"The division of the year into two distinct seasons--dry and wet--impresses those who have been accustomed to the variable climate of the Atlantic States unfavorably. The dry appearance of the country in summer, and the difficulty of moving about in winter, _seem_ to impose serious difficulties in the way of agricultural prosperity, while the many and decided advantages resulting from the mildness of winter, and the bright, clear weather of summer, are not appreciated. These will appear when I come to speak of the productions of California. We ought not to be surprised at the dislike which the immigrants frequently express to the climate. It is so unlike that from which they come, that they cannot readily appreciate its advantages, or become reconciled to its extremes of dry and wet.
"If a native of California were to go to New England in winter, and see the ground frozen and covered with snow, the streams with ice, and find himself in a temperature many degrees colder than he had ever felt before, he would probably be as much surprised that people could or would live in so inhospitable a region, as any immigrant ever has been at what he has seen or felt in California.
"So much are our opinions influenced by early impressions, the vicissitudes of the seasons with which we are familiar, love of country, home, and kindred, that we ought never to hazard a hasty opinion when we come in contact with circumstances entirely different from those to which we have all our lives been accustomed."
These remarks explain the reason of the diversity of opinion expressed by persons who have visited California, in a very satisfactory manner. The Italian climate of Los Angeles has received the praises of nearly all who have visited that city or its neighborhood. The thermometrical observations detailed in the above account seem to prove that much of the unfavorable opinions expressed concerning the climate is the result of hasty judgment, and a dislike of that which is different from that to which we have been used.
The soil of California has also been the subject of various and conflicting statements. Many of those who have spent some months in the country, and returned to publish their hastily gathered observations, either set down the soil as totally unfit for agricultural purposes, or, having been located in some garden spot the great portion of their time of residence there, pronounce it unsurpassed for richness and fertility. As Mr. King visited California with the sole object of making accurate observations upon the territory and its resources, the statements of the character of the soil which are given in his report will carry greater weight than any other. He says--