The black or purple fig which grew in the old Mission gardens bears fruit everywhere in the state.  Either fresh and ripe, or pressed flat and dried, it is delicious and healthful.  White figs like those from abroad have been raised the last few years, and it is hoped in time to produce Smyrna figs equal to the imported.

While peach orchards blossom and bear fruit six months of the year in the south, most of this pretty pink-cheeked fruit grows in the great valleys, or along the Sacramento River.  Pears also show their snowy blossoms and yellow fruit in the valleys and farther north.  The Bartlett pear is sent to all the Eastern states in cold storage cars kept cool by ice, and also to Europe.

The finest apricots are those of that wonderful southern country, miles and miles of orchards lying round Fresno especially.  Yet the valleys and foot-hills produce plenty, and in the old mining counties very choice fruit ripens.  Apples like the high mountain valleys, where they get a touch of frost in winter, though there is a cool section of San Diego County where fine ones are raised.  Cherries do well in the middle and valley regions, the earliest coming from Vacaville, in Solano County.

Grapes grow throughout the state, though the famous raisin vineyards, where thousands of tons are dried every year, are around Fresno.  Most of the raisins are dried in the sun, but in one factory a hundred tons of grapes may be dried at one time by steam.  The raisins are seeded by machinery, and packed in pretty boxes to send all over the coast, and through the states, where once only foreign raisins were used.  Many vineyards in the southern part and middle of the state grow only wine grapes, California wines, champagne, and brandy having a wide use.

Great quantities of fresh fruits are used in the state or sent away, while the canneries put up immense amounts, also.  Canned fruit reaches many consumers, but it is expensive.  Our cured or dried fruit, however is so cheap and so good that millions of pounds are prepared every year.  Such fruit ripens on the tree and so keeps all its fine flavor.  It is then dried in the sunshine, which not only fits it for long keeping but turns part of it to sugar.  Apricots, peaches, pears, and cherries are usually cut in halves or stoned before drying.  Prunes are first on the list of cured fruits, and they seem the best to use as food.  The ripe prunes are dipped into a boiling lye to make the skin tender, then rinsed and spread in the sun a day or two.  They are then allowed to “sweat” to get a good color, are next dipped in boiling water a minute or two, dried, and finally graded, a certain number to the pound, and packed in boxes or sacks.

Several kinds of nuts grow well in the state.  All the so-called “English” walnuts, with their thin shells, are raised in the south, Orange County furnishing half the amount we market.  Peanuts and almonds are a good crop there, also, though almond groves are in all parts of the state.  Both paper and thick-shelled almonds are usually bleached, or whitened, with sulphur smoke to improve their color.