8 
JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
said, that although many varieties of soil exist in our county, no 
theory of specialisation is safe from disapproval, for anything 
will grow anywhere, scores of orchards being planted with one 
or two kinds of fruit for the market, while for home use a dozen 
or twenty kinds of fruit and berries are grown on the same land. 
As to the depth of our soil, it is not considered; cultivation 
never reaches the bottom. 
What we Grow. 
What do we not grow ? What is there raised on the 
habitable globe—from fancy trotting stock to Durhams or Hol- 
steins, from Southdowns to Berkshires, from Plymouth rocks to 
bronze turkeys, from wheat, rye, barley, alfalfa, corn, tobacco, 
cotton, or Rochester onion seed, along the whole category of 
fruits and vines to almond, fig, and olive orchards, and from 
edibles to drinkables from mammoth squash to giant beets— 
that this glorious Santa Clara County does not produce ? Is it 
almonds, or English walnuts, or figs, or other semi-tropical 
fruits? Would you like some of our “Quito” olive-oil? Per¬ 
mit us to drive you nine miles distant, to an eighty-acre orchard 
where it is grown and made. Oranges for breakfast ? All right. 
Take your tickets for Los Gatos, “ the town that nestles in the 
hills,” ten miles away. Please tell us what we do not grow 
here! Enumeration seems to us to be superfluous, because it 
would be almost impossible to enumerate everything in one 
brief paper. 
Our Rainfall.. 
As already mentioned, the rainfall of Santa Clara County 
is all but exclusively confined to the months of October to 
March inclusive. An occasional shower in April, May, and 
even as late as the first few days of June does occur, but at 
rare intervals. From the following table, officially prepared 
for the Board of Trade of San Jose, it will be seen that the 
average rainfall for the past four years (which may be taken 
as a fair index of all preceding years) is 17*42 inches. 
