HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



1507 



mates more closely to that of colder regions, while the 

 horticulture of the Pacific slope, north of CaUfornia, 

 becomes more and more different from the south- 

 European types, but still has many characteristics of 

 its own separating it sharply from that of the Atlantic 

 slope. The first horticultural experiments in Cali- 

 fornia were at the Missions of the Peninsula (Bajo or 

 Lower California), where twenty-two Missions were 

 founded between 1697 and 1797 (Fig. 1S52). Here 

 the Mission Fathers introduced the date palm; also 

 oranges, lemons, limes, pineapples, bananas, ohves, figs, 

 pomegranates, peaches, quinces, plums, apples, pears 

 and grapes. They shipped to Monterey and the northern 

 missions large quantities of dried figs, grapes, dates, and 

 peaches. The Upper California missions received seeds, 

 cions, and so on, from those of Lower Cahfornia, as 

 well as from Mexico. The first of these missions was 

 estabUshed in 1769 at San Diego by the Franciscans, 



1852 



One of the early California missions, where were the early promoters of horticulture 

 on the western coast — San Juan Capistrano 



under the leadership of Father Junipero Serra, whose 

 name visitors to the California State Building at the 

 World's Fair will recall in connection with the great 

 date palm from the Mission Valley of San Diego. This 

 palm was raised from seed which Junipero Serra planted 

 about 1770. Twenty-one missions were founded by the 

 Franciscans, the last one in 1823, and at all but one or 

 two of them there were important collections of the 

 fruits of southern Europe — olives, figs, oranges, lemons, 

 pomegranates, wine grapes, and also apples, pears and 

 peaches. Early in this century the Mission of San 

 Gabriel had over 2,000 fruit trees, and others had more 

 than a thousand. Fig. 18.52 shows the yard of San 

 Juan Capistrano Mission, as it existed in 1889. There 

 are also some traces in Cahfornia of the fruits of the 

 few early Russian settlements. With the American 

 occupation and the immigration from the east, came 

 the eastern American types of fruits, and the state is 

 now the seat of a wonderfully varied fruit-culture, 

 although the small-fruits have not yet attained that 

 prominence which they enjoy in older countries. 



The first official horticultural reports from Cahfornia 

 appeared in the second part of the L^nited States Patent 

 Office Report for 18.51. In this report, A. Williams, 

 of San Francisco, presented statistics from the Horner 

 Ranch, near the IVIission San Jose, Alameda County, 

 where 800 acres were planted in vegetables and the 

 crop of 1851 sold for upwards of $200,000. The crop 



of potatoes, onions, beets, turnips and tomatoes was 

 134,200 bushels. The same report noted an onion 

 weighing twenty-one pounds, and at the Fair of 1853 

 the committee on vegetables reported a "white flat 

 turnip" weighing thirty-three pounds, a squash that 

 weighed one hundred and twenty-one pounds, and a 

 tomato weighing five and one-half pounds. Thus early 

 California began to boast of the mammoth productions 

 of her soil. The first official report printed in California 

 appeared in a document issued by the secretary of state 

 for 1852. The capital then employed in "fruits and 

 orchards" was given at .?366,910. The market-garden 

 interests were surprisingly large; among single items 

 were "460,000 pumpkins, worth $46,000;" upward of 

 5,000,000 pounds of onions, "worth $186,000;" 30,000 

 bushels of beans, "worth $72,000." Santa Barbara 

 County reported "1,370 barrels of ohves, worth $27,- 

 500." Horticultural statistics are continued in the 

 reports of the state surveyor 

 general. In December, 1853, the 

 State Agricultural Society of 

 California was organized, after 

 a successful exhibition in San 

 Francisco, where almonds, figs, 

 olives, walnuts, and many other 

 fruits, as well as vegetables and 

 flowers, were shown. 



Fairs were held in 1854 and 

 1855, but were not officially 

 reported. The state began to 

 publish the proceedings of the 

 agricultural society in 1858, when 

 its membership was 856, and 

 annual reports have continued 

 till the present time. The Cali- 

 fornia Horticultural Society was 

 organized April 5, 1881; in 1883, 

 the State Board of Horticulture 

 was established. Reports of 

 these bodies and of the state 

 fruit-growers' conventions have 

 appeared annually or biennially 

 since 1882. The State Viticul- 

 tural Commission was organized 

 in 1881, and its reports continued 

 until 1894. Upward of one 

 hundred octavo volumes repre- 

 sent the official output of Cali- 

 fornia since 1858 in lines of horticulture, including, of 

 course, the California Experiment Station reports. 



Among the special Cahfornia horticultural literature 

 that appeared prior to 1900, are the following: "Cali- 

 fornia Fruits," E. J. Wickson, first edition, 1889; 

 second edition, 1891; third edition, 1900. So many 

 changes and additions have occurred in this book 

 that all three editions wiU be found very useful 

 in hbraries. "CaUfornia Vegetables," E. J. Wickson, 

 1897. "Gardening in CaUfornia," Wm. S. Lyon, Los 

 Angeles, 1897. This is a small volume of 156 pages. 

 "Olive Growing," Pohndorff, San Francisco, 1884. 

 "Olive Culture," A. Flamant, San Francisco, 1887. 

 "The Ohve," Arthur T. Marvin, San Francisco, 1888. 

 "The Raisin Industry," Gustav Eisen, San Francisco, 

 1890. "The Wine Press and Cellar," E. H. Rixford, San 

 Francisco, 1883. "Grape Culture, a Handbook for Cali- 

 fornia," T. Hart Hyatt, San Francisco, 1876. "Orange 

 Culture in CaUfornia," Thomas A. Garcy, San Fran- 

 cisco, 1882. Contains appendix on grajK^-culture, by 

 L. J. Rose. "Orange Culture," W. A. Spalding, Los 

 Angeles. "The California Farmer," established in 

 January, 1854, and maintaining a spasmodic existence 

 for a number of years, printed the first pomological 

 and horticultural reports of committees, and the Uke. 

 "The Pacific Rural Press" was establi.shed in 1871, in 

 San Francisco, and still continues. "The Rural Cali- 

 fornian," of Los Angeles, still in existence, was estab- 



