PART SECOND: CULTURAL. 
CHAPTER VII. 
CLEARING LAND FOR FRUIT. 
The greater part of the orchard and vineyard area of this 
State was naturally almost clear for planting. The removal of 
large trees, which paid the cost of the work in firewood, or the 
grubbing out of willows on some especially rich bottom land, 
was about the extent of clearing which our earlier planters had 
to undertake, and by far the greater part of them perhaps never 
had to lift an ax. Still there has always been some clearing 
done, here and there, even since the earliest days, especially upon 
hill lands, the peculiar value of which for some fruits is generally 
recognized. 5 
The lands which need clearing are in the main the foot-hill 
slopes of the Coast Range and the Sierra Nevada. In the 
south there is besides, sometimes, the debris of the desert flora 
to clear away when water is secured and the rich wilderness is 
subdued. This work is, however, so easily accomplished that it 
hardly rises to the dignity of “clearing,” as understood by the 
Fastern nind. 
It is not possible in this connection to enumerate all of the 
great variety of shrubs and trees which the settler lays low in his 
clearing. The grand trees which figure most largely in lumber- 
ing operations are not met with as a rule in foot-hill clearings. 
.The trees which the settler encounters are rather the degraded 
valley growths, which, though assuming grand proportions in 
the valleys, become “scrubs” amid the harsher environment of 
the hillsides. This is notably true of the oaks and of some other 
trees. 
Chamisal and Chaparral—Of true shrubs to be removed, 
it will only be possible to name a few of the most abundant. 
The common manzanita (Arctostaphylos manzanita) occurs on 
dry ridges everywhere, both on the coast and at great elevations, 
sometimes only growing a few inches from the ground, some- 
times rising eight or ten feet. Next to this, perhaps, the two 
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