ADAPTIVENESS OF FRUITS IN GENERAL. 



BY GEORGE RICH, SACRAMENTO. 



California eclipses all other countries for her varied climate, pictur- 

 esque scenery, adaptation, and combination of varieties of fruits grown in^ 

 the torrid and temperate zones. Here are propagated the orange, lemon, 

 lime, olive, fig, cherry, pomegranate, peach, apple, pear, plum, grape, 

 and small fruit in general. The first of small fruits that enter our mar- 

 ket in Spring, that so large a proportion of our population enjoy, is the 

 delicious and health-giving luxury — 



THE STRAWBERRY. 



It being classified by the botanists as one of the large families of the 

 rosaceas, combining many distinguishing traits of the rose family. Lin- 

 nasus named it fragaria, from the delicious fragrance of its fruit, of 

 which Europe presents three species, Asia one, South America two, and 

 North America six; of the six, Oregon claims one, and California one; 

 out of these has sprung hundreds of varieties that have been brought to a 

 cultivated and improved state by the works of art and nature; of those 

 that California has so plentifully grown, and is found in our market 

 nearly throughout the season, is of the foreign and North- America 

 varieties, which have been brought to a perfect system of culture in our 

 State. The locality where so large a proportion is centered is found 

 at few points; still, being cosmopolitan in its nature, its adaptation 

 is general, confined to no particular spot, but can be brought to a higher 

 state of cultivation where the soil and climate combines, that brings it 

 to a greater degree of perfection. At Los Angeles, with its spicy and 

 genial climate, the strawberry comes to perfection, by culture, nearly 

 every month of the year. In the Santa Clara Valley is where the great 

 bulk of strawberries is grown, and by high culture produces two crops 

 a season, lasting nine months of the year; here is where is principally 

 raised the Longworth Prolific, an American variety, which finds their 

 way in the great central market of San Francisco, and distributed in 

 different parts of the State. Sacramento, "the gem of the plains," can 

 count the second, in quantity of numbers, cultivated for market and ship- 

 ping purposes. The varieties are the Triomph de Gand, Jocunda or Knox 



