Collection: Books and Periodicals

About This Item:

Title: A Memorial and Biographical History of Northern California (1891) Collection Type: Books and Periodicals Publisher: Lewis Publishing Company Published: 1891 Copyright: In the public domain or published before 1925 Source(s): Google Books # of Pages: 713 Download PDF: User Login Required Download OCR Text: User Login Required

Date Scanned: 2024-07-22 00:25:09 Item Sourced From: PDF First Created: 2025-03-17 03:11:29 Last Updated: 2025-03-17 06:30:36

Original Held At: Searls Historical Library Location: 161 Nevada City Hwy, Nevada City, CA 95959

Page: of 713  

HISTORY OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA. 191 which may be raised any kind of vegetables, and temperate and semi-tropical fruits are reaching full perfection in size, quantity and quality. These lands are almost annually overflowed, and the deposit left by the receding waters is said almost to equal guano in its fertilizing effects. Many of these lands are now protected, so that the rising waters may be controlled and utisized with judgment. Upon, such lands, so watered, and in such a climate, almost anything will grow. Owing to the fact that the country is traversed by so many rivers, it contains an unusual amount of this exceedingly rich land, which is nearly all under the highest cultivatton. PRODUCTIONS. The productions of Sacramento County comprise all the grains, vegetables, fruits, trees and flowers grown in the temperate and semi-tropical climates. Everything in the way of grain, bread-stuffs, vegetables, and fruits needed for man’s comfort and support may be successfully cultivated here The soil is rich and varied, water is abundant, and the climate is propitious. Here is no winter, in the common acceptation of the word, nor any rainy season as it is understood in the tropics. The winter months are called the “rainy season,” not that it then rains incessantly or severely, but because the rainfall comes almost exclusively in those months. In the summer it rarely rains. The grain is seldom housed when harvested, but is left in the fields until ready for the market, the husbandman feeling little fear of trouble from the elements. OLIMATE. Perhaps no feature of California has been more powerful in inducing immigration than its mild and equable climate. The north Atlantic States have their cold, damp east winds, which blow from the ocean at times for days in succession, and whose power of penetration is such that neither woolen underwear nor rubber topcoats seem able to keep them trom “searching the marrow of one’s bones.” The borders of the Great Takes are visited with winds so cold and so charged with moisture that they clothe all nature in coats of ice, and often jeopardize the lives of the domestic animals. On the northern shores of the lakes, the jingling sleighbells for fully five months in the year strive by their merry music to direct attention from the chill of death that lies over the land, and from these section thousands longingly turn their faces from the cold and ice to the sunny land where each may sit in the shade of “his own vine and fig tree. In this regard Sacramento County offers temptations that are not exceeded in attractiveness by those of any portion of the State. The following data, culled from the published reports of the United States Government observers will give a fair idea of the charming climate, which has enabled the city of Sacramento to win for itself the delightfully suggestive sobriquet of the «City of Roses.” During the ten years 1878-’88, the highest temperature recorded is 105°, which was reached once, and the lowest is 21°, also reached but once. A better idea of the range of temperature may be had from the fact that during the same period the average number of days in each year upon which the thermometer reached 90° was but thirty-six, while the average nuinber upon which it sank below 32° was but eleven. With no severity in winter, the warmth of summer ia rendered enjoyable by the winds from the sea, which reach this region of the country modified and tempered, so that with scarcely an exception the warmth of a light blanket is desirable at night. Here the heat has never the oppressive and euervating effect which renders summer so depressing in some sections. The atmosphere is never over-charged with moisture, and never entirely dry; so the open air is always invigorating and the breezes refreshing. The long, mild, summer day renders the cultivation of the lands easy and profitable, while the cool nights so refresh the workman that he is not enervated, but all mental and physical force is strengthened, and life is vigorous and enjoy-