A TREATISE ON NUT CULTURE. 99 



What we state here are facts, with abundant proof. 



Twenty years ago the land oil which the city of Riverside, Cal., now 

 stands, was a pasture, the land not worth five dollars per acre now worth 

 thousands. Only twelve years ago the total shipment of fruits and nuts from 

 California did not exceed five hundred car loads. In 1893 they reached the 

 enormous amount of twenty-five thousand car loads, and are increasing every 

 year. 



Last year, at Willows, Cal., a man sold his crop of Cherries, grown on four 

 and one-half acres, for $2,300, the money being paid before the purchaser 

 gathered the crop. Here is $541 per acre earnings, with little or no expense. 



It is not uncommon for lands in nuts and fruits in California to earn from 

 $300 to $60 per acre. 



Southern Oregon reports sales of Apples from ten acres last season for 

 $4,650. 



About ten years ago W. W. Stringfellow, of Hitchcock, Texas, started 

 fifteen acres in Pears, and on land not worth $20 per acre. 



Last year he stated to a reporter that he had four thousand four hundred 

 Pear trees, one thousand of which were in bearing. He said, judging from past 

 crops, he would have fifteen bushels to the tree, or fifteen thousand bushels for 

 sale. For these fifteen acres of four thousand four hundred trees, he had been 

 offered and refused $75,000, or $5,000 per acre. 



We believe that the Southern States have capabilities in fruit, vegetable 

 and nut culture now little dreamed of. Being one thousand five hundred miles 

 nearer the market than California, there is a large profit in the saving of trans- 

 portation alone for the South. No fear of overstocking the market when some 

 of the cities take and dispose of forty to sixty car loads daily, consumption 

 keeping pace with production. California and Florida products are now being 

 shipped to Europe with success. In many of "the smaller villages of the United 

 States these fruits are found on sale, as well as in the larger cities. But in 

 nothing has there been greater interest manifested of late years than the Pecan 

 industry, which shows greater profit than any fruit. This industry has all the 

 elements of profit at very little cost, risk or insects, which are a great drawback 

 to fruit growing. Most ripe fruits must be hurried into market as rapidly as 

 possible, to prevent loss by decay. With the Pecan, they can be kept twelve 

 months perfectly sweet, the grower choosing his market at his leisure. A 

 favorite nut everywhere, all, or nearly all, of which are grown and consumed 

 in the United States, but very few finding their way abroad. There is a 

 security in growing Pecans, which, at their small cost of planting, makes a 

 grove unequalled by any investment in stocks or bonds, and the beauty about 

 it is that any one having but a few acres of land can plant a fortune, which is 

 as sure as the promise that ' ' seed time and harvest shall never fail. ' ' 



