274 Beyond the Sierras. 



this, and some, perhaps, a Uttle farther apart. In general, tlie apricot, the 

 prune, the peach, the apple, the pear, the English walnut, the fig, the cherry, 

 and even the orange and the lemon, are set at about the same distance. I 

 think that the rows of the citrus trees, however, are set a little closer on the 

 average than in the case of the other species. 



I will oti'er one criticism on the methods of the California orchardists. 

 Why have they not — why do they not — reject the parallel row system of plant- 

 ing in favor of the hexagon ? I was surprised to note in how few instances 

 the hexagonal method has been employed. The planter ought to remember 

 that a sort of general architectural taste is to be observed in the arrange- 

 ment of his trees ; nor should the much more material circumstance be 

 neglected that a given area will contain a very considerable number of trees, 

 when they are set on the hexagon, in excess of what the same ground will 

 bear in parallel rows at equal distances. I believe that the average Califor- 

 nia orchard would gain a hundred trees in number if the hexagonal method 

 were emploj'ed. I do not know whether the cultivation of the spaces be- 

 tween would be hindered in working among the hexagons, but certain it is 

 that there would be a great gain in space and a greater gain in beauty; all of 

 which is respectfully submitted. 



Let us turn for a moment, then, from the orchards to the natural land- 

 scape. The valley which we are now traversing is better wooded than any 

 we liave thus far seen. The live oak is the principal native tree. It were 

 hard to say whether in this famous tree the element of beauty or of value is 

 predominant. It has a novel appearance to one who has not seen it often in 

 the native state. It rises to the height of about seventy-five feet, but the 

 native trunk is not tall and grand like the trunks of our close-set forests in 

 the Mississippi valley. The live oak branches out to a great extent. Its strong 

 arms, somewhat gnarled, reach wide, like those of the eastern elms in old 

 age. But the live oak without its foliage is a more picturesque tree than the 

 elm; with the foliage I think the elm would surpass. In the still imculti- 

 vated regions of the Santa Clara valley, and below, the live oaks may be said 

 to abound. You will see to the right or to the left tracts of fifty or perhaps 

 a hundred acres still covered with them, as in the days of the Spaniards. 

 The most striking feature of the tree, as discriminated, say, from the winter 

 elm or black oak of the Middle States, is that it is hung with moss. I am 

 confident that this covering is of a ditierent species from that of the moss 

 which hangs in long festoons from the great live oaks in the southern lagoons 

 and everglades. The latter is longer and coarser, and of a darker color. The 

 former is a light gray, and seems to crown and wrap about the scraggy 

 branches rather than to depend therefrom. 



But the most striking thing of all about the live oak woodlands of Cali- 

 fornia, and, indeed, of nearly every kind of sparse forest growth which pre- 

 vails in this comparatively treeless country, is that the trees have, for some 

 reason, been distributed by nature with almost the regularity and precision 

 of a planted orchard. I was astonished, and, at first, deceived, by this singu- 



