SANTA ROSA 253 



As to the latter point, however, the conditions 

 were very different from what they now are. 

 The refrigerator car had not come into use, and 

 the possibility of transporting fresh fruits across 

 the continent at a reasonable cost seemed remote. 

 So it was natural that such fruits as the prune 

 and the olive were the ones that chiefly attracted 

 attention. Their products could be transported 

 anywhere, and there was an established market 

 that was practically inexhaustible. 



But, as already intimated, the region about 

 Santa Rosa at the time of my coming was pre- 

 eminently a wheat country, and the farmers in 

 general were far more interested in cereals than 

 in fruit of any kind. It was only after the wheat 

 crops began to fail, through exhaustion of the soil 

 for the special nutrients that this cereal demands, 

 that the thoughts of the farming population in 

 general could be directed toward fruit culture. 



It is necessary to make this explanation be- 

 cause nowadays everyone thinks of California as 

 preeminently a fruit country; and so it would 

 not be obvious, without this elucidation, why one 

 could not start in the nursery business at Santa 

 Rosa in the year 1876, and hope for immediate 

 patronage and a reasonable return for his labors. 



But even if the market had been more certain, 

 it would doubtless have been difficult for me 



