224 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



large, crisp, juicy and has exceptional keeping qualities. On the 

 Tule River in Tulare County, at an elevation of 4100 feet, eight- 

 year-old Winesaps have borne 300 pounds, Yellow Newtown 

 Pippins 250 pounds, and White Winter Pearmains 300 pounds 

 per tree. At such elevations, however, there is constant danger 

 of spring frost injury. 



Along the coast the apple succeeds well from end to end of 

 the State, and very close to the ocean excellent fruit is produced 

 on good soil. There is a certain advantage in elevation in the coast 

 region as well as in the interior, but the advantage is not so marked 

 nor is the required elevation so great. Coast valleys in the central 

 and upper portion of the State, where the soil is suitable, produce 

 most excellent apples, but even here the lower hillsides, with deep, 

 well-drained soils, are, perhaps, preferable to the floors of the 

 valley. Departing from immediate coast influences and approach- 

 ing the interior, with its greater heat and aridity, the greater ele- 

 vation becomes desirable. The apple, excepting the very early 

 varieties, does not relish the forcing heat which brings such per- 

 fection to the peach, but to insure late ripening and long keeping, 

 with accompanying crispness, juciness, and flavor, it must have 

 atmospheric surroundings which favor slower development. 



Localities for apple growing in southern California are to be 

 chosen with much the same rules as in the upper parts of the 

 State. As has already been said, valleys in which coast conditions 

 largely predominate produce good apples, on suitable soils, but 

 away from the coast, proper elevations must be sought, and they 

 should be above the so-called thermal or frostless belts. Good 

 apples are grown on low lands near the coast in Los Angeles and 

 Orange Counties. Sixty miles inland, in San Bernardino County, 

 winter apples fail in the valleys, but are most excellent at a suffi- 

 cient elevation upon the slopes of the surrounding mountains or in 

 elevated valleys like the Yucaipe Valley above Redlands, where 

 a Rome Beauty of excellent quality was grown in 1903 to a weight 

 of twenty-seven ounces and a circumference of fifteen inches. In 

 the elevated interior of San Diego County, as in the Julian and 

 Smith Mountain districts, excellent apples are produced in hrge 

 quantities and profitably carried long distances. 



Second and Third-Crop Apples. There is a peculiar behavior 

 of the apple tree, most noticeable when winter temperature is mild- 

 est, and that is blooming and fruiting out of season. In the case 

 of early apples the second bloom may appear about the time the 

 first fruit ripens and the third bloom when the second crop is half 

 grown. Even such behavior may be followed by regular blooming 

 the following spring. Second crops of apples are not of amount 

 nor regularity enough to be of much economic importance, as the 

 second crop of pears and grapes sometimes are. The third crop 



