46 Planting by Early Settlers. 
establishments in 1834. There were a few exceptions, where the 
mission lands fell into enterprising Spanish or American hands. 
During the years of neglect, the more tender trees died, and the 
more hardy survived. The pear and the olive vied with the vine 
in withstanding drouth and the trampling and browsing of the 
cattle that roamed unmolested through the deserted gardens. 
These pears, as will be described presently, were turned to good 
account by the early American settlers; the olive and the vine 
furnished cuttings for most of the plantations made during the 
first twenty years or more of American occupation. 
But it seems that not all the mission orchards were per- 
mitted to fall into decay after the secularization. In 1846 Bry- 
ant found at the Mission San Jose two gardens inclosed by high 
adobe walls. The area was from fifteen to twenty acres, all of 
which was planted with fruit trees and vines. There were about 
six hundred pear trees and a large number of apple and peach 
trees, all bearing fruit in great abundance, the quality of the 
pears being excellent, the apples and peaches indifferent. Other 
visitors to some of the mission orchards between the events of 
secularization and American occupation speak of being regaled 
with pears and milk, a dish which seemed to them ambrosial 
after the weary journeys overland across the deserts, or after 
months of ship fare. 
Planting of Mission Fruits by Early Settlers—There were 
quite considerable plantations, chiefly of mission grapes and 
oranges, by early settlers in the neighborhood of Los Angeles. 
General Bidwell says he saw in Los Angeles in 1845 the largest 
vineyards that he had seen in California, and the vines were 
the most thrifty. Wine was also abundant,—even the Angelica. 
Los Angeles had orchards, also, mostly of oranges. The largest 
orange orchards at that time were those of Wolfskill, Carpenter, 
and Louis Vigne. : 
Among the early planters of mission fruits in the northern 
part of the State was Yount, who planted vines in Napa Valley 
in 1838, and other fruits later. John Woliskill, of Winters, saw 
grapes and peaches at Yount’s in 1841, and J. M. Pleasant took 
peach pits from Yount’s over into Pleasant’s Valley, Solano 
County, in 1851. Dr. Marsh, on his place at the base of Mount 
Diablo, had, in 1842, a mission grape vineyard more than an acre 
in extent, and in good bearing. The vines were planted about 
1838. Mr. Wolfskill planted a few vines on Putah Creek in 
1842. 
Partial Revival of the Mission Fruit Gardens—After the in- 
coming of Americans in 1849 some of the old mission trees 
were secured by enterprising men, and made to renew their 
youth by pruning, cultivation, and irrigation, that they might 
