THE FORESTS AND MEADOWS OE MOUNT SHASTA. 



• I I 



of irrigation is obtained by means of ditches dug 

 from the creeks or springs, and the water is turned 

 on in any direction, or off again, at pleasure, by 

 dams and flood-gates. ^ 

 This artificial method is 

 imperative, there being 

 little or no rain before 

 November, with the ex- 

 ception of occasional 

 squalls in July or Au- 

 gust. 



Orchard fruits are un- 

 surpassed in size and 

 quality as well as quan- 

 tity, one orchard in 

 Scott's Valley boasting 

 no less than 5,000 apple 

 trees. 



The pride of the mead- 

 ows is the " Shasta lily," 

 a stately, wild tiger-lily, 

 in two varieties; a smaller 

 in shades of orange and 

 black and a larger in 

 black and white, either 

 fitted to grace the finest 

 of city greenhouses. 

 Scarcely less brilliant is 

 a flame-colored plume lo- 

 cally known as the In- 

 dian's paint-brush. 



Through a wealth of 

 flowering grasses and 

 nodding gypsophyllums appear the tall stalks of the 

 evening primrose ; or the delicate umbelhferous blos- 

 soms of the wild carrot, while cardinal flowers, as- 

 ters, blue-bells, eschscholtzias, columbine, larkspur 

 wintergreen and dandelions run riot everywhere. 



Over the old rustic worm-fence the wild-rye nods 

 gaily to clumps of shining golden-rod, which guard 

 the country road-side in company with the stiff, 

 flannelly mullein, and 

 the milk-weed, with its 

 silken, winged seeds, so 

 m a r V e 1 o u s 1 y packed 

 away in their unpreten- 

 tious pods. 



Sublime as are the 

 forests, what can com- 

 l)are with the beauty of 

 the sunny, open mead- 

 ows, musical with bird- 

 ^ song, flecked by shadows 

 from passing clouds, 

 dotted with thousands of 

 wild-flowers ; the para- 

 dise of the hunter of 

 four-leaved clovers, the 

 playground o f myriads 

 of bees and gay colored 

 butterflies, the nesting 

 place of the meadow- 

 lark and the field-mouse, 

 the refuge of the timor- 

 ous quail, and the hab. 

 itat of the cricket and 

 grasshopper; and over 

 all blowing the exhilar- 

 ating mountain wind, 

 bearing messages from 

 the crimson snow plant, 

 on the frozen highlands, and laden with the balsam 

 of the forest. 



" As if from Heaven's wide open gates did flow, 

 Health and refreshment on the world below." 



Bertha F. Herrick. 



