1 68 



Garden and Forest. 



(Number 374. 



Correspondence. 



The Olive and the Lemon in Southern California. 

 To tlie Editor of Garden and Forest: 



Sir, — In California's rapid development of fruit-production 

 during tlie past ten years, two articles of great and growing 

 consumption have been, until recently, almost entirely neg- 

 lected. These are the olive and the lemon. Their history 

 aptly illustrates the steps by which experience teaches the hor- 

 ticulturist in a new country the way to a profitable market. It 

 shows, also, that the mass of men who engage in fruit-grow- 

 ing in such a country as California are unenterprising imita- 

 tors, and that the few who have the courage and the skill to 

 venture into a new field frequently reap almost incredible 

 rewards before their monopoly is disturbed by their slower 

 and less original rivals. 



For a long time Mr. G. W.Garcelon,of Riverside, made a small 

 fortune everv year from lemons, while other growers made 

 nothing. His lemons were fine, even-sized, well-colored, 

 juicy, salable fruit. Other growers produced only a coarse, 

 half-cured, worthless article. Mr. Garcelon sold most of his 

 annual crop in San Francisco, frequently receiving five dollars 

 a box. As from five to ten boxes to the tree is by no means 

 an extraordinary yield, and seventy trees to the acre is a mod- 

 erate planting, it is clear that his profits were very large. He 

 was supposed to possess some secret and potent process of 

 curing. Individuals and the state tried for a long time, with- 

 out avail, to buy this secret, offering large sums for it. Two or 

 three years ago Mr. Garcelon voluntarily divulged it for the 

 good of the country, and since then more Lemon-trees have 

 been planted than in all the years before. The secret proved 

 to be only a very careful process of selecting, picking and 

 handling the fruit and curing it at an even temperature and 

 very slowly. The lemons remain in the curing-room from six 

 to ten months. 



The history of the olive was similar. The Messrs. Kimball, 

 at National City, near San Diego, and Mr. Elwood Cooper, at 

 Santa Barbara, realized great profits from olives. They sold 

 the oil at from one dollar to two dollars per quart bottle. The 

 output of Mr. Cooper's orchard of one hundred acres was, in 

 1891, 34.000 bottles. Yet, notwithstanding these reassuring 

 facts, the ratio of lemons to California's entire orchard acre- 

 age, in 1892, was only one in forty. That of olives was even 

 less, being one in fifty. This ratio has been somewhat in- 

 creased by the plantings since 1892. The ratio of oranges, on 

 the other hand, was three in twenty, a proportion which has 

 decreased since 1892. 



The Lemon is a more tender tree than the Orange, and 

 more susceptible to injury from frost. For this reason 

 sheltered, sunny locations must be sought for it. About San 

 Diego there are thousands of acres of mesa and valley lands 

 which are practically frostless. Many acres of these have 

 recently been planted to Lemons and Olives, and more would 

 have been planted had there been an adequate water-supply 

 assured. San Diego has progressed so far in this direction 

 that it has announced for this month the first Lemon Fair in 

 the history of the state. At this fair the results achieved by 

 the growers of San Diego County will be shown, and the latest 

 methods of curing the fruit will be illustrated. For this 

 purpose, certain enterprising growers liave visited the lemon- 

 growing districts of the Mediterranean, and have studied the 

 curing methods in vogue there, which will be compared 

 with home methods. Next to San Diego County, the Ojai 

 Valley and other districts in Ventura and Santa Barbara 

 Counties, Pomona, in Los Angeles County, and portions of San 

 Bernardino County have been the principal centers of the 

 increase in olive and lemon growing. In the production of 

 olives they have gone ahead of San Diego. 



The Lemon is, in a sense, a perennial bearer. The flowers 

 and the green and ripening fruit are all seen upon the tree at 

 the same time. The same statement has frequently but 

 falsely been made in reference to the Orange-tree. The prin- 

 cipal blossoming of the Lemon-tree, however, is in May, and 

 the fruit is ready for picking in November. It is now usually 

 kept in curing-rooms until the warm weather of the following 

 summer creates a market for it. In this respect, again, the 

 Lemon differs from the Orange, for the latter tree requires 

 nearly a year to mature its fruit. The principal varieties 

 grown in California are the Lisbon, the Eureka and the Villa- 

 franca, each of which has its advocates. The industry is yet 

 in its infancy. Its present status is illustrated by the results 

 from seventy trees owned by one of my friends, whose trees 

 are seven years old. They bore last year a crop averaging 

 five boxes to the tree, and the crop was sold at $1.15 per box, 



on the tree. This fruit was purchased by dealers from San 

 Diego, who shipped it to that city to be cured there for ship- 

 ment east. For the year ending with June, 1894, lemons to 

 the value of $4,285,000 were imported into the United States. 

 As compared with this total, the California product was an 

 infinitesimal quantity. 



A great many varieties of Olives have been tried in Cali- 

 fornia, but the Mission, brought to the country by the Catholic 

 Padres more than a century ago, still holds the lead. It is 

 much smaller than the imported Queen olive, and it is per- 

 mitted to become nearly ripe before it is picked. Its flavor is 

 very different from that of the Queen, and at first is not usually 

 relished as well. One soon acquires a taste for it, however, 

 and in the local markets it is rapidly driving out the imported 

 article. These olives have brought, at wholesale, this season, 

 from sixty to eighty cents a gallon. It is very difficult to esti- 

 mate the average product, but sixty gallons to the tree is not 

 unusual in mature orchards. 



The production of oil from the olive, whether on a large or 

 small scale, is a very simple and inexpensive process. The 

 essentials are a press of some sort, the more powerful the 

 better, and great attention to cleanliness. The question of 

 consumption of olive oil is largely influenced by the numer- 

 ous adulterations upon the market, which are very extensively 

 used. On account of their cheapness even druggists employ 

 them in the preparation of prescriptions. Recent state legis- 

 lation to prevent the sale of these imitations was easily evaded 

 by the dealers who labeled their wares salad oil. The taste 

 of the average consumer has been vitiated in this respect as in 

 everything else, and many prefer a half peanut or cotton-seed 

 oil to the pure olive. The hygienic value of the latter is very 

 great, and its increased use in the kitchen in the place of fat 

 compounds, would undoubtedly lessen the prevalence of 

 dyspepsia. Besides, as an article of diet it is clean and 

 refined. If these truths could be impressed upon the Ameri- 

 can people, there would be a market for all the olives and 

 olive oil that California could .possibly produce. As the 

 case stands to-day, the question of profit from olives is 

 disputed. " Plant olives for your grandchildren " is an Italian 

 proverb frequently quoted in California. Yet, instances of an 

 average production of fifty pounds from five-year-old trees, 

 grown entirely without irrigation, haverecently been reported. 

 From such instances some growers argue that the Olive will 

 grow upon any kind of soil and with but little care. Others 

 claim that it needs good soil and plenty of water and attention, 

 and that its slowness in coming into full production makes a 

 heavy drain upon the purse, and doubtless the latter view is 

 the safer, all things considered. Yet, when full grown, the 

 Olive is a very beautiful, hardy, long-lived and productive tree, 

 and an orchard of such trees would be no mean inheritance 

 for anybody's grandchildren. „^ ., ^. , , 



Redlands, Calif. Wm. M. TlsdaU. 



Notes from West Virginia. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Nothing that blooms at this season of the year is more 

 beautiful than the flowering fruit-trees. At Rose Brake these 

 are freely planted for ornament ; here, a group of Flowering 

 Apples ; there. Wild Cherries and the Japanese varieties ; over 

 yonder, a mass of Chinese and Japanese Cydonias, while close 

 to the house are planted Apricots, Nectarines and Hard-shell 

 Almonds. 



But, perhaps, the most beautiful group is composed of 

 Flowering Peaches. The variety that is employed has large 

 double blossoms of a rich carmine color. These bloom late 

 in April or early in May. The Apricots, Nectarines and 

 Almonds, planted for ornament and to form a screen for some 

 outbuildings, are especially valuable because of their early 

 bloom. The Almonds are the first to flower, and then follow 

 the Apricots, Nectarines and Plums. 



The pleasure-grounds during late April and May are thus 

 adorned with very many trees in bloom, and the effect of so 

 many fine groups is very beautiful. We prefer, for the most 

 part, to keep each class of plants by itself. Thus the different 

 varieties of Lilacs are all together in one shrubbery, and our 

 Magnolias have a choice place apart. 



In the group of Flowering Plums we have Prunus Pissardii, 

 P. Simonii and P. spinosa, and several other varieties. Of 

 these the Chinese Double-flowering Plum is the last to bloom 

 in company with the dwarf Flowering Almonds, which it 

 slightly resembles. 



Of all these charming trees, perhaps, our favorite is the 

 Japanese Weeping Cherry. It is so graceful in habit of growth, 

 picturesquely irregular at the same time, that it is symmetri- 

 cal, but not tamely so. It is unique among trees, and I do not 



