492 surgeons' reports — California — middle district. 



Many persons are engaged in the cultivation of the grape, which promises fair to become a great 

 and vahiable product of this State. The grapes produced in the mountains are of the most exqui- 

 site Oavor, and the yield to the vine is enormous. Every variety of foreign grape succeeds well in 

 tiie loot-hills of tliese mouutain counties, as well as throughout most parts of the counties of Sac- 

 ramento, San Joaquin, and Stanislaus. On some of the low lauds of the counties last mentioned 

 some varieties of the foreign grape mildew, but such localities aie small in extent. The seavSoa 

 throughout this section of California, during which the grape is maturing, is that of cloudless skies, 

 and the atmosphere being dry no deleterious property is imparted to the growing vine or tender 

 grape. 



The quartz-mines throughout the district are being extensively prospected and worked, and 

 will afford profitable employment for a numerous poi)ulatiou for ages to come. This district might 

 be properly classed as an agricultural and mining section of the country, but the two interests are 

 so nicely blended together that it would be difficult to arrive at a dividing line ; consequently. I 

 shall class its inhabitants as miners, .agriculturists, and traders. The mountain counties are 

 remarkably free from any local morbific iuflueuces, and most of the sickness can be traced to 

 exposure to the vicissitudes of weather during the rainy season. 



The general disposition of the mining-population is rather migratory, and many of them are 

 consequently very improvident, but the life they lead, in my opinion, firs them to become the very 

 best soldiers in the world, and should an emergency ever arise which would require California to 

 j)ut an army in the field, 1 feel sure it would compare well with the very best that could be raised 

 in any other part of our country. The inhabitants of this district are decidedly a newspaper- 

 reading people, and everywhere you find a general difl'usion of knowledge of the passing events in 

 the world. No matter where you travel, in the most hidden recesses of the mountains, you will 

 find the newspaper. The life of the miner is one of great excitement and activity, and the class of 

 men thus engaged in this district is intelligent and enterprising. 



The geographical description of the district is one of mountains and valleys, with a climate 

 unsurpassed for its salubrity and attractiveness. The average tem perature at the city of Sacra- 

 mento during the year is about fifty-nine degrees ; the latitude about thirty-eight and a half degrees 

 north. 



The average temperature for the different mouths of the year is as follows : January, 45° ; Feb- 

 ruary, 48°; March, 510; April, 59°; May, 07° ; June, 71°; July, 73°; August, 73°; September, 

 CGo ; October, 04° ; November, 51'° ; December, 45°. (See comparative meteorological table.) 



Nearly all the rain falls between the months of November and May, the period called the rainy 

 season, as contradistinguished from the dry season, which occupies the remainder of the year. 



The climate of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys differs from that of the neighborhood 

 of Sau Francisco and the coastwise counties. There are no fogs, and only faint sea-breezes ; the 

 winters are four or five degrees colder, and the summers from fifteen to twenty degrees warmer. 

 The excessive heat of summer may be attributed to the want of ocean winds and fogs. The greater 

 cold of winter is caused by the distance from the ocean, and the proximity to the snow-covered 

 mouutaiiis of the Sierra Nevada. Sacramento County, lying near the great gap in the Coast range 

 of mountains, is cooler in summer than any other portion of tlie Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys. 

 In that section of my district embracing within its limits the summit of the Sierra Nevada 

 Mountains, the heat of summer at midday is very nearly the same as in Sacramento County, but 

 the' winter is colder, and snow falls to the depth of from five to fifteen feet, and lies upon the ground 

 for three or four months. Ice forms six to eight inches in thickness in the coldest places, and as 

 the country becomes older will be extensively usetl in the mining towns and cities. During the 

 hot season of the year the nights are always cool and invigorating. 



The average amount of rain annually falling in the valleys of my district is about twenty 

 inches. In the mountains the quantity is much greater. This country is subject to great droughts 

 and great floods. There have been seasons which passed without a sufficient fall of rain to mature 

 grass or any kind of vegetable ; such years, however, seldom occur. When the wind blows from 

 the north wc expect no rain, but when it veers to the south rain may be expected in the course of 

 forty-eight liours. 



Very little electricity is manifested in the clouds at any season of the year, and it is very sel- 



