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Show 194 PERSONAL ADVENTURES of San Jose ; the last named tastes something like Irish whiskey, but the other is fiery and unpalatable, nnd nnlike any liquor I have ever drunk. The wine is good, the vines being of the finest kind, and the vineyards numerous and highly productive. The fertile parts of the country produce wheat, 1naize, beans, pease, sweet potatoes and Irish, sugar-cane, vegetables of all sorts in profusion, and abundance of fruits, including oranges, limes, lemons, plantain, and other kinds of tropical fruits, all of which are culti .. vated in their utn1ost luxuriance. Bnt the petia, which is taken from a species of the cactus, appears to be the general favourite in California, and the inhabitants have a method of converting it into a kind of jam, or preserve, 'vhich, being put up in the leaves of the Indian corn, in quantities of from a quarter to half a pound, is retailed at the price of a real, or sixpence each packet. These packages are very neat, one leaf over-lapping the other about the fruit, and both twisted tightly together at the ends. IN CALIFORNIA. 195 I have already observed that the valley of San Jose, taken as a whole, seems extremely fertile; and I may add, that the land in California, susceptible of cultivation, yields, in p~oportion to the quantity under culture, the largest crops in the world. If artificial n1eans of irrigation were introduced, the happiest effects would result, for bread-stuffs could then be produced in abundance, and thus would be removed the great drawback at present existing to a large and rapid increase of the population of Lower California. Abundance of rain falls here during the winter season, which, I think, might easily be husbanded in convenient reservoirs, so as to furnish an easy supply when wanted, and be made to fertilize extensive tracks of the valley, which are now lying neglected and waste, from no other cause than the want of the means of proper irrigation. I was informed that every three or four years, the entire country is swept by terrific tornadoes, accompanied with torrents of water. These rains prove highly acceptable to the natives, who K2 |
