VEGETABLE WONDERS OF CALIFORNIA.

Southland Times, Issue 1224, 18 March 1870, Page 3

VEGETABLE WONDERS OF CALIFORNIA.

The California correspondent of ,the Standard says:-^The list'of .t/alifortiia's wonders does not end with its natural scenery or mineral resources, "not muchly," as poor Artemus Ward would have said. The Tosemite Valley is doubtless one of the grandest of its kind ; the ge3 r sers are as remarkable as those of Iceland ; the Alabaster Cave— now rivalled by a recent discovery at Nevada — is not to be sneezed at; its " big trees " challenge the world. But now-a-days it is to agriculture that California owes its prosperity. A country which can raise 60 bushels and upwards of gr lin to the acre ; which on the rich reclaimed islands, the delta of the Sacramento aud San Joaquin Rivers, lus produced 554 bushels of potatoes to the acre ; which raises citrons of 40 pounds weight, apples lip to two pounds eaoh, and pears five pounds in weight, can afford fco crow a little. In the Industrial Fair of 1 860 a beet was exhibited 118 pounds in weight. Water melons of 40 pounds are not uncommon. I have recently seen two squashes, respectively 123 and 144 pounds in weight, big enough to make squash-pie for a town ; and squash-pie is not bad, though my own weakness is for that of sweet potatoe. It is needless to say that the "big gooseberry," of periodical recurrence in English papers, is nowhere here ; it is replaced by accounts of . mammoth specimens in all branches of, the vegetable kingdom (or shall we not say republic ?) There is a vine down in Santa Barbara county, Southern California, the trunk of which is 15 inches thick, whose branches are decidedly shady enough toL sit under,; and which yields about 3i tons of grapes per anaum. That is not bad for a vine whose years number more thaUjthreescore and ten. In 1867, a vine ih. Coloma yielded 1000 pounds of grapes when only five years old. There is a second at Santa Cruz, planted in 1851, which yielded about the same quantity this year. There are, of course, people who tell us that our big fruit is flavorless and insipid ; well, we can afford to admit the fact, as we have plenty which is not of mammoth growth, and equal to that of any country. A., sight of the fruit markets of San Francisco would be a treat to an epicure in this direction.