296 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



competency if judiciously planted and thoroughly and properly cultivated. 

 Planted in the fruits above named, the lands of Sacramento County, in 

 the past and present, have returned and will return $200, $500, $1,000, 

 $1,500 and more per acre per annum. It has been practically demon- 

 strated that one acre of Bartlett pears near Sacramento City brought $1,500 

 for one crop, $800 for the next, and $600 for the next, yet the land had 

 not been cultivated or the trees pruned in that time. It is also known 

 that a young orchard of eighteen acres of Bartlett pears yielded $500 per 

 acre net per annum. The yield of the Natoma vineyard of table grapes in 

 1886 returned, exclusive of freight and commissions, $270 per acre. 



Sacramento County has two hundred thousand acres of land practically 

 vacant, which can be had from $25 to $100 per acre, and which when 

 planted to trees and vines, and in bearing, will yield an income on an 

 investment of from $500 to $2,000 per acre per annum. Many choice im- 

 proved places in this county cannot now be had for $1,000 per acre. The 

 production of fruit is becoming more and more a fine art. The condition 

 in which it will reach an eastern market is an important consideration in 

 its value. There it must be fair to look at, rich in sugar, and firm in its 

 resistance to decay. Such fruit is produced in Sacramento County in 

 greater uniformity and over a larger proportional area than in any other 

 county. El Dorado, Placer, and Yuba have their foothill thermal belts, 

 by no means meager or insignificant in extent and importance, and they 

 are strong and consistent rivals of Sacramento as to attractiveness to the 

 eye and shipping quality of their fruit. The plains section of Placer, 

 Yuba, and Sutter will, in the future, develop into a rich raisin and table 

 grape district. 



To Placer County has already been awarded the credit of producing a 

 raisin equal, if not superior, to the five crown De Hiser raisin of France, 

 which until equaled here had no rival in quality in the world. The product 

 of one acre irrigated of these raisins has been as high as $600 per annum. 



Sutter County being entirely a valley county, except the lone Buttes in 

 its northern bounds, has also fine fruit and grape lands, the choicest fruit 

 lands lying on the banks of the Feather and Sacramento Rivers. Sutter 

 has spots of as fine fruit land as the State can boast of. 



To the north of Sutter lies Butte County, one half mountain and one 

 half valley. Its valley lands are among the best for general farming of 

 any in the State. Butte can boast of the largest area of land covered with 

 majestic oak timber of any valley county, and this timber belt will, in the 

 near future, develop the very best fruit land. The fine orchard of General 

 Bidwell and the extensive vineyard farms of Governor Stanford are within 

 its bounds. They speak more than volumes of the productiveness of the 

 Butte County fruit and grape lands. 



To the north of Butte lies the County of Tehama, having within her con- 

 fines the head of the Sacramento Valley. The lands on the east side of 

 the Sacramento River stretch to the foothills, and are a close imitation of 

 the oak park land of Butte County, but more even in their quality and 

 better adapted to fruit culture. Returning south we will cross the river, and 

 there we find a more varied quality of land, much of it needing irrigation 

 to make fruit production most profitable. Tehama County is cut on both 

 sides of the Sacramento River by small streams that flow from her hills to 

 the great drain of the valley, and its lands are therefore susceptible of irri- 

 gation. 



South of Tehama, on the west bank of the Sacramento River, lies Colusa 

 County, the banner wheat county of the world. There very little attention 

 has been paid to fruit raising as a source of income, yet there are large 



