17 



poor grade of olive oil is about 140,000,000 gallons yearly. 

 The people of the United States, however, are very small con- 

 sumers of olive oil, the imports for the the vear ending June 

 30th, 1890, being 893,984 gallons of salad oil, while for 1891 

 they reached only 605,509 gallons^ and for the year ending 

 with June last, 706,486 gallons, at a cost of $876,613." 



Xut culture is assuming commercial importance in special 

 regions. Perhaps the most promising development is that 

 of the pecan industry in the south, inasmuch as this nut 



direct competition with other nuts. The European walnut 



although chestnuts, pecans, filberts, and others, are consider- 

 ably grown. The walnut is confined mostlv to Los Angeles, 

 Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. The estimated crop 

 of 1892 is 2,300,000 pounds, against 2,500,000 pounds in 1891, 



about 1,000,000 pounds in 1888. The shortage of the present 



The almond crop is thought to be considerably larger this 



loads, or 572,000 pounds; 1890, 10 carloads, or 198,067 

 pounds ; 1889, 22>4 carloads. The imports of almonds in the 

 meantime have been as follows for the fiscal years ending 

 June 30: 



15.858 



1892 7,629,392 1,028,671 



Fig culture has been considerably agitated in California 



2 introduction of the fig-wasp from Smyrna.* Receivers 

 the east declare that California can never compete with the 

 ;tern Mediterranean countries in the production of figs, 



itorial in the California Fruit Grower,^ which takes much 



