336 ANNUAL REPORT 



and yet may have a direct bearing upon our success. For in- 

 stance a heavy, rich soil in California is of little value for either 

 the production of raisins or wine. The best vineyards are lo- 

 cated upon gravelly soil — some of them upon gravel almost en- 

 tirely. The grapes grown in such soil are much sweeter and 

 ripen earlier. 



Some facts may also be learned in regard to irrigation. The 

 southern portion of the state produces the largest and finest look- 

 ing fruits, while the northern section produces the same fruits 

 but of less size and better quality. The reason is obvious. South 

 of a line that may be drawn direct from Monterey Bay to Sacra- 

 mento City their crops have to depend almost entirely upon irri- 

 gation, as rain seldom falls between the months of March and 

 l!^ovember, while north of that supposed line they generally have 

 sufficient rain during the season to produce a crop. Hence we 

 find the fruits from along the Sacramento, and other northern 

 valleys within the moist belt, upon the market at San Francisco 

 a week or more in advance of those produced five hundred miles 

 further south. Oranges, peaches, pears, prunes, apricots, etc., are 

 ripeatOroville as soon as they are at San Diego. The same is also 

 true in regard to the time of blossoming. The difference is per- 

 haps entirely on account of irrigation, and while it has its ad- 

 vantages it also has its disadvantages, not only upon the quality 

 of the fruits and their time of ripening, but upon the health of 

 the people as well, on account of the miasma jjroduced by the 

 overflow of water. 



You ask me if the fruit business in California is not likely to 

 be overdone, and what bearing it will have upon the horticul- 

 ral interests of our state and upon the eastern markets ? I an- 

 swer, no! the more they can produce the better for us. They 

 have an almost unlimited market and very little competition in 

 their line of goods, which consists largely of oranges, lemons 

 and dried fruits, such as we can not produce and yet must have. 

 Just think of it ! We have been buying those goods east and 

 shipping them from New York, while we occupy a halfway 

 station between the point of production and that from which we 

 receive our supplies. Fruit in the eastern states is dear and 

 always will be. We think the time has about come, when we 

 should receive our supplies direct from the producer and save 

 the double railroad freight and the intervention of that long 

 line of useless appendages called middle men. To illustrate my 

 meaning in regard to the costs and profits under the present sys- 



