100 



s 



i i 



the value of a country like ours to the fruit grower, in comparison with the 

 frozen regions in the States east of the Rocky Mountains. 



If the property of General Bidwell, with its climate, soil, capabilities, 

 and surroundings, its orchards, flowers, and fruits, could be set down within 

 one hundred and fifty miles of Chicago, it would sell for as much as the 

 entire taxable value of Butte County. It is not the richness of the soil that 

 would make this true, for equally rich soil is to be found in the State of 

 Illinois, but it is the climate and its possibilities. 



What would Riverside as we know it, or Vaca Valley as it is, be worth 

 if situated in New York State ? And may we not seek to realize the true 

 value of our great advantages by this comparison. 



When I read last winter, how that athlete and intellectual giant Roscoe 

 Conkling, fought for his life and lost it in a struggle to reach the Fifth 

 Avenue Hotel across Union Square; when I read the pathetic story of that 

 heroic school mistress who toiled through the deadly western blizzard in a 

 vain endeavor to save the children committed to her charge, it seemed to 

 me that the transcontinental railroads would not be able to transport the 

 people who would fly to this land of sunshine and plenty; and I still believe 

 that our climate, which alone makes our State proudly distinctive among 

 the States of the Union, will bring us the population of the East and the 

 Great West as rapidly as we can prepare for them, and as soon as they 

 can dispose of their property there. 



But the question recurs: Is fruit growing profitable? Can we afford to 

 surrender some, not all, of our wheat lands to its culture? As yet we have 

 not that kind and amount of data to enable us, from observations through 

 a period of years, to deduce results entirely satisfactory. Fruit growing 

 in California is but in its infancy. Some facts, however, and important 

 ones, are established. 



The era of fruit growing has greatly enhanced values of land; and this 

 enhancement is being steadily maintained and augmented. Many a wheat 

 mortgage has been lifted by the fruit grower. In the absence of general 

 statistics showing the results or profits of fruit growing in this State, we can 

 only look to typical regions where these are now well known. Take Vaca 

 Valley as a type of the northern portion of the State: Prior to 1874 that val- 

 ley was devoted to wheat growing. It cut no figure in trade, and the owners 

 of land were making but little money, comparatively, and the lands had no 

 value except for wheat growing, and the price was low. Fruit planting 

 began about that time, and now nearly the entire valley is in trees — about 

 four thousand five hundred acres. Mr. W. W. Smith has an orchard of two 

 hundred acres there, which I am informed yields a net income of from 

 $100 to $200 an acre annually. In 1874 this land was valued at $12,000. 

 It is now worth $600 an acre, and I do not suppose could be bought for 

 that; indeed, Mr. Smith was offered $1,000 per acre for one hundred acres 

 recently. A recent purchase of nine hundred acres, lying just outside this 

 valley, was made for $100,000. Subsequently, at an auction sale, one half 

 sold for nearly enough to pay for the whole. I have been reliably informed 

 that there was paid to fruit growers last year in this valley, through the 

 Vacaville Bank, $900,000; and this is $200 per acre for all the fruit lands 

 of the valley by the way of income. These are all non-irrigated orchards, 

 and fruit growing there is certainly in a most healthy and prosperous con- 

 dition. Similar conditions of success and prosperity exist in the Santa 

 Clara Valley, around Woodland, Sacramento, Marysville, Newcastle, and 

 a score more of places. 



Fresno County furnishes an illustration of the revolution worked by fruit 

 growing. Here irrigation is essential. I think the change from wheat to 



