AGRICULTURE, 241 



with a stein little larger than a goosequill, and which I cut 

 down within a few inches of the ground. It is now a tree 

 twenty feet high, sixteen feet through the top, with branches 

 starting from the surface of the earth. The body below the 

 branches is twenty-four inches in circumference .... A Glout 

 Morceau dwarf pear tree, planted in 1855, when it had grown 

 one year from the bud, is now ten feet high, four feet through 

 the top, and measures ten inches round the body at the ground, 

 branching about one foot from the surface. A Beurre Diel 

 dwarf, planted in January, 1856, is now seven feet high, three 

 feet through the top, and ten inches in circumference at the 

 ground. A dwarf May Duke cherry, planted in 1856, is now 

 thirteen feet high, and thirteen and a half inches in circum- 

 ference at the ground. An Old Mixon peach, planted in 1855, 

 and cut down within a few inches of the ground, is now twenty 

 feet high, twenty-two feet through the top, and the trunk 

 twenty-eight inches in circumference. A seedling peach, seed- 

 planted in January, 1858, is now eight feet high and well 

 branched, and the trunk four and a half inches in circumfer- 

 ence at the ground. The growth of trees, vines, and shrubs, 

 is about double that of similar kinds on the rich prairie-soils 

 of Northern Indiana." 



In 1858, a sprig of a peach tree, a foot long, was stuck into 

 the ground on the Bay-State ranch ; the next year it bore fruit. 

 It may be set down as a general rule that, previous to the time 

 of bearing fruit, trees in California make twice as much wood 

 in a year as they do in the Middle States. 



In Alameda County, plum trees have grown twelve feet in 

 one year from the bud. 



The trees commence to bear fruit at about half the age at 

 which they bear in the Atlantic States. An apple orchard in 

 New York begins to bear in its fifth or sixth year ; in Califor- 

 nia, in its second or third. 



The variety of climates, and the freedom from frosts, severe 

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