USA > California > San Francisco County > San Francisco > The builders of a great city : San Francisco's representative men, the city, its history and commerce : pregnant facts regarding the growth of the leading branches of trade, industries and products of the state and coast > Part 3
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21
CALIFORNIA.
these cases are not infrequent, we class them as exceptional.
Los Angeles county reports :
Forty thousand acres of orchards, and about 37,000 acres of vines. Or- anges bear in four years and will then yield $100 an acre. The profits steadily increase each year. From $500 to $890 is realized under favora- ble circumstances and $1000 to $1500 per acre frequently under prime cir- cumstances from orchards in full bearing.
DRIED FRUIT AND RAISINS.
The following table shows how our dried fruit industry has grown :
1883
1889. Lbs.
Dried Peaches. . 600,000
3,200,000
Pears ..... 200,000
50,000
Apples ... 750,000
500,000
66 Apricots. . 150,000
2,000,000
66
Prunes 550,000
15,200,000
Plums.
200,000
66
Grapes.
2,000,000
66
Nectarines.
200,000
Figs
100,000
Total 2,250,000 23,450,000 The year 1888 gave a yield about 20 per cent. larger than in 1887, and nearly sixfold that of 1883, while 1889 was tenfold. Early in the pres- ent year the yield was estimated at 28,000,000 pounds of prunes alone, with 37,000,000 pounds of all kinds. The yield of prunes, however, has since then been estimated at a much smaller quantity. The total repre- sents 222,000,000 pounds fresh fruit.
RAISINS.
The following table represents the development of our raisin industry : 1873
6,000
1874
9,000
1875
11,000
1876
19,000
1877
32,000
1878
48,000
1879
65,000
1880
75,000
1881
90,000
1882
115,000
1883
140,000
1884
175,000
1885
500,000
1886
703,000
1887
800,000
1888
915,000
1889 1,000,000
The product of 1890 is now esti- mated at 1,600,000 boxes.
There is hardly a locality in the State where the raisin grape does not flourish; the profits are steady and certain, while the market can hardly ever be overstocked. The cost of cultivation on soil easy to cultivate cannot exceed $20 an acre. From three to five tons to the acre is the average yield-it often goes up to ten tons. One ton of grapes will make six hundred pounds of raisins fit for the market. An acre at the lowest calculation will yield one hun- dred boxes worth at the lowest val- uation $100, while it does yield in some instances as high as 300 boxes worth $300 per acre; but the best de- scription of raisins will bring at least fifty per cent. more, so that a yield of $500 per acre is possible.
CITRUS.
The profits of citrus growing have often been dwelt upon, and the fol- lowing shows that a specimen orchard of six acres yields in six years $12,- 000 as gross receipts. The expenses had been as follows : Land, $150; trees, four hundred and fifty, $450; 12 years of care, $2,160; inter st at 10 per cent. for six years, $1,656. Total expenses, $4416. The best trees, at five years old, yield 200 oranges to the tree; at ten years old 100. At 200 oranges to the tree the yield of 100 trees to the acre would be $400, the expenses $100 per acre, leaving $300 for profits. At the close of ten years, of course, the results would be proportionately better. The value of each tree in healthy and
Product. Lbs.
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BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
vigorous bearing is, by the Rev. I. W. Moore, estimated at $100. In Butte County some trees have yielded from one to four thousand oranges each year. The owner of a nineteen-acre orange orchard at Riverside has sold his crop on the trees for $10,000.
THE OLIVE.
The cost of olive cultivation is thus given by Adolph Flamant, a well-known writer : With 100 trees to the acre the cost is thus figured : Digging 100 holes and the planting of the trees should not cost above $5 per acre. Two hoeings of a space about three feet wide around each tree, one in the early spring, one in the early summer at $1 50 each will make it $8 altogether per acre. The small rooted cuttings can be had at prices ranging from $10 to $15 per hundred, according to size, and tak- ing this maximum cost of $15, we come to a total of $23 per acre for all the first year's expenses, independ- ent of the cost of the land. During the following years three hoeings, distanced according to a more or less rainy season, will be more than is required to keep the plantation in verv good condition; it will not cost altogether more than $5 per acre, to which can be added the cost of prun- ing every two years, and, if desired, the cost of manuring every two or three years. The yield has been as much as $500 per acre, but as the tree advances in age the yield in- creases.
' WILL FRUIT GROWING PAY ?
The quantity of land in California said to be specially adapted for fruit raising is about thirty million of acres, or larger than the area of many European kingdoms. What will this yield? At the yield of apricots off thirty acres, noted here- tofore, it would be not less than four hundred million tons of this fruit for the State, At the present
population of the United States, say sixty-five millions, this would give nearly six tons yearly per capita; that is, 13,000 pounds, or close on thirty-six pounds per day. For apricots we might substitute fruit, and we can easily see that such a quantity could not be by any means disposed of on any consideration. We, of course, in taking the whole area of the State are looking at the matter from an extreme point of view. But some time or another the prob- lem of an immense extension of fruit culture must be faced, and that not only in California, but elsewhere. By the time that fruit culture in Cal- ifornia reaches its extreme limit there will be a great addition to the pop- ulation of the Union and also to that of the world at large. The state- ment that we have the world for a market requires some modification. We will have as competitors Arizona, New Mexico, part of Texas, Old Mex- ico, Central America, South Ameri- ca, West Coast Australia and South Africa, if not many other places. This, of course, has to be borne in mind. In twenty years from now there could be in this State, ten mil- lion acres under cultivation for fruit. This could produce one-third of the quantity we have specified. This, too, would be excessive, though in twen- ty years the population of the Uni- ted States would probably be over one hundred millions.
The basis on which we may figure production is about as follows :
Meat is dear, and it looks as if un- der ordinary circumstances it would be dearer. If the people can buy fresh fruit at a less cost than meat, say at five or six cents a ponud, it will be used extensively in lieu of it, and will be much healthier and more agreeable. At le or 11c for trans- portation, six cents a pound would allow say, le(alle to the grower, be- sides paying the necessary profits. At this rate a consumption of say two ponuds per diem per capita could be made up. This at present would
23
CALIFORNIA.
need 125,000,000 pounds, or say 62,- 500 tons per day. At five tons to the acre, as a fair average production, this would take 12,500 acres for each and every day's supply. For a year it would need 4,502,500 acres. In twenty years from date about double this, or say nine million acres would be wanted. Five tons at 1} cents per pound gives $150 per acre as the gross returns. The cost may be as- sumed to be say $50 per acre, leav- ing $100 as net profit, that is after everything has got into working or- der. Of course these figures can be modified a good deal by freight re- duction, etc., but we think that taking all in all this is a very fair presenta- tion of the case. It would take a great many years to reach the profit- able production given above, and the consumption of just so much fruit is not very probable, but it could be reduced very materially from our figures, say one-half, and still, under present circumstances, a very large margin left for cultivation and profit. Under the circumstances, no serious depreciation in the value of fruit land seems possible.
WILL IT CONTINUE TO PAY ?
Many a man who has money in- vested in fruit lands or who has been tempted to so invest it for the past year or two is asking himself this question, and anxiously, as he fears that the abundant production of fruit looked for will bring a glut, a de- pressed market and a loss. At the outset we would say that it is a rea- sonable inference that if the fruit growing continues to expand all over the world as it has done during the past few years in California that prices must decrease considerably. În 1883, for instance, we cured 2,- 250,000 pounds of dried fruit in Cal- ifornia-in 1889, 23,450,000 pounds. Our raisin product increased from 140,000 boxes in that year to 1,000,- 000 in 1889, and say a million six hun- dred thousand this year. Our ship-
ment of green, dried and canned fruits was, by the Southern Pacific, 44,763, 570 pounds in 1886 and 143,588,520 pounds in 1889. Immense numbers of trees have been planted during the past couple of years, and on ac- count of the unsatisfactory returns of wheat and barley in dry years we may expect that the movement to- ward fruit will be rather accelerated than otherwise. If the rest of the United States and the rest of the world did the same the end would be nigh. But they are not likely to do so, at least for a long time yet. Our soil and climate are especially suited to fruit production and it will be some time before it can be overdone. Careful cultivation and knowledge of what is needed now returns to the cultivator $100 an acre net in table grapes; $830 gross in strawberries; $300 in peach- es; $600 in apricots. In the San Joaquin Valley twenty acres have yielded $4,575 or $223 75 per acre in ordinary fruit. Walnut trees yield $300 to $500 per acre; raisins $300 to $500 per acre; $300 per acre netted in oranges; $500 per acre gross in olives; wine grapes $116 40 per acre net. The price at which some of these results has been obtained is, as in the case of apricots, 12 cents per pound where from thirty acres $14,- 000 worth was sold. These prices and results leave a goodly margin.
PERTINENT EXAMPLE.
The Sacramento Union, 1888, said of an orange orchard twelve to seven- teen years old, that most of it came into bearing last season and that the first crop averaged 200 oranges to the tree. At $2 50 to $3 for 100, one tree yielded $45 worth of fruit. This was in Upper California, where the fruit ripens six weeks earlier than in Southern California. Large planta- tions of oranges were made last year. In an orchard of eighty bearing trees, one twenty-five years old produced the season before last, 2000 oranges
24
BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
From seventy-five young trees 14,000 were marketed; from others 17,000 which netted $3 per 100. From one particular tree, 1911 oranges were gathered, netting over $60. An al- mond orchard of 2000 bearing trees averages 100 pounds to the tree- many yielding much more. There are about 130 trees to the acre -- the price never below 7 cents per pound. At this rate they yield $455 per acre.
Two hundred peach trees bore an average of ten 25-pound boxes to the tree. From one of Hale's Early was picked two 25-lb boxes, which sold at 40c@90c per box. Thirty apricot trees produced six hundred 25-pound boxes, an average of twenty boxes to the tree, One tree yielded thirty boxes. From five walnut trees were gathered six hundred pounds of wal- nuts. From one twenty two year old was gathered two hundred pounds which sold at 10c@11c per pound. A Smyrna fig tree yielded half a ton of fruit which sold at a profit of over $100. From the same tree two years previously $100 worth of cuttings besides $35 of fruit were sold. From fourteen cherry trees fruit to the amount of $262 was sold. Three acres of table grapes yielded 18 tons. The net income of wine grapes was $200 to $600 per acre.
The Lodi Sentinel, 1888, contained an account of the orchard of Mr. Clements, of between three and four acres, composed entirely of peach trees. Here he sold in 1887, from each tree, twelve boxes of canning peaches, at 75c per box. He had be- sides two boxes of dried fruit from each tree. Each of the latter netted $10 50, which at 100 trees to the acre made $1050. All expenses of boxes, shipping, etc., were paid by the purchasers. Twenty acres of this kind of fruit would, in a score of years yield a princely fortune.
A practical fruitgrower of Orland has given the following estimate of cost for vines the first three years (20 acres) :
FIRST YEAR.
Plowing and harrowing $40 00
Planting 40 00
Cultivating 100 00
SECOND YEAR.
Pruning (too high) 15 00
Cultivating 100 00
THIRD YEAR.
Pruning.
25 00
Cultivating
100 00
Total
$420 00
Or $21 per acre.
BEET SUGAR.
A century and a half ago beet su- gar had not even been thought of. The industry of beet culture is one which, like the practical use of the steam engine, the iron rail and elec- tricity, is eminently characteristic of modern times. To Germany is ow- ing the discovery of the useful sac- charine qualities of the beet. An- dreas Sigismund Margraf, a Berlin chemist, in 1747 discovered 4 3-5 per cent. in red beets and 6 1-5 per cent. in white. But nearly half a century elapsed before anything practical was the result. In 1796, one Achard, backed by a royal patron, Frederick William II of Prussia, established a factory at Cunen, Lower Silesia. Here he worked up 3} tons of beets a day, making 6 per cent. of yellow sugar and 3 per cent. of molasses. Factories at Olbendorf, Hohensleben, and in Bohemia were soon establish- ed, in the latter country towards the beginning of the century. At this time Great Britain was waging her famous war against the great Napo- leon and had blockaded on paper all the ports of the continent. The great Emperor, in order to render the European continent independent of the sugar supplies from England and West India colonies, gave especial encouragement to the beet industry in France. Previous to this, it is said that the British Government, fearing just this result, had offered Achard a bribe of 200,000 thalers to
25
CALIFORNIA.
declare that sugar could not be pro- duced from the beet with profit. This, however, he rejected with scorn. Napoleon had 79,075 acres devoted to its culture and appropriated $200,- 000 for the same purpose. This was in 1811. Russia encouraged the in- dustry by appropriating funds and gave a remission of taxes on land de- voted to its culture. It died away in Germany for awhile. But it flour- ished in France and gradually Ger- many, Austria and Russia fell into line, and, with France, became the great beet producing countries of the world. In Europe beet culture has been encouraged by a bounty ou exports. The first attempt made in the United States was in 1830. It was tried in Massachusetts iu 1838. But it could not prevail against the Louisiana cane product, or rather perhaps soil and climate were against it. In 1863 the matter was taken up in Louisiana, and in 1870 in Califor- nia. But with the exception of the success in this State, all attempts else- where throughout the Union failed.
IN CALIFORNIA.
The matter of the suitability of the Golden State to the industry was the subject of considerable discus- sion. The more enthusiastic be- lieved that it would be the great sugar country of America. The approaching completion of the Central Pacific gave a means of reach- ing the most distant markets of Am- erica. Experiments were made, but not enough to test the capabilities of the State. But the glowing accounts published of the possible results were not without their effect, and in 1869 a company with a quarter of a mill- ion dollars capital was organized. In 1870 the Alvarado factory was built. Its capacity was fifty tons a day. Everything was propitious, as San Francisco was close at hand, where money for the enterprise or a market for the product could be readily ob- tained. A crop was put in, and the factory started in November of that
year. The first sugar was made Nov- ember 19th; but it was started at an unpropitious time as the market price of sugar steadily fell, and speedily carried down the enterprise with it. But $18,000 was made the first year. The next year they were not so for- tunate, and a change of base was ef- fected, the factory being removed to Santa Cruz.
This, however, did no good; the expenses were too great. At Rio Vista a factory was started to make sugar from lemons, but was turned into a beet factory. Floods, however, came two years in succession, and the en- terprise was spoiled. Los Angeles tried the business in 1880, but with- out success. The Alviso factory start- ed up again in 1879, but after seven years of success was burned down in 1887. The same year saw what might be termed the renaissance of the industry. Mr. Claus Spreckels, President of the California Sugar Re- finery, who had studied the matter for years and had been to Germany, where he had mastered all the latest secrets of the industry, concluded that here on the Pacific Coast, and in Cali- fornia, was the very paradise of beet growing. Having come to this con- clusion, he placed his large fortune at the disposal of the industry, if we may so term it, and entered into the business with heart and soul. He ordered a large quantity of the best machinery and twenty-five tons of the best beet seed, and offered large premiums for beets containing the highest percentage of saccharine matter. He lectured at various points in the State, and was ready to erect factories where encouragement was offered. He determined to put up factories at Watsonville which would cost $400,000. Hehad guarantees that 2,500 acres would be planted in beets for a number of years. Thus fortified, he set to work and in the Fall the fac- tory was in good running order. It had a capacity of 350 tons daily. It could make 70,000 pounds if run to its full capacity. During the cam-
26
BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
paign in 1888 there was made here 1,600 tons of sugar. The Alvarado factory in the same time made 500 tons, so that the beet product of California in 1888 was 2,100 tons - a small beginning truly, but a prom- ising one nevertheless. In 1889 it was 2,585 tons. This year it will be 9,000 tons. The sugar was made into what is known as granulated and brought full prices.
Before erecting refineries Mr. Spreckels has to be guaranteed good supply of lime, wood and water. A site of thirty or forty acres for a fac- tory must also be supplied. It must be near a railroad, so as to allow ready shipment to San Francisco. The cost of beet seed will be abont 12 cents per pound, and it takes from fifteen to twenty-five pounds to sow an acre. This makes the cost from $1 80 to $3 per acre for seed. There can be no doubt but that the terms offered will be gladly welcomed at numerous points in California, Ore- gon or Washington, and that not long will elapse before the beet in. dustry will be the most flourishing on the coast, or indeed in America.
PROFITS.
The following, written some time since is still applicable to the indus- try :
Now that sugar refining has been such a signal success, that the suc- cess of the beet industry has also been demonstrated, and that the last attempts at beet-sngar making have been such a decided success, Claus Spreckels, President of the Califor- nia Sugar Refinery, has resolved to devote his whole attention to beet culture and beet sugar manufactur- ing. Many years' experience, the possession of abundant capital, a thorough knowledge of the theory and practice of sugar refining, a prac- tical inventor, and possessed of an indomitable will and an untiring per- severance, he is just the man to achieve success in this most promis-
ing field. The data of actual work- ing may be inferred from the report of the Alvarado factory for the year 1884-5. In that year 16,354 tons of beets produced 2,167,283 pounds, or 967 3-5 tons of sugar nearly; that is, it took about 17 tons of beets to make one ton of sugar. In this cam- paign, however, the full quantity of sugar was not obtained, as though during the first few months 10 per cent. was yielded, during the latter part only 7 per cent. could be had. The factory, however, was en- abled to sell granulated sugar at 5c per pound. For the beets $4.50 per ton was paid. Their cost was thus $73.03. The result at 5}c per pound would be $113,182.35, not counting by-products, leaving $40,189 as a margin for profit and expenses. It is even claimed that beet sugar could be made much cheaper. Good Cali - fornia land will yield 25 to 30 tons of sugar beets to the acre, yielding in sugar 10 per cent. or the greatest known yield in the world. At 25 tons there will be 2} tons or 5,600 pounds refined sugar to the acre. The lowest price at which beets have been paid for by the company is $4 per ton. From that, according to the percentage of saccharine matter, the price will be advanced. This will give $100 to $120 per acre for the gross yield of land planted in beets, whereas wheat, at 50 bushels to the acre, would only yield, at $1.50 per cental, $45 per acre. There is here an increase of $55 to $75 per acre over the profit obtained on wheat, assuming the cost of both to be the same. With a very small farm a man would easily have a com- petency. Suppose the expenses to be equal to those of wheat, the re- sult would be from 40 acres $2,200 net profit, for 100 acres $5,500, for 500 acres $27,500, at the lowest aver- age. The residuum of the beet may be made merchantable in many ways, and in France, out of $45,500,000 as the total value of the industry, $14 - 250,000 were obtained from by-prod-
27
CALIFORNIA.
ucts. Good beet land should, there- fore, be easily worth $500 to $600 per acre.
WHAT CALIFORNIA HAS DONE.
The following is the output so far as any record has been kept :
1871.
587,000
1872.
1,500,000
1873 760,000
1874.
1,500,000
1875.
600,000
1876.
995,000
1877
1,000,000
1878.
500,000
1879.
800,000
1880.
1,300,000
1881
1,410,533
1882.
1,000,000
1883
1,200,000
1884
2,134,273
1885.
1,343,178
1886. 1,688,258
1888,
4,200,000
1889.
.5,170,000
It will thus be seen that every year since we have made more or less beet sugar, the total reaching 27,688,242 pounds, a very small quantity, the whole not being quite equal to one- twelfth of our annual distribution, or one hundred and twentieth part of the sugar distributed here for the past seventeen years. It may there- fore well be said that in California the beet sugar interest has hitherto been in its infancy. From the above facts the question naturally arises why, with such a heavy consumption and the success shown by the factory of late years, was not the business more extensively entered upon ? It can be easily answered. During the seventeen years just noted or rather during the greater portion of that time, the sugar industry as a whole was only experimental in San Fran- cisco, and until sugar refining itself had been placed on a profitable basis, there was little chance that the production of beet sugar would receive attention from any practical man. It is not long ago since the
failure of several refineries in this city acted as a deterent to the em- barking in any branch of the sugar industry. Its success being assured, it is but meet and proper that those who have been instrumental in it should turn their attention to the wider field afforded by the industry in question. What that field is may be better understood when it is known that the annual consumption in the United States is not less than one million three hundred thousand tons a year, and that it is increasing at the rate of sixty thousand tons, or 134,400,000 pounds, a year.
POSSIBLE PROSPECTS.
Professor Hilgard estimates the area of lands in California capable of beet culture as 5,830 square miles or 3,731,200 acres. The probability is that the area is larger. This is scattered all over the State, in the most fertile valleys. Supposing that this yielded 25 tons of beets, or 5,600 pounds of sugar per acre, and that a crop was raised once in every three years as was suggested by Claus Spreckels, it would make the annual yield 3,110,000 tons, or nearly three- fold the present consumption of the United States. The whole of the Pacific States and Territories can, no doubt, produce six to seven mil- lion tons, enough to supply 50 per cent. more than the present consump- tion of all civilized countries. That consumption, though, is increasing very rapidly and it doubles in the United States in about twenty years. Thus in that time it would absorb all the possible production of the State. The value of 3,110,000 tons of sugar would, at 5c per pound, be close on three hundred and fifty mil- lion dollars per annum. Besides the return to the farmer, the industry gives steady employment at the rate of about one man to every 30,000 pounds of sugar. The total product of the sugar lands in California would therefore give employment to not
28
BUILDERS OF A GREAT CITY.
less than 230,000 men, representing a population of 1,600,000, including traders, manufacturers, wives, chil- dren, etc. It would give besides support to a great and varied indus- try. It would need 21,000,000 bar- rels to contain the sugar, and thus give support to a vast cooperage in- dustry and lumber interest. The en- gines would consume 19 barrels of oil to each ton, or 58,000,000 barrels to the total possible production of the State. This would no doubt ex- haust all the crude oil that Califor- fornia can produce. The use of two per cent. slack lime would call for over 400,000 barrels of lime a year. The machinery needed, too, in these mills, would cost forty-eight millions of dollars, and would require renew- ing say every fifteen years, thus creating a foundry business of over three million dollars a year. An im- mense quantity of coal would be con- sumed, so that it would give support to a great mining interest. And we have not yet nigh exhausted the list of all the new industries that this great one would support. We have delineated its possibilities. It would, of course, take a long series of years to arrive at the results here presented. That it is possible under any circum- stances may be known from the fact that the last sugar made cost 4.84 cents per pound and that it is stated on good authority that it can be laid down in San Francisco for 33c per pound, so that California can easily hold her own in beet sugar produc- tion.
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