196 MASSACHUSETTS HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



variety of fruits. The apple, the pear, the peach, the persimmon, 

 the plum and prune, the apricot, and grapes in great variety ; also 

 the fig, orange, lemon, lime, olive, guava, and banana, with 

 almonds, chestnuts, pecans, E)nglish walnuts, — in fact every 

 product, seemingl}', can be grown in California — and who can want 

 more? In her flora is found an equally great variety, and in 

 either summer or winter they are in readiness to decorate the 

 houses and rooms and banquets with the best effect. Fruits and 

 flowers were in great profusion, with a boutonni^re of exquisite 

 beauty and taste at each plate. Following the example of the 

 ladies of California, which we deemed worth}' of imitation, we 

 tasted the wines and other good cheer, and coHgratulated the 

 Californians that they could sit under their own vines and fig- 

 trees, feast upon their abundance, and have a large surplus for 

 their less fortunate neighbors. The company was made up of 

 representatives from all the States of the Union excepting four, — 

 delegates from the Granges and their invited guests, including 

 many State officials. After the banquet, music and speeches were 

 in order, all expressive of good feeling and good cheer. Taking 

 it as a whole — the hall, the decorations, the tables, and the com- 

 pany, the banquet may well be described as of the highest order. 



The ranch of General Bidwell, at Chico, of about 30,000 acres, 

 is one of the finest I saw in California. The grounds about the 

 mansion are tastefully embellished with beautiful trees in endless 

 variety as well as flowering shrubs and plants, artistically 

 grouped and looking remarkably thrifty. There were also on the 

 place beautiful orchards of the cherry, — the finest I ever saw. The 

 trees wez'e very shapely and some of the trunks measured five feet 

 in diameter. Those trees were probably planted about thirty-five 

 years ago. There were extensive orchards of apple trees, shapely 

 and well cared for ; also large orchards of the peach, with well 

 pruned branches, and very many trunks were each more than a 

 foot in diameter. Orchards of the plum and apricot were exten- 

 sive, set in rows absolutely straight, and with the high culture 

 bestowed upon them all thej' could not help producing abundant 

 crops. 



The plantations of the fig were, to our unaccustomed ej'es, very 

 unique. I should think the trees reached the height of nearly if 

 not quite sixty feet, and a diameter of trunk of two feet or even 

 more ; it was certainlj' the finest orchard of the fig I saw in Cal- 



