They had early decided that trees were the best food plants,
requiring far less labor in tilling the soil, and bearing a larger
amount of food for the same ground space; also doing much to
preserve and enrich the soil.
Due regard had been paid to seasonable crops, and their fruit
and nuts, grains and berries, kept on almost the year through.
On the higher part of the country, near the backing wall of
mountains, they had a real winter with snow. Toward the south-
eastern point, where there was a large valley with a lake whose
outlet was subterranean, the climate was like that of California,
and citrus fruits, figs, and olives grew abundantly.
What impressed me particularly was their scheme of fertilization.
Here was this little shut-in piece of land where one would have
thought an ordinary people would have been starved out long ago
or reduced to an annual struggle for life. These careful culturists
had worked out a perfect scheme of refeeding the soil with all that
came out of it.
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