CHAPTER V1, 
INTRODUCTION OF IMPROVED FRUIT VARIETIES. 
The first cultivated fruits of the old era came to California 
with the padres. The first fruits of the new era came with the 
American pioneers. Though not a little inquiry has been made, 
it is not yet possible to declare definitely who brought the first 
budded or grafted trees upon California soil, and it is hoped 
that this statement may induce someone to disclose this historic 
fact, which is of much interest in view of our wonderful growth 
in fruit production. Perhaps the first improved varieties of de- 
ciduous fruits arrived in 1846. B. M. Leiong, secretary of the 
California Board of Horticulture, says that it is a tradition in 
his family that his father, the late Martin Lelong, who came to 
California as a member of Stevenson's regiment, brought with 
him a small lot of French varieties of apples growing in a box, 
and that they were planted in Los Angeles. 
In the fall of 1849 W. H. Nash, now a resident of San Fran- 
cisco, joined with R. L. Kilburn in ordering from a nursery in 
western New York a small box of thirty-six fruit trees, which, 
packed in moss, well survived the journey around the Horn, 
arriving and being planted in Napa Valley in the spring of 1850. 
The shipment included Rhode Island Greening, Roxbury Rus- 
set, Winesap, Red Romanite; Esopus Spitzenburg apples; Bart- 
lett and Seckel pears; Black Tartarian and Napoleon Bigarreau 
cherries. 
Before this introduction of grafted fruit trees, and, indeed, 
for several years afterwards, there were many shipments of fruit- 
tree seeds from the eastern States to California. Mr. Barnett, 
of Napa, planted Kentucky seed as early as 1847. T. K. Stewart 
says that he brought to California with him, in 1848, about two 
hundred pounds of vegetable and fruit seeds, the latter including 
peach, pear, and apple, all of which were planted on the Ameri- 
can River, within the present limits of Sacramento, in the spring 
of 1849. At the same time he planted figs and olives, and, in 
1851, seeds of oranges. From all these he secured bearing trees. 
But these early efforts at improvement of California fruits 
were but faint forerunners of the zeal and enterprise which fol- 
lowed the great invasion by gold seekers. As soon as the first 
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