions which
they had brought with them. The sec
ond year they would get on much bet
tersS
There is no country where the COM
mon domestic fowls, ducks, chickens
and geese, are so easily raised or pay SO
well the little attention which they re-
quire as in California; and our friends
were in posses ion of sullic ent num-
ber of these to enable them to subsist
upon eggs and fowls of their own rails
ing, if need be, by another year; besides
which they would be well supplied with
vegetables, SO that the prospect was not
SO very gloomy after all, especially as
all were blessed with good health and
hope, which usually comes with n
healthful body busily employed in its.
own service, gave a coloring rs OF the
sunrise to the future which was opening
up before them.
Fruit trees were already being
shipped to the coast by way of the
isthmus, and although they were cost
ly and our friends poor, they managed
to get few; enough, at least, to fur
nish gratis for future use. Of peach
pits and apple and pear seeds the care
ful housewife who presided over John
Par. on's shanty had brought a supply
from the States.
Grape-cuttings could be more easily
obtained. More than century heforc
the Jesuit priests who penetrated up
ward from Mexico had planted grape
vines brought from Spain, and these,
crossed, perhaps, with other varieties
brought from the States, and favored
by the ada ptibility of the climate, pro-
duced a fruit far eXcelling anything
which-the Atlantic States can boast of.
And so wi Ell spring came again and
the ram ceased, there was quite the ap-
pearance of living in the vicinity OF the
Parsons shanty. Some twenty acres of
the land had been broken, n garden
planted, and many of its products were
lifting their heads to the sunlight; IL
half-hundred fruit trees and hundred
grape-vines had put forth their leaves,
and were ready to drink in the sunshine
and grow. And they grew. Grew
so fast that one could most fancy
he saw them grow and stretch them
selves.
1t has been said that the only thing
which ever distanced California
grapevine when it once got down to
the business OF growing is the bean-vinc
of Jack the Giant-killer, known to our
childhood days; the one that Jack
undertook to climb to the top of, but
which grew faster than he could climb,
and so carrying him W tn it, finally
reached clear up to the giants castle.
And such clusters of fruit as hang
dependent upon their stems, and grow
and ripen in the long sunny days OF
September and October, when not a
cloud mars the blue of the sky for
weeks and weeks: clusters that look
like pure globes of clear crystal; or that
turn purple and amber-colored where
they hang among the broad, vclvety
leaves that seem as if conscious of the
beauty of the picture which they help Ia
make; and which turn themselves side
ways upon their long stems, now hid
ing, now sing the fruit in their
midst.
The California grapes shipped by re-
frigerator cars, and exposed for sale al
the fruit stands in all our Eastern cities,
and which attract such universal at
tenton, give but poor idea of Cali
fornia grapes when plucked and eaten
standing beneath the vine in California,
or sitting at ease at your own table Oh
that of a fr end, with the sea or the
mountains in sight through the open
window.
Only the tougher skinned or less
luscious of the fruits of all kinds will
bear such long shipping. The finer and
julcicr and more luscious varieties oi
each must be eaten where they are
grown, or be sent to not distant mar.
ket
California plums are wrapped in tis
sue paper and sent cast boxed up lik,
oranges from Florida or the Wes
Indies, and sold ga nickel apiece, ol
three for dime" to people who bu,
them as curiosity, or IA very rare treat
At home in California the children ca
them as children eat apples in New
England, and the housewife drops then
into liquid sugar and takes .hem ou
great globes of pearl with ceaters o
amethyst Or she cuts them in halves
and, removing the pit, lets them dry il
the sun, and stores them away in sack
and boxes just as she does figs an,
grapes; only that these latter ar
packed down hard when but little NOR
Than half dried, and before the ricl
juices have crystalized into sugar; an,
which. eaten as freely as bread is eaten
fushes the veins with the rich bloo'
that crimsons the cheeks of childrel
and grown people alike in this land o
fruits and flowers; this land of mount
ain ranges and sea-wasbed shores; O
valleys as rich in the elements of agri
cultural wealth as its hillsides are wit
precious ores this land that shoul
bear . people as free " the breeze tha