26 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



friendly relations existing between the monasteries, the in- 

 terchange of visits between the monks of the different mon- 

 asteries, were of great advantage, for foreign plants and 

 fruits were exchanged and cultivated. 



The monks were the first to devise tools for gardening. 

 They had calendars in which were set down all that experi- 

 ence had taught them respecting the breeding of cattle, the 

 sowing of land, the harvesting of crops and every kind of 

 plantation. William of Malmesbury boasts of the fertility 

 of the valley of Gloucester in wheat, in fruits and in vine- 

 yards, adding that the wines of this province are the best in 

 England and scarcely yield in quality to the wines of France. 

 The best vineyards of Germany belonged not only to the 

 monasteries, but had been planted by them, and we are forced 

 to recognize the judgment with which these first planters 

 selected their grounds. Tradition tells us that the monks of 

 St. Peter in the Black Forest planted the first vines in the 

 neighborhood of Weilheim and Bissingen, and the wine 

 of this latter place is still the best in the whole country. 

 The monks of Lorsch planted the vineyards of Bergstrasse 

 and those along the banks of the Rhine. Epicures when 

 drinking the delicious wine of Johannisberg still recall with 

 gratitude the monastery of Fulda. In every country of 

 P^urope the monks stimulated the progress of agriculture as 

 much by their personal efforts as by the example they gave 

 to others. It was fortunate for the world that the first 

 founders of the religious orders enjoined upon their disciples 

 manual labor rather than spiritual, and that the first monas- 

 teries were founded not in the cities, as those which were 

 founded later, but in the wildest and most unfrequented 

 spots, that were transformed by their activity and labors 

 into the homes of thousands of peaceful and industrious 

 men . 



What I have said of the monks of Europe is equally true 

 of the missions in this country. There was the same evolu- 

 tion and at their dissolution the same fate. 



When Father Junipero Serra and his followers came as 

 Franciscan missionaries and established the chain of missions 

 at San Diego, Los Angeles, San Gabriel, Monterey, Santa 



