CHAPTER XXII.

Climate Seasons-Heat and cold-Winter in the Sierras-Tradewinds-Animal vitality-Summer in the Sierras and valleysRain-fall compared with other parts of the world-Flowers of the valleys-Spring-time-Wheat-fields-Agriculture-Harvesting

Planting and sowing-Volunteer crops-Straw-burning-Storms and hurricanes-Sand storms.

CLIMATE AND SEASONS.

No State in the Union nor country in the world possesses such diversity of climate as California. Within her limits can be found the genial rays of the tropical sun, the fogs and damps of England, and the eternal snows of the Alps, with every shade and degree of temperature between these degrees blended into each other and extending their duration through every month in the year. Throughout the vast agricultural valleys and Coast Range regions the climate,is most genial: frost and snow are rarely seen, and time seems to pass in the uninterrupted course of protracted summer. Autumn may bring its golden harvest, winter its refreshing showers, spring its verdure, and summer its heat; but all these are so blended and portions of each season carried into the others that it may be said that, with the exception of the Sierra mountains, the climate of California is perpetual summer. Wheat-fields green in January, in head in March, and ripe in June; vegetables growing every day in the year; new potatoes in February and strawberries in March; tender lambs gambolling upon the sward in December and January; and sheep-shearing in February and March, may indicate the genial climate of a land whose clear sky, invig

orating atmosphere, and hearty, genial people are never forgotten by those who have ever lived in the countrya region always to be spoken of as the beautiful sunny land, whose gorgeous verdure, rich soil, variegated forests, unsurpassed productiveness, and joyous crystal streams whose dimpled currents are never congealed by the pinching frosts of winter, render California a land most desirable for the abode of man.

California beyond doubt is the favorite spot of earth, where nature has dealt her bounties with most lavish hand to proclaim her supreme power and adorn most luxuriantly her footstool-a land whose wheat-fields of June, clustering grapes of October, and orange groves of February are presided over by the gentle Ceres, who, no longer dreading the abduction of her daughter, the fair Proserpine, by the ungallant Pluto, has chosen her terrestrial abode in the sunny land of California.

The climate of California may be divided into three classes: that of the Coast Range, of the interior valleys, and of the Sierras. The climate of the coast and about San Francisco is perhaps the most evenly tempered in the world-cool, invigorating, and embracing. This evenness of climate and temperature extends the whole length of the State, with but little variation during the year. At San Francisco, which locality can be taken as indicating the average of the coast temperature, the average of winter is 52°, and of summer 64°, and the annual average about 56°. The lowest point reached at San Francisco during the past twenty-one years was in January, 1864, when the thermometer descended to 25° at the coldest time during the twenty-four hours, and stood at 37° at noon on the same occasion. During the same period (twenty-one years) the hottest days

were on the 10th and 11th of September, 1852, when the thermometer indicated 97° and 98°. Other hot days have been experienced at San Francisco, but none to equal the time mentioned in 1852. In July, 1855, the thermometer reached 90°, and in October, 1864, and September, 1865, reached 91°. The next highest point was reached on the 6th of July, 1867, when the thermometer indicated 93°. Such extremes are very rare, as well as the extreme of the mercury falling below the freezing point at or south of San Francisco. Indeed, at and south of this point, the climate may be termed perpetual summer; flower gardens, shrubs, and grass being as verdant and fragrant in January as in June.

The seasons in California seem to be the reverse of the seasons in any other part of the world. December, at which time the rains have fully set in and the season when winter develops its severity in most parts of the world, and the succeeding months until May are termed winter, or the "rainy season," in California. About the middle of November the rains begin to fall in the valleys, and the Sierras receive their new fleecy robes of winter, the skirts of which grow thin and ragged as they reach down the western foot-hills of the Sierra range, until they entirely disappear at the edge of the green sward, where under the same sun, and in the same latitude and longitude, the icicle and the honeysuckle struggle for the mastery-where the cold fingers of winter pinch the blooming cheeks of spring. During this period, and while the tall pines groan under their burden of snow, and the fierce gales sweep over the jagged peaks of the Sierras, and the miner seeks the shelter of his log-cabin, makes his tedious journey up the mountain sides with his broad snow-shoes, or, with sledded

feet, sweeps down the crusted glade, in the valley below the farmer guides the plow, tender shoots of buds and grass welcome the refreshing showers, and waving fields of grain, blossoms, spreading trees, and warbling birds proclaim the presence of spring. Through the winter months, or rainy season, farmers put in all their seed: wheat, barley, and oats are sown from November to May, but the greater part of the grain is sown before the end of February; generally the early sown grain produces the most abundant harvests, and grain sown in November and December requires but about onehalf of the seed of that sown later in the season.

California during the rainy season is exempt from the prevailing summer winds which sweep in from the Pacific ocean, and the whole country west of the Sierras and to the ocean is mantled in green. It must not be understood that it rains all the time during the rainy season: on the contrary, the weather is very fine, not raining more than one day out of four, and a great portion of the time the sun shines bright, the air is balmy, and altogether the weather is beautiful; and what seems most strange is, that the rain falls generally at night. Throughout this season the air is so balmy that men work in the fields and in shops and stores in their shirt-sleeves, and throughout the whole State, with the exception of the Sierra range, in winter the doors of stores and other buildings are never closed, and in many instances the whole fronts of establishments are open and goods displayed in great profusion, giving an oriental aspect to the business marts of the country.

Once or twice during each winter, ice, the thickness of window-glass, forms at and about San Francisco, and

white frost is often visible; but persons who do not rise early may live a lifetime in California without seeing ice, frost, or snow, unless the snowy caps of the mountains are visible.

Winter even in its intensest form in California is not severe, and even the dreaded Sierras, which have been the theme of unguarded writers, and represented as a chain of relentless icebergs, are mild in comparison with the winters of New York, New England, and Canada: the severest weather of midwinter is not so cold in the Sierras as the weather of the early part of the month of March in New York.

Snow falls to a great depth on the Sierras-from three to thirty feet; but much of the lowlands and valleys of this range receive but little snow, and cattle in some instances live in the mountains the year round without the aid of man.

The area of California is so great and the climate so diversified at the different localities, even at the same season of the year, that a few hours travel at any time will carry a person into a variety of climates. For a distance interiorwards of fifty miles from the ocean, along the length of the State, it is damp and cool, with high winds during the entire summer months. During the latter part of each day during this season (June, July, August, September, and October) immense clouds and banks of fog roll up from the Pacific ocean before a stiff westerly breeze, keeping every thing in the tier of coast counties damp and their population clad in warm garments; while the interior valley counties are parched, and their inhabitants, in thin linen, are stewing in fretful unrest and perspiration.

In the interior valley counties hay is cut in May and