eS. 
21 
NOTES ON SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. 
By W. E. KAY, January 15th, 1884. 
In the regrettable absence through illness of the author, 
the paper was read by Mr. James Kay. The paper commenced 
by remarking that perhaps California was best known to-day in 
connection with its gold mining. Many people who were 
attracted during the great rushes in the year 1818, in time 
finding their occupation gone, had then to turn their attention 
to the cultivation of the soil. This had the effect of opening out 
the country, and now that its capabilities for the production of 
grain and fruits was being better known, numbers of settlers were 
leaving the Prairie States where the terrible tornadoes and 
blasting winter storms formed such a contrast to the genial climate 
of Southern California. Santa Barbara, 300 miles south of San 
Francisco, was the most favoured as a winter resort. It was on 
the sea-coast, and was sheltered from the north and east by the 
Sierra Madre mountains. It had some capital hotels, good 
stores, beautiful walks and drives, interesting old ruins, and the 
most lovely country and coast scenery to be found anywhere. 
It was easily reached by boat from either San Pedro or San 
Francisco, or by coach from Newhall, the nearest station on the 
Southern Pacific Railroad. Allusion was made to the walnut 
orchards, and the rapidity of growth of some trees. A blue gum 
tree (Eucalyptus Globulus) of only six years’ growth had been 
cut down in Mr. Kay’s presence and found to be 60 feet long 
and 18 inches in diameter. Great strides had been made in the 
careful and scientific culture of fruits. Observations on olive, 
lemon, and lime cultivation, and the manufacture of olive oil, 
were made; and Mr. Kay depicted the beautiful sight afforded 
by orange groves when the round, shapely, and dark foliaged 
trees were covered with a profusion of bright yellow oranges. 
Some trees would produce 2,000 oranges annually. The vine 
flourished well in Southern California. In the lovely valley of 
Montecito, a few miles from Santa Barbara, there was still to be 
seen one of the oldest grape vines in the State. There was 
a pretty legend in connection with it. It was said that the slip 
from which this now immense vine had grown was given to a 
young Spanish girl by her lover when she was leaving sunny 
Spain for this distant land. Her first care was to plant this 
token of love, and, so the legend runs, she watered it with her 
tears. A portion of the stem of this vine was exhibited at the 
Centennial Exhibition held at Philadelphia in 1878. Pumpkins 
of enormous dimensions were sometimes grown. Within one 
which was exhibited at a fair at Santa Barbara, and which had 
