PIONEER METHODS IN CALIFORNIA 49 



Irrigation Abandoned. The early abandonment of dwarf trees 

 suggests also the early abandonment of irrigation in the valleys of 

 Northern California as early as 1856. Facilities which had been 

 secured for irrigation of orchards were allowed to go unused, because 

 it was thought better not to use them. One case is reported in Napa 

 county where means to furnish the orchard with thirty thousand 

 gallons of water per day were allowed to lie idle. The substitution 

 of cultivation for water, of course, attended this reform. The an- 

 nouncement of a practice, in 1856, "to plow deep, dig wide and deep 

 holes for planting, and work the ground from February to July, allow- 

 ing no grass or weeds to grow among the trees," shows that the 

 thorough and clean culture, for which California is famous, is not a 

 recent idea in our practice. Even the abandonment of the plow, and 

 almost weekly use of the cultivator, was the practice of some growers 

 in the San Jose district before 1860. In fact, the descriptions of 

 orchard management in that day include nearly the whole variety of 

 methods which now prevail. Later experience has, however, shown 

 that irrigation facilities are more valuable even for deciduous fruits 

 than was once thought possible. This proposition will be discussed 

 in the chapter on irrigation. 



Early Wisdom and Enterprise. It is evident to anyone who 

 studies the records, that California was very fortunate in numbering 

 among the early settlers so many men with horticultural tastes, skill, 

 and experience. The rapidity with which fruit trees were multiplied, 

 and the confidence with which these early comers entered upon the 

 nursery business, shows their training. Although there were many 

 trees brought here from the East and from Europe, they constituted 

 only a very small percentage of the plantings of the first few years, 

 but the orchards, with the exception of a very small number of trees 

 introduced to furnish grafting and budding stock, were the product 

 of the soil. When this is borne in mind, it becomes all the more 

 wonderful how so much could be done in a new country, in a distant 

 part of the world, in so very short a time. It was an observation which 

 was put upon record as early as 1856, that "some varieties of fruit 

 are much improved by change to this State, and some are not bene- 

 fited." The test seems to have been that if a variety was not better 

 than at the East, it should be discarded. 



The First Oversupply. The wonderful stimulus given to the 

 fruit interest by the results obtained in growth and in marketing, 

 soon induced larger plantings than the demand warranted. In 1857 

 it was publicly stated that "there are single farms in this State, con- 

 taining each over half a million fruit trees in orchard and nursery 

 one person owning enough trees, when fully matured, to produce as 

 much fruit, other than grapes, as will be sold this year throughout our 

 State. The day is not far distant when fruit will be an important crop 

 for raising and fattening swine." This was, to a certain extent, a 

 statement of a croaker, for plantations continued, rare varieties were 

 brought from the East, the South, and from Europe; the growth of 

 some fruits continued to be very profitable and the nursery business, 



