rating somewhat extensive groves of these trees, but since their decline, the trees 

 and their culture have been neglected, and the groves in many instances cut down. 

 It is a pleasing fact to know that the attention of American citizens resident in this 

 portion of the State are turning their attention to the propagation of this delicious 

 fruit, and it will be but a very few years before our markets will be supplied from 

 domestic sources entirely. In the Cities of Santa Barbara and Los Angeles and 

 the adjacent Missions I have seen the orange tree forty years old, and in some few 

 instances much older. 



The citron is also another fruit belonging to the same natural family, and was 

 formerly cultivated to a considerable extent, and flourishes well at the present time. 

 I have seen this fruit in the gardens of private residences growing to the size of six 

 inches in length by three inches in diameter, its weight could not have been less 

 than two pounds. 



The date tree, 'fig, pine, apricot, guava, pomegranate and kindred fruits find 

 a congenial climate, and a soil adapted to their successful cultivation, and are to be 

 met with at several points in this section of the country. No attempt, so far as I 

 have been able to learn, has as yet been made to produce the pine-apple, although 

 the climate and all other concomitant conditions of locality essential to its culture 

 abound. Some experiments have been in the culture of tobacco, which have proved 

 highly successful and satisfactory the Cuban variety is found to nourish as well here 

 as upon its native soil ; the great consumption of this article in California will ren 

 der its cultivation an object of some considerable importance, and as so little care 

 and labor is necessary in rearing it here, it is more than probable that but a few 

 years will elapse before it will find a place in our commercial tables, as an article of 

 home production, and perhaps of export. 



The climatal conditions of these plains, and the adaptability of their soils are 

 such that we may reasonably expect, ere a few years shall pass, that cotton, coffee, 

 tea, sugar and rice, the four latter articles particularly, will find a place in our cata 

 logues of home productions, and the only impediment that now stands in the way of 

 their immediate production, is the high price of labor which is consequent upon the 

 sparseness of population. The unoccupied or rather unimproved lands extending 

 from Point Aguilla to San Diego on the land of the coast, and into the interior for 

 distances varying from twelve to fifty or sixty miles, and the extensive valley ranges 

 beyond the first and eastern line of ridges of the San Bernardino mountains offer 

 strong inducements to the immigrant and settler who may be seeking a permanent 

 and agreeable home, and who wishes to cultivate the soil as a means of livelihood 

 and source of profit. To such this district of the State furnishes an ample field for 

 his operations, and equally profitable with any other portion of our wide domain. 



