BTATE A.GRIC1 in i;ai. SOCIETY. 1 s "> 



lated every branch of agriculture, which, in a degree, included that of fruit 

 growing. Under this stimulus tin- fruits of the temperate zon« — apples, 

 peaches, pears, plums, and cherries — as well as those of the semi-tropic 

 /mil — the orange, olive lemon, pomegranate, and iiu r — were produced in 

 all parts o( the State at all altitudes below our thousand eight hundred 

 feet, [n the south, the Spanish settlers had been born and reared in the 

 shadows of the orange and Lemon groves of Seville, and consequently they 

 were familiar with the climatic requirements of those fruits, and they fully 

 understood the modes of their cultivation. They were also familiar with 

 the cultivation of the delicate wine table, and raisin grapes of Spain and 

 of the shores of the Mediterranean. They therefore cultivated and pro- 

 duced all these semi-tropic products. 



In the upper part of the State the Bettlers brought here during and after 

 the gold era. were descendants of the Northmen, from the north of Europe. 

 Neither they nor their ancestors had ever lived in a semi-tropic climate, 

 and hence knew nothing of the requirements of soil and climate of the 

 semi-tropic fruits. Therefore their cultivation was comparatively neglected. 

 The fruits of the temperate /one were, early in the occupation 01 this coast, 

 cultivated and produced to perfection. The planting of citrus fruits in the 

 Upper half of the State was incidental to home ornamentation and adorn- 

 ment. The isolation of the State placed the limit to the fruit product of 

 all kinds. So far as there was a home demand there was production, and 

 no farther. After the completion of the Pacific railways there was an 

 attempt made to ship green fruit to the Eastern States, hut the freight rates 

 were so high as to place it in the eastern markets within the reach of only 

 the richest people there. The first rates were in the neighborhood of $1,000 

 per carload of ten tons, to Chicago. From year to year the rates have been 

 lowered, till during 1885 they were $(300 per carload carried on passenger 

 time, and $400 a carload carried on freight schedule time. The expansion 

 of the area of fruit growing in those years has been in exact proportion to 

 the decrease of the freight rates to eastern markets, and to the increase of 

 the population of the State. 



The low prices of all the cereals and of wool, the two staples of the State, 

 created a widespread inquiry as to what products could be raised here that 

 would take the place of these, at the present, unprofitable products. The 

 result of these inquiries was the conviction that fruit-growing must, to a 

 certain extent, supersede the cereal and wool products. In order that the 

 fruit market might be extended, it was seen that the transportation rates 

 must be lowered. The transportation companies met these demands by a 

 reduction of rates for the future to $400 per carload for express time, and 

 $200 per carload for freight time to Chicago. Under the shipping rates of 

 1885 nearly twelve hundred carloads of green fruits were shipped that year, 

 and it is believed that if the kinds of fruit which are in demand in the 

 eastern markets, and which will bear transportation, could have been 

 obtained, the shipments would have been much greater. Certain it is that 

 many of our fruit dealers had orders for grapes, peaches, and pears that 

 could not be filled. The lowered freight rates which prevailed last season 

 enabled dealers to place our fruits in market at prices that placed them 

 within reach of a larger class of people than heretofore. Notwithstanding 

 this fact, it was stated upon the authority of one of our largest and oldest 

 shippers, that not five persons in each one hundred in the east could afford 

 to consume our fruit regularly, at the price at which it must be sold to meet 

 those rates. It is believed now, however, that the present rates will place 

 such low figures on California fruit as to bring it within the reach of a 

 large part of the laboring classes of the east. 



