INTENSIVE FARMING IN NAPA 



V ALLE Y 



S. H. IVYCKOPF 

 Secretary Napa Chamber of Commerce 



INTENSIVE farming in Napa Valley is not practiced nor appreciated as 

 much as it should be, although there are many farmers here who are 

 keeping fully abreast of the times and are thoroughly informed as to 

 all the latest and best methods in agricultural and horticultural work, 

 both as regards the soil and in the use of up-to-date farm implements 

 and machines, but there are yet many of the old settlers who are still 

 farming as they did many years ago, and are raising a little hay and grain 

 and pasturing the stock on the land after the crop is gathered, and are 

 perhaps getting fifteen to twenty-five dollars an acre from their land. These 

 are the people who have no use for agricultural journals, farmers' insti- 

 tutes, etc., but their more up-to-date neighbors, who have taken advantage 

 of the newer methods, and are practicing intensive farming, are thoroughly 

 tilling the soil, using fertilizers, and raising the varieties of products best 

 suited to their soil, are taking from their land from $100 to $250 an acre. 



In conversation with one of our fruit-growers recently, he informed the 

 writer that he had been engaged in horticultural and agricultural pursuits 

 for over forty years, and had lived in many parts of the country, but that 

 he had not found any place where the soil, climatic conditions, and rainfall 

 all work together so harmoniously for the production of fruits as they do here 

 in Napa Valley. This man, by a careful study of his soil and adopting the 

 fruits best suited for his locality, by fertilization, careful pruning, picking, 

 packing, and marketing, has made fruit-raising pay him handsome profits. 

 The past season he was sick and had to hire all his work done, but was 

 able to be about and supervise the work to a certain extent, yet this year 

 on his place of fourteen acres, which he values at $12,000, he has made 

 a net profit of twelve per cent on his investment. 



One of our farmers, who for many years has been raising hay and grain, 

 informed me that he put ten acres in alfalfa two years ago. This alfalfa 

 he raised without irrigation, and the returns are just twice as much as 

 when he was raising hay and grain. 



Perhaps the best proof that intensive farming in Napa Valley pays 

 will be to give illustrations of the results obtained by our fruitmen. These 

 are actual results and the figures can be verified. 



Mr. W , who owns a fruit orchard about five miles north of the city 



of Napa, has sold $1,100 worth of Royal Ann cherries from one acre, making 

 a net profit of over $800 per acre. His orchard consists principally of cher- 

 ries, peaches, prunes, and pears, and for the past four years has shown 

 him a net profit of $250 per acre. 



Mr. B , three miles west of Napa in the foothills, has made a net 



profit of about $800 from three acres of cherries in one season. 



Mr. B , living south of Napa, has for three years taken from his 



Bartlett pear orchard an average of $225 per acre and each year from his 

 Gravenstein apples an average of $350 per acre. These are gross returns; 

 and as nearly all of the work is done by himself and family, it will readily 

 be seen that a large part of this is profit. 



Many prune orchards that are properly taken care of are producing 

 from eight to ten tons an acre each year. As the prune crop is one that 

 can be handled and gathered at small expense, and good prices are pre- 

 vailing, such yields as these will make a handsome profit. 



For the year of 1906 Mr. L , living in the foothills east of Napa, 



produced eighty-eight and one-half tons of grapes from eleven acres of 

 ground and sold them at thirty dollars a ton. 



Mr. T , whose place is situated seven miles south of Napa, took 



from 815 apple trees, twelve years old, 4,060 boxes, which brought him 



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