318 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



In short, the climatic peculiarities of Vacaville Township, as compared 

 with other portions of California, are: First, a very high winter temper- 

 ature; second, an enormous rainfall; third, a very warm, frostless, and 

 extraordinarily early spring; fourth, a fogless summer, rendered tonic and 

 bracing by the almost continuous trade winds from the ocean. 



HEALTH. 



The foregoing climatic conditions, with the excellent drainage afforded 

 by the hilly and mountainous profile of the country, of course render this 

 a healthy location. This feature, always recognized by resident physicians 

 and observers since the settlement of California, has recently been accented 

 and made prominent by the action of the medical faculty of the State. 

 Dr. Trembly, of Oakland, in the report of the Committee on Health Statis- 

 tics and Health Resorts, read before the Medical Society of California, at 

 San Francisco, in May, 1887, says: "A careful comparison of the death 

 rate, compiled at all prominent points, show that it is lower in the foothills 

 of the Coast Range northeast of Benicia than anywhere else in the world. 

 There is a total absence of malaria, and of violent climatic changes, and 

 absolutely no local causes for disease." The local physicians, Drs. Stitt 

 and Cunningham, of Vacaville, indorse the above, and add that in Vaca- 

 ville Township the death rate from all causes does not exceed three per 

 thousand, a rate hitherto unheard of in the health records of the world. 



Patients suffering from bronchial affections in the hot interior, or troubled 

 with asthma on the coast, experience relief almost at once from this cli- 

 mate. All lung diseases, except advanced stages of consumption, are 

 cured here, and even cases of the latter disease are benefited and tempo- 

 rarily relieved. But the fact recently discovered by Dr. Trembly and com- 

 municated to the medical faculty of the world, that in a State noted for its 

 healthfulness this was the particular section where the death rate was the 

 lowest, and the surroundings for health the best of any place in the world, 

 will no doubt make Vacaville the Mecca towards which the sick and 

 afflicted will turn their footsteps from all over the world. 



Vacaville Township has long been the hothouse for California, and 

 doubtless it will soon become its sanitarium as well. Indeed, may there 

 not be an intimate connection between the causes which fit this section for 

 such dissimilar but important offices. 



The influences, whether solely climatic or whether arising from the dis- 

 similar distribution of ozone or electricity in the atmosphere at this point, 

 which causes the early ripening of the fruits, and imparts such vigor to 

 the germ of all vegetable life, may indeed operate to fan and feed the vital 

 flame in human kind, and build up the shattered constitution, insure 

 health, and prolong life. At all events, they are well established facts, 

 apparently produced by climatic reasons, equally agreeable and profitable 

 to the people of this section, that Vacaville has the earliest fruits and the 

 lowest death rate of any place in the United States. 



The great development of the fruit industry of Vacaville has been caused 

 by the fact that fruit growing here is more profitable than anywhere else 

 in California. Owing to the favoring climate and kindly soil, the fruit 

 crop of all varieties is a certainty in this locality, and the yield can no- 

 where be exceeded, as much as ten tons of table grapes per acre having 

 been harvested from vines only three years old. The quality for shipping 

 or canning is unapproachable elsewhere, and being placed on the market 

 from two weeks to two months sooner than the produce of other localities, 

 the grower receives from fifty to one hundred per cent greater price per 

 pound than his less favored competitors in other districts. 



