Fruits at the Missions. 45 
to the secular head of the expedition to San Diego, Don Joseph 
de Galvez, representing the king of Spain, for ordering the car- 
tying of seeds of fruits, grains, vegetables, and flowers into the 
new territory, and from the planting at San Diego the same 
varieties were taken to the twenty missions afterwards estab- 
lished. 
Kinds of Fruit at the Missions—It is of no little interest to 
ascertain how great a variety of fruits was grown in these mis- 
sion orchards. Vancouver, in 1792, found a fine orchard at 
Santa Clara, with apple, peach, pear, apricot, and fig trees, all 
thrifty and promising. He also describes at the mission of San 
Buena Ventura apples, pears, plums, figs, oranges, grapes, and 
peaches and pomegranates. Robinson described the orchards 
connected with the Mission of San Gabriel as very extensive, 
having among their trees oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, 
peaches, pomegranates, and figs. There were also grapes in 
abundance. Edwin Bryant noticed at San Luis Obispo Mis- 
sion the orange, fig, palm, olive, and grape. At the Mission 
San Jose he found an inclosure oi fifteen or twenty acres, the 
whole of which was planted with trees and grape-vines. There 
were six hundred pear trees and a large number of apple and 
peach trees, all bearing fruit in great abundance and in full per- 
fection. The quality of the pears he found excellent, but the 
apples and peaches indifferent. E. S. Capron, in a general enu- 
meration of the fruits grown at the missions, includes cherries. 
Early Planting by Others than the Padres—Though the ear- 
lier Spanish population had the example of successful horticul- 
ture before them for half a century at the missions, they did not 
seem inclined to emulate the efforts of the padres upon their 
own grounds, except in occasional instances. General Vallejo 
planted fruit trees in Sonoma Valley as early as 1830, and of his 
place it is said: “It is an old and well-cultivated place, well known 
in all the northern portion of California while this State was still 
Mexican territory.” Exceptions there were, also, at the south. 
The old fruit garden on the Cumulos Rancho, in Ventura County, 
has become famous. Fremont, writing of his observations in 
1846, says that among the arid, brush-covered hills south of San 
Diego he found little valleys converted by a single spring into 
crowded gardens, where pears, peaches, quinces, pomegranates, 
grapes, olives, and other fruits grew luxuriantly together. 
Scarcely had six years elapsed subsequent to the settlement 
of the pueblo of San Jose on its present site, before the inhabit- 
ants were enjoying the benefits of luxurious fruits. Before 1805 
more was grown than could be disposed of in its natural state. 
Decline of the Mission Orchards.—Vhe decline of most of the 
mission orchards and gardens followed the secularization of the 
