CHAPTER AAV. 
THE FIG. 
The fig is, perhaps, the grandest fruit tree of California. 
Its majestic size and its symmetry make it a crowning feature 
ot the landscape, and its dense foliage renders the wide space 
embowered by it a harbor of refuge from midsummer heat, 
both for idlers and for the industrious. On adjacent farms in 
Pleasant’s Valley, Solano County, there are large fig groves; 
one serves as a shelter for the packers of fruit from the contig- 
uous orchard, and the other incloses and shades a croquet 
ground. Measurements of large trees are abundant, for old 
trees are numerous in the intericr of the State, both in the val- 
ley and on the slopes of the Sierra foot- hills. At Knight’s 
Ferry, in Stanislaus -County, there is a fig tree* sixty feet in 
height, with branches of such length as to shade a circle seventy 
feet in diameter. The trunk at the base is eleven feet around, 
and nine feet at a distance of three feet from the ground. A 
little higher the trunk divides into seven or eight large branches, 
each of which is nearly five feet in circumference. At thirty 
feet from the ground the limbs are seven and eight inches 
through. The largest grove is in the neighborhood of Knight’s 
Ferry, and consists of fifteen massive black fig trees, which, 
though set sixty feet apart, mingle their branches overhead and 
form a network through which, in the summer, hardly a beam 
of light can pass. 
Such groves are frequently seen in the older settled parts 
of the State. Perhaps the most interesting single fig tree is 
that on Rancho Chico, quite near the residence of General Bid- 
well. It was planted in 1856, and has attained a marvelous 
growth. One foot above the ground the trunk measures 
eleven feet in circumference; the widespreading branches have 
been trained toward the ground, and, taking root there, banyan- 
like, they now form a wonderful inclosure over one hundred and 
fifty feet in diameter. The tree is loaded every year. 
The crop on these large trees is pr oportionate to their size, 
and, entering their area in the morning during the ripening sea- 
son, one can scarcely step without crushing figs, though the fruit 
is gathered up each day and placed in the sun for drying. 
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