SPRING ON THE MESA 



WHEN does spring come in California? It is 

 not to be answered in a word. California, 

 like Mexico, includes several zones on end. From 

 the alpine heights of Whitney or Shasta, two and 

 three-quarter miles up in the air, where snow lies 

 all the year, to certain semi-tropic nooks in the 

 Coast country where with watchfulness the papaya 

 and the avocado will ripen in the open, includes 

 pretty much the whole range of climate from the 

 Frigid Zone to the Torrid. Obviously spring can- 

 not come to all on the same day in the calendar. 

 But even in the relatively equable valleys and mesa 

 lands of the central and southern parts of the State 

 where snow never falls, there are two ways of look- 

 ing at the matter. In one sense, the California 

 spring may be said to begin with the ending of the 

 dry season and the coming of the rains in October or 

 November; to suffer a temporary check with the 

 lower temperatures of what the rest of the United 

 States calls winter-time; and with the strengthen- 



