VICISSITUDES OF EARLY VEGETABLE GROWING 13 



they could hardly have attained it. Hence, not having the irrigation 

 facilities which were developed at the missions, and not being in- 

 clined to any labor by which their own lands could be irrigated, 

 they would naturally go to the water rather than attempt to bring 

 the water to their land for anything more than stock and domestic 

 uses. Almost at sight the American pioneer horticulturists dis- 

 cerned possibilities and adaptations in the soil and climate which their 

 predecessors had not discovered during seventy-five years of occupa- 

 tion. The relations of race to horticultural progress are very inter- 

 esting. 



Vicissitudes of Early Vegetable Growing. Those who first dis- 

 cerned the fact that it was easier to get gold with the hoe than with 

 the pick, realized market prices as surprisingly great as the vege- 

 tables they grew. John M. Horner, of Alameda county, is reported 

 to have cleared about $150,000 from his large venture of eight 

 hundred acres in vegetable growing in 1851, and others gained 

 much more per acre than he, with smaller operations which did not 

 require so much high-priced labor. But the demonstration of their 

 success proved its destruction. Plantations were made out of all 

 proportion to requirements and disastrous overproduction speedily, 

 ensued. The second year after the exhibition in San Francisco, to 

 which allusion has been made there was a collapse. The follow- 

 ing account of potato growing shows how sharp was the turn in 

 affairs : 



In 1852 Beard & Horner's potato crop at Alvarado averaged 200 sacks 

 (about twelve tons) to the acre, and sold for upwards of $100,000. The 

 following year everybody cultivated them. In Pajaro valley 20,000 sacks 

 were one day bet on a horse-race. Beard & Horner contracted theirs in 

 advance at two and a half cents a pound to San Francisco merchants. 

 Garrison took one million pounds, which were never removed, but were 

 allowed to rot on the ground. Saunders & Co. purchased a large quantity, 

 which they stowed away in a hulk in the bay. As warm weather came on 

 the potatoes commenced growing and threatened to burst the vessel open. 

 They commenced dumping the potatoes into the bay, but the harbor master 

 stopped it, and the owners had to pay for their removal to another locality. 6 



With the first disaster the charm and spirit of pioneer vege- 

 table growing passed away. There was, of course, quick recovery 

 in values and very profitable business done, but it was not the 

 same grand affair and it did not accord with the adventurous spirit 

 of the day. Small growers near the cities and the mining camps 



6 Centennial Year Book of Alameda County, p. 483. 



