Nevada County in 1888

This article appeared in the Nov. 21, 1888 issue of The Nevada County Picayune.

     In the first place, I will describe the climate, which is in winter, when compared to more
northerly latitudes, mild though somewhat wet.  Spring is warm, or rather mild, with an
abundance of rain for farming purposes.  Summer is cool, dry, and remarkably healthy for a
southern latitude and fall is of all climates in which I have lived (and I have lived in a good many)
the most delightful, cool, dry, invigorating, and perfectly healthy.  As to the land here, although it
looks poor, it yields one half to one bale of cotton per acre, 25 to 50 bushels of corn per acre, and
15 to 30 bushels of oats.

     Prescott is situated on the border of a beautiful prairie containing several thousand acres
of land which produces the finest grass, making stock of all kinds very fat, in spring, summer, and
fall and rendering it unnecessarry to feed except in the winter months.  It yields from one to ten
tons of hay per acre and of excellent quality.

     As to game, we have a variety of small game here such as squirrel, coons, 'possums,
ducks, quail, prairie plovers, rabbit, and snipe.  Some seven or eight miles from here on Little
Missouri River is a vast quantity of squirrel, considerable numbers of turkeys and deer, and as I
am told, an occasional black bear.

     In the Carouse, a little creek two miles west of me, I catch some of the finest fish ever
taken in southern waters, such as very large perch, trout (or what is called in the north, black
bass), eel, and blue and creek cat.  In the Little Missouri River, the waters are very clear, swift
running and cool, we have of the inferior kind of fish, buffalo, suckers, red horse and of the
superior kind, we have trout or black bass, several varieties of fine perch which I have heard
called drum or gasper goul, and blue, yellow, and black or mud cat.  All of these are in great
abundance and bite readily at the hook and line and afford the finest sport and excellent food.

     Vegetables and fruits are far superior in the way of variety to any country I have been in
during the whole course of my life.  I planted a garden last spring with seventeen different
varieties of vegetables, all of which grew to the utmost perfection, both in size and quality.  

     As to fruits, we have great variety of peaches, pears, plums, apples, quinces, cherries, figs,
and Japanese persimmons, and berries such as strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and
dewberries.  Wild fruits, berries, and nuts indiginous to the country are nuts, chincapin, walnut,
hickory nut, and pecan.  We also have wild fruit and berries such as red haws, black haws, winter
and summer huckleberries, mulberries, pawpaws, persimmons, muscadines, and winter and
summer grapes.