The Big Basin. Products of the County. The Big Basin is a large tract of virgin forest, lying in the mountains on the northern boundary of the county, and holding many specimens of even greater size than those just mentioned. This vast forest holds the best specimens of every tree, shrub and flower, native to Santa Cruz county, is a cover for wild game of many sorts, and as a state park will be kept sacred from the axe of the lumberman. Where the lumberman and the logger have left mountain sides desolate and stump-studded, the farmer, the wine-maker and the fruit grower have possessed the land. The specialty of Santa Cruz is infinite variety. In lumber products she ranks third is the State. Her butter, cheese and cream might well win her a place in the dairy districts. Hay, grain, potatoes and the whole range of cereals and vegetables give enormous yields per acre, and oranges are raised for home consumption, and the cultivation of the lemon for market is successful and profitable. From the summits of the range more than two thousand feet above the sea, down to the wide and fruitful valleys along the bay coast grows and flourish a range of most delicious fruits which few points may successfully rival. Prunes, pears, apricots, lemons, peaches, cherries, Japan and native plums, figs, walnuts, persimmons, olives and nectarines thrive, but the crop in which the largest profit is found is that of apples. The quality and size are astonishing, and yield per acre quite as much so. From Apple Bellefleurs in September to Newton Pippins in December the supply is steady and the work of harvesting and shipping drives the orchardist merrily. From two depots in the county, in a recent season, there were shipped to Eastern points exclusive of other sales, 128,596 boxes of apples, weighing 6,429,809 pounds. The market for Santa Cruz county apples now extends to England and the continent, Germany being a large buyer, and the acreage in bearing supplies not less than 200,000 boxes annually. The especial home of the apple, as well as of the strawberry in this county, is the fertile valley of Pajaro. The Crop. On the mountain slopes vines flourish, and the wines of the county have won special fame in competitions in Eastern cities as well as in Europe. Vineyards dot the hillsides back of Santa Cruz and far into the interior. The Ben Lomond wines of Santa Cruz won medals at the Chicago Exhibition as well as at Bordeaux and Paris. Table grapes also thrive luxuriantly and find ready markets close. at hand. Sugar beet raising, dairying, market gardening, small fruits including strawberries, blackberries, and loganberries, and poultry raising are also among the attractive industries, while the deep-sea fishing of Monterey bay forms not only an attraction for sportsmen, but is of great commercial value. of California. Bordering the shore of Monterey bay, below Santa Old Capital Cruz county, is the County of Monterey, comprising 3,450 square miles, and directly south of Monterey on the coast. is the small principality of San Luis Obispo. These counties are about equal in area and of similar characteristics, although residents of each claim peculiar qualities. of air, soil and climate which make their homeland the best. Monterey is best known without the State for two things; one, old Monterey, the former capital of California, on Monterey bay, where Commodore Sloat raised the stars and stripes over half a century ago; the other, the Hotel del Monte, a famed resort for tourists, who find here a garden spot the year round with all the luxuries that the highest civilization can demand. Del Monte is one of the central gathering points for fashionable Californians. Here in the summer time are held golf and tennis tournaments, polo matches, swimming contests, and the many other forms of sport in which society delights. Under and among the spreading oaks are wonderful gardens, while flowers bloom luxuriantly and as freely in December as in June. Salmon fishing in Monterey bay is great sport and Del Monte is the headquarters for anglers who pride themselves in making records in landing these monster food fish. Del Monte Where Society Gathers. Pacific Coast Chatauquans. Salinas and Surroundings. Mission San Antonio. Around Del Monte and Monterey are many picturesque drives, one being the well-known seventeen-mile drive to the old Carmel mission on Carmel bay, where is fast growing up a small city of attractive homes. Pacific Grove between Monterey and Carmel is an old established colony, built up originally by members of the Methodist denomination. This is a famous summer seaside resort, the attractive forests and sea-bathing drawing many people here for quiet recreation. Here is held annually the convention of the Pacific Coast Chatauquans, and other organizations find this an agreeable spot to assemble at any time of the year. Near Monterey has recently been established a government military post, where are quartered the year round between one and two thousand men. The county seat of Monterey is Salinas, a thriving city on the Salinas river, not far from the coast. The city is in the upper end of the great Salinas valley. It is bounded on the west by the Santa Lucia mountains and on the east by the Gabilan range, being from five to twentyfive miles wide, and is traversed from north to south by the Salinas river. Through this valley runs the coast line of the Southern Pacific, the picturesque route to the East. About five miles west of Soledad, on the east slope of the Santa Lucia mountains, are the Paraiso Hot Springs, containing arsenic, sulphur and soda springs. Salinas has a population of over 4,000 and is a place of great business enterprise, containing handsome residences and fine business blocks. The Southern Pacific has just finished here the construction of an oil tank with a capacity of over 1,000,000 gallons, to supply engines with oil for fuel. About four miles from Salinas is the Spreckels Sugar Factory, the largest in the world with a capacity of about four hundred and fifty tons of raw or refined sugar per day. The 3,000 tons of beets consumed by the factory on each running day furnish profitable employment for hundreds of farmers. Down in the southern part of Monterey county is Mission San Antonio, another one of those historic monuments California Polytechnic to the self-sacrificing of the Franciscan fathers who planted here these many outposts of civilization and religion. San Antonio is one of the most attractive missions and its location at this point tells as all other missions tell of the rare judgment of the founders concerning excellence of climate and soil in this region. Few counties of the State show more steady advances than San Luis Obispo, the county that takes its name from the mission that was established here in 1772. At San Luis Obispo has been established the CaliSchool. fornia Polytechnic School, a State institution where scientific agriculture as well as the trades are to be taught. The school is located on a tract of 280 acres near the city and it promises to be one of the notable institutions of a State already famed for its educational opportunities. Paso Robles and The city of San Luis Obispo is a thriving one, with its harbor at Port Harford, just over the hills to the westward, and surrounded on all sides by fertile valleys peopled with enterprising settlers. Near the city is the Hotel Ramona, and northerly, on Santa Ysabel the coast line of railway, is El Paso de Robles-The Pass Hot Springs. of Oaks-noted for its hot springs; and beyond is Santa San Luis Obispo Past Ysabel, destined also before many years to be widely known as one of the spots set apart for the "healing of the nations." At Paso Robles is one of the largest tourist hotels in the State, and each year its charms of surroundings and of climate are becoming better known, drawing there hundreds who seek rest and health. Concerning the county characteristics a recent writer. says: "Chiefly pastoral, even as the Spanish made it, San and Present. Luis Obispo was long kept by the pioneer Americans. Wonderfully rich lands for cereal crops there were as men discovered, but thousands of acres on great Spanish grants, since subdivided, sold and farmed, were long used for pasturage. For a quarter of a century after the Americans came to these great grants, some thirty-five in number, and ranging from two or three thousand acres to |