10 CALIFORNIA VEGETABLES 



the Mission San Jose and transported their vegetables fifteen or 

 twenty miles, while right outside the door of their house at San 

 Leandro was the finest garden soil in the world, and they did not 

 know it ! " 



Neither the mission gardeners nor their rancheros had any idea 

 of the capacity of the country for summer crops without irrigation 

 and without any adequate conception of the offices of cultivation 

 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 

 occupation. The relations of race to horticultural progress are very 

 interesting. 



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 hun- 

 dred acres in vegetable growing in 1851, and others gained much 

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

 quire 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 following 

 account of potato growing shows how sharp was the turn of 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 fol- 

 lowing 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 com- 

 menced 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 did 

 well, but there was not dash enough about market gardening for 



"Interview with Hon. J. L. Beard, in Oakland Enquirer, May 15, 1897. 

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



