AGRICULTURE. 263 



Monthly for March, 1874, thus estimates the cost of ten 

 acres of orange orchard, in the first year, viz : land, $300 ; 

 fencing, $300 ; 600 trees, two years old, $125 ; planting, 

 $300 ; ploughing, replanting, and other incidentals, $200. 

 Total, $1,425. The trees begin to bear at the end of seven 

 or eight years, but do not yield- a good crop until two or three 

 years later. The cost of managing ten acres of orange or- 

 chard, in full bearing, is estimated at $3,130 per year, and 

 the receipts at $15,000, leaving $11,870 profit. The soil 

 should be a rich, sandy loam, with good drainage. Adobe 

 soil will not do. Mr. Evans gives the prices of trees in the Los 

 Angeles nurseries : trees five years old sell for $3 each ; four 

 years old, $1.50 ; three years old, 40 to 60 cents ; two years 

 old, 3 to 20 cents ; one year old, one-half cent ; all by the 

 hundred. Imported oranges from the Hawaiian and Society 

 Islands are picked before maturity, thus injuring their flavor, 

 or suffer a loss of fifty per cent on the voyage, giving the do- 

 mestic oranges a great advantage in the market. 



190. Berries. Raspberries and blackberries were culti- 

 vated extensively eight or ten years ago for the San Francisco 

 market, but are now out of favor. Cherry currants are 

 grown with a profit ; of gooseberries we have few. 



Strawberries are cultivated extensively in Santa Clara 

 County for the San Francisco market. The best fields of 

 vines in their third and fourth years will yield from 4,000 to 

 6,000 pounds per acre, and the wholesale price in this city may 

 be six or seven cents per pound, making a gross yield of $240 

 to $420 per acre. The cost of picking is 2 cents, of railroad 

 freights J cent, drayage in San Francisco cent, and com- 

 missions 8 per cent. The amount received is sometimes from 

 60,000 to 70,000 pounds daily, indicating a lively consumption 

 for a city of 180,000 inhabitants. The strawberries are mostly 

 grown on the shares by Chinamen, who give half the crop for 

 the land. As the vines produce nothing the first year, and 

 the Chinamen are poor, the land-owner usually loans his credit 



