USA > California > Santa Barbara County > History of Santa Barbara county, California, with illustrations and biographical sketches of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 99
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„GLENROSE" PART OF RANCH & RESIDENCE OF M S. DIMMICK, VENTURA CO. CAL. 13 MILES. FROM SANTA BARBARA.
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on as the average value of the product; but subse- quent years have modified this tremendous estimate very materially; and it is now deemed safe only to estimate one-fourth of that sum as an aere's yield, even under favorable circumstances, and after twelve years of waiting, while the trees are coming to maturity.
A very fortunate circumstance to the orange grower is that the fruit can be left upon the trees for months after it has ripened without in the least im- pairing its good qualities. Even four months may be assumed as the time in which plucking the oranges may take place, and a market sought. Herein is a very great advantage that California orange growers possess over those of other lands. Foreign oranges, as those of Tahiti, Mexico, Sandwich Islands, and China, require to be plucked while yet green, in order to bear transportation to the United States, and even then the loss in transit often reaches fifty per cent. California oranges are remarkable for their good keeping qualities when plucked, many boxes shipped to European ports, being received in perfect order.
There is no exact information as to when the orange was first introduced into California, nor from what stock the old orange trees came. Probably, says Hittell, the first missionaries brought orange seeds with them from Lower California, that stock having come from the indigenous trees along the west coast of Mexico. The seeds were planted at various old missions, and the trees grew, were trans- planted, bore well, and received little or no attention or cultivation, yet some of them are still standing, as monuments to the old mission times.
THE CAMULUS ORCHARD.
It has been repeatedly said that Santa Barbara and Ventura contained promising fields for the culture of the entire citrus family of fruits, but this does not appear to be the unreserved verdict as to the greater portion of this region. It is true that favored dis- tricts exist where the orange and the lemon seem to grow unhindered by climatie or parasitic obstacles; but it is as well to consider the orange culture only a partial success in the greater portion of this area, and to look upon the Camulos and the Tapo orchards as exceptionally circumstanced. It is not meant that equally favorable locations do not exist, but these must be sought with care, and the culture of the trees must be entered upon with a determination to exercise the utmost care in their propagation. It is certainly far better to enter upon or continue a pursuit with a full appreciation of the difficulties at- tending it, and a moderate idea of the benefits to be derived, than to recklessly enter upon it at the behest of those whose pretended information is immensely exaggerated. The habit of introducing reekless state- ments into a deseription of any given region is fre- quently efficacious in causing a "boom," but always
injures those by whom such statements are accepted. Hence it follows that unusual yields or astonishing results should always be kept in the background rather than given to the public as ordinary facts.
It is not the intention to say more of the capability of Ventura and Santa Barbara for raising oranges, than that oranges of pretty good quality are raised in many localities, while exceptionally fine ones are produced in the Camulos and at one or two other mature orehards; while nearly all of the orange trees grown in the less protected localities along the coast region are small, thick-skinned, sour and disagreeable in taste. Col. Hollister's orange grove produces about 700 boxes of good, merchantable fruit annually, and smaller amounts are produced by other growers. The Colonel's trees have the benefit of almost com- plete protection, the small valleys of the Glen Annie Estate being extremely well adapted to this culture.
LEMONS AND LIMES.
The results arrived at in the culture of the lemon and the lime correspond with those recorded of the orange, with the exception that they come into bear- ing earlier, and require far less care and irriga- tion, being much hardier. At Sexton's and Heath's and other places they grow without irrigation. Among some, it is an established principle that the lemon, with proper culture, requires no irrigation whatever; and this principle has even been extended to the orange. As for the lime, it seems to thrive un- der almost any conditions, producing very abundant crops of first-rate quality, but the market for which is not always reliable or remunerating. There is no doubt of the practic .bility of introducing the manu- facture of citric acid on a large seale, in consequence of the abundance of limes and lemons, from which alone it is commercially made. The manufacture is a simple process, consisting essentially in expressing the jnice, neutralizing it with chalk, and separating the acid from the citrate of lime, by the addition of sulphurie acid. when crystallized citric acid is pro- cured in a state of purity, entering into commerce as an article of considerable importanee. The lime and lemon are both cultivated on a small scale by many of the ranchers of the two counties, and several quite extensive orchards are grown. That at Glen Annie contains 500 lime trees, which have been noted bearers.
GRAPES AND WINE.
Within the short period of California's settlement, by a progressive population, the wonderful adapta- tion of her soil and climate to varied agricultural and horticultural industries, has constituted a subject of wonder and enthusiasm to a great part of the civil- ized world, and more especially to the reading publie of this country. Of all these numerous industries, that of the vine has perhaps more than any other agricultural possibility, absorbed the attention and interest of those conversant with this State. The
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increasing industry of vine-growing and wine-making forms the most fruitful topic of discussion which is now rife within its domain, and its results are of more far-reaching importance than any other subject now agitated. Usually the subject of wine-making is treated from the stand-point of its present impor- tance; but it will be more consistent with the objects of this slight review to regard the industry of vini- eulture as firmly established within the State, and to consider the probabilities of its expansion, as affect- ing the counties of Santa Barbara and Ventura.
There are in the two counties not less than 400,000 acres of land which are capable of producing grapes of good quality. This vast aggregate includes the greater part of the cultivable land which lies more than five miles from the coast. The warm and pro- tected valleys of the Santa Maria, Santa Inez and Santa Clara, with their lesser tributary valleys, with the sloping lands which surround them, form the nat- ural home of the vine, and could, if occasion de- manded, produce sufficient wine of a high quality to supply the utmost demands of commerce. In these sheltered and fruitful regions there is found, in the highest degree, the conditions for successful vinicult- ure. The fresh soil, nnexhausted by cropping, con- tains all the elements of fertility in a just proportion. Experience has shown that the soil, which is pro- duced by the gradual disintegration of argillaceons sandstone and other easily decomposable rocks, is most favorable to the growth of grapes of unexcep- tionable quality. And this is, in general, the charac- ter of the soil of the innumerable small valleys and uplands. Entering into particulars, it is found that the product of these lands bear out this general statement in a wonderful degree. Not to repeat what is covered by this remark, the advantages of the two counties for grape-growing and wine-making may be summed up as follows :-
First. The vineyards of Santa Barbara and Ven- tura produce at least as great a yield as those of any other part of the State, and probably exceed all but the most favored localities. Here, ten tons per acre is a crop as common as six tons in the Sonoma and Napa Valleys, or three tons in the famed foot-hill regions of El Dorado, Amador and Tuolumne Coun- ties.
Second. The grape crop is seldom a failure, only in very unfavorable seasons, producing what would be considered a poor crop. This is owing to the fact that there are no severe frosts capable of serionsly injuring the vines, scarcely any hail, nor any fall of rain during the time of fruition.
Third. The vines, as yet, have had no disease be- yond the ills of mildew, which affects those grown near the coast. The phylloxera is, as yet, unknown.
Fourth. The equability and warmth of the climate enter largely into the question, and render possible, not alone an increased production of wine, but a simpler and easier process of making it, as sudden
changes of temperature do not have to be guarded against.
Fifth. The fifth consideration relates to the large number of varieties which can be successfully grown, perhaps greater than in any other grape-raising country.
The disadvantages consist in the high price of labor, the bad sitnation of many vineyards, the igno- rance or carelessness of most of the wine-makers, and the great cost of casks and other receptacles.
Land suitable for vineyards may be had for prices ranging from ten to thirty dollars per acre in the less thickly settled portions of the region, it being sloping or rolling land, which experience has shown to be the best for viniculture when good wine is the object. On such land a yield of grapes and wine may be expected superior to the productions of Sonoma or Los Angeles, although in those more settled locali- ties the unimproved grape lands are valued at ten times the price that they command in Santa Barbara or Ventura. Such land requires the expenditure of bnt little preliminary work in clearing and preparing for the vines, whereas in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz Counties the hilly lands of which are being very rapidly taken up and planted in vines, a vast amount of grubbing up roots and stumps is required before cultivation can begin. Nevertheless these bush-cov- ered tracts are held at as high a price as the far richer and more available lands of Santa Barbara and Ventura, with a superior climate and scenery. When the country's capabilities become fairly known, and the advantages of separate districts are can- vassed, it may be expected that the favored region now being described will be covered with vineyards producing the finest wine, such as only their serene skies can produce.
RAISINS.
The long dry summer, with its exemption from moisture during the ripening season of the grape, makes the curing of raisins comparatively easy. It is well known that the larger varieties, such as the Muscat of Alexandria, Canon Hall Muscat, Flaming Tokay, and the Malagas, are often injured by early frosts in the northern part of the State, and even as far south as Monterey. As these kinds are the favor- ites for raisins it seems quite natural that they should find their place for perfect ripening into raisins in the regions of Santa Barbara. It is probable that all the valleys at a proper distance from the sea, like the Simi, Conejo, Upper Santa Clara, Ojai, Santa Ana and the upper part of the Santa Ynez and Santa Maria will, at no distant day, be in quest for the cul- tivation of the raisin grapes. The grapes above named are also in demand for making the heavier rich wines to mix with those of a lighter grade grown in a colder climate.
OLIVES.
For the cultivation of the olive Santa Barbara and Ventura possess undoubted advantages. No anthor-
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ity on fruit-growing has yet denied to them the pos- session of every advantage in this culture. The tree is very hardy, unlike the citrus family, which requires such delicate nurture, and its crop is abundant; whereas in Italy, Greece, and the Ionian Islands, whence foreign olives and olive oil comes to supply our market, the trees are continually infested with insects, and are apt to be injured by summer rains, blight, etc. Failures of the crop are there expected once in three years, whereas the crop never has been known to fail except by the visitation of the scale insect. As with the orange, the olive comes slowly to maturity, not bearing fully until ten years of age, but then making up for lost time by a most prolific bearing. The olive culture will be found described in this work under the head of the "Suburbs of Santa Barbara," in the account given of " Ellwood," the ranch of Mr. Cooper, the greatest grower of the olive on this continent. The future of this in- dustry seems assured. if such language may be used of anything about which experience has been had on a large scale for a few years only. That experi- ence has been most encouraging, and save the single enemy, the scale insect, the olive meets no obstacles to its growth in Santa Barbara and Ventura. The demand for olive oil and pickled olives is steady and remunerative enough to warrant an extensive plant- ing of the tree, and with the further introduction of the habits of South Europeans among Americans, olive oil must be subject to a still further demand. The olive tree is a pretty evergreen, having small, bluish-green leaves, and somewhat resembles the willow in general appearance. It ranges in height from fifteen to forty fect, with an average of perhaps twenty feet. It is grown from cuttings, and is known to live to a vast age, perhaps many centuries. With the dense population which is certain to inhabit Southern California in the not distant future, the culture of the olive will doubtless be an important industry, the oil taking the place of butter to a great extent, as is usual in all warm countries within the habitat of the olive.
MINERAL SOAP.
The somewhat celebrated mine of so-called min- eral soap is situated about six miles north ward from San Buenaventura, there forming a deposit of con- siderable size. The substance is not soap in any sense, but does possess cleansing properties, owing to its power of absorption. Its composition is nearly pure silica, being the remains, or shells, as it were, of countless millions of wonderfully minute animal- cules called infusoria, whence the common scientific designation, infusorial earth, is derived and applied to this deposit, and to others in various parts of the world. It is found all along the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada, also on the Coast Range Mountains. It has been used to mix with soap to make weight, although it does not have any active qualities. It is found in great quantities in Germany. It is in a
condition of formation in certain ponds in the East- ern States. The use of the material is as an absorb- ent for various liquid substances and for polishing powder. The animal remains which make up the deposit exceed in minnteness nearly every organic form known, and are of such inconceivable smallness that 40,000,000 of the shells only make a single cubic inch. By some theorizers it has been presumed that these animalcules, by their decomposition, formed the original source of petroleum. At present the infusorial earth is most in demand in the manufacture of dynamite (giant powder), in which its function is to soak up and retain the liquid nitro-glycerine which forms the active agent. For this purpose large importations are made from Germany, the California mineral not possessing so great an absorbing capac- ity. The Ventura deposit has been sometimes termed kaolin, but that name is entirely inappropriate, as · kaolin is clay, and arises from the decomposition of feldspar. The mineral soap, while not a soap at all, yet has detergent qualities in considerable degree, and may take the place of manufactured soap in some instances.
The deposit was first worked, to a small extent, in 1875, by H. L. Bickford. In August, 1878, the Pacific Soap Company was organized, and proceeded to utilize the mineral found along the beach, and the sum of $11,000 was used in advertising, far and wide, the virtues of the rock. Other companies or indi- viduals entered into the craze, with more or less enthusiasm. The soap bubble has now been rupt- ured, however, and is heard of no more, and the vast field of enterprise which the discovery was sup- posed to promise has become, so to speak, a silent desert. When the subject was first agitated, the newspaper accounts, east and west, contained the most astonishing exaggerations, of which the follow- ing amusing and ingenious account, by a correspond- ent of the Lexington, Kentucky, Press, may serve as a sample. The writer related that the soap-suds on a stream that flows over the deposit is ten feet deep, and blinds the furry and finny inhabitants of the stream. He says :-
" In the primordial ages of the world, the delight- ful climate of that region, and the abundance of mollusca and crustacea, probably combined with some other attractions, made these waters the para- dise of those huge, prehistoric aquatic animals, the Plesiosaurus, the Ichthyosaurus, and the whole race of the cetacea besides. These died in those deep waters by the millions, in the ages recognized by geology as preceding the existence of man, and be- ing kept from putrefaction by the preservative qual- ity of the salt in the water, were deposited, perhaps, 100 feet deep, on the bottom of the ocean, forming a stratum which was subsequently to be formed into soap; just as immense deposits of vegetable matter were deposited in strata in those immensely remote ages, to be made by another process into coal. That volcanic action followed this stratification of animal matter is evident, from the facts suggested by your former correspondent, namely, that the strata of " mountain gypsum," as also those of slate and sand-
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stone, have been thrown up from the depths and completely turned on edge. These facts, in connec- tion with the well-known fact that many miles of the country between here (Lexington) and Califor- nia are covered with millions of tons of alkali, begin to suggest how the natural process of soap-making could go on. Ashes and alkali, by the thousand of tons, were thrown up by the volcano, which burst through this great stratum of animal matter and elevated it many feet above the present level of the sea So, that while many acres of this fatty matter were being cooked by the volcanic heat from beneath, it was covered above by many feet of ashes and alkali, through which the returning water dashed out by the eruption percolated, carrying the sapon- ifying qualities of the alkali down into the boiling grease below; and when the volcano soon cooled off, as in all probability it did, the whole mass was effectu- ally converted into soap. The formation of voleanie strata over the immense area of soap was by the process we are all familiar with in the case of Vesu- vius over Herculaneum and Pompeii, and many other. instances. The soft soap is found in great volcanic basins in the solid stone, many of which hold half a million gallons. Whether it has always been soft- soap from not being cooked sufficiently to harden it, in the beginning, or whether it has been softened subsequently by atmospheric action, I think can never be determined. It corresponds in quality only with your most common article of commercial soft- soap, and I think will never be very valuable, be- cause it is not so easily transported and handled, at least as long as the mine of hird soap holds out, which, I estimate, will be about 400,000 years. I have never taken the estimate of the ledge of soap myself, but suppose that your former correspondent was approximately correct when he says, 'The ledge at its opening is from fifteen to twenty feet wide, and erops out for 2,000 feet, with an unknown depth.' The greatest part of the mine as yet opened seems to be identical, in quality and appearance, with the yellow and erasive soaps, like those of Schultz and Babbitt. It is stratified in layers of about two inches thick, and either during the contraction ac- companying the volcanic cooling, or from the gentle undulations of a subsequent earthquake, is cracked into parallel lines, so that it cin readily be removed and cut into bars of any required weight. Another variety is the ' Castile soap,' of which your former correspondent spoke. The green stripes are the result of the action of the acids of some marine animal on copper, while the beautiful red stripes that marbleize it through, as we see in the Commer- cial Castile soap, are made by oxidized ferruginous pyrites. The most beautiful varieties are those resembling Colgate's and Lubin's toilet soaps They are only inferior to these in wanting their delightful perfume; but the proprietors of the mine, Messrs Hubbard, Crank, and Bickford, think they will soon effect a process by which this can be added. The beautiful shapes and colors, however, in which the toilet soap is formed far exceed those of the arti- ficial article. The soap, in its soft state, has been ran into beautiful sea-shells, and in process of time these shells have been absorbed or decomposed, and have left the beautiful shapes and tints of their inside surfaces perfectly preserved in this soap. This soap in the shape of shells, it is thought, can be obtained by the millions of bushels. As a matter of course, as soon as railroad communication can be established with these mines, this company will
monopolize the soap trade of the world. Persons engaged in the manufacture will have to stand from under the tumble-in of soap, and others contemplat- ing embarking in the soap trade had better wait until they see further developments from the great Ventura Soap Mines."
BEE CULTURE.
Among the countless industries to which the favor- ing soil and clim ite of this State gives birth, that of bee-keeping has, in late years, attracted an increased shire of attention. The production of honey in southern California has become a certain, pleasant, and remunerative industry, which has taken a fore- most rank among the resources of this favored clime, and bids fair to attain the utmost limit which nature allows to it.
Bee-keeping, as a regular industry, was first prac- ticed within the county of Santa Barbara by Jeffer- son Archer. This gentleman, known since as a most successful apiarist, began his work in 1873, with forty-five stands of bees. Chiefly from the natural increase of these, there were, seven years later, 3,300 stands in the county of Santa Barbara, producing not far from eighty pounds per swarm, or 260,000 pounds in the aggregate.
In no other part of the world are bees known to flourish and lay up stores of honey as they do with unfailing regularity in southern California. Their reproductive powers are astonishing to those familiar only with the habits of the bees in Eastern localities. The statements of the yield in honey, per stand, are received with absolute incredulity by strangers, and no wonder, for the accredited products of a single swarm belonging to Mr. Archer were 1,576 pounds of strained honey, 65 pounds of comb, and no less than 28 young swarms of bees. Swarm No. 2 produced in the same year (1878), 1,260 pounds of strained honey, 25 pounds of comb honey, and 24 subsidiary swarms. Swarm No. 3's production was 757 pounds of strained honey, 35 pounds of comb, and 19 swarms of bees. From another swarm Mr. Asher took 670 pounds of honey. From yet another, 436 pounds of honey and 16 swarms. Mr. White made fifteen swarms from one, and took up 390 pounds of honey; while Mr. Stone made ten swarms from one, and seenred 157 pounds of honey. These statements are given upon the evidence of the gentlemen them- selves, and may be deemed reliable, although there is a strong probability of their meeting with dis- belief.
The bees derive their subsistence almost entirely from the native wild plants, the best bee pastures, so called, being, consequently, the protected interior valleys where vegetation is abundant and lasting. Among the plants mentioned as being favorable for bee-feed are mountain redwood, black-ball sage, su- mac, greasewood, coffee berry, etc .; but the chief feed comes from the white and button sage, which continue in bloom for four months.
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In those sheltered spots, with water contiguous to the hives. the bees thrive wonderfully, and carry on their work of laying up the delicious sweets, in seen- rity and peace. Timely rains bring out the full wealth of foliage and blossom, upon which depend the prosperous season.
By the year 1879, there were 4.500 swarms of bees in Ventura County, where their management formed a very important industry. All along the hill ranges encircling the pleasant valleys of the Ojai, Santa Clara, Conejo, Las Posas, Simi and Tapo, are found the homes of the bee-keepers. Still there is room for more; and if Ventura now has 7,000 swarms, as re- ported, the number can be doubled or trebled. the extent of range only being limited by the necessity for water; the flight and range being limited to two miles from water.
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