66 Fniit Fanning for Profit in California, 



it witliirL a certain time, like there is for fruit. It re- 

 quires no experience or practice to harvest the crop, for 

 there is no science needed such as there is in handling- 

 fruit. We can get our almonds into the Eastern 

 markets so much earlier than the importers that we 

 have the great advantage over them of being able to 

 supply the demand first, and consequently get better 

 prices. That is one advantage over imported almonds 

 which California hardly needs, for the new varieties of 

 almonds now grown are so much larger and more 

 beautifully shaped than the old varieties that our 

 better-looking nuts sell for higher prices right alongside 

 of the foreign article. The Ne Plus Ultra, California 

 Paper Shell, I X L and the Nonpareil are the names 

 of the better varieties. They commence bearing in 

 three and four years. There is little or no labour 

 attached to the harvesting of a crop of almonds ; and 

 not only that, you can almost choose your own time 

 about harvesting — any time after the nuts are ripe ; 

 yet it is safer to gather them before any heavy rains 

 come. It is liable to blacken them, and make it difficult 

 to get them white again. 



California can grow almonds to greater profit than 

 anything else. 



After the almonds are separated from the hulls, the 

 nuts are bleached by sulphur fumes. The bleaching- 

 house of Webster Treat is about 25 by 8 feet, and 4000 

 pounds are generally put in at one time and* exposed 

 to the fumes of sulphur from four to ten hours, though 

 the longer the nuts are bleached the whiter they become. 

 Usually in bleaching soft-shells a little water is 

 sprinkled over them before being put in the sulphur 



