275 
crops. The price the past season for best apples, pears and peaches, was $40 
per ton; plums five cents per pound. Our Yuba correspondent says: 
Nearly all the fruits are adapted to our soil and climate. The apple, peach, plum, nectarine, 
apricot, cherry, quince, pear, fig, pomegranate, orange, lime, lemon, currant, ete., not only 
do well, but excel anything I ever saw. The grape, for wine and raisins, is perhaps des- 
tined to be one of the fruits most extensively cultivated. The yield is immense, and the 
profit very great. A vineyard of ten acres will yield a clear profit of $5,000 per annum, 
and orchards from $250 to $1,000 per acre, according to the kinds of fruit. 
A correspondent in Amador says that he gathered three crops of apples from 
the same tree last year. 
Los Angeles had, in 1866, nearly 2,000 lemon trees, 9,000 orange trees, 
3,000,000 grape-vines, and made 600,000 gallons of wine and 20,000 gallons 
of brandy. Sonoma had over 2,800,000 vines and made nearly 200,000 gallons 
of wine and nearly 7,000 gallons of brandy. Santa Clara had 2,000,000 vines. 
In the State, according to the assessors’ reports, there were, in 1866, nearly 
1,700,000 apple trees, 480,000 pear trees, 1,090,000 peach trees, 234,000 plum 
trees, 28,000 almond trees, 17,000 English walnut trees, 13,000 olive trees, 
2,000 lemon trees, 11,000 orange trees, and nearly 20,000,000 grape-vines—the 
numbers of each rapidly increasing. 
OREGON. 
1. From Oregon our reports are quite meagre; but four counties—Columbia 
and Multnomah on the northern border, and Lane and Douglas in about the 
centre of the tier of ecast counties and of the settled portions of the State— 
returning answers to our circular. Columbia reports an increase of 50 per 
cent. in the value of farm lands since 1860, and Multnomah puts the advance 
as high as 100 per cent. Our Lane reporter writes : 
Probably about 10 per cent. ; but lands do not change owners in general, so as to ascer- 
tain the exact rate of increase; and we have to estimate chiefly by what the farmers seem to 
think their lands worth. 
In 1860 the gold mines in Douglas attracted settlers; and the agricultural 
lands were taken up in small farms, and more cultivated than at present; but 
the mines having failed, and the population attracted thereby dispersed, the 
farms are in fewer hands, and much that was cultivated is now in pasture. 
No advance in price. 
2. Lane county returns $2 per acre as the average value of unimproved lands 
in that county; a portion prairie, but mostly adjacent to hills or mountains ; 
quality various—some quite good, but the declivities and barren hills detract 
from the immediate value of many tracts. In Columbia $3 50 is the average 
per acre; mostly timber and brush land; such timber as yellow and white 
fir, hemlock, spruce, cedar, soft maple, ash, and alder. In the eastern part 
of the county it is black mold underlaid with clay; advancing west it 
changes to a light sandy loam; will produce good grain, grass, and vegetables. 
The average in Multnomah is $1 50 per acre, including government lands ; 
chiefly dry, timbered lands of fine quality, cedar, ash, oak, maple, and hem- 
lock ; capable of raising all kinds of grain and fruits suited to the latitude. 
Much of the surface of Douglas county is mountainous, and most of that which 
will serve for pasture is in private hands; but as there are still government 
lands vacant, unimproved lands cannot rate much above the minimum for public 
lands. Probably two-thirds of the lands of the State are for sale at govern- 
ment prices; settlements now being principally confined to a strip bordering 
upon the Pacific and embracing about one-third of the area of the State. 
3. Columbia and Multnomah report iron ore in great abundance, and the former 
also coal and salt, with but little development beyond sufficient to demonstrate 
the presence of the minerals in large quantities, of superior quality, and easily 
worked. Both gold and silver are found in Douglas county, but not in large 
