1882.] 



123 



GLIMPSES OF CALIFORNIA GARDENS. 



May and June are the most enjoyable 

 months in the gardens of California. The 

 past winter was one of strange contrasts and 

 long delays. Every one expected a dry win- 

 ter, short crops, and general failure of 

 vegetables and flower gardens, from the way 

 in which the season began, but these gloomy 

 predictions were happily disappointed. The 

 rains, though so long delayed, came at last, 

 and with unusual availability, there being 

 few "northers." Curious episodes of cold 

 weather and frosts occurred ; the snow on 

 the high sierras was of unusual depth ; snow 

 even fell among the Orange groves of the 

 southern countries, but did no particular 

 harm. 



All in all, the Agriculture and Horticul- 

 ture of California was never in better con- 

 dition than during the spring of this year, 

 though the remarkably late season delayed 

 all sorts of outdoor work. Seeds and bulbs 

 usually, in the central countries of the State, 

 planted in the autumn, were not seldom de- 

 layed until February, or even later. 



As usual in such seasons here, the rush 

 and sudden beauty of the spring was, when 

 it came, remarkable for its multiplicity of 

 effects. Those gardeners who, despite the 

 difficulties of the earlier portion of the win- 

 ter, managed to have a good start made, 

 were surprised to find how the usual lines of 

 demarcation in bloom were almost entirely 

 obliterated. There were some weeks just 

 before Easter, when, contrary to the ordi- 

 nary state of affairs, Roses about San Fran- 

 cisco were almost unattainable ; and flowers 

 at Easter were also scarce and higher than 

 for years previous. 



The sheltered and protected nook-gar- 

 dens of Saucelito, San Rafael, Oakland, 

 Piedmont, and other places about the Bay, 

 where Roses and Camellias often bloom all 

 winter in the open ground, without protec- 

 tion, and from whence the florists of the 

 Pacific Coast metropolis draw their supplies, 

 were to an unprecedented degree - barren of 

 floral treasures. To be sure there were 

 some greenhouse Roses and other flowers of 

 the season, but in more cases than one the 

 heating facilities proved insufficient for 

 rapid work, and the chance for large profit 

 was lost. 



But, as before hinted, the real compensa- 

 tion for the temporary sorrow of frosted and 

 infrequent Roses and high-priced, diminu- 

 tive bouquets, the spring, when it fairly 

 came, knew no barriers, and was indeed a 

 royal campaign. No one ever imagined so 

 gorgeous and sudden arrays of Roses in any 

 gardens, nor at any season, as California has 

 known from the last week in April (which 

 is practically our May-time equivalent). 

 During the first week in May the Santa Bar- 

 bara Rosarians exhibited over three hundred 

 varieties of Roses in ardent perfection. In 

 the last days of May a birds-eye view of the 

 State would reveal a wave of bloom from 

 San Diego to Del Norte: wild flowers on hill- 

 side and plain vying with Rose-acres, and 

 with walls of Clematis and Wisteria. 



In an Alameda county garden, type of 

 many others, the same season revealed, 

 among many others, the following plants, 

 shrubs, and trees in fullest prime of bloom : 



Aquilegias, Aristoloehias, Tropffiolums, Pe- 

 tunias, Linums, Carnations, Dianthuses, 

 Foxgloves, Larkspurs, Geraniums, Pansies, 

 Anemones, Irises, Callas, California Lilies, 

 (L. Humboldti and others, Japan Lilies in 

 bud), Hybrid Clematises, Roses of all sorts, 

 Teas and Perpetuals being most prominent, 

 Spireas, Wisterias, Weigelias, Deutzias, 

 Snowballs, Hydrangeas, Rhododendrons, 

 and herbaceous Peonies. 



Among trees the Oranges, the splendid 

 Pawlonia Imperialis, Catalpas, Cercis Japon- 

 ica, Abutilons, and double pink Thorn, are, 

 perhaps, most conspicuous. If accounts were 

 taken of the plants just beginning to bloom, 

 or which have so recently passed through 

 that stage, that a few flowers yet linger upon 

 them, the preceding list would become a 

 voluminous affair. 



The excitement which pertains to gar- 

 dening in California is quite sufficient in 

 ordinary seasons, for in good soil one may 

 grow nearly anything that the catalogues 

 contain, and at almost any season ; yet who 

 shall quite in words express the delight of 

 seeing the marvel and suddenness of floral 

 events this year ? There was, for instance, 

 the great trellis of intertwining white and 

 yellow Banksia Roses. One week, as we all 

 noticed, the clustered buds were tightly 

 folded in green. They were signless, dila- 

 tory, and provoking. The very next week, 

 all over and through the wavelike mass of 

 boughs, white and cream-tinted flecks of 

 foam began to leap and glimmer in the earl- 

 iest sunlight. The week after, full-blown 

 blossoms seemed everywhere in lovely and 

 luminous entanglements, in dazzling groups, 

 and in long trailers of bloom, almost touch- 

 ing the earth. 



The mountain gardens of California will 

 eventually prove its greatest charm. Broken 

 and irregular plateaus, watered from never- 

 failing springs, protected by higher peaks, 

 kept fertile by the constant flow from thence 

 of fertilizing materials, and possessing broad 

 outlooks over valleys and ocean, must ever 

 offer horticultural advantages of unsurpassed 

 character. Frostless nooks, well watered 

 and timbered, where Tomato and Potato 

 vines grow all winter, abound in the Coast 

 Range, and often within a few hours of a 

 market. Her soil and climate harmoniously 

 unite to enable one to cultivate, if he chooses, 

 the most desirable plants of every land. 

 The Date Palm, Carob, and Pistachio can 

 lie fruited in the same enclosure with the 

 Lemon, Japan Persimmon, Walnut, Chest- 

 nut, Apricot, Plum, Apple, Cherry, and 

 similar species. The vineyard may contain 

 the best of the American Grapes side by side 

 with the best foreign varieties. 



The range of garden shrubs and hard- 

 wooded plants which thrive reasonably well 

 in such a location is very great, embracing 

 almost every species known to botanists. 

 Of course study must be given to their 

 requirements, some needing cool northern 

 slopes, others preferring the southern or 

 southeast ern exposures. 



Native plants of Chili, Mexico, Australia, 

 Japan, .the Himalayas, South Africa, and 

 other regions, thrive much better in the 

 California foothills than do some of our own 

 Sierra species, but, with care and proper 

 attention to their requirements, soil, and 

 suitable position, these also may be made 

 at home, even in the cooler valleys. 



Charles H. Shinn. 



LIFE ON THE FARM. 



As to its drudgery — whatever has been 

 the case in the past, when there were stumps 

 to be pulled and mortgages to be lifted from 

 almost every field ; when it was a long way 

 to market, and the buyer paid for produce in 

 "trade"; when almost all implements were 

 laboriously hewn out at home or clumsily 

 hammered out by the village blacksmith — 

 there is, happily, less drudgery on the farm 

 now, and less need of it every year. Taking 

 the year through, the working hours of a man 

 on a farm are no longer than those of the 



'• section hand on the railway or the artisan in 

 the shop, who has his own garden to hoe 

 before breakfast or after supper. The busy 

 lawyer and the doctor in average practice 

 work longer and harder than the farmer. 

 The grocer and the editor and book-keeper 

 each sees less of his children in their waking 

 hours than the farmer who sometimes envies 

 them their " easy life." 



It must be conceded, of course, that the 

 profits of farming are not so large on the 

 average as those which are realized by men 

 who arc successful in mercantile or profes- 

 sional life. But, such as they are, they are 

 surer — twenty- fold surer, at least. Large 



| profits are always contingent on large risks. 



j One must not expect the same rate of interest 

 from government bonds as from mining 

 stocks. The wear and tear, the losses and 

 defeats of business men in the last ten years, 

 have been an experience that no farmer need 

 covet. He may well be satisfied with the 

 small income that, taking one year with 

 another, is such a sure one ; to resign the 

 five chances of shining success in commer- 

 cial life to those who are willing to take the 

 ninety-five chances of sure failure. 



The cities and towns are full of men who 

 once had visions of a business success that 

 would in monthly profits put to shame the 

 small profits of a farmer's lifetime. On the 

 home-stretch of three-score and ten they find 

 themselves dependent for a livelihood on 

 salaried positions, which they hold by a dis- 

 mally uncertain tenure, or on the precarious 

 commissions of a canvasser or a commercial 

 traveler. In comfort and in income, the 

 lives they have led make a, shabby showing 

 compared with what they might have done 

 as farmers, and point an important moral for 

 the young men who are now debating 

 whether they will turn their backs on the 

 farm, and try their luck in the lottery of city 



' life. — Good Company. 



HOME LUXURIES. 



" By promoting an intelligent attention to 

 horticulture," says John J. Thomas, " the 

 families of the country may be furnished with 

 the pleasant home luxuries which well-man- 

 aged fruit-gardens can give ; and each one 

 may gather around his home, even if owning 

 only half an acre of ground, an amount of 

 substantial comfort gained in no other way. 

 N. P. Willis very correctly observed that, 

 ' Nature lets the tree grow and the flower 

 expand for man, without reference to his 

 account at the bank.' Yet many fall into 

 the error of thinking that a man must be 

 really wealthy to enjoy a well-planted and 

 well-kept home. 



