186 RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA. 
from the bud, is now ten feet high, four feet through the top, 
and measures ten inches round the body at the ground, branch- 
ing about one foot from the surface. A Beurre Diel dwarf, 
planted in January, 1856, is now seven feet high, three feet 
through the top, and ten inches in circumference at the ground. 
A dwarf May Duke cherry, planted in 1856, is now thirteen 
feet high, and thirteen and a half inches in circumference at 
‘the ground. An Old Mixon peach, planted in 1855, and cut 
down within a few inches of the ground, is now twenty feet 
high, twenty-two feet through the top, and the trunk twenty- 
eight inches in circumference. <A seedling peach, seed planted 
in January, 1858, is now eight feet high and well branched, and 
the trunk four and a half inches in circumference at the ground. 
The growth of trees, vines, and shrubs, is about double that of 
similar kinds on the rich prairie-soils of Northern Indiana.” 
In 1858, a sprig of a peach-tree, a foot long, was stuck into 
the ground on the Bay-state ranch; the next year it bore fruit. 
It may be set down as a general rule that, previous to the time 
of bearing fruit, trees in California make twice as much wood 
in a year as they do in the middle states. 
In Alameda county, plum-trees have grown twelve feet in 
one year from the bud. 
The trees commence to bear fruit at about half the age at 
which they bear in the Atlantic states. An apple-orchard in 
New York begins to bear in its fifth or sixth year; in Califor- 
nia, in its second or third. 
The variety of climates, and the freedom from frosts, severe _ 
cold, and furious storms, protect us against a failure of the 
fruit-crop. 
Our apples, pears, apricots, and plums, are larger than the 
same varieties usually are elsewhere; other fruits are about & 
the same in size. 
§ 145. Apples.—The Spanish Californians had a few apple- 
trees, but they were seedlings of a poor class. The first good 
apples were imported from Oregon in 1849; but the varieties 
were few, and the trees did not thrive. Either the stock was 
