History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 29

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362

USA > California > Fresno County > History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I > Part 29

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A great acreage increase between 1870 and 1875 caused a wine over- production followed by ruinous depreciation in prices. Many vineyards were uprooted and in ten vears the number of wineries was reduced to forty-five. The largest vineyardists continued to improve properties and by 1879 because of the growing demand for California wines consumption overtook production and prices advanced. Since 1880 the progress has been continuons. In 1890 the vintage had increased to 14,626,000 gallons, Fresno with 1,200,000 gallons being the fifth largest producer: In 1900 the production was 8,483,000 of sweet and 15,000,000 gallons of dry wines, a total of 23.483,000. The $160,300 product value of the eleven wineries of 1850 increased to $1,738,863 for 128 in 1890, $3,937,871 for 187 in 1900 and $8,936,846 for 181 in 1910.

This state has some of the largest and best cultivated vineyards in the world. The Italian Vineyard Company has 3.200 acres in San Bernardino of all the best varieties : in this county is the Wahtoke of 3,631 acres with twenty of the leading varieties, near Sanger and Reedley; and in Tehama County the Stanford Vina of 1.500, mostly Zinfandel and Burger. The vines of the Vina have been uprooted to make way for orchard trees and crops, a step made necessary because while the vineyard was remunerative it had been fouled with Johnson grass which could not be eradicated with the vines in place. The Wahtoke as the largest Fresno winery has an annual capacity of 2,000,000 gallons, The Italian-Swiss Colony has a 750,000 gallon winery at Selma and another of 1,000,000 capacity near Kingsburg. M. F. Tarpey's La Paloma, a model institution with an output of 1,500,000 gallons, was absorbed, as so many others have been, by the California Wine Association.

Other large wineries in the county are the Great Western of 2,500 acres east of Sanger, the Eisen. Eggers, Barton capitalized in England, the Fresno, Margarita, Calwa, Scandinavian, St. George, Las Palmas, Mattei's and the Kearney. With few exceptions, these are such large ventures that they have become corporate enterprises.

California grows the principal wine grapes of France, Italy, Spain, Portu- gal and Germany, and the produced beverage type varieties are unequaled. Indeed. California raw wine is shipped to the old country, aged and processed and after a time reimported and drunk as a foreign product under continental labels and none but the expert can tell the difference. It is also the fact that California winemakers have been awarded high prizes for their products in competition at European expositions. In this state the surplus table and shipping grapes are used for wine making, but the desirable qualities in a shipping grape differ from those of a good wine grape and the product is inferior. They are more suited for brandy making, which is their principal use. Surplus raisin, grapes are also used for brandy, and the quality is better, though the bulk of dry and sweet wines and of brandy is from a special wine grape unsuited for other purpose.

The wine producing areas of the state are the dry and sweet wine dis- tricts. The dry are principally in the hills and valleys of the Coast Range counties from Mendocino to San Diego. The interior valleys from Shasta to Kern comprise the other. The classification may not be logical, yet is fairly accurate as to the practice and the products, because in fact sweet and dry wines can be made in nearly, if not all, the grape growing districts. The

201

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Zinfandel is California's typical redwine grape, and from it the bulk of all dry and sweet red wines is made. Considerably more than half of the Cali- fornia brandy output is used for fortifying the sweet wines. The 1915 brandy output was 7,906,380 gallons, 4,425,747 used in fortifying, and the dry wine 21,571,000 gallons which is short of the normal 25,000,000. The Fresno dis- trict, which is not a dry wine district, produced 250,000 gallons, Sonoma and Napa being the leaders. Winemakers are meeting with success in the making of sparkling wines, with naturally fermented champagne increased from 580,- 000 bottles in 1911 to 1,100,000 in 1914 but with a falling off to 732,000 in 1915.

The following figures show Fresno's lead as a sweet wine and brandy producer in gallons in the state's production :

Sweet Wine 15,600,000

Brandy 3,900,000

Fresno

6,000,000

1,250,000

1908-State

10,500,000

4,200,000

Fresno

6,800,000

1,000,000

14,300,000

3,600,000

1909-State Fresno

7,500,000

1,200,000

1910 State Fresno

18,000,000

4,700,000

6,000,000

750,000

In twenty years the sweet wine product has increased from 1,083,000 gallons in 1891 to 23,467,000 in 1912, the heaviest in history. Port and sherry are leading wines, sherry generally leading as in 1903 and 1912 with upwards of eight million gallons. Yet again for 1910-12 the port output was upwards of nine millions. Import of foreign wines has remained steady for some years, annually some ten millions. Grape juice making as a beverage is on the whole decreasing. The quantity made in California was never more than 60,000 gallons. It is claimed that there is no profit in the making. An estimate of the selling price of 8,814 cars of table grapes shipped east in 1915 was $8,814,- 000 and of 1,000 cars expressed and consumed in the state $700,000, total for the crop of $9,514,000. This was an unusual year because of the shortage by reason of late frosts in the Concord belts from Michigan to New York.

The California Wine Association representing one-half of the industry in the state faces a critical situation. Its directorate has recommended to manufacturers to sell their stocks and prepare for the beginning of the end on account of the national prohibition movement. Its report in 1918 sum- marized the agitation for prohibition, and after pointing out that "prohibition leaders would not tolerate any suggestion that compensation should be made for the destruction of property, or provision made for the support of the thousands who would thereby be deprived of their means of living," said :

"Under these circumstances, the directors have reached the conclusion that the further pursuit of a business with a future so uncertain is not wise; that any plans for its continued development are not warranted. Already a considerable progress has been made in this direction. Lands and buildings for which there was no further use in wine making have been sold whenever a price anywhere near satisfactory under present circumstances could be obtained, but always at a great sacrifice upon their original cost."

The retrenchment policy is made manifest in a showing that in 1916 the association inventoried its wines and supplies at $6,729,394.27. December 31, 1917, the value was placed at $5,201,484.94, more than $1,500,000 less. Re- ferring to repeated campaigns in California the published statement said : "No legitimate business could long be conducted successfully in the face of such never-ending opposition, with an unavailing supply of money."

The statement adds that the wine industry represents investments aggre- gating more than $100,000,000 and brings into the state annually more than $20,000,000. Federal and state taxes on wines in California amounted to $3,421,884.85 in 1917 as against $1,791,555.63 in 1916.

1907-State

202

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Little was attempted in the fruit line in the early days outside of the missions. After their secularization in 1834, Fremont says on his visit in 1846 that vineyards and olive orchards were decayed and falling into neglect. First plantings in the north by the Americans were generally near the mines, but little care was bestowed upon them, and fruit growing was not the science that it is today. California, Missouri and New York were reported four years ago as the three largest orchard tree states, California leading with over 30,895,000, and New York in fruit product value.

Deciduous fruit shipments of an approximate value of $34,500,000 were sent to eastern markets from California for the season of 1917 in November. A total of 22,954 carloads of apricots, cherries, pears, peaches, plums, grapes and miscellaneous fruits went forward and it was estimated the total would be 23,000 cars before the close of the season. Shipments the season before totalled 17,389 carloads. A total of 12,3491/2 carloads of grapes was shipped. This was within a few hundred carloads of the shipment of all varieties of deciduous fruits in 1913, when the total for the season was 13,332 carloads. So much in illustration of the immensity of California's fruit business. The peach is California's second ranking orchard fruit, including the nectarine in the classi- fication as a botanical variety. The state exceeds all others in dried and canned peaches. though Georgia leads in fresh peach shipments.

Fresno County produced in 1917 more than one-half of the state's $6,000,- 000 crop of dried peaches. While it was generally recognized that it was the banner county of the state it was for the California Peach Growers Inc. to discover the position of the county by checking up the acreage. The figures show that Fresno is well over the fifty per cent. mark and that Fresno, Tulare, Kings and Merced counties have nearly seventy-five per cent. of the dried peach orchards of California. Within a radius of seventy-five miles from Fresno grow seventy-five per cent. of the peaches. About four and one-half of the six millions received from peaches in 1917 came to the Fresno district.

The state has a monopoly in apricot growing, and leads in the canned and dried export. Apricots fell off eight millions from forty millions, but it is an uncertain fruit, bearing largely every other three years. The 1914-15 season shows a heavy increase in lemon shipments and a falling off in oranges. Dried figs increased from four to fourteen million pounds. Raisins made a larger increase than any other fruit with imports greatly reduced. California leads for the prune and plums. The first large prune orchard was established in 1870 at San Jose. The production of the pear has declined with the blight, but is recovering. The Bartlett as the chief product grew nowhere more luscious than in Fresno. The French prune industry has become a large one and the olive is an old mission fruit that has come to the front in late years. Experimentation goes on with the date with encouraging results. California and Florida lead as the sub-tropical producers.

DISTINCTIVE FEATURE IS THE ORCHARD

The orchard may be said to be one of the highest development features of Fresno County. The conditions that distinguish it as the raisin center make it ideal for sun drying of fruit as a big revenue producing item. The peach as the leading fruit totals four and one quarter million trees, an acreage of 42,500 speaking off hand. The apricot ranks second with an acreage of over 7,000. No other county probably has as many peach trees. Selma is the peach growing district of the county. The average profit on peaches is high, but the field has its good and bad marketing years, and to standardize the output the peach growers have taken a leaf out of the experience book of the raisin men and established a protective association patterned on the same lines. Peaches have gone as high as $220 a ton but that was during an exceptional year when the general supply was poor.

February 1918 the California Peach Growers Inc. of Fresno made a $40 a ton payment on delivered peaches of the 1917 crop. This was a second pay-

203

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

ment of $1,150,000, or two cents additional on Stocks one and two, bringing the total to date seven cents per pound or $140 a ton. There was vet a final payment to be made. On the 1916 crop Stocks one and two averaged about $120 a ton and the second payment on 1917 crop with final yet to be made is $20 above the previous total. The 1917 crop was practically cleaned out. The 1916 crop handled by the growers totalled 25,000 tons, while the 1917 totalled 30,000. On the association's first year's business a $60,000 first div- idend of seven per cent was paid to stockholders, besides an average of six per cent. per pound on peaches. The 1917 crop netted eight cents.

The olive is a most profitable tree, a slow grower to be sure but long lived, and it is a specialty of Fresno and gaining so in favor that nurserymen cannot meet the demand for trees. The field opened for the Calimyrna fig may be judged from the circumstance that in 1911 the United States produced 600,000 pounds of Smyrna figs against an importation of 26,000,000 pounds, paying moreover a duty of two and one-half cents on every pound.

The northern California orange crop matures from four to six weeks earlier than in the southern part of the state, notwithstanding a location from 300 to 500 miles farther north, an advantage due to topography in being enclosed by mountain ranges causing higher night temperatures during the summer and hastening maturing. The citrus industry is relatively new in the San Joaquin Valley, but the acreage in Fresno, Tulare and Kern was increased in 1915 by 3,000 acres, bringing the total to considerably over 12,000. In Northern and Central California, Tulare leads with 801.150 trees, Butte 147.412. Fresno 85,781, Kern 80,900 and Sacramento 46.256. The first Fresno Citrus Fair of Fresno, November. 1896, purely a local affair, was a revelation. The production four years later was 92,640 boxes. A high prize was taken in 1912 at the National Orange Show in San Bernardino. The development of a rich and promising citrus belt has been one feature of the county's recent growth. This belt runs along the eastern lower foothills and thousands of acres await development.

The state's orange industry represents an investment of about 150 millions. Florida lost its lead after the "great freeze" of 1894-95, the shipment falling from six millions to 75,000 boxes. California's citrus production for 1913-14 was a record breaker of 48,338 cars as against 18,331 for the previous season as reduced by a killing frost to the lowest production in twelve years. The lemon is less hardy than the orange and though grown for half a century it is only during the last twenty years that it has assumed importance, com- prising ten to fifteen per cent. of the citrus crop. The year 1915 was a dis- astrous one in marketing at a loss of about thirty cents per box to the grower, due to the great crop and the heavy supply of fruit in storage, much of it in bad condition.

Instructive as showing the direct effect of irrigation on dafrying are the following figures from the State Dairy Bureau giving the Fresno butter product in pounds during notable earlier years : 1905-1,619,746 ; 1907-2,786,- 817 : 1909-3,721,262. Humboldt with its copious rainfall making irrigation unnecessary is the banner county for butter output. The increase in dairying is principally in counties where irrigation is practiced. The butter supply, by the way, is far short of the home demand. The state's dairy output is one valued at over twenty-seven millions. It is probably not generally appreciated that Fresno is preeminently a tree nursery district. There are more than half a hundred nurseries. The Fancher Creek Nurseries of George C. Roeding are world famous and his clientage co-extensive. One recent year there were raised in this county one million and a half deciduous and one-half million citrus trees and three million grape vines. The statement has been made that citrus trees are raised here in quantity sufficient to supply stock for all Cal- ifornia. The district around old Centerville on the Kings River and near Sanger is a great nursery field in the hands of Japanese.

204

HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

To generalize in conclusion: Fresno holds high rank in raisin drying, sweet wine and brandy making and in the shipping of table grapes, the chief viticultural divisions. It is an important factor in the green, dried and canned fruit lines. The grape alone brings into the county annually over nine mil- lions, half of this credited to the raisin. It has ten and three-quarter millions" wine grape vines, and thirty-seven millions raisin and table grape vines. Then there are to be considered the secondary profits from the vineyard as the second crop of muscats sold to the distilleries, the fertilizer from the stemmed grape pomace, besides use as a silage for sheep and cattle feed, oil extracted from the seeds, also tannin. The raisin is a leading specialty representing about one-tenth of the county's income, while Raisin Day on April 30th as an annual celebration has for four years attracted more than state wide notice for its spectacles. Fresno produces more raisins than all the rest of the state and twice as much as Spain. The seeded raisin is singular to Fresno. The output runs as high as 33,000 tons annually.

The associated raisin company in February, 1918, authorized on the seedless variety a second payment of $50 per ton, added to the $70 upon de- livery bringing the total to $120 a ton. On the 1916 crop it paid $131 upon final payment.

In the 7,000 acres devoted to table grapes, the Malaga and Emperor are the chief varieties. The Thompson Seedless is extensively shipped, valuable raisin grape though it is. The perfection of a method of shipping in saw dust has given the fresh grape industry an impetus and permits competition for the eastern holiday trade. The region about Clovis is a more important and greater producer of the Malaga grape than is the original district in Spain. Fresno is a great producer of alfalfa, acreage over 50,000, yielding eight tons as an average to the acre. In dairying the county ranks fourth in the state, yet not until 1902 did it pass the million pound mark for butter and this was more than doubled three years later. The great bulk of the honey output of over twelve million pounds comes from the San Joaquin Valley and the counties south, the bees extracting the floral nectar from the alfalfa and sage in the one and the orange blossoms in the other district.

CHAPTER XXXVI

FARM PRODUCT VALUES PLACE CALIFORNIA IN THE TENTH RANK AMONG THE STATES. RAISIN PRODUCTION OUTRANKS ALL IN- CREASES IN FRESNO COUNTY. THE OUTPUT IS THE LARGEST IN THE WORLD. IT HAS THE CREDIT FOR MORE THAN ONE-HALF OF THE STATE'S DRIED PEACH CROP. FOR HAY AND FORAGE IT IS THIRD. RICE GROWING IS MAKING GREAT STRIDES. SACRAMENTO VALLEY RAISES NINETY-FIVE PER CENT. OF THE COTTON IN THE STATE.

Sun-kissed California is a state where things are done on a big scale.

Farm products of the United States totaled in 1917 the unprecedented value of $19,443,849,381. This is an increase of more than $6,000,000,000 over 1916 and almost $9,000,000,000 more than in 1915. The estimate of the U. S. Department of Agriculture is made up as follows:

Farm Crops $13,610,462,782 Animals and Products 5,833,386,599

Crops represent seventy per cent. of the farm products value. California's farm products are given a value of $432,285,000. Its rank is tenth among the states.

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

Interesting facts as to the 1917 dairy production are contained in the state dairy bureau report. The butter production showed a marked decrease. In 1916 it was 70,030,174 pounds, as against 68,373,021 in 1917. Notable however that while the yield was almost 2,000,000 pounds less, its value was over $6,000,000 more, being $19,181,264 for 1916 and for 1917, $25,345,879. The total 1917 cheese output was 9,236,663 pounds as against 11,745,124 in 1916. Santa Clara leads all counties with 1,567,305 pounds, Monterey second with 1,336,727, a reversal of places for these counties as Monterey led in 1916. The value of the cheese output was $1,827,012. The increase is over 7,000,000 pounds in condensed, evaporated and powdered milk and in casein over 200 per cent.

Dairying has become such a notable industry in the central portion of the state with its alfalfa fields and climate, the latter permitting dairy stock to be out in pasture all the year, as to warrant the formation of the San Joa- quin Valley Milk Producers' Association to control it. The Danish Creamery as a notably successful business institution of Fresno of twenty-two years of standing and one that has been awarded a succession of first prizes in state butter competitions, reported an increase in business for 1917 of thirty-nine per cent. The gross business was $858,560.86, an increase -principally due to the high price of the article. The butter made also showed a substantial increase over the previous year-total made 2,073,185 pounds. For January 1918 by way of illustration, it may be cited that the price of butter fat was fixed at sixty cents a pound, the amount paid for butter fat was $71,034.67 and for the corresponding period the year before $56,156.24.

Outranking all others is Fresno's 1917 increase in raisin production. There was produced in 1916 more than three times as much raisins as all California and in 1917 alone almost as many pounds as the 1916 grand total. Less than half a dozen of the fifty-eight counties of the state produce raisins in commercial quantity. Since 1913 the raisin crop has steadily increased. The crop in 1912 was 170,000,000 pounds but fell off in 1913 to 130,000,000. In 1916 it was up to the enormous total of 264,000,000 pounds which crop was exceeded the year after by 36,000,000 pounds.

Exports have made satisfactory increase from 14,000,000 in 1914, to 24,000,000 in 1915 and 75,000,000 pounds in 1916. That crop would have been the largest on record but that rains damaged Muscats and the loss was esti- mated at twenty-five per cent. with drying not completed until December. Thompson's and Sultanas being earlier escaped.

The state 1917 raisin crop was estimated at 150,000 tons, if not in excess, and of this production Fresno vineyards furnished seventy-five per cent. or 112,500 tons. The revenue from this large output averaged $100 a ton, giving the Fresno County raisin crop a money value of $11,250,000. The county's raisin crop for 1917 figured 225,000,000 pounds. Preeminence as a raisin producer is shown in the following tabulation on the basis of the 1916 totals :

County

Pounds

Fresno

207,000,000

Tulare

22,900,000

Kings

17,820,000

Sutter

8,320,000

Madera

3,320,000

Kern

1,560,000

San Bernardino

1,340,000

San Diego

1,200,000

Merced

480,000

Stanislaus

60,000

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HISTORY OF FRESNO COUNTY

The 1917 state raisin crop was at the least 300,000,000 as against the 264,- 000,000 of 1916 and measured by these figures Fresno's crop would be the greatest in the world:

Tons

Fresno County

112,500

Greek Currants

100,000

California (outside of Fresno) 37,500

Turkish Sultanas. 30,000

Spain 5,500

Fresno's peach production in 1916 was 18,000 tons with estimates of 20,000 to 22,000 representing the 1917 crop. Figuring on the minimum, the value would be $3,200,000 or more than fifty per cent. of the state's dried peach crop. The green peach production amounted to about 800 cars, chiefly from Selma, "The Home of the Peach," and from Fowler and Reedley. Green peaches averaged the grower $30 a ton, thirteen tons to the car, total value of the crop $312,000.

Of table grape varieties largest shipments were Malagas, 2,000 cars representing Fresno's 1917 export. In addition probably 300 cars of Thomp- son's seedless and 400 of Emperors represented the total from the county for the season and the value:

Malagas

$1,040.000

Emperors

312.000

Thompson's

195,000

The 1916 green grape tonnage was valued at $174,300; in 1917 almost doubled. The wine grape production for 1917 was near the three million dollar mark.

Rice culture made a long step in advance as one of the possible industries of the state with $1,000,000 worth of the grain practically on the way to the mills from the 1917 harvest. In five years it has grown from a $75,000 per annum experimental industry. Over ninety-five per cent. of the rice raised in California comes from the Sacramento Valley and while only 84,000 acres were harvested in 1917 the applications for water to canal companies and other sources up to February, 1918, indicated increase in acreage in excess of the water supplying capacities.

The larger growers contracted with mills at Lake Charles, La., and Beaumont, Texas, for over one-third of the 1917 crop. Returns from the mills show net average of about three dollars and seventy-five cents per 100 pounds to the grower, in some cases as high as four dollars and five cents. The cost of rice production in 1917 was abnormal. A conservative estimate is that it cost the planter in excess of two dollars and twenty-five cents per sack of 100 pounds to place the crop in warehouse. The acreage in this county fell off from 1,120 in 1915 to 280 in 1916 but regained in 1917 to bring the total to an estimated 500 acres.

According to federal statistics there were 117,000 acres planted to cotton in California for the 1917 season, more than double the 52,000 acreage of 1916 while that of 1915 was only 39,000. For the 1917 season the yield per acre showed a decided decrease. The average was 275 pounds per acre, 400 for 1916 and 380 for 1915. While this yield is notably less than that of past years, it is yet the highest acre yield of any state. Louisiana ranks second with 218 pounds. Average price for 1917 was twenty-eight cents a pound, twenty for 1916, and 11.2 for 1915. The farm value of the California cotton crop was: 1917-$9,380,000 ; 1916-$4.362,000 and 1915-$1,599,000. Average acre value of crop: 1917-seventy-seven dollars as the highest reported by any state; 1916-eighty ; 1915-forty-two dollars and fifty-six cents.

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History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with its growth and development from the early days to the present, Volume I, Part 29

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858- Publication date: 1919 Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company Number of Pages: 1362

Author: Vandor, Paul E., 1858-
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: Los Angeles, Calif., Historic Record Company
Number of Pages: 1362