20 Annals of Horticulture. 



bought on the tree. I got 6,300 pounds of the dried article 

 which I sold for six cents. My four year old prune trees 

 yielded me from 200 to 250 pounds to the tree of large and 

 beautiful fruit. Counting seventy-five trees to the acre, this 

 average would net about 83^ tons to the acre, worth about 

 ^350. ' James McPherson, of Oroville, cleared $100 per acre on 

 his Bartlett pear orchard in its first year of bearing. A four 

 year old peach orchard in the same district yielded $150 per 

 acre above expenses. The Paige & Morton fruit farm in Tul- 

 are County reports as follows : ' In this orchard there are in 

 bearing, the trees being four to five years old, 25 acres of apri- 

 cots, 119 acres of peaches, nearly ig acres of pears and 7}^ 

 acres of prunes. The fruit from these trees aggregated, weigh- 

 ed green as it came from the orchard, 3,047,754 pounds. Sixty 

 car loads were sold green to California canneries, or shipped 

 to New York, Chicago, Minneapolis or Boston. Ninety car 

 loads of green fruit were dried, making fifteen cars of dried 

 fruit, averaging 20, 000 pounds to the car. The apricots paid this 

 year per acre, net, $211.70; nectarines, $276 ; peaches, $350; 

 prunes, $600; pears, $427. The total receipts from the or- 

 chard, exclusive of vineyard, were nearly $90,000.' 



'' One could easily obtain higher figures than any of these. 

 One prune grower cleared $650 per acre on his orchard. But 

 it does not seem wise to use many such illustrations. The 

 ' general average ' is better. In Riverside, for instance, 

 where about 543,000 orange trees are planted, the average 

 annual yield is $400 per acre. The average profits in all the 

 old and established deciduous fruit districts are so great as to 

 lead to the conclusion that one acre of good land in fruit paid 

 in 1890 about as well as 26 acres in wheat. Ten acres in 

 peaches or apricots, pears, plums, prunes, or any other decidu- 

 ous fruits are therefore more valuable than 250 acres in grain. 



'' The census returns show that all the counties of California 

 that have urged forward horticultural developments have 

 greatly grown in population and wealth, while those that con- 

 tinue to depend upon sheep-raising and wheat-farming have 

 remained at a standstill for a decade and more. 



*' ' Irrigation and sub-division ' is now the motto of the 

 progressive Californian. During the last year a very large 

 number of new irrigation districts have been established, and 

 many old ones have been enlarged. Not less than 250,000 



