BEGINNINGS OP FRUIT SHIPMENT Kg 



that "some varieties of fruit are much improved by change to this 

 State, and some are not benefited." The test seems to have been 

 that if a variety was not better than at the East, it should be 

 discarded. 



The First Oversupply. The wonderful stimulus given to the 

 fruit interest by the results attained in growth and in marketing, 

 soon induced larger plantings than the demand warranted. In 

 1857 it was publicly stated that "there are single farms in this 

 State, containing each over half a million fruit trees in orchard and 

 nursery one person owning enough trees, when fully matured, to 

 produce as much fruit, other than grapes, as will be sold this year 

 throughout our State. The day is not far distant when fruit will 

 be an important crop for raising and fattening swine." This was, 

 to a certain extent, a statement of a croaker, for plantations con- 

 tinued, rare varieties were brought from the East, the South, and 

 from Europe ; the growth of some fruits continued to be very 

 profitable, and the nursery business, confined to fewer hands, was 

 profitable also. The idea that quality rather than size should be 

 striven for, led to more discrimination in propagation and better 

 treatment of trees. 



The decade from 1858 to 1868 was one of quiet in the fruit 

 interest of California. Many of the too hastily and carelessly 

 planted trees died from lack of proper cultivation and pruning, and 

 the borer wrought sad havoc. In 1860 and 1861 there was serious 

 depression. It is recorded that peaches were worth but one cent a 

 pound, and many were allowed to go to waste as not worth gather- 

 ing. The flood of 1862 destroyed many trees along the Sacramento 

 River, and replanting was slow until prices began to improve, as 

 they did soon afterward. The rapid development of the mining 

 interest in Nevada, and the construction of roads across the Sierras, 

 opened the way for the disposition of much fruit growth in the foot- 

 hills and in the region around Sacramento. 



The imports of dried and canned fruits were large, and growers 

 were exhorted to take steps to secure this trade for themselves. 

 Something was done in this direction, for by 1867 the local product 

 of canned fruit was equal to the demand. Drying did not advance 

 so fast; for two years later there were imports of six thousand 

 barrels of dried apples, while the hundreds of thousands of bushels 

 of the fruit were rotting under the trees in our orchards. 



The decade under review was also notable for the first appear- 

 ance of cured raisins and prunes at the State fair of 1863. The 

 raisins were from the Muscat of Alexandria grape, and the report 

 states that so-called raisins exhibited previous to that time were 

 merely dried grapes. Dr. J. Strentzel, of Martinez, was the first 

 exhibitor of Muscat raisins, and he exhibited also dried grapes of 

 four varieties to show the contrast between a raisin and a dried 



