STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



:',!'.. 



Oroville, Butte County. 



The rainfall for Oroville was furnished by Mr. Hiram Arents, Signal 

 Service Observer at that place, from September, 1884, to date: 



* Total for September, October, November, and December, 1884. |Up to February 1, 1888. 



Chtco, Butte County, and its Advantages. 



By Watson Chalmers. 



Chico is situated in 39° 43' north latitude, and 121° 50' west of Greenwich. 

 Elevation above sea level, 193 feet. It is one of the largest towns in the 

 Sacramento Valley, having a population of over 6,000 inhabitants. The 

 portion of the valley immediately surrounding Chico runs from the Sacra- 

 mento River east for a distance of ten miles, where it meets the lower 

 Sierra Nevada, and gradually merges into its long, gentle sloping foothills 

 and valleys. The same rich soils and great oak openings extend north 

 and south for forty miles, giving an area of fertile soil, tributary to the 

 town, of not less than 400 square miles, or 250,000 acres. 



To the east, up the western slopes of the Sierra Nevadas, for a distance 

 of fifteen miles from the eastern line of the valley land, is the warm "gold 

 belt," free from frosts, where there are deep, rich valleys, sloping hill and 

 mountain sides, with deep soils, nutritious grasses, swift, clear streams, 

 and cold, bubbling springs. Still higher on the mountain sides are the 

 forest belts that darken the land with their dense foliage. In this frost- 

 less foothill belt there are very many thousand acres where beautiful 

 homes can be made amid abundant fruits and flowers. In all, it is safe 

 to say that there are 400,000 acres of land tributary to Chico. 



Chico, commonly known as the " City of Roses," is embowered with shade 

 trees, and her residence lawns are beautifully laid out in carpets of green, 

 while the climbing vine and rose cover the dwellings. From her streets to 

 the south can be seen the clear blue outlines of Mt. Diablo; in the west 

 the rounded domes of the Coast Range; in the north Shasta's peerless 

 cone rising out of the great valley and standing clear and sharp against 

 the deep blue of the sky, and in the east the great Sierra Nevada Range, 

 uplifting itself to an elevation of eight thousand feet, a mighty barrier 

 between the warm flower-laden valleys of the coast and the colder basins 

 to the east. 



In this vast amphitheater of surrounding hills and mountains is a land 

 as rich as any in the valley of the Nile, the Po, or the Yangtze, and with 



