106 RETURN FROM SAN FRANCISCO 
My journeys through California were not sufficiently 
extensive to enable me to discuss at length its agricul- 
tural resources, nor would an essay of such a character 
properly belong to a “ personal narrative.” But I saw 
sufficient in the valleys of San José, Napa, Carmel, 
near Monterey, Los Angeles, San Luis Rey, and San 
Diego, to enable me most confidently to assert that a 
finer agricultural country does not exist on the face of 
the globe. Cereals of every description, wheat, maize, 
barley, peas, rye, and oats grow to perfection, some 
in one portion, others in other portions of the State, 
every where yielding more than in any part of the 
Atlantic States or the Mississippi Valley. Fruits of 
every kind, including the grape, apples, pears, peaches, 
plums, cherries) ete; arrive: at) perfection) but in 
vegetables especially, whether we regard their variety, 
their enormous yield, or their excellent flavor, Califor- 
nla certainly surpasses any thing I have ever seen in 
the United States. But the valleys I have mentioned 
are small in comparison with the broad and magnificent 
basins of the Sacramento and San Joachin Rivers and 
their numerous tributaries. The head waters of the 
San Joachin and. the Tulare plains, which are yet 
unexplored and unsettled, are said to be admirably 
adapted to the cultivation of rice and cotton. The 
southern part of the State is more barren, having 
fewer streams and valleys, with little or no timber. 
But here occur those large grassy plains or prairies, 
such as that between the coast and Los Angeles, so 
well adapted to the raising of cattle. Hast of the 
mountains which form the continuation of the Sierra 
Nevada is a broad sandy desert, extending from the 
