USA > California > History of California, Volume V > Part 21
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327
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
VOLUME AND VALUES OF THE CALIFORNIA FRUIT PRODUCTS
The reader can better understand the confidence with which the foregoing declarations are made when the demonstration in terms of volume and value is cited. A third of a century ago California did little beyond the supply of her own people. Since then the advancement has been rapid and the following is her position among the states and the volume of the product by which it is attained, as compiled from the thirteenth census of the United States :
RANK OF CALIFORNIA IN THE UNITED STATES IN
THE PRODUCTION OF FRUITS
Kind of Fruit
Rank Among States
Value of Product 1909
Almond
first
$ 700,304
Apple
ninth
2,901,622
Apricot
first
2,768,92I
Cherry
first
951,624
Fig
first
260,1 53
Grape
first
10,846,812
Lemon
first
2,976,57I
Olive
first
401,277
Orange
first
12,951,505
Peach
first
8,563,427
Pear
first
1,660,963
Plum and Prune
first
5,473,539
Walnut, English
first
2,247,193
Berries
third
1,789,214
Total value*
first
50,704,834
*Including minor fruits not listed.
Thus it appears that California leads the other states in every fruit except two and leads in the total value of all fruits produced by all states-producing in fact about one-fourth of all the fruit grown in the United States.
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HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
Four crops have been gathered since the census year, 1909, and the California fruit interests have notably advanced. Including this increase and using the commercial value of the fruits as they reach the markets instead of the "farm value" which the census gives, a total value at the present time is estimated to be one hundred millions of dollars.
But striking as is the rapid advance in fruit produc- tion in California during the last quarter of a century, it must be conceded that the achievement in successfully marketing such an immense product at a mean distance of 2,500 miles from the place of its growth is without parallel in the commercial history of the world. The Mediterranean countries, it is true, have for centuries done a thriving business in long distance fruit market- ing, but they never reached such an aggregate of value and they handled chiefly citrus fruits and that by water routes-most durable fruits by the least trying transportation. California has not only marketed more destructible fruits at a greater mean distance, but has had to employ the most expensive and most trying transportation-the incessant jar of the railway train, the dessication and dust of the desert; the stress upon fruit twice lifted a mile and a half into the air and twice rattled down again to the plain, as two great mountain ranges are crossed, including the protection of the fruit against freezing cold and melting heat-all these and similarly trying conditions have been triumphed over in the development of this interesting traffic.
The record of the marketing of California fruits and fruit products beyond state lines therefore commands
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CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
attention. In the following figures no account is made of the fruits handled in the local markets of California:
CALIFORNIA OVERLAND SHIPMENTS IN TONS IN 1912
Citrus Fruits
479,098
Deciduous Fruits
167,603
Dried Fruits
194,175
Nuts and Olives
15,399
Canned Fruits
89,946
Fresh Vegetables
129,659
Wine and Brandy
93,249
1,169,128
Thus it appears that the equivalent of 116,912 carloads of ten tons each of fruits and fruit products were shipped out of the state of California by rail in the year 1912. Shipments by sea might add the equivalent of 20,000 carloads to the total.
RELATIVE AMOUNTS OF DIFFERENT FRUITS IN OVERLAND SHIPMENTS
To show the standing of different fruits shipped as fresh fruits the following compilation is made:
Carloads
Apricots (1913)
1691/2
Cherries «
231
Grapes
6,36314
Peaches
2,3953/4
Pears 66
2,4853/4
Plums
1,668
Miscellaneous (1913)
1812
13,3313/4
Oranges (1911)
46,394
Lemons
6,764 53,158
Total carloads 66,4893/4
330
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
CALIFORNIA DRIED FRUIT AND NUT PRODUCT OF 1912
Tons
Apples
3,600
Apricots
20,000
Figs.
5,000
Peaches
30,000
Prunes
102,000
Raisins
95,000
Miscellaneous
3,000
258,600
Walnuts
11,250
Almonds
3,000
14,250
Total of dried fruits and nuts
272,850
INFLUENCE OF FRUIT GROWING UPON THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CALIFORNIA
The records already cited to show the preeminence of California in the fruit industries of the United States convey also, by inference, an idea of their importance in the development of the state, but a definite measure thereof is pertinent. This is found in the growth in assessed valuation of a number of counties which have the greatest orchard and vineyard interests.
ASSESSED VALUATION OF LEADING FRUIT COUNTIES
IN MILLIONS OF DOLLARS
County
1876
1903
1912
Santa Clara
27
60
78
Sonoma
15
281/4
40
Napa
8
13
17
Solano
9
19
25
Placer
51/2
712
I3
Fresno
8
31
79
Los Angeles
14*
165
726
Orange.
I3
44
San Bernardino
21/21
17
58
Riverside.
14
31
San Diego
21/2
1814
59
*Including Orange
¿Including Riverside
9112
386
1170
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CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
Here then we have a group of counties before and after taking the fruit interest, showing property value increased nearly thirteen times by the operation. Some counties have advanced but little it is true, but one must remember that in some cases, as other industries declined, their territory would have lapsed to range value had not the fruit interest arisen. Again, other counties have advanced so remarkably that one is prone to seek the cause in the inrush of eastern capital for home making and city building. But even here it was the glory of California fruit which incited and has sustained the movement. This is particularly true in Los Angeles county.
If, however, one is inclined to regard fruit growing rather more as incidental than fundamental in the development of southern California, let him consider the growth of Fresno and Santa Clara counties. Their advancement argues indisputably the direct, attractive, and constructive power of fruit growing. These counties, and their famous cities of Fresno and San José, have risen to settlement and wealth by the achieve- ments of those who pursued fruit growing and fruit preservation, not for their health but from strictly business considerations, and the attendant growth of manufacture and commerce is a corollary of the fruit industry.
Another important contribution of the fruit industry to the development of California is found in the quality of citizenship. Fruit growing operations are exceed- ingly attractive to those who turn from the professions to seek an outdoor life in a salubrious climate. Man has never outgrown his taste for fruit which was first
332
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
manifested in Eden, and the thought of constant asso- ciation of sunshine, fruits, and flowers with his life and work is most delightful to his esthetic sense. The horticultural arts seem also to be more elegant and the manual labor which they exact more clean and hon- orable than the coarser forms of agriculture. The result has been the attraction to California in fuller degree than to any other new state, of people of culture and of refined tastes, people loyal to education and morality and generous in their support of such interests. The class of trade to which fruit products pertain was also attractive and the opportunity to invest freely in build- ing up new trade in such products interested people who had accumulated wealth in all lines of manufacturing and commerce.
The result has been that the population attracted to California by fruit growing has been of an exceptionally desirable class and at the same time the fruit interest has advanced still more rapidly by reason of this acquisition because the promoters were possessed of ample wealth, organizing skill, business ability, and quick apprehension not only of the most successful cultural details, but of the broad principles upon the basis of which a new phase of industry must advance and a new community escape crudity. No other form of agriculture could have accomplished for California what fruit growing has done in securing and promoting quality in citizenship and in establishing a type of homes, which, from cottage to villa, manifests the same aspirations and attributes of enlightened manhood and womanhood.
333
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
WHAT CALIFORNIA HAS DONE FOR FRUIT GROWING
The ability to originate and invent and to adapt means to ends has been most clearly displayed in the up-building of the fruit interests of California and it is interesting to note briefly that a significant service has been rendered to fruit growing everywhere because methods and policies recognized as Californian are being introduced, wherever practicable, in all parts of the world. Governmental commissioners have appeared from all civilized countries and have made elaborate reports of their observation of California methods. Not only have young trees and vines been shipped in all directions from our nurseries, but implements and machinery employed in fruit growing and preservation have been widely exported. Greater service than this has been rendered in the demonstration of the value of certain pomological methods and policies which are proving helpful to fruit growers in other parts of the world. Among these may be named:
First: The importance of clean cultivation during the growing season, not alone in the conservation of rainfall but in promoting physical conditions in the soil which are favorable to vigorous root-action. California may not have invented such cultivation but the world paid no heed to it until California exhibited its benefits by thousands of acres. Now it is the accepted method nearly everywhere and the epoch of grass growing in orchards has closed, even in the most humid climates. In his report of the experiments made on Woburn farm in England in 1903, the Duke of Bedford shows that trees in cultivated ground made in
334
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
some cases twice, and in some cases thrice, the growth of trees growing in grass. The ancestors of the Duke of Bedford probably in their adoration of turf scorned old Jethro Tull's "Horse Hoeing Husbandry" in 1733, but the California demonstration of the truth of Tull's theory of tillage is bringing belated honor to the prophet in his own country.
Second: California has shown the essential nature of thorough surface cultivation in connection with irrigation and this demonstration is influencing practice wherever irrigation is employed.
Third: Irrigation supplies always available in case of deficiency in rainfall are recognized in California as the safeguard of horticultural investments and of thrift of trees and vines and this, too, is being provided for now in humid regions where recently irrigation was looked upon as only valuable in deserts.
Fourth: Low, vase-shaped fruit trees were formerly grown in gardens. Today they are found in orchards on all continents, but California furnished the demon- stration of their superior economy, thrift, and profit and banished the old, high-trunk, cow-browsed fruit trees from commercial orcharding. Modern fruit grow- ers cannot afford to use spliced ladders, nor can trees afford to pump sap through several yards of fire wood in the shape of useless trunk and main branches.
Fifth: Orchard and vineyard protection from pest and disease first reached great and systematic develop- ment in California and the two most effective insecti- cides for fruit tree insects now in use originated in this
335
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
state. In California also the most striking demonstra- tion of the value of pursuing injurious insects by multiplying their natural enemies, has been reached.
Sixth: California has led in the new and aggressive American policy to market fruit products abroad and has reached signal achievement in supplying American markets with certain fruits and fruit products previously available only through importation.
Seventh: Success in the organization of fruit growers for cooperative action in preparation and marketing of their own products has enabled California to enforce policies of wide distribution and economic production which alone could avert the disaster which usually attains very rapid increase in the volume of products which are not already recognized as staple foods.
Eighth: California has reached such success in plant breeding that a very large part of the varieties com- mercially grown are of local origin. The production of fruit in large quantities required varieties adapted to local conditions of climate and suited to the definite purposes involved in long shipment, in drying and in canning. The varieties which delight the amateur may bring no profit to the commercial grower. California succeeded so well in reaching these commercial standards that the California varieties are being accepted as a basis upon which to begin fruit growing in the uttermost parts of the world. California con- ditions also must be credited with bringing new life to a number of old varieties too delicate in their nature to reach commercial standing in more trying climates.
Ninth: California also holds the leading place for the creation of new varieties, found unique and valuable
336
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
both to commercial growers and amateurs, in the achievements of Luther Burbank, who has worked with an eye on the requirements of the world at large.
THE SATISFACTION OF IT ALL
Enlistment in California fruit growing has proved exceedingly satisfactory to tens of thousands of people in the various ways along which they have approached it. The fruit districts are full of cottage homes shelter- ing families of those who have begun with small investments and have made a good livelihood and often considerably more, from a few acres of fruits grown largely without expenditure for hired labor. The study of the needs of the tree or vine and ministering to them by personal effort has brought new health, new strength, and new incentive to the worn and weary, who have taken up outdoor life and activity in Cali- fornia fruit growing, with a wise choice of location, land, and fruits; for obviously, in all investments one must be wise as well as willing.
In larger operations hundreds have today notably succeeded by purchasing good land in large tracts at low rates and making ample investment for its develop- ment and improvement. Some of the most delightful of our towns and villages have arisen as a direct result of such employment of capital. Well established communities, well churched and schooled, well provided for in local trade and transportation and widely known for the high intellectual, moral, and social standing of their citizens, have followed investment of money and devoted effort in colony enterprises.
337
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
Hundreds also have purchased large tracts of wild land and have developed fine estates for their own personal gratification, with thriving orchards of all kinds of fruits, rich pastures tenanted with improved live stock, parks, gardens, and buildings comparable with the estates of the European nobility, except that California conditions favor freedom and variety in outdoor effort unknown in Europe and command proportional interest and enthusiasm. Estates for winter residence in California are exceptionally desir- able not only because of natural advantages and greater possibilities of development but because of the advanced standing of the state financially and socially.
All of these three lines of effort then-home making in a small way, colony enterprises and private estate development-have yielded, on the whole, great satisfaction and success. Fruit growing has been the central idea in nearly all of them but it is obvious that activity in any productive line begets opportunity for other lines and so all branches of agriculture have advanced and the diversification is highly desirable. Opportunities in manufacture, trade, and professional effort of all kinds have been quickly seized and devel- oped with much originality and success. Fruit growing has created them all and has in turn been advanced by them all, for every accumulation of capital promotes it. Successful toilers in all lines become planters. The ancestral delight of the race, to sit beneath one's own vine or fig tree, is nowhere more enthusiastically manifested than in California and nowhere does the emotion of comfort in ownership yield such profound and protracted satisfaction.
338
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
THE OUTLOOK FOR CALIFORNIA FRUITS
The outlook for California fruits and fruit products involves considerations of much economic interest. Though the volume is already large and there may be experienced now and then temporary dullness or depression in this line or that, the business is on the whole brisk and profitable. There is such a wide range in the fruits grown and the products made from them and such changes in local conditions in the many purchasing states and foreign countries with which Californians deal, that there must be some fluctuation in the values of some of the supplies offered in distant markets. The result is that first one fruit and then another seems to be more or less profitable. The fact, however, that all are increasing in volume and that the total traffic brings each year more money to the state, is a demonstration of the standing of the collective output. Each year new markets are found both at home and abroad and the capacity of old centers of distribution is shown to be greater than anticipated. There seems to be every reason to expect that the products can be profitably multiplied. Al- though there still remain problems to be solved in overland transportation, there has been such improve- ment in the last few years that distant shipment has become more safe and profitable and distribution far wider. It is reasonable to believe that further improve- ment in movement and reduction of cost will be realized and the per capita consumption in the populous parts of our own country proportionally advanced. In
339
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
spite of all that the wintry states can do for local supplies, California can find open markets before and after the short ripening season of the eastern states for her early and late fruits and can use her own mid-season fruits in the drying and canning industries, though it is a fact that even in the height of the eastern fruit season, a considerable quantity of California fruit will command the highest prices because of its exceptional size, beauty and keeping qualities. The citrus fruits will continue to supply an American product of excep- tional quality and freshness, while prunes, nuts, raisins, and wines will not only do this but will push forward into the trade of Europe as they are now beginning to do in a most vigorous manner. A very startling and significant report was made by one of the United States consuls in France recently, that our canned and dried fruits were appearing on the shelves of all the provision shops of the smaller French towns and were being freely sold without reducing the prices of the locally grown fruit. Practically the same thing could be said of points in Germany and in other Euro- pean countries. The fact is that European countries cannot grow fruit enough to supply their own people and fruit has been largely a luxury. California dried fruits are being welcomed by the great middle classes and are likely to become a staple of their diet. This explains the ultimate disposition of the large amounts now going direct from California to Europe. The promotion of such traffic by the building of the Panama canal need only be suggested.
340
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
OPPORTUNITY IN CALIFORNIA'S GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION
California's exports of high class food supplies to European countries are likely to reach values like those of the wheat and barley, which were formerly shipped to that part of the world but the development of adjacent territory on the American continent and other Pacific countries may shape the future of Cali- fornia as a fruit producing state in a way which can at present only be dreamed about. It should be remem- bered that California has a unique character from a horticultural point of view. Not only does the state have a monopoly of semi-tropical conditions of the United States (excepting parts of Florida and Arizona), but California has command of the whole of northwest America and the whole of northeast Asia, not only in the supply of semi-tropical fruits but in early ripening of hardy fruits as well. California does not grow tropical fruits; they must come from the islands and the tropical south-coast countries. Semi-tropical fruits are however, vastly more important in commerce than tropical, and a region which successfully combines northern orchard fruits with the whole semi-tropical class commands the fruit trade of all accessible populous regions which have limited fruit capabilities. There are now four such regions with the kind of population which makes for industrial advancement: southern Europe, south Africa, parts of Australia and California. As already shown, we are competing successfully with south Europe in the capacious markets of north Europe. South Africa and Australia are unfortunate in lying in
341
CALIFORNIA FRUIT INDUSTRY
the southern hemisphere which is mostly ocean wastes and they are handicapped by tropic-crossing in their northern shipments, although the fact of opposite sea- sons may help them, and us also, in avoiding competi- tion for trade which both desire. California by the Panama Canal is less than half as far by sea from European and Atlantic coast ports than formerly, but California in the future will have less occasion for such distant recourses. Prophets farseeing in world courses declare that the Pacific Ocean is to be the arena for commerce greater than the world has yet seen, and Pacific coast countries are to contain the greater part of the world's population. This greatest quarto-sphere with its superlative opportunities and activities will have California as its treasure house of fruits and fruit products. During the half-year of winter the citrus fruits will afford tonic and refreshment, and before hardy fruits bloom in northern climes, the same fruits will appear from the early ripening districts of California. In this traffic California will not only be practically without a competitor, but sitting beside the sea, there will also be every advantage of water trans- portation and the sustaining ocean temperatures for the fruits in transit. California dried and canned fruits will render acceptable diet available even through the most Arctic stretches along which development may advance in north America and north Asia while a suc- cession of fresh fruits will flow to all Pacific ports throughout the year. California, too, will be the win- ter residence for all the north Pacific millionaires and the haven of rest and recuperation for all who are worn by Arctic cold or tropical heat throughout the great
342
HISTORY OF CALIFORNIA
circle of the Pacific Ocean. Here the arts will flourish, and education will attain its highest achievements, and culture will prevail. Then fruit growing both as a commercial enterprise and as a home delight will attain value, volume, and perfection of which the present achievements are but a promise and a prophecy.
Egaraison
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PETROLEUM INDUSTRY IN CALIFORNIA
P ETROLEUM has been known to exist in California for a long period. Gas emanations, seepages of oil and asphaltum deposits occur in many places from San Diego to Humboldt. The attention of the mission fathers was attracted to these substances and they were used to some extent as roofing materials, as natural lubri- cants and as liniments. Various attempts were made to distill the products and obtain an illuminating oil. In 1855 Andrés Pico, a brother of one of the early governors of California, made some kerosene in a small copper still for the Mission of San Fernando. He obtained his raw material from what is now known as Pico cañon, in Los Angeles county, where natural seepages occurred. In 1857 Charles Morrell, a druggist of San Francisco, erected a somewhat elaborate refinery in Santa Barbara county, near the present town of Carpinteria. He used iron stills, condensers and oper- ated on a somewhat extensive scale. There apparently was no sale for the product, and the project failed.
Various other people from time to time attempted to make use of the natural petroleum occurring in various parts of the state but little record is left of their work.
In 1859 and 1860 the great oil excitement began in the east. This excitement spread to California. The gold production was diminishing and there was little new territory unexplored. It was well known that there were indications of oil in many parts of the state. There were possibilities of vast deposits with resultant great profits. Speculation seized upon the people as it did in the east. Claims were located in all parts
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