-SEMI-TROPIC CA LTFOUNT A. 
89 
Diego, lo examine tho facilities for ex¬ 
tending their line on I ho 35lh parallel 
from Santa Fc- to the Pacific at thin Buy. 
A provisional arrangement was made with 
them, by which about 5,0110 acres of 
oqiinllv valuable water front land with 
that held hv the Texas Pacific was set, 
ft part, and is now h* Id pending the con¬ 
summation of a definite contract, Every 
intelligent officer of the army who lifts 
examined the subject, and the report? of 
all the engineers ennemniug tlin 32ud and 
3*th parallel railway lines, concur in 
bearing testimony to the remarkably ad¬ 
vantageous natural position occupied hv 
Han Diego. Thorn arc but two real 
harbors on the entire Pacific coast of the 
l ulled States—San Francisco and San 
Diego— and San Diego in several hundred 
miles nearer to the Atlantic coast and to 
every prominent commercial center than 
San Francisco. A *• riuinuw ut San Diego 
gives the shortest railway route between 
oceans. If is this well-established fact, of 
the advantage nf natural position, that, ex¬ 
plains the jealousy with which the railroad 
anticipations of San Diego have always 
been regarded by San F rail cisco, But not 
only ic tho terminus of the shortlist line 
of trans-continental railway is this fact of 
position important. Without, a direct 
railroad to the East, Snu Diego, with 
merely a connecting branch or blanches, 
with simply loeiil lines of railway, must 
still become the soeund city of the Pacific 
coast. Because, when Southern California 
is filled up with population— wlmu the 
people who arc pouring into those Houthern 
counties arc established in productive in¬ 
dustry—the Bay of Sun Diego is the point 
through which they will most speedily and 
cheaply obtain their supplies of foreign 
importation, and to which they will most 
profitably send their product* for ex¬ 
portation. San Diego is tho nearest, port 
for ships from Mexico ami Central and 
South America, the Sandwich Islands, 
Australia, China and Japan, and India. 
With the Isthmus Canal opened, we Hindi 
always bo 45(1 miles neater European ports 
thou San Francisco. 
The l*M-bor of Sun Diego was designed 
by naturT lor an important commerce. It 
ia spoken ocby Prut (teorge Davidson, of 
the U. S. Coast Survey, in the following 
emphatic words: '* Next to that of Snu 
Francisco, no harbor on tho Pacific coast 
of the United States approximates in ex¬ 
cellence the Bay of Sail Diego. The 
bottom m uifornily good; no rocks bnve 
been discovered in the Bay or approaches; 
the position of lb' Bay with relation to the 
const, and of the bar with relation to 
Point Loinn, is Hitch that there Ih rarely 
much swell on the bar; us a Mil#, there is 
less swell on this bar than on any otllGi 
bar on tho Pacific coast. There is loss 
rain, fog, and thick haze, and more clear 
weather in this vicinity than at all points 
to the northward, and entrance is less 
difficult to make and outer on that ac¬ 
count. Large vessels cun go about seven 
miles (geographical) up the 15uv with an 
averge width of channel of eight hundred 
yards between the four fathom linen ut | 
low water. This indicates sufficient 
capacity to accommodate a largo com¬ 
merce." Admiral Taylor. U. S. N., who 
visited tho port, in 1870, said " that Sun 
Diego harbor was amply capacious to ac¬ 
commodate twice the present commerce of 
the Pacific coast." Commodore C. P. 
I’altcihnn, Superintendent of the U. S 
Coast Survey at Washington, transmitted 
In tlin (tliairunin of the House Committee 
on thi Pacific Railroads, May ItMh, 1878, 
the results of the last, survey of Ban Diego 
harbor by tho officers- of the " Handler" in 
that year. He says: •* Tim depth over the 
tan is 23 feet. The bar remains in a 
remarkably permanent state*. Thu distance 
across the bar, from an outride depth of 
27 Teel to Mm same depth inside, i« but 
285 yards, so that the removal of about 
00,000 yards of material would give a 
channel cif 300 feet wide and 28J foot deep 
over the bar at mean low water. 1 have 
crossed this bar at all hours, both day and 
night, with steamers of from 1000 to 8000 
tilUB burden, during nil seasons, for several 
years, without any detention whatever. 
As will bo seen from thedinit-nsiuungiven, 
amble accommodations can be had in this 
lmrbtu for a very large commerce. There 
h no safer harbor on the Pacific const for 
entering or leaviug, nr for vessels lying off 
whnrveH. It is tho only latnl-loolmd 
bailnir south nf 8an Francisco, and north 
of San Quonliii, Dower California, n stretch 
of fillO miles of const, and from a national 
point of view its importance is SO gnat 
that its preservation demands national 
protection ami justifies national expendi¬ 
tures, Fortunately; these expenditures 
need not bo graft!, if the stable regimen of 
the harbor be preserved.'* This harbor 
compares vnry favorably with, those of the 
principal Atlantic) seaports. It lma at 
menu low tide one font more water over 
tho bar than New York; it 1ms five feet 
nmro than Boston; four and a half feet 
more than Philadelphia, and over five feet 
more than Charleston and Mobile. 
San Diego poaBesaes a climate matchless 
in the world, as the report* of the Ob¬ 
servers of the l 1 . S. Signal Service here, 
oompaied with observation* at the most 
favored spot" else.'. In-re, abundantly es¬ 
tablish. We apeak more especially of thu 
climate of tho city, for passing through 
the interior of the county, one can have 
variety in climate. There are three or 
four different climates within 811 miles of 
the Bay. 'l'he city is situated upon a 
plateau formed by the geutl.v sloping 
character of Mm foot-hills, tho inclination 
bring to tlin south-west. Tho soil is dry 
and porous. On the uoi'lli-i ast mill south¬ 
east arc tho elopes and peaks of the count 
range anil Lower California chain of 
mountains ; southward lies the open 
Pacific Ocean, separated from thu waters 
of the Bay by tho fouig, narrow Hpit of 
land which forms a natural break-water, 
making the most perfect, and absolutely 
wife harbor on tho entire coast,; on the 
west is the peninsular extension from the 
mainland which forms tho western bound¬ 
ary of llm entrance to tho Bay, and breaks 
the force of the prevailing wiud from the 
Pacific. Situated thus, tho city of San 
Dii-go hae the most equable temperature 
known among the dwelling-places of 
civilised men on the face of the globe. 
Thu mountain tops on the north may 
glisten in their robes of snow; tho at¬ 
mosphere may glow with fervid heat in 
tin Colorado Desert. Oil the east; yet the 
resident of our city, dwelling but. fifty 
miles distant, from mountain top or desert, 
depression, enjoys the same delightful 
temperature, with scarcely a perceptible 
differentia between winter and summer, 
wears the same clothing, and sleeps under 
the same covering, the year around. The 
temperature of San Diego has a yearly 
mean of (i'2 deg. For the spring months, 
*id deg.; uimrnnr. 71 deg.; autumn, 04 
deg.; and winter, 56 deg. The yearly 
mean temperature of tho water in the Bay 
is 06 deg. The average animal rainfall ia 
about teu inches, with less Mum 50 rainy 
days in the whole year. And here tho 
most .of the rain falls at night; there are 
v> iy fow of what Eastern people would 
call rainy days." There ip no mud; 
after the heaviest rain the surface of the 
ground dries in a few hours; this being 
duo both to the character of tho soil and 
the natural slopo of tho laud. The late 
ProfcsHor Agassiz, who visited San Diego 
in 1872, spending some time here, and 
studying the records of our climate in tho 
Signal Office with great interest, pro¬ 
nounced our climatic advantages un¬ 
equalled in the world. “Your climate,” 
said he, in a brief public address, “ is 
your grout capital. It will be worth 
millions to you as it becomes known.” 
Sure it. is, that, given the railway con¬ 
nections that cannot now be long deferred, 
the thousands of invalids and rest seekers, 
who now expensively sojourn in Florida, 
Cuba, Italy, ami France, will turn their 
Hi op;* to San Diego, and find life and vigor 
in lliis glorious climate, and the great 
Professor's words will be realized. 
PROFITS OF FRUIT DRYING, 
The question is often asked what is fruit 
worth to dry, and what is the expense of 
drying. 
The lowest capacity claimed by Mr. 
PluuUM'-r tin' patentee of tho Plummer 
Di ver, is for his factory size 300 pounds of 
apples or 210 pounds of peeled peaches 
per hour. A t this rate the production of 
dried fruit for each day of fourteen hours 
is 525 pounds of dried apples, or 420 
pounds of dried peaches. Tho expense of 
running one day is, for four hands and 
about oiie-sixth of ti cord of wood; total 
five dollars per day or about one cent per 
pound. Tho expense of drying peaches is 
about one half more where peaches are 
peeled. 
Tim presold, prices of Plummer dried 
apple., are 12 to El cents, for peaches 23 
cents wholesale. It requires eight pounds 
of apples to make one of dried, and seven 
Of peaches to make one dried. 
This makes apples worth 1.4 conts per 
pound and peaches three cents not at the 
orchard. 
