2o5 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



area, are more profitable, and give employment to more laborers, 

 in proportion to acreage, than any others of the class. The greater 

 part of the apple crop is consumed at home, but all the other 

 fruits must find their chief market outside the State. 



In addition to the acreage already tabulated, there are 1,080 

 acres of nectarines, 300 acres of quinces, and about 100 acres of 

 Japan persimmons. This makes a grand total of 191,894 acres 

 devoted to this class of fruits. Statistics are somewhat incom- 

 plete for some of the mountain counties, but it will not be safe to 

 add more than five per cent, and we can then say in round num- 

 bers that 200,000 acres are planted with the deciduous fruits. 



The leading apple counties of the State are Sonoma, Los Ange- 

 les, Siskiyou, Santa Cruz, San Diego, and Humboldt. Nothing 

 could better illustrate the extent to which the climate of Califor- 

 nia is modified by local conditions. San Diego is the most south- 

 ern county, Siskiyou is the most northern, and they are sepa- 

 rated from each other by more than seven hundred miles, but both 

 contain great apple-growing districts. The leading apricot coun- 

 ties are Solano, Alameda, and Los Angeles. The cherry is chiefly 

 grown in Alameda and Santa Clara. The peach industry has 

 been most completely developed in Santa Clara, Solano, Los Ange- 

 les, Tulare, Butte, and Tehama. Nectarines are mostly planted 

 in Sonoma and Alameda. Plums and prunes seem to belong chief- 

 ly to Santa Clara, Tulare, Alameda, and Solano. Lastly, the great 

 pear districts are in Sacramento, Solano, Alameda, and Los Ange- 

 les. The Coast Range lowlands and foothills, together with a few 

 districts in the San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys, produce the 

 bulk of all the deciduous fruits. 



Third among the horticultural divisions that I have thought 

 it desirable to tabulate are the nut-bearing trees, comparatively 

 small in present acreage, but likely to become more and more 

 important industries. The nuts grown on a commercial scale are 

 only two, the almond and the walnut. The chestnut, pistachio, 

 filbert, pecan, and a few others have been planted to some extent. 

 The following table shows the counties that have 1,000 acres and 

 upward of either almonds or walnuts : 



Table III. Acreage of Nut-hearing Trees. 



Aliiiiieda. . 



Butte 



Los Angele; 

 Orange . . . 

 Santa Barliai 

 Solano.. 

 Ventura 



