432 [Assembly 



eighty feet in height, the first two hundred and fifty feet without 

 a branch or limb — an extent of growth so far beyond the ordinary 

 size as to seem almost incredible, but well known, and seen, and 

 verified, by the uniform and concurrent testimony of many whom 

 I see setting around me. And we.have some still larger and tall- 

 er specimens of other things nearer home, here in our own city, 

 to which many who hear me will bear witness from experience, 

 and which comes to maturity " monthly in advance" — rents, the 

 tallest kind of rents, put up higher than the pines, and sometimes 

 harder to get round than the red-wood ! I hold in my hand a 

 statement signed by twelve citizens of the country of Santa Cruz, 

 Messrs. McLean, Gibson, Malison, Peck, Clements, Pedroit, Mills, 

 Stevens, McHenry, Sanborn, Kifta and Loveland — gentlemen of 

 unquestionable integrity, an extract from which is as follows : 



. ; f' On land owned and cultivated by Mr. James Wilson, an onion 

 grew to the enormous weight of 21 lbs. ; on this same land a tur- 

 nip was grown which equalled exactly in size the head of a flour 

 barrel. On land owned and cultivated by Thomas Fallen, a cab- 

 bage grew which measured while growing, 13 feet 6 inches around 

 its body ; the weight is not known. The various cereal grains 

 -also grow to a height of from 6 to 12 feet ; one red- wood tree in 

 the valley, known as Fremont's tree, measures over 50 feet in 

 circumference, and is nearly 300 feet high." Added to these as- 

 tonishing productions are a beet grown by Mr. Isaac Brannan, at 

 San Jose, weighing 63 pounds ; carrots three feet in length, weigh- 

 ing 40 pounds. 



At Stockton, a turnip Aveighing 100 pounds. In the latter 

 city, at a dinner party for 12 persons, of a single potato, larger 

 than the size of an ordinary hat, all partook, leaving at least the 

 half untouched. 



These may be superlatives, but they do exist, and they show 

 what our climate and soil are capable of producing. Nor are 

 these more seemingly incredible than the well known fact, of a 

 portion of our State, nearly 600 miles in length and 50 in breadth, 

 whose every foot of ground, from hill-top to valley, is more or 



