442 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Eighteen millions of wheat ! what does it not represent? Railroads, 

 steamers, warehouses, busy marts, cities, homes, factories, churches, 

 school houses, and all the refinements of civilization. Eighteen mill- 

 ions of gold leaves little to those who by 'toil produced it. It has 

 always been thus, and always will be so. The money has moved the 

 crops, built the railroads, cultivated the fields, enriched the farmer, 

 in lands to which it was alien by birth, but how little has its poten- 

 tiality benefited you. 



The auspicious time has come to you, when all conditions favor a 

 change in your vocation, when you can arrest the flow of the golden 

 stream, and with it fertilize these waiting hills, and crown them with 

 choicest fruits of the earth. 



These figures are more eloquent than figures of speech to depict the 

 relative advantage of agriculture over mining, and now, having, I 

 hope, aroused your interest in the subject of agriculture, I wish to 

 devote some time to an enumeration of advantages your section offers 

 for the cultivation of fruit. The question of transportation has deter- 

 mined that your efforts must tend to the cultivation of fruit rather 

 than grain. 



THE CLIMATE 



Is the first consideration. In the coast range there are a thousand 

 climates, dependent upon the course of the cool winds which blow 

 from the ocean, and the shelter which projecting points or a rising 

 hill affords. Each section, therefore, has some fruit in which it 

 excels. In the great valleys, oppressive heats occur in midsummer, 

 to be followed by too cool nights, while in those sections to the south 

 near the base of the Sierra, frost is apt to occur late in the Spring and 

 materially decrease the crop. 



In the foothills of the Sierra, at an elevation of from three hundred 

 to three thousand feet, the climate is about the same at corresponding 

 elevations, being genial in Summer and favorable to outdoor work, 

 while the nights are not too cool, and are sufficiently warm to encour- 

 age the continuous growth of vegetation. To those who have never 

 experienced the superlative charm of our foothill climate, a state- 

 ment of the temperature both of Winter and Summer may be inter- 

 esting. 



I have no data in relation to El Dorado and Nevada" Counties, but 

 as Auburn has an elevation of one thousand three hundred and sixty 

 feet, Colfax two thousand four hundred and twenty-two feet, Grass 

 Valley about two thousand two hundred feet, Placerville about two 

 thousand six hundred feet, and Rocklin, which represents the base 

 of the foothills, two hundred and fifty feet, I have taken Auburn and 

 Colfax as representing the temperatures of Grass Valley and Placer- 

 ville, and Rocklin as corresponding to the temperature of other places 

 of the same elevation. 



The yearly mean of the maximum temperature of Auburn is 83.17, 

 Colfax, &5.42, and Rocklin, 84.83. 



The yearly mean of the minimum temperature of Auburn is 39.33; 

 Colfax, 41.50, and Rocklin, 42.17. 



The climate which these figures indicate the foothills to possess, 

 establish beyond a doubt that there is ample heat in Summer to bring 

 to maturity even tropical fruits, and cool enough in Winter to secure 

 the rest which vegetation needs without endangering its existence. 



You have a still further advantage in being generally exempt from 



