Sonoma County CA Archives History - Books .....The Thermal Belt 1877
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Joy Fisher sdgenweb@yahoo.com February 24, 2006, 4:57 am

Book Title: Historical And Descriptive Sketch Of Sonoma County, California

THE THERMAL BELT.

   There is a warm strata of air in the hills, a few hundred feet above the
valleys. This semi-tropical belt varies; in some localities it is very marked,
and in others it is much less so. At night during the frosty seasons the cold
air settles in the valleys, and the warm air rises. At daylight a severe frost
may be seen in the valleys, heaviest along the water-courses, while in the warm
belt, a few hundred feet above,—in some cases not more than sixty,—the most
delicate shrubs and flowers are untouched. This season the tomato vines were not
killed in the warm belt by the frost. The soil on the hills has often great
depth, and is admirably adapted to fruit culture. Like the valleys, these lands
are covered only by scattered groves of trees, little of it too steep for easy
cultivation. It is exactly suited for semi-tropical fruit culture; here oranges,
lemons, limes, English walnuts, almonds and pomegranate trees grow well, and
yield a certain crop. There are thousands of acres of this kind of land in
Sonoma county, which can be bought at from fifteen to twenty dollars per acre.
We know orchards where the fruits most sensitive to frost have never yet been
injured; where the geranium, the fuchia and heliotrope will grow out of doors.
and blossom in the winter months. Semi-tropical fruits are grown in the valleys,
but, excepting the almond and English walnut, not with as much certainty as in
the warm belt. The value of the hill lands of Sonoma county is not yet
appreciated,—least of all by those who have been longest here.


Additional Comments:
Extracted from:

HISTORICAL
AND
DESCRIPTIVE SKETCH
OF
SONOMA COUNTY,
CALIFORNIA,
BY
ROBERT A. THOMPSON,
EDITOR OF "THE SONOMA DEMOCRAT."
PHILADELPHIA:
L. H. EVERTS & CO. 
1877.


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