USA > California > California of the South: Being a Complete Guide Book to Southern California > Part 27
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CANNED FRUITS .- The output of the canneries for 1886 was 659,950 cases of fruit, 22,005 cases of jams and jellies. Allow- ing forty-five pounds to the case, this equals a total of 80,000,000 pounds of canned fruits. The three leading fruits continue to be apricots, peaches, and Bartlett pears for canning. The put-up for 1886 being 200,000 cases, against 110,000 for 1885, of apricots;
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130,000 cases of peaches in 1886, against 70,000 for 1885, and of pears 120,000 cases against 80,000 for 1885; 270,000 more cases of canned fruit were put up in 1886 than in 1885, and are mostly sold, and good prices paid for the fruit.
CRYSTALLIZING .- I interviewed Mr. Benedict, of the firm of Bar- nard & Benedict Fruit Crystallizing Company. Ile said that all fruits can be crystallized. The best fruits for crystallizing are the orange, apricot, nectarine, cherry, fig, muscat grape, pear, and plum. For marmalades, jams, and jellies all the fruits just mentioned, ex- cept the cherry, may be used. The peach may be largely used for marmalades. Mr. Benedict also said that small fruits, such as black- berries, raspberries, strawberries, etc., may be used in any quantity and yet always find a ready sale at good prices. But of all the fruits grown in California the fig has the greatest future. We should at least supply the demand of the United States. I would advise growing the white varieties. There are annually imported from foreign countries vast quantities, which we should produce. Mr. Benedict further says that there is practically no limit to the amount of figs that can be disposed of at good prices, when pre- pared by crystallization, or dried in a manner to compare with the imported. The guava, he thinks, will become of great impor- tance when properly cultivated. In the shape of jelly, it has largely been in demand among epicures, and in this way and in the shape of crystallization can be sold at good profits. These gentlemen have experimented with various fruits, and have succeeded in a way that is beantiful to the eye and delicious to the taste. The fig is prepared by this process, and the demand is wonderful. There was a firm in New York which ordered a sample, and, as soon as it was received and tasted, they ordered every few days by telegraph. A syndicate was formed, and they were going to order a car-load, but of course Messrs. Barnard & Benedict were not prepared to fill their order. Their crystallized apricots are perfectly splendid in taste as well as in appearance ; also the pear and strawberry. Then the muscat grapes, when crystallized, are the best and most palatable of any. I can not in this allusion to this most important industry do justice to it. Barnard & Benedict have orders for the next season from every house that has already received samples. They have also a new process for drying apples that makes the product so far superior to the best evaporated apple that there is no comparison in appear-
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ance or taste. Their jams, jellies, and marmalades, also sirups, are far superior to all others. What is the outlook for pears ? Let us look at it for a moment. Just see the demand there is for pears in the East ! First, our pears are far superior, and can be sold in the East some time before their pears are ripe. They can also be picked some time before they are ripe, and will ripen in ten or fifteen days, or about the time they arrive in the Eastern markets. Then our Bartlett pears are not only shipped East, but are canned, to a large extent, and are sent not only to the East, but to Great Britain and some to Europe and other countries ; and, besides this, they can be dried and command fair prices.
They can be crystallized, and at present the supply is not equal to the demand at all.
In fact, there is no glutting the market if they are properly distributed and sold at a price that people can afford to give-not ten, twenty, or twenty-five cents a pound, but retailed to the con- sumer at six cents, which will allow the producer a fair price, pay the freight, and leave a margin besides.
PRUNES .- One word as to overproduction of prunes. There is no reason why California can not produce the 60,000,000 pounds of prunes instead of having to import them. A prominent horticult- urist of San Jose, who has a large orchard of prunes, said he could raise prunes and dry them, all ready for the market, at five cents per pound, and make a net profit of $100 'per acre. There is no immediate danger of it, but if the price is ever reduced to that figure, then, instead of there being a demand for those 60,000,000 pounds of prunes, besides what we already produce in California, there would be a demand at that price for 200,000,000 pounds. This holds good for all other fruits. If they are cheap, then there would be vast quantities consumed.
APPLES .- In regard to the apple, there is much to say. The origin of the apple is not known. It is mentioned in the Bible, but it was not the apple that we have to-day. Pliny says there were twenty-two varieties known to the Romans. We have several hundred varieties. Downing says, "The apple is the world-re- nowned fruit of temperate climates." The growth, size, and quality vary in different localities. Some apples are adapted to one locality, and in others will not succeed at all. The apple is better known than any other fruit, and, all things considered, is the best fruit
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known. As a food it can be compared to bread and meat. Its use is conducive to health, and it can be used in various ways. Vast quantities of this fruit are consumed, furnishing a good and whole- some diet for the millions. In fact, it is hard to say too much about the apple as a food. The varieties of apples I would recommend are the following: White Winter Permain, Yellow Newtown Pip- pin, R. I. Greening, Ben Davis, Jonathan, Yellow Bellflower, Smith Cider, Fall Pippin, Skinner's Pippin, Early Harvest, and Red As- trachan.
VARIETIES .- Of peaches : I recommend Early and Late Craw- ford, Salway, Orange Cling, Lemon Cling, Golden Cling, Foster, - Hale's Early, Alexander, Morris White, and Early Strawberry. Of apricots : Early Woodpark and Royal Hardivicke Nectarine. Pears : Bartlett, Winter Nelis, Beurre Hardy, Easter Beurre. Prunes : French and Hungarian. Plums: Damson, Yellow Egg, Green Gage. Washington Navel Orange, and Eureka Lemon. Kittattany blackberry. Cuthbert raspberry. Strawberries : Mon- arch of the West, Crescent Seedling, and Triumph of Cumberland. Table grapes : Muscat of Alexandria, Black Morroco, Black Ham - burg, Malaga, and Rose Peru.
ORANGES AND LEMONS .- I see nothing to discourage any one from raising oranges and lemons. The cottony cushion-scale will be confined to certain localities and eradicated ultimately, if the people persevere with extermination. Our oranges come in when we will have no competition and the freights are being reduced. If they are properly distributed they will bring a good price; besides, our oranges stand transportation better than any other. If our oranges sell for remunerative prices that proves that we produce a good orange, as we have to compete with the best grown elsewhere. One dollar a box net will pay the producer. The Orange Growers' Union, which has been so successfully organized, will put $200,000 more money in the possession of the orange-growers than if there had been no organization effected. The same result will follow in the central and northern part of the State.
FRUIT-GROWERS' UNIONS are destined to be of incalculable benefit to fruit-growers of California, and also to dealers and consumers in the East. The fruit will be distributed so that no place shall be glutted. During the last year there were but few cities where our fruits were shipped, comparatively speaking; when our fruit is
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properly distributed throughout the United States, then it will be demonstrated that we do not have one tenth the fruit to supply the demand. Our population is increasing about 1,000,000 a year, which means fruit for 1,000,000 more. In the next decade there will be 60,000,000 people. The more of our fruit that is consumed the more will be wanted. If those engaged in the fruit industry will eradicate the insect pests, take good care of their orchards, cul- tivate the very best kinds and varieties, they must reap a large reward.
We wish to particularly emphasize the importance of planting but few varieties. A great mistake is made by the majority in planting too many kinds. Then if the fruit is put up in an ai- tractive manner there will be a market which will pay the producer a handsome profit, with a far better and pleasanter business than in any other legitimate enterprise. There is no business on the whole earth so ennobling, so refreshing, and so pleasant.
Now, in conclusion, let me ask this question : Is there any enterprise in California, or in any other country, that offers such certain paying profits as the fruit industry ? Just notice it for a moment; notice the different possibilities there are in this great industry-green fruits, dried fruits, canned fruits, crystallized fruits, jams, jellies, marmalades, candied fruits. There is no industry to compare with it. It is a grand business to those engaged in it. The influence it exerts is salutory ; it ennobles, refines, and makes people better.
What is there to discourage any one who wishes to engage in the fruit industry in California? Are there not 50,000,000 people on the other side to use our fruit ? Is it not a fact beyond a doubt that there are millions of fruit-trees killed by the severe winters in the East, and horticulturists are discouraged there ? In the first place, the orchardists have to wait eight or ten years for their trees to come into bearing, then to have them winter-killed. And sup- pose they replant ; it is only a question of a few years, and they are again exposed to one of those severe winters, and most of the trees are again killed. I met a gentleman a short time ago from Ohio. He referred to a peach-orchard which he had, and he re- marked that the winter of 1884-'85 killed the entire orchard. Can peaches, pears, plums, prunes, and apricots be produced in paying quantities there ? No; not at all. There are some apples in all
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States, but in many places they do not succeed well. Take Cham- plain County, Illinois, which a few years ago sent out of the county fifty thousand barrels. At present they send elsewhere for apples for home consumption.
THE PROFITS .-- I refer to one hundred and fifty pear-trees that I sold to A. F. Kercheval, of Los Angeles, in 1881. He sold from these trees, according to his books, in 1881, $35 worth ; in 1882, $100 worth; in 1893, $240 worth; in 1884, $300 worth; and, in 1885, $445 worth. These trees have not made a large growth, and some of them have been damaged by gophers. This is not a large yield, but a fair one. Some of these trees yielded seven and eight dollars' worth each this year. The last four years they have averaged $271 for these one hundred and fifty trees, on one and one half acre of land. These are facts which Mr. Kercheval will verify.
Let us look at the demand there would be for our grapes if the price in the East were fixed at six cents per pound. The producer can afford to raise grapes at $25 per ton, which is one and a quarter cent a pound ; one and a half cent for freight, one and three quarter cent for the retailer, which is four and a half cents, with one and a half cent margin for contingencies.
There are six cities in California that will ultimately have cold storage, and that will take some of our surplus fruit. It is only a question of time till the cold storage will come into general use. Then we will appreciate having ripe fruit from December to June, the same as in July, August, and September.
California is sending apples to Australia, China, Japan, and other places; also canned fruit to the East, Great Britain, and Eu- rope, also to other foreign countries. For some of our canned fruits, as well as dried, we have the world for a market. Only a few years ago Woodhead & Gay had a few barrels of foreign grapes sent to Los Angeles. These grapes were put up in ground cork, and were sold at thirty to fifty cents per pound in January and Feb- ruary. Now we raise better grapes, and instead of sending to Eu- rope for grapes for winter use, we will supply that demand in the United States as well as other places. It is hard to say what new processes there will be to utilize our fruit. From June, 1884, to June, 1885, there were about $20,000,000 paid for imported fruits that California can produce and will produce in time. California canneries this last year turned out about 1,000,000 cans of goods,
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and, as I have already said, 2,500 car-loads of fruit were sent East. Is this not a good showing? There were imported into the United States, in 1884, 7,945,977 pounds of figs, 57,000,000 pounds of French prunes, 4,732,269 pounds of almonds, 53,702,220 pounds of raisins ; oranges and lemons, 18,626 car-loads; preserved fruits, 244 car-loads ; olive-oil, 244 car-loads; and other fruits, 636 car- loads. If we could produce this fruit, it would take two fruit trains each day in the year, Sundays excepted, with forty-two cars to each train, to take this amount East. Now, there is no question but what California can produce these fruits. Let me say, in conclusion, that the fruit industry of California is not even in its infancy. Within the next ten or twenty years this industry will assume proportions that will astonish the most sanguine. The orchardist will be more than rewarded and the railroad companies will be taxed to their utmost capacity to convey the vast quantities of fruit East.
People that are engaged in or expect to embark in the fruit in- dustry should not expect such large returns. If horticulturists can make one hundred dollars per acre net profit, they should be satisfied. Let us contrast the profits of farmers with fruit-growers. If the farmer raises two thousand pounds of wheat or barley, and secures one and a half cent per pound, he is doing well, and goes home with his thirty dollars, and out of it he has twenty dollars net profit ; but the fact is, the farmer does not get that average at all, considering the failures and partial failures he has. If the or- chardist has an orchard of one hundred trees per acre, after they are eight years old he may reasonably expect two hundred pounds to the tree, which would make twenty thousand pounds. At three quarters of a cent per pound he would realize one hundred and fifty dollars an acre. This is a low estimate. The products of the or- chard are almost a sure crop, especially if the orchard is composed of four or five kinds, say apples, pears, plums, peaches, and apricots.
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TEN ACRES ENOUGH TO SUPPORT A FAMILY .*
BY D. EDSON SMITH, SANTA ANA, CALIFORNIA.
I HAVE been asked to present to you on this occasion some of my ideas as to " How to make Ten Acres Support a Family." To those who have only lived in large grain-growing and stock-raising regions, the idea of supporting a family on ten acres may seem absurd, but I believe the conditions are mainly favorable in this valley for a large number of families to be comfortably supported on ten acres each. Of course, ideas differ as to what constitutes a comfortable support, and much also depends upon the frugal habits of the partners who conduct the ten acres. What I mean is that the average man and woman, who have to earn their support by hard labor and economic habits, may go on to ten acres in almost any part of this or other valleys in Southern California, and live as well as the average farmer in other States who works his sixty, eighty, or a hundred acres. Of course, if the land is new the part- nership should also have been of recent date, and the increase of family healthily grow with the growth of the trees and vines of the farm. With these definitions, I can say that I have practically solved for myself the problem of "How to make Ten Acres Sup- port a Family."
In the first place, find out by examining the neighboring ranches what kind of trees and vines do best in your special locality ; for this country is not like the vast country of Illinois and adjacent States, where corn will grow alinost equally well in any portion of it. Here, a short distance often makes a great difference in what is best to plant. But this valley has now been so long and generally settled that with reasonable observation few mistakes need. be made on this score. It was different when I came here five years ago. Then we had to " cut and try." I would not advise planting more than five acres to one kind of fruit, where you have but ten acres. because all fruits are liable to have their "off-years," and if the family support depended entirely on one kind, and that should fail
* Read before the Los Angeles County Pomological Society.
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for two consecutive years, the family might be reduced to quite straitened circumstances. Having decided on the varieties to plant, make a plan of your entire place, and bear in mind that you want to so plan as to have all rows as long as possible, so as to avoid fre- quent turnings with horse and cultivators. With only ten acres from which to support a family from the start, I should plant my trees and vines on the square plan, rather than the triangular or quincunx, so as to better utilize the space between the trees, as I shall here- after show.
These preliminaries arranged, plow deeply with four horses, using a subsoiler behind the turning-plow to loosen, but not raise, the lower soil, and harrow till all is as smooth as can be made. This must be done when the soil is in just the proper condition from rains or irrigation. The whole ten acres should be so leveled that you can get irrigating water on all parts of it with little labor. Lay off a half-acre near your barn, put a good bank around it, and sow twenty pounds of clean alfalfa-seed on it, and thoroughly cover it with a light harrow. This may seem to be a good deal of seed for half an acre, but you can't afford to sow less, as you are situated.
If walnuts are adapted to your place, plant a row of soft-shells on all sides of your ranch, thirty-five feet apart, as near the edge as you desire having a fruiting tree. Or they-may be used for a road- way tree, although I prefer the pepper-tree for a windbreak. If the walnut is not adapted to your locality, the fig will be, and may be substituted for the nut-tree, putting them only twenty-five or thirty feet apart. Plant the White Adriatic or Brown Smyrna. In one corner of your ranch also put one or two acres of walnuts or figs, putting the nut-trees forty feet apart, and the fig-trees thirty feet. As the alfalfa will be a little slow in getting a start, it will be best the first year to sow the spaces between the nut and fig trees to barley, so you will have some early feed for the horse and cow. One good horse is ample after your ground is first fitted to plant, and the team for this labor had better be hired. Now plant the remainder of your land to two or three varieties of fruit- trees, or fruit-trees and one kind of vines. The apricot, fig, peach, petite prune (Bartlett, Clap's Favorite, and Winter Nellis pears), orange, lemon, and Muscat grape will ever be in good demand; and with these to select fromn, almost any ten acres in the valley may be made to yield a handsome income-say a thousand dollars a year
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net, after coming into full bearing-and this is much more than the farms of the United States average.
But, while these trees and vines are coming into full bearing, the family must in some way be clothed and fed. To do this suc- cessfully, put the ground between the rows of trees into the highest state of cultivation, and plant sweet-corn, potatoes, peas, beans, cab- bages, cauliflowers, tomatoes, melons, peanuts, etc. With proper care it will not be long before you will have abundance to eat and sell. I am aware that there are those who earnestly protest against growing anything between the trees, if the trees are to be kept in their best condition. But I think it will be found, on close exam- ination, that these protesters are closely related to that class of people who move their barns when their manure-piles get so big around the doors that it is difficult getting over them. There are thousands of acres in the vicinity of New York and other old cities that have had every foot of ground occupied by growing plants for the past hundred years, and this ground is more productive to-day than ever before. Take as heavy and as frequent crops as you choose from any land, attending to a proper rotation of crops, and at the same time give it the proper cultivation, and return to the soil a little more plant-food than you take out in crops, and your land will increase in fertility, and your trees will do better in every way than by the usual treatment of those who object to planting between the trees. Of course, care must be taken to plant nothing that will obstruct the light and heat of the sun. To illustrate: When I began, after putting out one and one half acre to grape- cuttings, I planted peanuts between the rows, and in the fall I sold the crop of peanuts for over ninety dollars. But I got an extra yield and an extra price. But if you cut it down one half it still makes a good investment. When these vines were two years old they yielded four tons of grapes per acre the first crop, and four tons the second crop, and the second crop was largely suitable for raisins. The three-year-old vines, last year, yielded over six tons per acre the first crop, and I know of no more promising vineyard in the valley to-day. When, in after years, these vines show lack of plant-food, I shall give them a dressing of bone-dust.
Between my rows of trees I planted all of the before-mentioned vegetables, and it was not long before our table was well supplied, and there was plenty of corn-fodder and beets for the cow and
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horse. The acre of barley was also ready to cut in May, after which I wet the ground thoroughly, plowed it, and planted it to corn, which produced a large crop in corn and fodder. After the winter rains had thoroughly wet this ground, I again plowed it, and planted walnut-trees forty feet apart, and sowed barley. The second winter I planted pear and prune trees between the nut-trees, and potatoes between these; and last winter I put raspberries and blackberries between the trees on this acre.
To return to the first year. By June the alfalfa was ready to cut, and was cut three times more during the year. The second year I cut it eight times, irrigating after each cutting. Besides the milk, cream, and butter used in the family from one cow, we sold seventy-five dollars worth of butter the first year. The sales from peanuts, potatoes, butter, eggs, peas, beans, tomatoes, and other vegetables, amounted to several hundred dollars, while the cash out- lay for subsistence for the same time was only sixty-six dollars and six cents ; being largely for meat, flour, sugar, and fresh fruit for canning. The only fruit we had the first year of our own raising was blackberries. But after that our place yielded us berries, peaches, grapes, guavas, oranges, and dwarf pears. But if you raise your own potatoes, Irish and sweet, early and late, peas, cabbage, beans, tomatoes, squash, and minor vegetables, together with milk, cream, butter, and eggs, you need buy little in the line of provisions, excepting flour and sweetening, either sugar or honey, the latter being the more healthful.
This style of farming will necessitate constant watchfulness to see that all the ground is kept doing its best. See that crops are properly planted, cultivated, and harvested on time. Anticipate the markets as far as possible. Save everything that can be turned into manure, and when you take a load of produce to market, bring back a load of plant-food in the shape of manure. A good, properly-kept flock of hens will prove to be a constant source of income. Begin small, and gradually increase your flock as your knowledge of that industry increases. With the method of farming I have suggested you will have to keep your fowls confined, and buy all your feed for them, excepting green food in the shape of cabbages, beets, and alfalfa. But even then, with proper care, they will yield the largest profit on the investment of anything you have. Gradually con- tract your vegetable growing, and increase your small fruit-raising
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between your trees, till at the end of ten years, if you have been temperate in all things, industrious, frugal, and joyful, you will doubtless find yourself surrounded by a small, but very healthy and happy family, with a net income of a thousand dollars a year on an average. Exceptional cases may quadruple that, and oth- ers fall beneath. But take an average estimate-my own place, for example :
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