164 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



it; substitution of cheap Mongolian beans which 

 were bought for the Allies and for the United States 

 Army instead of the American beans which growers 

 were exhorted patriotically to supply. The result was 

 that Californians fared worse even than eastern bean- 

 growers in selling their product and while the valu- 

 ation given above was proclaimed, the beans largely 

 remained in warehouses a prey to interest, storage 

 cost and weevils. Lima beans suffered less than 

 others but the whole product fell away from the peak 

 of production in 1919 and still lower in 1920 when 

 the value of the crop fell to $9,405,000 a slight 

 increase above the normal established during the few 

 years preceding the World War. 



The California bean industry has achieved much 

 for its own protection and advancement by coopera- 

 tive organization of growers, as will be noted in a 

 later chapter. 



FRUITS AND NUTS 



The chief contribution of the Spanish missions to 

 fruit production was perhaps the demonstration of 

 opportunity in the adaptation of the State to grow 

 all the fruits famous in the most ancient sacred writ- 

 ings. When one remembers that the California pio- 

 neers chiefly came from the states and countries in 

 which, seventy years ago, the summer was a quick 

 flash of strawberries and the winter a long barrage 

 of dried apple pie, it is not strange that their imagi- 

 nations were fired with discernment of opportunity 

 when they beheld the olive of Mt. Ararat and Mt. 



