THE BUBAL MEW-YOBKEB. 
JULY 43 
As this article is not, in any respect, intended 
as a puff or advertisement, but as a plain state¬ 
ment of facts as the writer found them, he will 
not hesitate to say that—for him—the lack of 
shade-trees is an objection, one which, however, 
is being rapidly overcome ; the monotony of the 
level plaiu that meets the eye on every aide, ex¬ 
cept where, iu the distant north, the view is 
bounder! by the blue of the hills, the “ back¬ 
bone ” of the island, is not so pleasing as a suc¬ 
cession of hi LI and dale ; the newness of every¬ 
thing—streets, houses, fences—seems unnatural, 
and the absolute neatness of the surroundings 
does not entirely agree with the habits of the 
writer. If you take a drive, you go on the 
same general level for miles, without a rock or a 
tree for company. The houses are as complete in 
appointments as they can be made, but it seems 
as if one must feel under constraint, as if living 
in a hotel. He can’t go into the back-yard and 
build a pig-pen or a hennery, or muss up things 
generally as much as he pleases. The regula¬ 
tions won't admit of such things, baviug con¬ 
stantly in view your neighbors—as if one must 
consider their likes and dislikes before his own ; 
—and you have the feeling always of a want of 
ownership. You may lease the premises so long 
as yon pay rent and behave yourself, but never 
a foot of it can you buy. These are about all 
the drawbacks I can think of, and now they are 
written, they don’t seem to amount to much, 
and it is a fair conclusion that there are worse 
places in which to live than Gabden City. 
--- ♦ - 
NORTH CAROLINA NOTES. 
BEV. A. W. MANOtUI. 
Chapki. Hill, N. C„ June 26,1878, 
So far we have had an extraordinary summer. 
Up to the middle of June it was quite season¬ 
able, as to rains; but the temperature has been 
lower, on the average, than I have ever known it 
in May and June. At present the sun is hot, 
but the winds are dry and cool; and signs of 
drought are appearing around ns. 
The crop reports are not very encouraging. 
Wheat suffered from the rust in some parts of 
the State, and, from that and other causes, has 
fallen short of expectation. The oat crop, 
though not a failure, is not a success. In this 
State oats have nearly always been treated with 
unfairness. They are seldom sown in any but 
poor land that is considered un suited to any¬ 
thing else. Doubtless fewer bushels on fewer 
and richer acres would be far more remuner¬ 
ative. Where Orchard grass and clover are 
raised, oats are probably not so much esteemed; 
at any rate, they are not so much needed. 
Three crops of hay, during the year, are worth 
much more than one cutting of oats. 
The farmers are much discouraged on account 
of the destruction of corn by the worms. They 
cut and destroy it to such an extent that it has 
been almost impossible, in some cases, to get “ a 
stand.” The best prescription that 1 know for 
the destruction of the cut-worm, is winter-plow¬ 
ing ; but the mild winter in this State probably 
prevented the usual desiruction in that way, 
there being so few freezes. 
The fruit is in plentiful quantity, though the 
apple crop is very light. One explanatory theory 
is, that the trees yielded so abundantly last year 
that they exhausted themselves, and need a year 
for recuperation. This, I think, depends on the 
restoration of the fertility. I am almost a be¬ 
liever in the doctrine that a tree ought to bear 
every year if it escapes the frost or blight. I 
have a large tree that bears large apples in 
large quantities, and has borne in great abun¬ 
dance for the three years that I have observed 
it. I have fertilized it after each crop. Two 
other trees near it have been treated in the same 
way, but have not done so well. Their relative 
situations may explain the difference. I am 
thankful to the Giver of all good for the pros¬ 
pect for delicious peaches, as they are my favor¬ 
ite fruit. They, too, are iu limited quantity, 
though they will be the better developed in con¬ 
sequence. One of my friends, a fruit-culturist, 
succeeded this year in ripening a variety of the 
peach in May. He is not yet certain that it will 
mature so early regularly. 
While speaking of the Peach I will mention 
a singular species that appears to be a hybrid 
between the Peach and Nectarine. It grows iu 
a garden in our village, and I am raising some 
that I got from the garden this year, with the 
purpose of Heading you a specimen or two next 
season, for the Rural Grounds. 
We have a rich harvest of berries which, you 
know, are quite a profitable article of trade 
with us; particularly the blackberry. 
Gardens have been very successful so far. I 
have learned, by experience, tbat in this latitude 
where the summer is so apt to briug dry seasons, 
the wisest policy Is to plant the earliest seeds 
liberally. The first crop of almost everything is 
quite sure to be matured before the dry weather 
begins. Of course, there should be a succession 
of certain staple veget ibleB where it is practica¬ 
ble. There has been some uneasiness about the 
Colorado beetle in Warren County. N. C. I have 
not learned, with certainty, that the fears were 
well-grounded. The beetles were thought to 
have come in seed potatoes. There was also a 
“huge” report about the genuine Western 
grasshopper having been found within a few 
mileB of this place. The statement was made 
that they were destroying the olover, confining 
themselves almost exclusively to that; but I 
failed to get a confirmation of the report in a 
visit to an adjacent community, and therefore 
trust that there was seme mistake about it. 
The peculiar seasons have, to date, been very 
unfavorable to the cotton. It has suffered much 
injury. The early rains were helpful to the 
tobacco-planters, and with suitable seasons 
hereafter, the Crop is likely to be large. 
Our State chemist, Dr. Ledoux, is taking a 
well-earned rest in the North, perhaps in your 
city or on the Hudson. He has doue a noble 
and faithful work in testing fertilizers, aDd en- 
joyB the confidence of all our leading citizens. 
Of course, he has stirred the ire of some whose 
artioles cannot boar the ordeal of truth and 
honesty, but ho has opened the way for brands 
tbat are worthy and will not disappoint. 
The second session of our State Normal School 
is now in operation at this place. It is under 
the superintendence of Prof. Ladi>, formerly of 
Mass., now of the schools of Staunton, Va. He 
was recommended by Dr. Seaks of the Peabody 
Fund, who has shown us much liberality, for 
which we siucerely thank him. This is but one 
feature of the general movement in favor of 
more thoroughness aud genuiue progress iu all 
important interests iu the Old North State. 
ACROSS CALIFORNIA. 
Time, the tenth day of June ; starting point, 
the city of San Francisco; route, steamer across 
the bay to Yallejo, tbeDce by rail to Sacramento. 
The Napa valley is a good farming region, thick¬ 
ly settled, aud promisiug a plentiful harvest. As 
far as the sight will reach, it is very beautiful, 
being bounded with low ranges of mountains, 
which melt into the distant haze, reminding one 
of Indian summer. 
A sharp curve through a canyon carried our 
train acrosB the divide into the plains of the 
Sacremento. Thence, about fifty miles through 
a prairie-looking country, dotted with orchards 
and grain fields, to the State capital. Around 
Dixon there are some large pear orchards, con¬ 
taining IhousandB of trees in bearing. The 
branches are suffered to head low, for the better 
protection of the trunks and roots in this hot 
climate. The plan, here, is a good one, and in¬ 
terferes little with the clean cultivation given. 
The temptation is sometimes yielded to,—the 
raising of a crop between the trees,—always with 
bad results. For it is found that orchards thrive 
better with frequeut and clean cultivation, and 
without a stolen crop. The fruit is better, and 
the trees are stronger. So far iu our history 
fire blight has uot troubled our pear orchards. 
Hundreds of your middle-aged readers, scat¬ 
tered from Maine across the continent, who 
were familiar with the appearanoe of Sacramento 
early in the fifties, would see but little change. 
The street in front uf the Orleans Hotel is raised 
ten feet higher, where in early times we de¬ 
scended a flight of steps. Nearly across the 
way is to be seen the modest two-story hardware 
store of Huntington, Hopkins A Co. 
Most of the miners iaid in supplies purchased 
there for the mountains. The same old sign, 
weather-worn and dim with age, is still above tbe 
door, as if iu ostentatious humility. This firm 
of hardware dealers were the famous builders of 
the Central Pacific railroad, out of which they 
made collosal fortunes. Hopkins died the other 
day, leaving to brothers aud nephews an estate 
valued at twenty millions. 
Iu early days the town was a rival of San 
Francisco. Its proximity to the mines gave 
great advantages. But with the decay of gold 
mining, and extended facilities for travel, the 
rush is passing it by. There iB an appearance, 
a something indescribable, indicating the lan¬ 
guor of age. The city, however, will not share 
the fate of the mining towns. It is slowly pros¬ 
pering in manufactures, aud building up a local 
trade. Away from the sea breeze, we found it 
uncomfortably warm. The sensation was novel. 
It was a reminder of old times to see people in 
linen suits. For, be it known, there is no 
change of garb the year round in San Fran¬ 
cisco. Thick clothes and woolens are necessary 
in midsummer, and furB are as often worn by 
ladies in the evenings as at other seasons. 
There is no great occasion, to be sure, at any 
time, for wearing them ; for there is but little 
frost. But the sea breeze, on this coast, is 
searching and cold in the evening. It is the 
great drawback to our summer climate. 
The old sign of the hardware firm reminds me 
of the history of John P. Jor.es, in the early days 
of California. He was engaged, with nine oth¬ 
ers, at Weaverville, in Trinity County, in 1851, 
digging a ditch to drain Sidney Flat, for the gold 
supposed to he hidden there. They all worked 
hard with pick and shovel; but the enterprise 
did not “pan out,” and was abandoned. In 
those days the future Senator made little money, 
aud tbat went with a free hand. He was glad to 
clerk for a groceryman named Farley, I believe, 
in the years 1852-3, and sleep under the counter 
in the store. One night the weight of the snow 
broke down the roof, aud would have crushed 
him but for the friendly protection of the coun¬ 
ter. He was always a student, and would lie on 
4 
his back reading nights when others were 
asleep. He was a Justice of the Peace from 1856 
to 1858. In the latter year he was a candidate 
for County Judge, against R. T. Miller, who beat 
him one vote for the nomination. About 1861 
he was the Sheriff of Trinity County. After¬ 
wards he was a State Senator. In 1867 he was a 
candidate for Lieutenant-governor aud defeated. 
Then he we it to the Washoe mines (Nevada), as 
superintendent of a mine for Alvinza Hayward, 
at a salary of six hundred dollars a month. Here 
his star began to ascend. The student who used 
to lie awake aud read of nights in the rough 
mining camp, entered a broader field. Fortune 
waited on him and smiled. In tbe tide of pros¬ 
perity his abilities became known, and, thence¬ 
forth, his life is part of the history of this 
coast. 
Leaving Sacramento by rail, at twenty miles 
up the American River, we arrive at Folsom. In 
February, 1856. it was a roaring mining camp, 
alive with rod-sliirted adventurers, whose whito 
tents dotted tbe hill sides overshadowed with 
pine trees. Its mines are worked out, and hard¬ 
ly a trace of its former prosperity remains. A 
branch penitentiary is being built there, because 
the location affords granite. The writer looked 
iu vain for the forest trees. In their stead were 
prim rows of Australian Gums, hiding weather¬ 
beaten rows of old bouses. 
Resuming our journey towards Placerville, the 
road began to climb the foot-hills of the Sierra 
Nevada. As we looked back over a great extent 
of the plain, yellow with ripening grain, wo saw 
headers at work in the barley. The pastures 
are turning brown, and great droves of cattle 
are heading for tbe snow line, where the grass 
is plentiful. The snow-covered peaks seem 
quite near, though seventy-five miles distant, 
and we begin to look down on hill topa covered 
with timber. Away to the south, the course of 
the Coeumnes River can be traced by an irregu¬ 
lar boundary of bolder cliffs. From the railway 
terminus it is a ton-mile Btago-rido, via Diamond 
Springs and Mud Spriugs, to Placerville. On 
every hand there are numerous traces of ditches, 
aud Humes, and worked-out mines. These 
Springs are tumble-down villages of one long 
street, with rows of cut-stone business houses, 
mingled with wooden ones, staring at each other 
across an empty, dusty road. One half of them 
are unteuanted. O.hers, with imposing fronts 
and iron shutters, are used for stables and old 
lumber. Twenty-five years ago theso places 
were hives of industry. A numerous population 
ebbed aud flowed through these mines, and, 
later, poured aloDg this very highway towards 
Washoe, like lava from a spent crater. About 
Placerville there is yet some hydraulic mining. 
Mountain sides where little more than color 
could be obtained iu early times with tbe pan, 
places unworthy of the bold prospector’s atten¬ 
tion when ho could make his ounce or two a 
day in the gulches, are now Bluicod away with 
vast hydraulic appliances ou a scale that pays. A 
mile from the town the stage crossed a sluice- 
box about five feet wide aud three feet deep, 
ucarly filled with muddy, red water in which 
gravel and stones are surging past with the 
speed of a railway traiu. The fall is tremendous 
from a bluff where the earth is loosened by 
streams of water, which wash away through thiH 
tail race, as it were. Once in six months there 
is a “clean up,” when the amalgam of quick¬ 
silver aud gold is carefully taken from the “ rif- 
fle-barw,” of the sluice-boxes. 
The traveler looks down on Placerville from 
the top of a high bluff. There are numerous 
public buildings and cozy dwellings embowered 
in orchards and vineyards. It is 2,000 feet 
above the sea, and, in flush times, boasted a 
population of 6,000. In early times, Judge 
Lynch had occasion to convene his court and 
hang half a dozen thieves and assassins on a 
tree by the road side. These rough and ready 
men at once christened the camp Hangtown, 
and to this day it in better know by that name 
than by the modern one of Placerville. The off¬ 
hand maimer of dealing with wrongs yet lingers 
with the inhabitants, and they enjoy the envia¬ 
ble distinction, to-day, of being the only com¬ 
munity which ever “ got away with " a railroad 
oompany. 
The story is funny and worth relating. El 
Dorado County subscribed 200,000 dollars, and 
Placerville 100,000 dollars, in bonds, to aid the 
building of a proposed road to the towns. The 
bonds were delivered in good faith in advauoe 
of the work. Then the compauy sold then- 
franchise, with the unfinished line, to parties 
who would not complete it. The owners of 
the bonds wanted their money and brought 
suit for its payment. On the eve of obtaining 
a mandamus to compel the local authorities to 
levy a tax to pay the debt, every one of the 
oountry and town officials, liable to be served 
by the sheriff, resigned. The bond-holders went 
for relief to the legislature where they received 
small sympathy; for the El Dorado people suc¬ 
ceeded in getting an act passed granting them a 
board of auditors, with power to transact all 
sorts of public business except the levying of 
taxes. This flanked the monopolists, and so 
the matter stands. 
Twenty miles south-eastwardly, on the Co- 
sumnes River, there is a gold mine whioh we 
drove out to see, the evening of our arrival. The 
road leads up and down across ridges and hol¬ 
lows, by abandoned mines aud decaying flumes, 
past lonely farm-houses and orchards, and 
through stretches of pine woods to the first bend 
of the river. A quartz mill on the road was 
thundering away, crushing rocks with a noiso 
like a huge coffee mill. The last six miles of the 
way ran through an elevated plateau of pine 
woods, still unsettled aDd belonging to the 
Government. Within a mile of the mine we put 
up with a hospitable ranchman for the night. 
He grows good wheat, barley, potatoes and 
fruit, at an elevation of 3,000 feet above the 
soa, and, when not employed otherwise, is en¬ 
gaged iu mining. Leaving our horses uext 
morniug we walked to the mine, where we 
found two Gornishmeu lately from Reading, Pa., 
at breakfast, in a rude shanty made of boards 
riven from cedar. They were hospitable, in¬ 
telligent, men. aud very willingly showed us 
through the works. The vein was recently dis¬ 
covered, and, so far as prospected, is rich 
enough; but it is hardly a foot thick. We fol¬ 
lowed the miners through a long aud narrow 
tunnel, supported hero and there by timbers. 
At the termination we examined the vein or lead, 
which was iuclosed in slate walls. Samples of 
the ore since assayed at the rate of .-3521 1 per ton. 
The cost of milling aud mining is abont 812, 
which would leave a handsome profit with a two- 
foot ledge. 
The surface is covered with a forest; there 
are no rooks cropping out, or other indications 
of auriferous deposits. How it happened to be 
discovered we did uot learn, but judged the 
prospector to be possessed of much faith aud a 
strong imagination. The claim. 600 by 1500 feet, 
the mill and free water power, were all for sale 
at $1,600. But there are no good mines for sale. 
Their owners hold them. It is no longer pos¬ 
sible to forage through the mining region and 
pick up lumps of the virgin metal, as in former 
days. The reign of enchantment is over. 
Aladdin and his lamp long ago gave place to the 
plowshare. As a rule, every dollar of gold mined 
costa ninety cents in labor. Specs. 
San Francisco, June 24. 
-» ♦ ♦ - - 
LIFE AMONG FARMERS IN NOTRH CARO¬ 
LINA. 
One may travel the world over, share the 
oatmeal porridgo of the Scotch Highlander, 
under the shadow of Ben Nevis; or the Hcheb- 
zieger cheese of the dwellers by Lake Lucerne ; 
or the barley cake and pickled herring of tho 
Scandinavian, yet he will find no kinder, truer 
hearts, no friendlier folk, than the plain, unpre¬ 
tending people of the old “ Rip Van Winkle,” 
whose 8imptioity of manner, dress and conversa¬ 
tion, reminds one of Diedrich Knickerbocker’s 
New Amsterdamers in the days of “ Orloff the 
Dreamer ” and “ William the Testy.” They are, 
without exception, hospitable, and one often 
gets a dainty meal of delicate, wheaten loaves, 
savory chicken and creamy milk, in an humble 
log-lmt with a worm-fence straggling round it, a 
pole with a parcel of martin-gourds surmounting 
it, the sole ornament of the front yard, and in 
the rear of the dwelling, a rough-looking corn- 
crib aud hen-houBe. 
Somehow or other, these people, on land that 
looks poor poverty itself, raise nearly all they 
require for comfortable living—plenty of corn, 
wheat, rye, oris, buck-wheat, clover, orchard- 
grass, potatoes, pears and pumDkins. 
Their cotton patches, too, by dint of close cul¬ 
ture and picking, put considerable money in 
their pockets, which, along with other home 
products, enable them to procure “extras.” 
Those poor old saud-hills produce superb 
peaches, apples, pears, melons aud grapes; also 
strawberries, raspberries aud blackberries, be¬ 
sides huckleberries, which grow iu the “ slashes,” 
on moist, shaded ground along tho course of 
“brauchos”—the local name for little brooks 
from springs. These fruits have grown into a 
Bonrce of income of late yoarB, great quantities 
being shipped, either ripe or dried. I remember 
eating peaches— “ Crawford’s Early in one of 
those old orchards the 1st of May—blushing ripe 
they were; and l have seen no other pears 
equal to the incomparable Sekel! 
The farmers’ wives aud daughters of the Old 
North State are women for the times. They 
keep up thq old-fashioned arts of spinning and 
weaving, and think nothing of turning off 
eight yardB a day. There are a good many cloth 
factories in the State, and from these tho home- 
weavers buy their warp, spinning their tilling at 
home. This home-woven cloth lasts working 
men and boys two years. They woavo most 
beautiful counterpanes—such figuros as the 
“ snowdrop,” “ basket” and the “wreath” being 
commonest, and these are bleached white as snow¬ 
drifts, or if woven of wool are colored blue, 
crimson or orange, as taste suggests. Thrifty, 
cleanly, industrious aad hospitable, it is a plea¬ 
sure to visit those people, for they give you the 
heartiest of welcomes, the coziest of white oak 
chairs, the most tempting of well-cooked din¬ 
ners, prepared by their own hands. 
If you are sick they nurse you patiently and 
tenderly; they have balms, cordials and tonics 
of their own make, that will restore you to health 
A 
