206 



THE IERIGAT10N AGE. 



for wheat and barley culture, and Corning was the 

 shipping point. 



The industry to which most of the colonists turn 

 their attention is that of fruit growing. In the colony 

 some 12,000 acres are now set to trees, and additional 

 orchards are being planted each year. The place is a 

 natural fruit country. Nowhere in California does 

 fruit culture meet with less resistance. The weather is 

 never cold enough to hurt the trees. The trees are 

 practically free from all tree pests. Fumigating and 

 spraying, which is so necessary in many sections of 

 California, is not needed here. The climate is just 

 right for open air, or sun drying. Water is sufficiently 

 near the surface to mature big crops of fruit without 

 irrigation. Of course, in the absence of irrigation, 

 cultivation must be thorough. At convenient points in 

 the colony there are five different drying plants at which 

 the peach, pear, prune and apricot crops of the colony 

 are cured. These drying plants offer to the fruit 

 grower a variety of propositions, of which he can take 

 his choice. They will either buy your fruit, fresh, for 

 so much per ton, on your trees, or so much per ton de- 

 livered at the dryer. Or, they will cure your fruit for 

 you for so much per ton, and deliver it to you, you sell- 

 ing or holding it, just as you see fit. Or, you can buy 

 stock, or a membership, in one of these concerns, have 

 your fruit cured and sold by it and participate in the 

 annual dividends. No trouble to market fruit at May- 

 wood. 



In Corning, and on the railway, is located the big 

 fruit packing house where the dried fruit of the colony 

 is processed, and packed for Eastern shipment. During 

 the packing season this plant affords pleasant and pay- 

 ing employment for every available man, woman and 

 girl on the colony. Practically all of the colony fruit 

 crop is sold in dried form. In this form there can be 

 no loss. The fruit is paid for as soon as it is loaded into 

 cars. Fresh fruit consignments are always risky, and 

 the Maywood Colony fruit growers do not sell their 

 fruit that way. A market has already been developed 

 which calls for the entire Maywood brand of fruit. 

 The excellence of the fruit commands top prices. 



The olive crop of the colony, which is a big one, 

 finds ready sale. Many carloads of olives are shipped 

 from Maywood to Los Angeles, at which place a big 

 demand has been created for ripe pickled olives. Some 

 of the colonists pickle their olive crop and find a ready 

 market locally. 



The almond crop of the colony is usually engaged, 

 or contracted for, two months before it is time to har- 

 vest the almonds. This statement is made to show that 

 the market for the Maywood Colony product is already 

 established, and that a prospective settler need not 

 bother his head about what he is going to do with his 

 fruit when he has produced it. 



Close to the fruit business as a money maker comes 

 the hen the White Leghorn hen. She is a money 

 maker here. This is the hen's heaven. The climate 

 just suits her. She knows but little, if any, disease 

 here. Here she lays an average of 13 dozen eggs a year, 

 and the average selling price of these eggs is 22 cents 

 per dozen. This is a gross annual earning per hen of 

 $2.86. Poultry people here allow $1.86 a year for the 

 keep of a hen, and give her credit for earning a net 

 profit of $1 a year. Many of the colonists carry from 

 250 to 500 hens, and some as many as 1,000. The hens 

 find plenty of natural green grass here for seven months 



in the year. Alfalfa patches supply green food during 

 the other five months. The most successful poultry 

 growers cut their wheat with a binder and feed the 

 wheat in the bundle. This plan saves the cost of sacks 

 and threshing, and it gives the hen necessary exer- 

 cise. Colonists who keep hens always have a rattle in 

 their pockets. 



Corning enjoys the distinction of being the big- 

 gest turkey shipping station in the State of California. 



As a third source of regular income many of the 

 colonists keep a few cows, the product of which is sold 

 to a creamery located at Corning. This is an excep- 

 tionally good grass country. Alfalfa yields from three 

 to five cuttings a season. One acre of good alfalfa keeps 

 two cows. 



Many of the colony orchards are owned by ab- 

 sentees, and the care of these orchards, including har- 

 vesting the fruit crops, affords a vast amount of work 

 for those who are on the ground. An effort is made by 

 the colony management to distribute this work in an 

 equitable manner among those colonists who are 

 equipped to perform this class of work. 



One of the valuable assets of the colony, and one 

 which costs the colonists not a cent, is the Sacramento 

 Kiver, which forms the eastern boundary of the colony 

 for a distance of seven miles. In other words, the 

 colony has a river frontage of seven miles, and the colony 

 land is above danger from overflow. This river is full 

 of salmon, sturgeon, carp, pike, bass and catfish. Thou- 

 sands of pounds of salmon are seined at this point and 

 shipped to the salmon canneries. The river affords a 

 great hunting place for quail, dove, geese and duck. Of 

 course, the boys and girls have their boating and swim- 

 ming clubs. 



Located on the colony side of the river are the 

 immense freight houses of the Sacramento Transporta- 

 tion Company, from which large amounts of grain are 

 shipped. Most of the merchandise freight for the City 

 of Corning comes by boat. A transfer line hauls the 

 freight from the river to the city. This river freight 

 line is a great equalizer of freight rates. 



Most of the wood consumed in Corning and on the 

 colony comes from the river. The bank is heavily 

 wooded with oak, cottonwood and sycamore for a width 

 of from one to two miles. Much of this land will cut 

 200 cords of wood to the acre. Oak wood at the stump 

 sells at $3.50 per cord, and for $5 per cord delivered 

 in town or the colony. 



No section in the United States gives-its settlers 

 better drinking water than this. It is soft as rain 

 water, and exceptionally pure. The whole valley in 

 which Maywood Colony is located is underlaid with a 

 sheet of this water, which runs from 8 to 15 feet from 

 the surface. The supply is inexhaustible. No place in 

 California can water be pumped at a smaller cost than 

 right here. 



One thing that we brag about is the character of 

 the people who have made their homes here. There are 

 no Japs, Chinese, Italians, negroes or other objection- 

 able foreign element mixed up with us. They are not 

 here because they are given no encouragement. They 

 are not employed. They prefer to hold all work for 

 colonists. 



An interurban railway has just completed its loca- 

 tion through the colony, and secured its depot site in 

 Corning. The management states that this road 

 will be in operation before 12 months from date. 



