Excerpt from Culture of the Citrus in California Vancouver, in his memoir of the Pacific Coast, in 1792, describes an orchard which he found at Santa Clara in which were growing apples, peaches, pears, apricots, and figs, the trees all being thrifty and promising. He further details finding at the mission of San Buenaventura apples, pears, plums, figs, oranges, grapes, peaches, and pomegranates. The orchards connected with the Mission San Gabriel were among the most extensive of that early period, having, among other fruits growing, oranges, citrons, limes, apples, pears, peaches, pomegranates, and figs; grapes also grew in abundance. NO statistical accounts are extant recording the number of trees or the amount of fruit produced by the missions at the period of their greatest prosperity. Inventories of the mission properties were made at the time of their secularization in 1834. That of the Santa Ynez Mission recorded 987 fruit trees, valued at $1 each. San Fernando returned fruit trees, valued at each; San Gabriel, fruit trees, upon which no valuation was placed; and San Diego returned 517 olive trees. Outside of the missions there were a few attempts at horticulture, which might be called the prehistoric orchards of the State. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.