EIGHTH DISTRICT AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. 443 



Spring frosts Avhich do so miieli damage to the vineyards and orchards 

 in the valley and coast portions of the State. April and May are the 

 months most to be feared. 



In the foothills the lengthened Winter retards the growth of the 

 bud, and when the frost comes, if it does come in April and May, the 

 buds are not advanced enough to be hurt thereby. 



The minimum temperature in April and May respectively at Auburn 

 is 32 and 41 ; at Colfax, 33 and 40; at Rocklin, 46 and 50. These tem- 

 peratures indicate an almost entire exemption from destructive frost. 

 Not that the dew point is lower than 32, but that the vegetation is not 

 advanced enough for the slight frost to do it any damage. Even the 

 famed Napa A'alley has a minimum temperature in April and May 

 of 34 and 45, but the vegetation in that beautiful valley is at least, 

 each year, a month in advance of that at Auburn and Colfax, and 

 hence more liable to the ravages of frost. 



Finally the mean temperatures of April and May are at Auburn 

 respectively 50.55 and 59.01; at Colfax, 49.34 and 56.61; and at Rock- 

 lin, 59.24 and 66.88. 



But you need not fear frost. Mr. Haraszthy, a most competent 

 observer and viticulturist, testifying before a committee on "Grape 

 Culture," in 1880, said as follows: 



" We have no severe frosts in this country. If a frost comes it 

 diminishes our crop only in part — five or ten or twenty per cent accord- 

 ing to circumstances. In France they will have one frost after another 

 until the entire crop is destroyed. This is one of the many advan- 

 tages possessed here." 



Mr. Mathews, a member of the committee, asked: "This land you 

 speak of lies mostly in the foothills, does it not?" 



Mr. 11.—" Yes, sir." 



Mr. Mathews. — " Is it not a fact that they have earlier and heavier 

 frosts in the foothills?" 



Mr. Haraszthy.— "No, sir; it is just the reverse. There are lands 

 on the sides of our mountains where goats would starve that will pro- 

 duce the best wines." 



The above figures present to the acute observer and searcher for 

 propitious land for fruit culture, more than can eloquent description 

 or rhetorical display, our incomparable climate. To the eastern or 

 western man, accustomed to the icy rigors of long Winters and the 

 melting heats of Summer when the "grasshopper is a burden," our 

 climate is a revelation and a foretaste of an earthly paradise. 



Here there is no malaria to deaden one's energies, no fevers to pros- 

 trate, and no consumption; here, if anywhere, life should be length- 

 ened to the scriptural span. 



THE RAINFALL 



Is ample for the cultivation of all fruits except possibly berries. At 

 Sacramento the average fall is about twenty inches, at Rocklin twenty- 

 three, at Auburn thirty, and at Colfax forty inches. 



This brings me to the subject of irrigation. It is a bugbear. Some- 

 how the impression prevails in the valley that irrigation is necessary. 

 Nearly every one to whom I have spoken about the foothills, replies: 

 "But you have to irrigate." And this in face of the most incontesta- 

 ble testimony of the scores of vineyards in our district which never 

 had a drop of water save that which fell from the heavens. The 



