State Agricultural Society. 455 



cities, fruit unfit to be placed in the nearest market at homo. This is 

 suicidal to the best interest of every one engaged in fruit culture. We 

 are destroying our own reputations, preventing the increased demand 

 for our fruit, and discouraging those who are endeavoring to open up 

 a market thousands of miles from home. This is all wrong. If your 

 business is worth anything, it is worth doing well. There is no excuse 

 for growing and sending interior fruit to market in California. In 

 regard to the kinds of fruit that can be grown and that are adapted 

 to the climate of California, I will only mention those that have come 

 under my own observation, commencing with the apple, which is a 

 world-renowned fruit, and is grown successfully all over the State, and 

 is more universally used throughout the greater portion of the United 

 States than any other. It is a fruit, however, that I think more unequal 

 in quality and time of ripening than any other, in the different sections 

 of the State. The great difference in soil and climate has a wonderful 

 effect upon the same variety of apple in different localities. Therefore, 

 in order to have apples in their greatest perfection, we must have varieties 

 suitable to the locality in which they are grown. Varieties most desir- 

 able to cultivate about Sacramento, or in the surrounding country, may 

 not be the best for the mountains, or near the seacoast. The apple 

 succeeds well upon a variety of soils, but I think can be grown with 

 less care upon the alluvial soils of our river bottoms. It does well 

 upon the red lands, in the gravelly soil of the foothills, in the mountains, 

 around our bays, and along the seacoast, but I think attains a greater 

 perfection at an altitude of from three thousand to four thousand feet 

 through oar mountain ranges — more particularly the Winter varieties 

 of the Northern States. Apple trees should be planted at a distance 

 of at least thirty feet apart each. If you plant as close as most of 

 the apple orchards in the State have been, your trees lose at least half 

 their value when they have attained the size and age to be really profit- 

 able. I will here remark, in regard to all kinds of fruit trees, if they 

 are not planted upon soil that will afford a sufficient amount of moisture 

 to promote a thrifty growth with good cultivation, irrigation becomes a 

 necessity. Apple trees can be grown in eight years to produce from 

 five hundred to one thousand pounds of fruit to the tree. 



BEST VARIETIES APPLES. 



As a rule, red apples bring a better price in the market than any other 

 color. I have found the following varieties to succeed well about Sac- 

 ramento: Early Harvest, Early Strawberry, Red June, Red Astrachan, 

 Summer Bellflower, Summer Rose, and William's Favorite. The above 

 are early varieties. I do not think it would be advisable to cultivate the 

 Early Harvest extensively for market. For Autumn varieties, the Alex- 

 ander, Duchess of Oldenberg, Equinteley, Fall Pippin, Gravenstine, 

 Maiden's Blush, Jonathan, King, Rhode Island Greening, and Yellow 

 Bellflower are among the best. These are all Autumn varieties in this 

 locality, although some of them are Winter varieties in other sec- 

 tions of the country. For Winter varieties we have the Yellow New- 

 town Pippin, which I believe is a greater favorite all over the State 

 than any other; the Ben Davis Spitzenberg, Rawles, Jannet, Swaar, W. 

 W. Pearmain, and American Pippin are all good keepers. I presume there 

 are many other varieties fully equal to these. There are also some 

 seedling varieties that have been produced near Sacramento that I think 

 will prove valuable, both as to fine quality and as good keepers; and I 



