STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 367 



every available foot of ground is utilized for fruit-growing purposes, and all 

 kinds of fruits reach the highest perfection there. The lower ground is 

 almost entirely devoted to grazing and agriculture, the only drawback to 

 those industries being the lack of accommodation for conveying the prod- 

 ucts to market. 



Quincy, the county seat, is a place of some 500 inhabitants. It has a 

 weekly newspaper — the " Plumas National " — which receives good support 

 from the people of the county, and a fine brick school house, with two 

 departments, primary and grammar grade. 



ELEVATED FARMING. 



The altitude of American Valley is about 4,000 feet, } T et all the cereals, 

 alfalfa, etc., yield abundantly. The winters are long and somewhat 

 severe, and the summers brief but delightful. From July to October the 

 climate of Plumas — especially in the greater altitudes — cannot be sur- 

 passed for salubrity. The Plumas Meadows embrace a section that is 

 greatly prized by the people of the valley as a summer resort, and large 

 numbers go there each season to camp, hunt, and fish, and thus renew 

 their health and energy. 



GOLD YIELD. 



In the earlier days of gold-seeking in California, Plumas was a promi- 

 nent mining section, and even at the present time the annual gold output 

 amounts to nearly or quite $1,000,000. 



NEVADA COUNTY. 



A Region Famous for the Richest Gold Mines in the World. — Fruit 

 Production Unexcelled in the Temperate Zone. — Delicious and 

 Healthful Climate. 



Nevada County is the chief of all the mining counties of the State of 

 California. It has a middle situation in the State, but is generally ranked 

 as a northern county. The summit of the Sierra Nevada runs through the 

 county, the towns of Truckee and Boca being east of those mountains, and 

 within Nevada County. 



The chief industry is mining, although farming is carried on with profit 

 in the western part of Nevada County. No equal area in the world has 

 produced more gold than has Nevada County, and no region known has 

 the promise of an equal mining permanency. The gold is found in both 

 quartz ledges and gravel beds. Nevada and Grass Valley Townships are 

 the principal portions in which quartz mining is carried on. Eureka and 

 Washington Townships, further east and higher of altitude than the two 

 first named, have also many valuable quartz ledges. The mines in Grass 

 Valley and Nevada Townships have been systematically worked and devel- 

 oped for many years; those of Washington and Eureka Townships are now 

 receiving the proper kind of attention. Some good quartz gold mines have 

 been developed in Washington Township within the last two years. In 

 Eureka Township, near Graniteville (Eureka South), several mines have 

 paid well for a depth of from one hundred to two hundred feet, and then 

 these mines were allowed to stop. Some of these properties are now being 

 worked again. Meadow Lake has also many quartz ledges, which, in 



