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122 



&l)e .farmer's Iilontl)lij fajgitor. 



ter, as the little stream which traverses it is dry 

 during the hot season. 



The ports of Alta California are San Francis- 

 co (formerly Yerua Buena,) San Diego, arid San 



Pedro. The others are only roadsteads, and il 

 the entrance to San Francisco and San Diej:o is 

 exposed, that to San Pedro and the other harbors 

 is dangerous. 1 do not know with what motive 

 the Bay of San Francisco has been chosen as 

 the principal port; for although it is of immense 

 size, the violent winds which prevail in it render 

 it dangerous for vessels which may seek it as a 

 shelter. The water at San Francisco is had. 

 The place is situated on a mountain, and is 

 composed of eighty to a hundred houses of 

 wood. The sail is very sterile, for it is nothing 

 but sand ; but it is true that this is the point 

 nearest to the placers. 



The country about Monterey is more level, but 

 it is also barren, and the population of the place 

 is insignificant. The pine forests which termi- 

 nate here are very thin. At Santa Barbara there 

 is more vegetation, but it is a point of no im- 

 portance, and is remarkable for nothing but its 

 line church, and the stone house belonging to 

 the mission. 



San Diego is fit for nothing but to contain a 

 garrison. All the places which 1 have named 

 are inferior to the plains of Perole in the month 

 of January. During the month of May the cold 

 is insupportable even to acclimated Europeans. 



Judging from the nature of the mountains, J 

 believe the country to abound in mines of all 

 descriptions. The 



one has made a fortune as the product of the 

 placers. 1 have seen many companies wash an 

 infinite number of cradles' iidl of earth of which 

 the greater part did not yield a particle of the 

 precious metal. The richest that I have seen 

 washed yielded twelve dollars. 



It is impossible to describe the sufferings en- 

 dured by those who go to the placers. The 

 price "of passage to Stockton is thirty dollars, 

 and baggage is charged six dollars per twenty- 

 live pounds. From Stockton to the placers of 

 Stanislaus the price is six bitts per pound, the 

 distance being twenty-five leauges. If you em- 

 bark for the Sacramento you have to pay thirty- 

 five dollars to Sutter's, and fourteen dollars per 

 twenty-five pounds for baggage. From Sutter's 

 to the placers the charge is eight bitts per pound. 

 These are enormous prices for those who have 

 come in companies and have brought provisions 

 for six months. Those who go by land have to 

 purchase bad wagons at from five to six hundred 

 dollars, and oxen, of which three pair are need- 

 ed to a wagon, at from two hundred to two hun- 

 dred and fifty dollars a pair. The natives sell 

 horses for one hundred and thirty dollars which 

 would be well paid for elsewhere at forty dollars. 

 From San Francisco to the placer of Stanislaus 

 it is eighty leauges, and on the whole journey, 

 not a single article of sustenance can be procur- 

 ed, nor is there after passing the rancho of Lo 

 Positos any place to pass the night except in the 

 open field. Every moment in crossing these 

 immense deserts of sand, destitute of water, a 

 xistence of the placers of person risks his own life, and sees his animals 



gold cannot be doubted. It is positively stated 

 that there are also mines of silver, copper, tin 

 and other metals. Quicksilver has already been 

 discovered at Nuevo Almaden, Guadalupe ami 

 San Antonio. 1 have visited in person the mines 

 of Almaden. It appears to me that the common 

 product is twenty-five to thirty per cent., while 

 with a belter system five lo sixly per cent, may 

 be produced. I believe that for a mining country 

 California needs the essential of wood. Those 

 who understand mining know what an enormous 

 quantity of wood is necessary for fuel, building 

 and a "thousand other objects. This want is 

 much felt at the quicksilver mines. It appears 

 that coal exists in the country, hut competent 

 persons declare that it is in small quantities, and 

 cannot be made of practical utility. Fine quar- 

 ries have been discovered, and also earth well 

 suited for the manufacture of bricks and tiles. 



I have visited the places where the Russians, 

 English and Canadians bunt the beaver. I have 

 been to the. towns of Stockton, Venecia and 

 Sauraliao. The first is on the bank of the river, 

 on a plain which is inundated dining the rainy 

 reason, though good water is scarcely to he 

 found. This place is composed of seven tents. 

 The second, situated on a barren plain, contains 

 only a single house, and affords only brackish 

 water; the third, established at the fool of a 

 mountain on the borders of the hay, contains 

 two miserable houses. Here there is good wa- 

 ter, hut scarcely any vegetation. That which 

 has been said "concerning these seaport towns, 

 has no other aim than to deceive, and there are 

 n it wanting silly persons to purchase the lands. 

 The authorities were the fiist to practice this 

 hardly honorable system. They have so much 

 exaggerated the merits of this country, which is 

 entirely new to Europeans, that for some time 

 numbers of unfortunate persons will come in 

 search of gold, anil find misery, possibly death 

 by starvation. 



The placi r- ar i ituated, as I have said, at the 

 foot of the Snowy .Mountains, which run north- 

 west. Without visiting them, one can baldly 

 imagine the painful labor demanded by the 

 Working of mines, i can assure you that out of 

 a hundred operatives there are not two who, al- 

 ter paying their considerable expenses, make a 

 profit from finding gold, which is not gathered 

 so easily, with the point of a knife, as has been 

 asserted. It is necessary to make an excavation 

 of two or three yards in length by a yard in 

 depth, in which a person must work with a 

 crow-bar, often up to the knees in water, exposed 

 during the day to a burning sun to be followed 

 in the nielli by severe cold. Only the most ro- 

 bust men accustomed to such fatigue can sup- 

 port it. There are workmen who abandon the 

 mines, having gained absolutely nothing, and not 



perish. 



Many animals are drowned in crossing the San 

 Joaquin and the Stanislaus. 1 have seen many 

 men give up in despair for the mere breaking of 

 a wheel or an axle. It is said that at the placer 

 of Stanislaus and other places there has been an 

 earthquake. 



There may be now at the placers about 13,000 

 men, and I calculate that of this number 3000 

 are Mexicans, 4000 Sandwich Islanders, Peruvi- 

 ans ami Central Americans, 2000 English, Span- 

 ish, French and oilier Europeans, 1000 Califor- 

 llians, and :J000 Americans. About 1000 per- 

 sons are employed in the transport by land and 

 water, 2000 are merchants and traders, 2000 

 drink, gamble and vagabondize, and the other 

 8000 work at the mines, but these are not occu- 

 pied on the average more lhan four days in a 

 week. The whole population is iiilinerant, and 

 many abandon the mines. The new comers at 

 San Francisco shut their ears to advice and 

 evidence, ami mount the ultac of sacrifice, in 

 making themselves arricros, wagoners, &<\, to 

 overcome the distance which separates them 

 from the placers. 



The Americans are charmed with a country 

 which presents so vast a field for the exercise of 

 their industry; but every sensible man knows 

 that if any thing was to be gained, the mission- 

 aries, with their great resources and the know- 

 ledge they certainly bad, would not have failed 

 lo turn it lo advantage. They would have 

 founded in this country, as in all others, great 

 centres of agriculture ami population. 



The possession of Alta California by the Uni- 

 ted Stales will prove a great benefit lo South and 

 Central America, and also to the inhabitants of 

 lie- .Mexican Pacific polls. 



I believe that the Republic of Chili will suffer 

 in some degree in its foreign commerce from 

 the Americans making San Francisco a depot. 

 Valparaiso will diminish in importance; bill 

 Chili will be compensated by sending its grain 

 to California, and by the revenue il will derive 

 from coal, which it possesses in abundance. 

 The con i me ice of Central America will increase : 

 ihe Pacific ports will more easily receive the 

 merchandise of Europe, and better than any 

 other countries, by reason of their proximity, 

 can send their agricultural products to San Fran- 

 cisco, This circumstance will give more im- 

 portance lo the States of Mexico, Siualon, Jalisco 

 ami Sonora. 



Oregon and Vancouver's Island will also prufit 

 by the California immigration. The first will 

 -end wood for building am! other necessary ob- 

 jects. The second will furnish coal, which it 

 possesses in abundance and of good quality. 



From Ihe Western Farmer and Gardener. 

 On the practical use of Leaves. 

 There are two facts in the functions of the leaf 

 which are worth consideration on account of 

 their practical bearings. The food of plants is, 

 for the most part, taken in solution through the 

 roots. Various minerals — silex, lime, alumina, 

 magnesia, potash — are passed into the tree in a 

 dissolved state. The sap passes to the leaf, the 

 superfluous water is given off, hut not the sub- 

 stances which it held in solution. These, ill 

 part, are distributed through the plant, and, in 

 part, remain as a deposit in the cells of the leaf. 

 Gradually the leaf chokes up, its functions are 

 impeded, and finally entirely stopped. When 

 the leaf drops it contains a large per cent, of 

 mineral matter. An autumnal or old leaf yields, 

 upon analysis, a very much larger proportion of 

 earthy mailer than a vernal leaf, which, being 

 yet young, has not received within its cells any 

 considerable deposit. It will be found, also, that 

 the leaves contain a very much higher per cent, 

 of mineral matter than the wood of the trunk. 

 The dried leaves of the elm contain more than 

 eleven per cent, of ashes, (earthy matter,) while 

 the wood contains less than two per cent. ; those 

 of the willow more than eight per cent., while 

 the wood was only 0.45 ; those of the beech, 

 6.69, the wood only 0.36; those of the (Europe- 

 an) oak, 4.05, the wood only 0.21 ; those of the 

 pitch pine, 3.15, the wood only 0.25 per cent.* 



It is very plain, from these facts, that, in forests, 

 the mineral ingredients of the soil perform a 

 sort of circulation ; entering the root, they are 

 deposited in the leaf; then, with its fall to the 

 earth, and by its decay, they are restored to the 

 soil, again to travel their circuit. Forest soils, 

 therefore, instead of being impoverished by ihe 

 growth of trees, receive back annually the great- 

 est proportion of those mineral elements neces- 

 sary tu the tree, and, besides, much organized 

 matter received into the plant from the atmos- 

 phere ; soils therefore are gaining instead of 

 losing. If the owner of parks or groves, for 

 neatness' sake, or to obtain leaves for other pur- 

 poses, gathers the annual harvest of leaves, he 

 will in time take away great quantities of mine- 

 ral matter, by which the soil ultimately will he 

 impoverished, unless it is restored by manures 

 Leaf manure has always been held in high es- 

 teem by gardeners. But many regard it as a 

 purely vegetable substance ; whereas, it is the 

 best mineral manuie that can be applied to ihe 

 soil. What are called vegetable loams, (not peat 

 soils, made up principally of decomposed roots,) 

 contain huge quantities of earthy matter, being 

 mineral-vegetable rather than vegetable soils. 



Every gardener should know that the best 

 manure for any plant is the decomposed leaves 

 and substance uf its own species. This fact will 

 suggest ihe proper course with reference to the 

 leaves, lops, vines, haulm, and ether vegetable 

 refuse of the garden. 



The other fact connected with the leaf, is i IS 

 function of exhalation. The greatest proportion 

 of crude sap which ascends the trunk, upon 

 reaching the leaf, is given forth again lo the at- 

 mosphere by means of a particularly beautiful 

 economy. The quantity of moisture produced 

 by a plant is hardly dreamed of by lliose who 

 have not specially informed themselves. The 

 experiments of Hales have been often quoted. 

 A sunflower, three and a half feet high, present- 

 ing a surface of 5.616 square inches exposed to 



The earth is said to be 7616 miles in diameter. 



"See Dr. Gray's Bol .nic Text Bc.ok — an admirable 

 work, which every horticulturist should own and study. 



