USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 25
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BY D. M. BERRY, OF THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE LOS ANGELES "DAILY HERALD."
THE petroleum and asphaltum supply of Southern Cali- fornia are among the largest and richest in the world. A single well in the Pico Canon has produced within the past nine years about a million dollars worth of oil, and is still producing steadily. The peculiar feature of the oil-wells of this section is their permanence. When oil is once struck in a well the proprietor can trust in its continuance. Pe- troleum and asphaltum were discovered here by the first Spanish settlers more than a century ago, but no attention was paid to the oil, while asphaltum was melted and used as roofing for the adobe houses of the settlers. The oil re- gion of Southern California extends from the northern part of Santa Barbara County, along the coast through that county, thence a few miles inland through Ventura and Los Angeles Counties, a distance of one hundred and sixty miles.
The rocky crust of the earth all through this region is broken in a most remarkable manner, and the vast supply of hydrogen within the earth forces the oil through the
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crevices of the rocks in thousands of places throughout the whole length of the oil-belt. The city of Los Angeles is situated on this oil-belt, and gas, oil, and large beds of as- phaltum are found within the city limit. Owing to the broken condition of the rocks the drilling of wells is a slow and expensive process, requiring great care, strong machin- ery, and iron casing in all the wells, but the result is rich and rewarding. Every grade of oil is produced from 14º gravity up to 47°. The former is used as a hot bath for iron-pipes which are being laid everywhere for the carriage of water underground, that renders the iron impervious to rust. The grade between 20° and 33° is used largely as fuel for steam-engines, and is very valuable.
No attempt was made at refining the oil until 1856, when an attempt was made near this city ; but owing to the high price of labor and machinery, and the thickness of the oil, which was surface-oil from which the volatile por- tion had evaporated, the affair was not a success.
About this time Charles Morrell, of San Francisco, re- fined a small amount of oil in Santa Barbara County, on the coast near Carpenteria, but the quality was too heavy for profitable manufacture with the means then employed. In the mean time, Andreas Pico refined a small amount at San Fernando Mission. He was probably the first refiner of petroleum on this coast.
No further attempt was made at oil development till the close of the war, when the San Fernando petroleum and mining district, thirty miles north of Los Angeles, was . located with Christopher Leaming as recorder, a position which he still holds in 1887. This district has produced a larger amount of oil than any other in the State, and is now yielding a thousand barrels daily.
In 1866 the Santa Paula district was established in Ven- tura County by Charles Scott, who obtained and refined several thousand gallons of oil. In San Francisco two re-
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fineries were established in the same year. One by Hay- ward and Coleman and the other by Stanford Brothers, but other avenues of trade proved more profitable and the refineries were abandoned.
In 1867 increased attention was paid to oil development, and samples of oil were sent to the Paris Exposition from the San Fernando district and from Santa Barbara County. In 1868 a large amount of oil was gathered from springs and shallow wells and hauled to Wilmington, whence it was shipped to the Metropolitan Gas-Works in San Fran- cisco to be used in the manufacture of gas. In 1869 a good well was sunk by Mr. Hughes in Pico Canon, now the principal oil-producing canon in the San Fernando district.
In 1873 a refinery was established by the Star Oil Com- pany at Lyon's Station, and the Pico oil-production refined at the rate of twenty barrels daily. All wells up to 1877 were drilled by spring-pole, when the Star Oil Company commenced drilling and pumping wells by steam-power. This great change was the grand opening of the rich oil- basins of Southern California.
In 1878, Hon. C. N. Felton, present M. C. of California, and R. C. McPherson sunk a well 700 feet deep in the San Fernando district, and struck a spouting-well of 100 barrels daily of oil of a gravity of 46° to 47º. Since that time wells have been sunk in San Fernando district, and in the Sespe and Santa Paula region in Ventura County, till there are now about fifty productive wells in the two localities producing together about 2,000 barrels per day that are eagerly sought for lubricating purposes and fuel.
Another oil-district was opened in the southern part of the county of Los Angeles in 1881, by Burdett Chandler, a veteran oil-discoverer in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Canada. He sunk, with the aid of poor and imperfect ma- chinery, three wells on the Puente Rancho, twenty miles
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
east of Los Angeles, that struck thick oil at 30 feet, thinner at 75 feet, and a gravity of 32° at 150 feet. From lack of capital the wells were neglected for awhile, when Messrs. Rowland and Lacy commenced with improved machinery to sink deeper wells, and have struck at 700 feet copious supplies of oil and gas. They have now a supply of natural gas that furnishes all the fuel for their engines, drills new wells, pumps all the others, lights and warms the houses of the workmen, pumps the oil to a reservoir on the top of a hill 660 feet above the railway and the city, and becomes a peculiar form of perpetual motion as viewed by the outward manifestations. There are now eight wells in this district producing about 500 barrels per day.
Mr. Chandler has also organized another company to operate east of the Puente district, about six miles north of Anaheim, where several wells are being sunk. The largest yield of any is to the extent of fifty barrels per day, but no deep wells have yet been made. Deeper wells will doubt- less give a copious yield.
The whole yield of the Ventura and Los Angeles Coun- ty wells is about 2,600 barrels daily, but the work of de- velopment is but scarcely begun. When the great oil-fields of Sespe, the Simi, the Brea, San Fernando, Puente, Rodeo de las Aguas, Chandler District, and the City Oil Springs have been opened to proper depth, the yield of oil and gas will be counted by millions of dollars. A large portion of the oil is used in its crude state as a lubricator of machin- ery and as fuel, both of which purposes it fulfills to per- fection.
With good machinery and intelligent skill thousands of oil-wells can be sunk in the coast counties of Southern Cali- fornia. The demand for the oil is increasing daily in the various branches of human industry, and it is every day be- coming more indispensable for use in the arts and sciences. It is seldom that a well is sunk that yields no oil. "Dry
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wells" are seldom seen in the oil-belt of Southern Cali- fornia.
The asphaltum deposits of this portion of the State are immense and of vast importance in value. These deposits are steadily increasing in volume so that no fear need arise of a lack of supply. This substance is used for pavements of streets and sidewalks, for lining reservoirs and conduits of water, for fuel, for the manufacture of paints of every hue, candles, chewing-gum, balsams of great value, for dis- tilling into oil, for illumination, and for the manufacture of gas.
The development of these two great resources is steadily going forward with increasing success. Ample capital is now being employed to produce, transport, and refine these products. Iron pipe is laid from the Puente wells to the Southern Pacific Railway, to which oil is carried by gravi- tation, and in such quantity as to load a car of one hundred barrels in ninety minutes. The oil-cars are now made in the form of round cylinders from heavy boiler-iron, and are strong and almost indestructible.
From the San Fernando wells the oil is carried in a pipe to Newhall station and refinery, on the Southern Pa- cific Railway, and also down the Santa Clara Valley to the sea, at the ports of Hueneme and San Buenaventura, where the oil is carried into vessels made to carry it in bulk. The oil from Santa Paula is conveyed in the same way to New- hall and to the sea. By the use of these pipe-lines the friction of transportation may be considered nil.
The amount of capital invested in the business of pro- duction and development is about $3,000,000, and is repre- sented by the Pacific Coast Oil Company, Sespe Oil Com- pany, California Star Oil-Works Company, Mission Trans- fer Company, Chandler Oil Company, and the Puente Oil Company. Some of the leading spirits in prosecuting this great work are Hon. C. N. Felton, Hon. D. G. Scofield,
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Lloyd Tevis, President of Wells, Fargo and Company, Hardison and Stuart, Burdett Chandler, W. R. Rowland, and Wm. Lacy. They represent millions of capital, and will carry on the great work in which they are engaged with intelligence and untiring zeal.
ORANGE-CULTURE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
BY WILLIAM A. SPAULDING,
OF THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE LOS ANGELES " DAILY TIMES" ; AUTHOR OF " THE ORANGE : ITS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA."
CITRUS-CULTURE in Southern California has attained great popularity and great success. The orange and the lemon are not indigenous to this country ; we have no native groves of the Bigarade (sour orange) like those of Florida, nor thickets of sweet oranges like those of Central America and portions of Mexico, but we have a soil and climate in certain favored sections, which are well adapted to this fruit, under cultivation. The one artificial condition neces- sary in order to command success is to supply the requisite moisture. This is accomplished by irrigation. There are lands here perennially moist by reason of the underflow and the close proximity of water to the surface ; but they cover the sections of greatest depression and both their at- mosphere and soil are found to be too cold for the orange and lemon. Hence our cultivators have sought the high, warm lands of the interior valleys and of the foot-hills align- ing the mountains in the south, and here, combining equa- bility of temperature, a genial soil, and sufficient moisture, they have achieved the most satisfactory results.
Perhaps it is really no disadvantage that citrus-culture
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must be pursued here, if at all, under these certain artificial conditions. Orange-growing is thus taken out of the domain of a hap-hazard occupation, and made one of the sciences. Without a degree of care the tree can not be grown in Southern California and without good care and strict conformity with its requirements it can not be made profitable. The rewards, therefore, all lie in the line of careful culture, and the law of the survival of the fittest is always operative.
The orange-orchard that ranks up to standard is well located as regards climate, soil, and water-supply, and it is cultivated and pruned with nicety and closely watched in order that it may be kept free from insect pests and other enemies. Grass and weeds are not allowed to gain even a good foothold in the best-tended orchards, and the surface of the soil is kept pulverized the year round to conserve moisture. During the past five or six years the accepted area of California's citrus-belt has undergone some impor- tant modifications. In the southern counties-Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and San Diego-the limits have been nar- rowed rather than broadened. This has been due princi- pally to two causes : First, the subdivision of many orange. growing districts into town lots and their settlement for residence purposes. Second, the discovery that many locali- ties formerly planted in citrus-trees are capable of produc- ing only mediocre fruit, and that they are therefore not highly remunerative for orchard purposes.
In these years the center of orange-production has shifted farther from the ocean, occupying more and more the warm interior valleys and the foot-hills. At the same time people in more northern sections of the State have discov- ered that they have some warm, sheltered ranches and val- leys where citrus-trees thrive, and they have been indus- triously engaged in planting orange-trees. To this extent, at least, the area of citrus-culture has been broadened.
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Whether the more northern locations are capable of pro- ducing oranges in commercial quantities at a profit to the cultivators remains to be demonstrated. Unfortunately, there are no well-authenticated statistics of recent date to show the extent of the citrus industry in California.
Since the year 1884-'85, county assessors have not been required to make specific returns of the numbers of bearing trees and vines in their respective counties, and, owing to this unpardonable oversight, there are no reliable statistics on these important matters. Some of the best-advised horticulturists, however, agree in the following approxi- mate estimates :
COUNTY.
No. of bear- ing orange- trees.
No. of bear- ing lemon- trees.
Los Angeles ..
300,000
25,000
San Bernardino
250,000
5,000
San Diego.
50,000
5,000
Santa Barbara
25,000
2,500
Santa Clara
10,000
500
Sonoma
5,000
500
Ventura
2,500
1,000
Yolo
2,500
Butte
5,000
1,000
Scattering
5,000
1,000
Total
655,000
41,500
With the new orchards coming into bearing, it is probable that by 1890 California will have 1,000,000 bearing orange- trees. Lemons, as will be seen from the figures above, are not in such favor as oranges, and, if the number of bearing lemon-trees reaches 50,000 in 1890, it is all I anticipate.
The production of limes, citrons, and other fruits of the citrus family is merely nominal. Athough these varieties flourish in the more favored localities, they have not as yet been found very profitable, and hence their production has not been encouraged.
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ORANGE-CULTURE.
It is a difficult matter to present in business-like form the profit and loss account of orange-culture in Southern California. It is a great industry, scattered and diversified. In one instance-pursued by a shiftless cultivator, or in an illy-adapted locality, or lacking in other ways essential con- ditions of success-it may be a losing business. Again, with moderately favorable conditions, it may pay a small profit. And still again, with every circumstance in its favor, including a favorable turn in the market, the profit may appear prodigious. It would not be fair to cite either of these cases as illustrative of general results. It would not be fair even to strike an average of the three. Yet, somewhere between the extremes a fair generalization is to be found. Reasonable excellence is, after all, a fair . criterion. Let us incline toward results obtained from right conditions, careful culture, and fair markets. Such results anybody can attain if he observes established methods.
It is a matter of record that some of the early cultiva- tors realized profits which seem fabulous. Governor Dow- ney says of Don Luis Wolfskill : "He lived to enjoy his oranges for twenty years, and they gave him, some seasons, an income of a thousand dollars per acre. The last crop disposed of in his lifetime, from about twenty eight acres, sold on the trees for $25,000." The Don's sons and daugh- ters, grown to mature years, still enjoy a princely income from the estate.
Six or seven years ago the profits of orange-culture ran up to marvelous figures. In a speech delivered by Mr. J. de Barth Shorb to a public body, that gentleman stated that a single acre of Colonel B. D. Wilson's older orange- groves yielded nearly $1,800 in one year, a fact which can readily be believed when single trees have been known to net $60 or $70, and when from 60 to 80 trees are planted to the acre. Three years ago Mr. Dalton netted $800 from
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
a quarter of an acre planted in orange-trees of a fine quality and of mature growth.
In these times of increased production and lessened prices I do not know that any cultivator claims to equal the old Don's profit of $1,000 per acre, or Colonel Wilson's $1,800. But it has been not unusual for a grower to clear as much as $500 an acre. In the season of 1882-'83, one producer in the San Gabriel Valley sold his crop on the trees for the lump sum of $23,000. This from about forty acres of orchard.
Owners of mature orange-groves realize at present prices anywhere from $250 to $500 an acre net a year, the amount depending upon the quality and quantity of fruit, favorable markets, etc.
It is estimated that the total orange-product of the State for the season of 1887-'88 will approximate 2,500 car-loads. This, at 300 boxes to the car-load, would give a total of 750,000. An average of one dollar per box net would make a gross return to the State of three quarters of a million of dollars. An industry of this magnitude deserves to rank among the most important of the State.
From a recent treatise on the orange in Southern Cali- fornia, I am permitted to make the following extracts de- scriptive of the characteristics of the tree :
"The orange-tree, compared with many other trees that are adapted to a sub-tropical climate, is of slow growth. It requires about sixteen years for the seedling to attain what might be called its full normal proportions. It then stands about twenty-five feet high, with a spread of branches of about the same distance, and a circumference of trunk, near the ground, of nearly three feet. The seventy-year-old orange-tree of the Mission Orchard, San Gabriel, which I measured, showed a girth of forty-two inches. The infer- ence is fair that, between the ages of sixteen and seventy, it had in- creased its circumference of trunk only six inches. As the orange- tree attains its maturity, its cylindrical trunk changes to one of
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ORANGE-CULTURE.
eccentric longitudinal corrugations, although, if healthy, the bark still remains smooth.
"The size of budded trees varies so much from the standard seedling that I do not attempt to canvass the matter in this article. There are dwarf, semi-dwarf, and standard buds, all of which follow their respective habits when set upon a seedling stock, and make trees from five to twenty-five feet in height, according to the char- acteristics of the bud.
"The wood of the orange-tree is close-grained, hard, and sus- ceptible to a fine polish. It is of a clear, yellow color, embody- ing a suggestion of the fruit itself. The top of the tree contains another suggestion of the fruit, for, if allowed to take its natural bent, with little pruning, its contour is almost spherical, like the orange.
"The leaves are ovate in form, slightly serrated, and of thick, leathery texture. When newly forming they are of a bright yellow hue, but as they mature they change to a dark green, with the upper surface presenting a decided gloss. The tree is an evergreen, and it has numerous seasons of growth during the year, with slight dormant intermissions. I once took careful'note of a tree at my place, with the following result : On the first of January there was a little new growth already formed. This made some progress during the month, and hardened up about the middle of February. In April another growth began, and matured in May. About the middle of July the third growing period commenced, and this time the tree made more wood than in both previous growths combined. By the last of August the yellow leaves had all turned to their normal shade, and the stems were hardened. In October there was a slight growth. In December the shoots started again, but this was the same growth that I had noted at the beginning of the year. Thus I found four distinct growing periods. It is not unusual for trees to make even five growths in a year under favorable circumstances, while with retarding causes they may make only one or two. The times of starting and maturing may also vary almost a month, ac- cording to circumstances of irrigation, cultivation, temperature, etc. The dormant periods of the orange-tree may be generally defined as follows:
" The middle of March to the middle of April.
" The month of June.
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
"The month of September.
" The middle of November to the middle of December.
"The orange-tree blossoms early in February, and continues in flower until the last of March. The blossom is a pure white, of the most exquisite texture, and its fragrance is so great as to be almost surfeiting. As a typical flower, twined into a wreath to surmount the head of a bride, nothing could be more delicately suggestive of beauty, purity, and sweetness. But those who have observed the orange-flower only in the conventional bridal wreath have seen but a poor counterfeit presentment of the real blossom.
"The fruit sets in February or March, and attains its maturity one year thereafter, when the tree blossoms again. At the time of blooming one may see it loaded with its golden fruitage and dazzling with bloom. The contrast of these colors with the dark green of the foliage forms a most enchanting picture. The tree is itself a bride, clothed in satin emerald, crowned with a snowy wreath and decked with precious jewels.
"The orange clings to its stem with great tenacity, and it is not unusual to find fruit of a former year's growth still on the tree when a second crop is attaining maturity. The quality de- teriorates, however, if it is allowed to remain long after matur- ity. In time the juice is absorbed entirely, leaving the pulp a dry, spongy mass.
"Concerning the capacity of production, there is great variance. Mr. H. M. Beers has the largest tree in Riverside. It is seventeen years old, and the trunk measures three feet in circumference, or nearly twelve inches in diameter. At the age of nine years it bore about half a dozen oranges; at eleven years it bore two thousand ; at thirteen years it bore two thousand two hundred and fifty; at fifteen years it bore four thousand ; at seventeen years, which brings it to the present season, it contains, according to estimate, four thou- sand. Not every orange-tree presents such a record as this, how- ever.
"The orange-tree revels in a high temperature. In fact, very warm weather is essential to the raising of good fruit. It is.not sufficient that the warm weather occur in summer, but a high aver- age must be maintained in winter as well, and the extreme should never fall below a certain point. This point may be placed at 23º above zero Fahr .- 9º below the freezing temperature. A cold
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ORANGE-CULTURE.
spell that reaches this extreme will destroy young orange trees in nursery, and nip the tender growth of older trees.
" While the full-grown orange-tree will survive a good deal of cold weather, and is not destroyed by the extreme above named, it may still be set down as a safe proposition that the less frequently the thermometer goes below the freezing-point (32° above zero) the better it is for both tree and fruit.
"The orange is long lived. An instance is on record of a tree in Italy living to the age of four hundred years. But that was with the most careful treatment, through successive generations, with repeated renewals of the soil. As we grow the orange-tree in the open air, with a minimum of attention, a century would probably be its full span. But a hundred years is a long time to exist on this earth, and after such a life of usefulness, if there is any better vege- table kingdom elsewhere, the orange-tree ought to be allowed to go there."
Most of the bearing orange-groves of Southern Califor- nia are of seedling trees, the fruit being of fair quality, with a somewhat thicker rind than the oranges of Florida, Mex- ico, and Mediterranean countries. Within the past six or seven years, however, the tendency of planters has been strongly toward budded varieties. They come into profit- able bearing within from four to five years after planting. Popular sentiment is now practically settled in favor of the Washington navel, a strongly-marked fruit with a little protuberance (sometimes containing an aborted orange) in the blossom end. The navel orange possesses a thin skin, few or no seeds, tender pulp, and a high, winy flavor, which gives it precedence over all other varieties, budded or seed- ling, grown in Southern California. Of orange-trees planted now-a-days it is safe to say that three out of five are of the Washington navel variety. This orange originated in Bahia, Brazil, and was imported in 1873 by the Depart- ment of Agriculture at Washington.
It is not expedient in a paper of the limits allotted to this to enter into a discussion of the methods of propa-
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gating, budding, cultivating and caring for citrus-trees a pursued in California. The object has been to giv a general, comprehensive view of the industry. Should any reader become sufficiently interested in the subject t wish to inform himself of its practical details, he can pro cure the required information from books especially de voted to citrus-culture.
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