AGRICULTURE. 193 



dollars apiece annually from his bearing trees; but since that 

 time the bugs have injured the crop seriously. 



Tlie tree is very beautiful, and grows continuously. The 

 wood is hard and valuable. The tops grow very bushy, and 

 frequently branches have to be cut out to allow the air to have 

 access to the fruit and leaves ; and sometimes the trees have 

 to be supported, to save them from breaking down under the 

 weight of their fruit. The trees, after setting out in the or- 

 chard, should be irrigated thrice every summer, and, unless 

 the land is rich, should be flianured. 



The bug, a species of Aphis, has fixed itself in most of the 

 bearing trees in the state ; and unless some remedy not now 

 in use be applied, it will probably kill all the trees. Many 

 devices to drive away the pest have been tried in vain. But 

 there must be a bane for this bug : when that bane is once 

 found, the cultivation of the orange will take an important 

 place in the horticulture of the southern part of the state, and 

 therefore every good citizen is interested in finding it. 



§ 151. The Grape. — California is a favorite land of the 

 grape; and indeed many of our vine-growers suppose it to be 

 the best grape country in the world. 



The grape region of California extends from the southern 

 boundary, at latitude 32° 30', to 41°, a distance of five hundred 

 and ninety-five miles from north to south, with an average 

 breadth fiom east to west of about one hundred miles. The 

 Los Angeles grape district is in an open plain about seventy 

 miles long, and reaching back thirty miles from the ocean — 

 bounded on the east by barren, rugged mountains. The So- 

 noma, Napa, and Santa Clara grape districts, are in flat, nar- 

 row valleys, shut in by steep, rugged ridges of the Coast 

 Mountains, between latitude 37° 30' and 39°. The Sacramento 

 grape district is in a flat valley, about half way between moun- 

 tain-ranges fifty miles apart. The graj^e districts of the Sierra 

 Nevada are situated on the western slopes of those high mt.nn- 

 tains, usually in very small dales. 



The soil of the vineyards at Los Angeles and Anaheim is a 

 9 



