USA > California > A history of California: the American period > Part 38
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
1 In that year the five largest coun- ties were as follows: Los Angeles, 936,438; San Francisco, 506,676; Ala- meda, 344,127; Fresno, 128,774; San Diego, 112,248. The five largest cities
were Los Angeles, 576,673; San Fran- cisco, 506,676; Oakland, 216,361; San Diego, 74,683; and Sacramento, 65,857.
445
MATERIAL PROGRESS
The increase of population from 1850 to 1920, approxi- mately thirty-six hundred per cent, has been accompanied by a commensurate development of the state's economic resources. Most fundamental of these is the progress made in agriculture. In this industry the state has passed through three stages. The pastoral era of the Spanish-Mexican régime, when cattle and sheep were almost the sole basis of wealth, was superseded shortly after American occupation by the supremacy of the grain ranches. These stretched for mile upon mile through the great Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys, and along the arable coast lands between Bodega and San Diego. With the coming of the railroads, the development of irrigation, and the opening of eastern markets to California products, the grain ranches in turn gave place to fruit orchards, vineyards, alfalfa fields, truck gardens and all the varied branches of agriculture which today flourish in the state.
The early experiments of Mission priest and Spanish colonist showed the wonderful congeniality of the soil and climate of California for the production of oranges, grapes, and deciduous fruits of almost every kind, and as already indicated, some time after American occupation fruit or- chards and vineyards began to be planted for commercial purposes. Grapes were grown at first chiefly for the manu- facture of wines and brandies. Vast tracts were set to vineyards all over the state, and the wine industry became a widely advertised feature of California life. Table grapes were also grown in a smaller way; but until a much later date, the raisin industry was represented only by the so-called "dried grapes," of little flavor and slight commercial value. Today, however, the production of table grapes and raisins, has become one of the chief industries of the state. The central part of the San Joaquin Valley is preeminently the raisin section of California; and here, of late years especially, vineyard lands have risen surprisingly in value.
Of deciduous fruits produced in California there is almost no limit in quantity or variety. Thanks to the refrigerator car, much of the yearly crop can now be shipped to eastern
446
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
markets in its natural form. But by far the larger part of the yield is either dried or canned. No section of the state can claim a monopoly of the deciduous industry; but the peach orchards of the San Joaquin Valley, the prune orchards of Santa Clara, the apricot orchards of Ventura, the apples of Watsonville and Yucaipa, the cherries of Vacaville, the pears of Antelope Valley, and the figs of Fresno and Tu- lare have acquired something more than ordinary reputation.
One of the most valuable, and certainly the most distinc- tive branch of agriculture in California is the citrus industry. Owing to climatic conditions the production of oranges and lemons is confined almost entirely to certain favored sections of Southern California, with the Lindsey-Porterville- Exeter region of the San Joaquin Valley occupying a place of less importance. The history of the citrus industry, interesting and significant as it has been, cannot be traced here at any length. Two outstanding features in its development, however, should at least be mentioned. One of these was the introduction of the Washington Navel in 1873. This, a seedless orange imported from Brazil by the United States Department of Agriculture, almost im- mediately found favor in California and soon displaced the seedling varieties of fruit previously in common use.2 For many years the Washington Navel and the so-called Val- encia Late have furnished the overwhelming bulk of the orange crop of the state.
The second outstanding event in the history of the citrus industry-and without doubt the most significant contribu- tion yet made to agricultural progress by the state-was the formation in October, 1895, of the Southern California Fruit Exchange. This organization, born of the dire neces- sity experienced in the early years of finding some method of protection against the ruinous charges of commission agents and high freight rates, was established on a purely co- operative basis among the orange and lemon growers of
2 Two of these trees were sent to L. C. Tibbetts of the newly established Riverside colony. One of the trees is
still living at the Glenwood Mission Inn of that city.
447
MATERIAL PROGRESS
Southern California. In 1905 the field of the organization was widened, and it took the name of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange.
Originally designed as a shipping and marketing agency, the Exchange, as it is commonly known to its members, is today active in every department of the business. The intelligent cooperation and business efficiency which made its early success possible in the face of many difficulties and discouragements, have continued to mark its progress, until today the organization enjoys an international reputation as the most highly developed and successful enterprise of its kind in the world.3
The California Fruit Growers' Exchange, moreover, not only made possible the success of the citrus industry of California, but also pioneered the way by which almost every other branch of agriculture in California has been lifted to a new level. Thus, the grape growers have a similarly efficient and powerful organization known as the California Associated Raisin Company. Other organizations of a kin- dred nature have been effected among the peach growers of the state, among the prune and apricot ranchers, and among the producers of walnuts and almonds. Vegetable and melon growers, dairymen and poultrymen in certain locali- ties have also organized their mutual associations along similar lines. Until it may be said without danger of exaggeration that cooperative enterprise has become one of the chief secrets of California's recent phenomenal agri- cultural development.
Another feature of the state's agricultural progress has been the steadily increasing emphasis upon the applica- tion of science to farm problems. The State University, through its many agricultural departments has done much in this direction. The State Agricultural Society and the United State government have also contributed largely to the advance of the industry in California. In special fields,
3 The exchange today handles 75% of the citrus production of California, and its nationally ad-
vertised Sunkist Brand of oranges and lemons has become a household word throughout the United States.
448
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
such as that of the citrus industry, the powerful cooperative organizations already spoken of, have developed unusually successful departments of investigation and research for the benefit of their members. Some sixteen local farm magazines, of a special or general nature, also contribute their quota to the advance in agricultural knowledge. Many rural high schools have special departments for the teaching of animal husbandry, the operation and care of farm machinery, the selection of seed and kindred subjects; counties have their Commissioners of Horticulture; and there are also county Farm Advisers, supported at public expense, to advise with any rancher who may need their services and to study the local needs of their particular districts. In a word, ranching in California, as in other progressive states, has been brought to the level of a highly specialized and skilled business. 4
Another feature of permanent significance in the state's agricultural progress has been the successful experimenta- tion with new fruits and crops. The avocado industry, for example, though still in its beginning, promises to develop into one of the most distinctive and valuable forms of horticulture in Southern California. Long before California became a state the adaptability of its soil and climate to cotton and rice growing had been pointed out, yet neither of these great staples was produced in commercial quantity until very recent years. Since 1910, however, vast areas in the Imperial Valley and the San Joaquin have been planted to cotton, and the value of the crop is annually over $15,000,- 000. Rice culture, similarly, has suddenly assumed a place of first importance in the Sacramento and lower San Joaquin Valleys and California has become the second rice producing state in the Union.
The sugar beet industry, though much older than cotton
4 One of the latest and most promising experiments undertaken by the state government has been the establishment of the State Land Settlement Board for the purpose of colonizing unoccupied areas with persons of moderate means, under
the supervision of expert agricultural advisers. The first colonies of this kind, located at Durham in Butte County and at Delhi in the San Joaquin, have met with most gratify- ing success.
449
MATERIAL PROGRESS
or rice production in California, was still in the experimental stage as late as 1890, and only since 1900 has it risen to first rank proportions. Bean culture has also become a distinctive California industry in recent years and in 1918 the crop was valued at nearly $50,000,000. Truck gardening for eastern as well as for local markets has similarly been a matter of recent growth; and today vegetables from the Imperial, San Gabriel, San Fernando, lower San Joaquin, and Sacramento Valleys, as well as from a dozen other favored sections in the state, not only supply the local needs of over three million people and the demands of dozens of great canneries, but also go, literally by the hundreds of trainloads, to the tables of the Atlantic seaboard and the Mississippi Valley.5 The cantaloupe industry, especially in the Imperial Val- ley and the Turlock district of the San Joaquin, has as- sumed astonishing proportions within the last decade; and in 1920, 13,000 carloads were shipped to eastern markets.
Dairying, the production of thoroughbred cattle and hogs, and the raising of poultry are also becoming of increasing im- portance year by year. The last named industry, especially, has enabled many people of small means to find an indepen- dent livelihood, who otherwise would have been forced to join the ranks of the clerks or wage earners in the cities.6
The large scale production of these varied types of agri- cultural products has been paralleled by the reclamation of great areas of swamp and overflow land (notably in the lower Sacramento and San Joaquin basins), and of even larger areas of arid or desert land by the drilling of wells and the building of irrigation works. The history of this feature of the state's development is too long to be told in this volume, but mention must at least be made of the most noteworthy enterprise of this kind in recent years.
When, a hundred and fifty years ago, the old Spanish colonizing expeditions crossed the Colorado River into Alta
5 The vegetable shipments from California in 1920 were estimated at nearly 40,000 carloads, exclusive of cantaloupes.
6 Live stock values in 1920 totaled
$204,378,000. Dairy products sold for $52,500,000; chickens and eggs for $25,187,000; and the wool clip for $5,762,000.
450
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
California they found themselves in a region of sandy wastes, destitute of water, covered only with the grotesque flora of the desert, and (if the crossing were attempted in the summer), almost unbearably hot for man and beast. Three quarters of a century later, when Kearny's forces entered California from New Mexico, they found the same weary land of sand and heat stretching before them, from the Colorado to the San Diego mountains. The following para- graph, written by Colonel Emory in 1846, is faintly descrip- tive of this region over which the American soldiers toiled so many years ago.
"The desert over which we had passed, ninety miles from water to water, is an immense triangular plain, bounded on one side by the Colorado, on the west by the Cordilleras of Cali- fornia, the coast chain of mountains which now encircle us, . .. and on the northwest by a chain of mountains running southeast and northwest. It is chiefly covered with floating sand the surface of which, in various places, is white with diminutive spinelas and everywhere over the whole surface is found the large and soft mussel-shell."
A certain Dr. Wozencraft, United States Indian Agent at San Francisco from 1850 to 1860, became the first enthusiast for the development of the region, which he first visited in 1849 and afterwards described, with a certain pardonable exag- geration, as "the most formidable of all deserts on the continent." Wozencraft labored from 1850 to 1888 to carry out his ambition, and at one time (1859) succeeded in secur- ing from the California Legislature a grant to all state lands in the basin, providing his reclamation plans should be effected. Congress apparently was disposed to take similar favorable action, when the outbreak of the Civil War ended the proposed legislation.
The construction of the Southern Pacific Railway from Los Angeles to New Orleans by way of the San Gorgonio Pass and Fort Yuma stimulated a new interest in the desert region through which the line ran for so much of its course. Early in the nineties, a young engineer named C. R. Rock- wood became interested in the diversion of water from the
451
MATERIAL PROGRESS
Colorado for the irrigation of the land west of the river and succeeded in enlisting some financial support. By 1896 considerable preliminary survey work had been accom- plished and a corporation known as the California Develop- ment Company had been organized under the laws of New Jersey, with A. H. Heber as its president.
For four years this company made little progress toward obtaining the capital necessary for the success of its enter- prise; but in 1900, George Chaffey, a noted engineer and capitalist of Southern California, became actively concerned with the project, and under his management the irrigation of the valley was finally begun in the spring of 1901.
The magnitude and novelty of reclaiming a desert by diverting the waters of a great river appealed to the Amer- ican imagination, so that wide publicity was immediately given to the Imperial undertaking. Colonists, sightseers and speculators began to visit the valley in considerable number; and, despite financial difficulties on the part of the Cal- ifornia Development Company and internal friction among its directors, coupled with a most unfavorable report on the agricultural possibilities of the valley by the United States Department of Agriculture, a fair sized boom was in progress by 1903.
The development of the valley, though hindered by many factors, especially the uncertainty of boundary lines and land titles, continued without serious interruption until the great floods of 1906. In that year the Colorado almost bodily left its old outlet to the Gulf, cut a new channel through the heart of the Imperial Valley, and poured its waters into the vast inland sink, since known as Salton Sea. For many dangerous weeks the rising waters threat- ened to engulf the ranches and settlements of the valley, and destruction seemed to await the whole Imperial project.
The closing of the breach through which the river had escaped, was a task of too great magnitude for the California Development Company, or the settlers of the valley. The aid of the federal government and the full strength of the Southern Pacific Railroad, whose through line east was
452
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
menaced by the runaway river, was accordingly given to meet the emergency. Fortunately, in the person of Epes Randolph, one of the genuine pioneer railroad builders of the southwest, a man was found capable of dealing with the situation. The struggle went desperately on during the summer and fall of 1906, while the people of the valley waited with deep anxiety the advent of the winter and spring floods. Twice, at least, when the rains came earlier than had been expected, the Colorado got beyond control. But in February, 1907, the last break was closed and the river resumed its fretful way to the Gulf.
Once released from the menace of the Colorado, the Imperial Valley underwent a transformation tritely spoken of as amazing. The fertility of the soil, coupled with the intense heat of the summers and the mild winter climate, produced enormus crops of almost every variety. Barley, sorghum, milo maize, and alfalfa; early vegetables, such as lettuce, tomatoes, and peas; cotton, corn, cattle, and hogs; milk, butter, eggs, and turkeys for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets; grapes that ripen before the frost is well out of the ground in New England; and a cantaloupe harvest so large that a day's pick from a single shipping center often fills two hundred freight cars-such today are the products of Imperial Valley where two short decades (or a little more) ago were only desert waste and sand!
The present state of California agriculture, which is the result of the many factors already enumerated or hinted at in the preceding pages-climatic and soil conditions, reclamation projects of many kinds, a highly intelligent rural population, and the many aids to scientific agricul- ture, can best be shown, even at the risk of incurring criticism for the use of statistics and figures in a narrative history, by the following tables :
MATERIAL PROGRESS
453
CALIFORNIA COMMERCIAL OR HARD CROPS, 1920
Fruit
State Production
Value of Crop Dollars
Almonds.
. 5,500 tons.
$ 1,980,000
Apples.
3,000,000 boxes
9,605,000
Apricots.
115,000 tons
9,775,000
Cherries
15,000 tons.
3,000,000
Figs. .
10,000 tons.
900,000
Grapefruit
About 328,000 boxes
984,000
Lemons.
4,500,000 boxes
2,700,000
Olives
10,000 tons.
800,000
Oranges
18,700,000 boxes
31,425,000
Peaches
.345,000 tons.
26,220,000
Pears.
.90,000 tons
8,100,000
Plums
35,000 tons
3,150,000
Prunes
95,000 tons
19,000,000
Walnuts.
.20,000 tons
8,600,000
Grapes-Raisin
180,000 tons
55,800,000
Table
160,000 tons
12,000,000
Wine.
380,000 tons
24,700,000
Value of all Crops for 1920
Dollars
Cereals.
$108,570,000
Other grains and seeds.
38,349,000
Hay and forage
96,122,000
Vegetables.
47,378,000
Fruits and nuts
270,911,000
All other crops
26,270,000
Total
587,600,000
Though occupying a much less spectacular position in California's economic life than at an earlier time, mining has consistently remained one of the state's important indus- tries since the great gold era of 1849. At present there are approximately fifty minerals developed on a commer- cial scale; but the production of gold, chiefly by quartz mining and dredging, remains the most important fea- ture of the industry, if petroleum be excluded. Silver, quicksilver, copper, borax, cement, and building stone are also produced in considerable quantities. The following table shows the value of the mineral products of California, exclusive of petroleum, for each tenth year since 1890:
454
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
1890
$17,655,000
1900
28,470,000
1910
50,730,000
1920
63,749,000
The lumber industry, which very early in the history of the state became one of its important assets, remains today a characteristic feature of California's economic life. The industry is localized chiefly in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of Central and Northern California, and in the coast counties north of the Russian River. The world's supply of com- mercial redwood (a beautiful, decay resisting timber) comes from the four counties of Santa Cruz, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Del Norte. The redwood cut equals nearly 500,000,000 board feet a year. Next comes western yellow pine, with an annual production of about 400,000,000 feet; Douglas fir, about 225,000,000 feet; sugar pine and white fir, nearly 125,000,000 feet each; and cedar, spruce and other minor woods sufficient to raise the total annual output to over 1,500,000,000 board feet.
One great natural resource has been denied to California. The state has no known coal deposits of any magnitude.7 This lack of fuel for a long time proved a serious handicap to the development of cheap and efficient transportation and to the establishment of important manufactures. Two other agencies, however, (the one, especially, in compara- tively recent times) have been drawn upon to make up for this deficiency of coal. These are petroleum and hydro- electric energy.
The history of the petroleum industry in California, fascinating as it is, must be passed by with only a meager and unsatisfactory reference. Oil exudes were found near Los Angeles over a hundred years ago, and the asphaltum which they produced was made use of to cover the roofs of early Spanish-California houses. The beginning of com-
7 Iron deposits of great value exist with the development of the coal fields of southern Utah and the San Juan Basin in New Mexico.
in Southern California. At this writing there are movements on foot to exploit these in connection
455
MATERIAL PROGRESS
mercial production of petroleum in the Pennsylvania fields drew some attention in the early sixties to the possibilities of developing these oil deposits in California. And about this time the first commercial production is said to have been obtained in Pico Cañon, near the present town of Newhall; but no important development took place until the late seventies.8
Thomas R. Bard, afterwards United States Senator from California, Lyman Stewart, now Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Union Oil Company, and W. L. Hardison, were among the most important pioneers in the industry. Early in the nineties E. L. Doheny, now prominently identified with petroleum development in Mexico, and his partner, C. A. Canfield, began the production of oil in the Los Angeles fields by sinking a shaft with pick, shovel and windlass on a plot of ground near the western boundary of the city.
In those early years petroleum was valuable chiefly for the manufacture of kerosene and axle grease. Then the possibility of using crude oil for fuel became known, and sometime later it began to be used on locomotives instead of coal. From an economic standpoint, this was an invaluable aid to the development of transportation in California, for the oil burning locomotive solved the expensive and per- plexing fuel problem of the railroads.
Since the ever increasing demand for gasoline and lubri- cants, caused by the growth of the automobile industry, and the larger use of crude petroleum for fuel in transportation and manufacturing, the oil deposits of California have become one of the state's greatest assets. The chief pro- ducing fields lie in Kern, Orange, Fresno, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Ventura Counties.9 The remarkable increase in yield of the California wells may be seen from the following brief table:
8 By 1865, however, over sixty oil companies had been organized in the state, most of which were of a purely speculative character.
9 In order of production, 1920. Kern county, however, produced over three times as much oil as its nearest competitor.
456
A HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Year
Bbls.
Value
To and inc. 1875.
175,000
$ 472,500
1880.
.40,552
60,828
1890.
. 307,360
384,200
1900.
.4,329,950
4,152,928
1910
.77,697,568
37,689,542
1920.
103,377,368.
178,394,937
Total production . . 1,343,586,101. . Total Value. . 992,840,949
The development of hydroelectric power, which is said to have been begun in California by the Chaffey brothers of Ontario in 1882, has come to be, especially in the last decade, one of the outstanding features of the state's new industrial life. The Sierra Nevada Mountains, with their abundant snows and never-failing streams, furnish a vast storehouse of power upon which the state can draw for its future industrial and transportation needs. 10 Many of the largest rivers of the state, such as the Pitt, Klamath, Feather, San Joaquin, King's, Kern, and Owen's have already been par- tially harnessed and made to furnish light and power for the cities, homes, street railways, manufacturing plants and irrigation works in the valleys below. Most of this develop- ment has been carried on by a few large public utility corpora- tions, of which the Southern California Edison, the Pacific Gas and Electric, the San Joaquin Light and Power, the Western States Electric, and the Southern Sierras' Power Company are the most important.
But the cities of Los Angeles and San Francisco have also entered the hydroelectric field. Los Angeles has centered its activities in the Owen's River Valley, and along the 230 mile aqueduct which carries the water of that stream to the city. In 1920 the municipal power plants were producing close to 85,000 horse power, and the city was definitely committed to the policy of generating and distributing its own electric energy. San Francisco, though not as yet
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.