AGRICULTURE 189 



but nearly all varieties suffer with "the curl," which has given 

 so much trouble during the last two years, that many of the or- 

 chards have been cut down. The varieties most ft-ee from the 

 curl are the Late and Early Crawford, the Late Admirable, and 

 the Smock. In the valleys and near the ocean, the peaches are 

 not equal, either in size or flavor, to the same varieties on the 

 Atlantic slope ; but in the Sierra Nevada they are fully equal 

 to the Eastern fruit. The peach does not thrive in the high 

 winds which prevail about San Francisco Bay. The trees are 

 usually set out in orchard when one year old from the graft or 

 bud ; in the second year after that, they begin to bear. 



§ 147. Pears. — The pear is the most productive and healthy 

 of the fruit-trees of California. It thrives in all parts of the 

 state, and everywhere its fruit is delicate in flavor and large in 

 size. There are pear-trees at San Jose which produce twenty- 

 five hundred pounds or forty bushels each of fruit annually. 

 The pear was more cultivated by the Spanish Californians than 

 any other fruit ; but their varieties were not good, and most of 

 the old trees have been grafted with varieties brought from 

 the Atlantic states during the last eight years. The varieties 

 most prized are the Madeline, Bloodgood, Diane d'ete. Dear- 

 born's Seedling, and Bartlett, for summer pears ; and the Win- 

 ter Nelis, Glout Morceau, Easter Beurre, and Pear d' Albert, 

 for winter. 



Neither tree nor fruit is troubled by any bug, fire-blight, 

 sun, or rain. 



§ 148. Apricots and Plums. — The apricot thrives well and 

 bears abundantly, especially in the warmer parts of the state. 

 The fruit, however, in some places is much eaten by bugs and 

 bees. The bugs — some of them of the kind commonly called 

 *' Lady-bug," and others similar in appearance and size — eat 

 holes in the apricots before they are ripe ; and the bees, which 

 never break the skin, eat at the hoh^s which the bugs have 

 commenced. The apricot-tree is more healthy than the peach, 

 and produces more abundantly ; and its fruit supplies the place 

 of the peach m many districts. 



