140 



THE CANADIAN HOKTICULTURIST. 



mid the satisfaction is correspondingly 

 greater. 



After anotlier season's lessons I may 

 take lip this subject again, but next 

 month I will take up some of our other 

 flowering garden plants that I iind 

 most satisfactory here. 



FREDERICK Mitchell, 



Innerkip, April 1st, ISSo. 



NOTES FROiJ CALIFORNIA. 



Last fall one of our most successful 

 fruit raisers left this country for Cali- 

 fornia. He owned a beautiful fruit 

 farm of fifty aci'es a few miles from 

 Hamilton, on which was cultivated all 

 varieties of fruit, beginning with straw- 

 berries, currants, gooseberries, rasp- 

 benies, cherries, blackberries, peaches, 

 pears, crabs, grapes, and apples — in 

 fact every fruit that is grown. He 

 had a beautiful place, which should 

 have satisfied any man ; but his health 

 becoming impaired, he was recom- 

 mended to go to Los Angelos in Cali- 

 fornia ; so he rented his fruit farm for 

 a term of years, and with his wife and 

 family went to his new home ; and 

 this is how he writes to a friend de- 

 scribing the country and its capabili- 

 ties. He begins by stating that his 

 health is very much improved .since he 

 arrived last November. The climate is 

 delightful ; they only had the tempera- 

 ture down to freezing jwint twice be- 

 fore Christmas, and no frost since. 

 The weather is like June in Ontario, 

 for the grass and wheat are in as ad- 

 vanced a stage of growth as they are 

 in the month of June here. He goes 

 on to describe a piece of property 

 which he purchased. It is on a street 

 named Euclid Avenue, which must be 

 a remarkable street, for it is seven 

 miles long ; it has tvro drive-tracks, 

 and between these tracks in the centre 

 of the I'oad is a double track for street 

 cars ; there are four rows of trees the 

 entire length, with palm tx-ees at the 



upper end of the avenue, which is at 

 the foot of the Sierra Nevada Moun- 

 tains, and the whole avenue is lighted 

 up at night with electric lights. The 

 writer then says he bought ten acres' 

 of good land for two hundred dollars 

 an acre. The land is in good condi- 

 tion, and he says he will plant tAvo and 

 a- half acres with fruit right away : the 

 varieties are described as berries, apri- 

 cots, prunes, peaches, nectarines, pears, 

 ap])les, guavas, persimmons, tigs, grapes, 

 English walnuts, dates, filberts, pecans, 

 oranges, limes, and lemons. All these 

 fruits grow to perfection. "We intend 

 after awhile to set out ten acres more 

 in oranges, limes, and lemons. At this 

 date there are green peas and garden 

 vegetables in plenty, which are hawked 

 round by Chinamen and sold very 

 cheap. Roses and all vai-ieties of 

 flowers are in full bloom ; and the soil 

 is so prolific that if you put a slip of 

 any kind of rose in the ground it will 

 take root. 



When I was travelling throuffh the 

 country from Canada I saw some curi- 

 ous sights ; we passed by miles of 

 cactus, some of them of enormous 

 growth, some forty feet high, and froni 

 eighteen inches to 2 feet in diameter. 

 There is one variety which has broad 

 flat leaves, grows from twelve to fif- 

 teen feet high, and has large berries 

 on it that resemble Lombard j)lums. 



The writer then goes on to state the 

 prices of different articles used in the 

 household affairs, which are very rea- 

 sonable. One article we will mention, 

 that is flour. He says it is lovely 

 roller flour, better than he can get in 

 Canada, at least he gets nicer bread 

 from it, and only $2 40 per 100 lbs. 



In describing the locality where he 

 has pitched his tent, he f-ays they re- 

 side in a beautiful valley entirely sur- 

 rounded by hills, which rise gi-adually 

 away, till you can see a high mountain 

 the top of which has peri^etual snow 



