PART TWO: CULTURAL 



CHAPTER VII 

 CLEARING LAND FOR FRUIT 



The greater part of the orchard and vineyard area of this State 

 was naturally almost clear for planting. The removal of large trees, 

 which paid the cost of the work in firewood, or the grubbing out of 

 willows on some especially rich bottom land, was about the extent 

 of clearing which our earlier planters had to undertake, and many 

 of them perhaps never had to lift an axe. Still there has always 

 been some clearing done, here and there, even since the earliest 

 days, especially upon hill lands, the peculiar value of which for 

 some fruits is generally recognized. 



The lands which need clearing are in the main the foot-hill slopes 

 of the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada. In the south there is 

 besides, sometimes, the debris of the desert flora to clear away when 

 water is secured and the rich wilderness is subdued. This work is, 

 however, so easily accomplished that it hardly rises to the dignity 

 of ''clearing," as understood by the Eastern mind. 



It is not possible in this connection to enumerate all of the great 

 variety of shrubs and trees which the settler lays low in his clearing. 

 The grand trees which figure most largely in lumbering operations 

 are not met with as a rule in foot-hill clearings. The trees which 

 the settler encounters are rather the degraded valley growths, which, 

 though assuming grand proportions in the valleys, become "scrubs" 

 amid the harsher environment of the hillsides. This is notably true 

 of the oaks and of some other trees. 



Chamisal and Chaparral. Of true shrubs to be removed, it will 

 only be possible to name a few of the most abundant. The common 

 manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita) occurs on dry ridges every- 

 where, both on the coast and at great elevations, sometimes only 

 growing a few inches from the ground, sometimes rising eight or 

 ten feet. Next to this, perhaps, the two terms which the land clearer 

 has most to use are "chaparral" and "chamisal." To distinguish 

 between them it may be said, however, that the term chamisal 

 properly applies to the shrub Adenostoma fasciculatum var. obtusi- 

 folium, which is abundant on dry soils in the Coast Ranges and more 

 rarely in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, often covering extensive 

 areas with dense and almost impenetrable growth, producing an 

 effect on the landscape like that of the heaths of the Old World. 



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