AGRICULTURE 189 
but nearly all varieties suffer with “the curl,” which has given 
so much trouble during the last two years, that many of the or- 
chards have been cut down. The varieties most free from the 
curl are the Late 4nd Early Crawford, the Late Admirable, and 
the Smock. In the valleys and near the ocean, the peaches are 
not equil, either in size or flavor, to the same varieties on the 
Atlantic slope; but in the Sierra Nevada they are fully equal 
to the Eastern fruit.. The peach does not thrive in the high 
winds which prevail about San Francisco Bay. The trees are 
usually set out in orchard when one year old from the graft or 
bud; in the second year after that, they begin to bear. 
§ 147. Pears.—tThe pear is the most productive and healthy 
of the fruit-trees of California. It thrives in all parts of the 
state, and everywhere its fruit is delicate in flavor and large in 
size. There are pear-trees at San José which produce twenty- 
five hundred pounds or forty bushels each of fruit annually. 
The pear was more cultivated by the Spanish Californians than 
any other fruit; but their varieties were not good, and most of 
the old trees have been grafted with varieties brought from 
the Atlantic states during the last eight years. The varieties 
most prized are the Madeline, Bloodgood, Diane d’été, Dear- 
born’s Seedling, and Bartlett, for summer pears; and the Win- 
ter Nelis, Glout Morceau, Easter Beurre, and Pear d’ Albert, 
for winter. 
Neither tree nor fruit is troubled by any bug, fire-blight, 
sun, or rain. 
§ 148. Apricots and Plums.—The apricot thrives well and 
bears abundantly, especially in the warmer parts of the state. 
The fruit, however, in some places is much eaten by bugs and 
bees. The bugs—some of them of the kind commonly called 
““Lady-bug,” and others similar in appearance and size—eat 
holes in the apricots before they are ripe; and the bees, which 
never break the skin, eat at the holes which the bugs have 
commenced. The apricot-tree is more healthy than the peach, 
‘and produces more abundantly ; and its fruit supplies the place - 
of the peach in many districts. 
