26 Importance of Moderation. 
which can be fairly put to a juicy fruit, and the demonstration 
of the service of clear, unobstructed sunshine through an ade- 
quate period is complete. But if this can not be done, place the 
judgment upon the mature peach carefully sun-dried and intel- 
ligently cooked, or upon the ripe peach skilfully canned, and the 
distinctive adaptations of California for fruit production will dis- 
play themselves. 
But there are other agencies involved in the perfection of 
fruit than intensity and duration of heat and light. Without 
adequate moisture in the soil, the air which we have credited 
with such benign power in carrying heat and light for perfection 
of fruit would transmit the same as agencies for the destruction 
of the tree which bears it. If this moisture comes from rainfall, 
it descends at the time of the year when the tree is least active, 
consequently is least retarded by a clouded sky and mousture- 
laden air, and least affected by atmospheric disturbances. Strong 
storm winds find the tree with reefed sails, and able to endure 
pressure which would tear it to pieces if they came upon its grand 
spread of foliage on branches heavy with fruit. It is a priceless 
horticultural endowment that no tornado can pierce our protect- 
ing mountain-barriers, and that it is exceedingly rare that our 
local winds disturb the confident swaying of the branches and 
leaf movement beyond the activity which ministers to the sap 
flow. And if the adequate moisture is not from rainstorm, but 
by irrigation, the same facts remain, for the water reaches the 
tree without interrupting its aerial activity. Temperature is 
maintained, light is unobstructed, and the tree is refreshed with 
moisture without the chill and darkness which favor fungoid 
parasites. Of all the ways by which moisture could come to 
soils supporting fruit tree or vine, the natural by its time, and the 
artificial by its method, endow California with the best. 
The characteristics of the California climate which have 
been especially pointed out in this sketch are not propitious to 
fruit culture when they exist to excessive degree, as in some in- 
terior or continental climates. Local conditions of altitude, 
distance from the sea, and exposure to the sweep ot arctic winds, 
induce sudden and great weather changes, which are serious in 
their effects. Excessively low percentage of atmospheric humid- 
ity, in connection with desiccating wind, often produce greater 
evaporation from the leaves than the roots can supply. Exces- 
sively dry air admits a parching sun heat at one time, and at 
another facilitates radiation of heat, until the rapid decline in 
temperature makes killing frosts frequent. It is evident that 
California has these agencies constantly held in check by her 
insular situation and protecting environment, and owes her won- 
derful adaptation to growth of tree and perfection of fruit not 
more to the possession of certain conditions than to the fact of 
their existence in moderation. 
