HORTICULTURE OF CALIFORNIA. H 



would be held in the City of Ottawa, on the 19th, 20th, and 21st 

 of February, and extending a cordial invitation to this Society to 

 send one or more delegates to the meeting. Also that in connec- 

 tion with this Convention, an exhibition of winter fruits would be 

 held, and asking this Society to appoint a competent judge to act 

 with another, to be appointed by the Western New York Horticul- 

 tural Society, in awarding the prizes. It was voted to accept the 

 invitation of the Montreal Horticultural Society, and O. B. 

 Hadwen was appointed Delegate and Judge. 



Adjourned to Saturday, January 18, 1890, at half past eleven 

 o'clock. 



MEETING FOR DISCUSSION. 



A lecture was expected from Professor G. H. Whitcher, of the 

 New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station, on the " Growth 

 and Nutrition of Plants." Professor "Whitcher was, however, 

 owing to the delay of a railroad train, not present. In place of 

 that paper there was given an impromptu talk, from recent 

 observations in the Golden State, upon the 



Horticulture of California. 

 By Bexjamin p. Ware, -Clifton, Mass. 



Mr. "Ware said that, being entirely unprepared to speak, his 

 remarks might be somewhat rambling. The subject is so vast 

 that it would require some time to give a full account of it. 

 Everything connected with California is on a vast scale, and the 

 people express themselves largely, and he did not wonder at it. 

 He began by giving a description of a ranch, as they call a farm 

 in that State. He selected the estate of General John Bid well, 

 who went to California in 1847, and soon acquired possession of 

 one of the great Spanish grants — probably forty thousand acres. 

 Here he began a town, called Chico, which now has six thousand 

 inhabitants. It is beautifully located and can be thoroughly 

 irrigated. As you enter the estate by a long avenue lined with 

 beautiful trees, you first come to a cherry orchard, where there is 

 one tree five feet through at the base. Next there is an apricot 

 orchard of hundreds of acres, the rows of trees extending as far 

 as one can see. To utilize these fruits. General Bidwell has a 



