HORTICULTURE 



HORTICULTURE 



769 



ern 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. 

 1094 shows the yard of San Juan Capistrano Mission, as 

 it existed in 1889. There are also some traces in Califor- 

 nia 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. 



Details of the early Cali- 

 fornian Horticulture are 

 given for this occasion by 

 Charles Howard Shinn. The 

 first official horticultural re- 

 ports from California ap- 

 peared in the second part of 

 'the United States Patent 

 Office Report for 1851. In 

 i this report, Mr. A. Williams, 

 of San Francisco, presented 

 statistics from the Horner 

 Ranch, near the Mission 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 pota- 

 .-toes, onions, beets, turnips 

 and tomatoes was 134,200 

 bushels. The same report 

 noted an onion weighing 21 

 pounds, and at the Fair of 

 \8~rt the committee on vege- 

 tables reported a "white Hat 

 turnip'' weighing 33 pounds, 

 a squash that weighed 121 

 pounds, and a tomato weigh- 

 .ing ')%. 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 is- 

 ,sued 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;" upwards 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 olives, 

 worth $27.500." Horticultural statistics are continued 

 in the reports of the state Surveyor General. In Decem- 

 oer, 1853, the State Agricultural Society of California 

 *vas organized, after a successful exhibition in San 

 Francisco, where almonds, figs, olives, walnuts, and 

 nany other fruits, as well as vegetables and flowers, 

 vvere shown. Fairs were held in 1854 and 1855, but were 

 lot officially reported. The state began to publish the 

 proceedings of the agricultural society in 1858, when its 

 nembership was 856, and annual reports have continued 

 ;111 the present time. The California Horticultural So 

 iety was organized April 5, 1881; in 1883, the State 

 Board of Horticulture was established. Reports of 

 hese bodies and of the state fruit-growers' conventions 

 lave appeared annually or biennially since 1882. The 

 State Viticultural Commission was organized in 1881, 

 ind its reports continued until 1894. Upwards of one 

 lundred octavo volumes represent the official output of 

 California since 1858 in lines ef Horticulture, including, 

 )f course, the California Experiment Station reports. 



Among the special California horticultural literature, 

 ire the following: "California Fruits," E. J. Wickson, 

 irst edition, 1889; second edition, 1891; third edition, 

 i!900. So many changes and additions have occurred in 

 his book that all three editions will be found very use- 



il in libraries. " California Vegetables," E. J. Wickson, 

 .1897. The only book on this subject that has yet ap- 

 peared (1900). "Gardening in California," 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 Olive," 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 California," Thomas A. Garey, San Francisco, 

 1882. Contains appendix on grape culture, by L. J. 

 Rose. "Orange Culture," W. A. Spalding, Los Angeles, 

 Calif. "The California Farmer," established in January, 



1094. One of the early California Missions, which were the early promoters of Hoiti- 

 culture on the western coast San Juan Capistrano. 



1854, and maintaining a spasmodic existence for a num-- 

 ber of years, printed the first pomological and horti- 

 cultural reports of committees, etc. "The Rural Press" 

 was established in 1871, in San Francisco, and still con- 

 tinues. "The Rural Californian," of Los Angeles, still 

 in existence, was established in 1877. "The California 

 Fruit-Grower," commenced in 1888, and still survives 

 (1900). "The California Florist, "first issued in Santa 

 Barbara, then in San Francisco, began in May, 1888, and 

 stopped in April, 1889. "The California Cultivator," of 

 Los Angeles, established in 1884, still published. "The 

 Pacific Tree and Vine, "of San Jose", established in 1882, 

 still published. 



California is now a horticultural wonderland ; but its 

 illimitable plantations are depressing to the man of 

 small means and non-commercial ambitions, or to those 

 who would grow for the discriminating personal market. 

 Difficult climates develop the highest type of the ama- 

 teur. 



PERIODICALS. Whilst the periodicals of any subject 

 are supposed to chronicle all the fleeting events of the 

 days and years, and to embalm them for future genera- 

 tions, it is the most difficult thing to remember and re- 

 cord the journals themselves. Many horticultural jour- 

 nals have lived and died in this country without having 

 attracted the attention of a single library or collector of 

 books. They germinated in the rich soil of expectation, 

 bloomed in the dewy morning of enthusiasm, and col- 

 lapsed when the sun rose. It is probably no exaggera- 

 tion to say that 500 horticultural journals have been 

 started in North America. There are about 40 in the 

 flesh at the present moment. The "Massachusetts Agri- 

 cultural Repository" was started in 1793, and this was 

 the first agricultural journal in the country, but it was 

 as late as 1821 that a horticultural department was 

 added to it. The first journal to devote any important 

 extent of its space to horticultural matters was the 



