356 
February 4, 18^3. 
THE GARDENING WORLD. 
FRUIT-GROWING IN 
CALIFORNIA. 
The following interesting experiences and instructive 
figures on Fruit-Growing in California, have been 
given by Mr. William Laing Malcolmson, a native 
of Aberdeen, who is at present on a visit to his native 
city After lauding the fine climate and noting the 
absence of cyclones, blizzards, and thunderstorms, 
Mr. Malcolmson says :—The great industry of Cali¬ 
fornia to-day, and one that in a few years, if it con¬ 
tinues its growth, will overshadow all others, is 
fruit-growing. While fruit has been grown in the 
States for over a century past, having been introduced 
by the Mission Fathers over a hundred years ago in 
the southern part of the State, and by the Russian 
traders early in the present century in the northern 
portion, it is only during the past twenty years that 
any rapid progress has been made in this direction. 
But in that time California has forced her way ahead 
of all other States in the Union, until she is to-day 
the garden and orchard of the world. 
With a continually widening market for our 
orchard products, with stories of fabulous returns 
from investments in fruit farms, it is natural that 
people of small means, desirous of making a home 
and an income should seek for information in regard 
to it. To this class of my countrymen I have much 
pleasure in giving the following particulars ; and I 
think the information I give can be relied upon as 
authentic, I being myself one of the largest raisin- 
vine growers in the State, owning a vineyard of over 
160 acres. 
The intending settler will naturally ask.—"What 
assurance have I that my investment will be perma¬ 
nent as well as profitable ? What are the causes 
that make California superior to the other parts of 
the United States as a fruit producer ? Will not 
other portions of America enter into competition 
ith us and overstock the market, and thus make 
our investment unprofitable and our labour a 
failure ? ” These doubts will quickly disappear with 
a knowledge of the advantages that California enjoys. 
These are climate, geographical position, and physical 
peculiarities. While descriptions of California’s 
climate have become a household w'ord, it is, never¬ 
theless, the one great cause of its superiority as a fruit 
section ; and its climate depends upon its geographi¬ 
cal position. California’s position also gives it the 
world for a market; and while, with the continually 
increasing home-market, it is now beginning to ship 
large quantities of fruit to Australia, China, Japan, 
and India, within the last few months shipments of 
fruit have been made to Great Britain. With, there¬ 
fore, the United States and the rest of the world for a 
market, and the ever-developing taste for Californian 
luscious fruits, there is no danger of over-production. 
To give some idea of the profits that can be made 
out of fruit-growing, I shall cite one or .two instances 
which will go to show what one may expect for his 
labour and capital on only a moderate-sized orchard 
in California. Major Robert H. Nolton, formerly a 
railroad employe, nine years ago purchased the 
Mountain View Orchard at Vernondale, consisting of 
19 acres. It had been planted in fruit six or seven 
years before. He manages everything with railroad 
precision and neatness, and the following is his 
report from December, 1890, to December, 1891. (I 
give Major Nolton’s report as an example of the 
various kinds of fruits that can be grown on such a 
small orchard as 19 acres, and the net results will, 
no doubt, startle many readers) :— 
Income. 
2.500 boxes of Oranges 
1.500 ,, Lemons .. 
37,000 lbs. Peaches 
2,000 lbs. Pears 
3.500 lbs. Apples 
1,000 lbs. Walnuts 
500 lbs. Crab Apples 
400 lbs. Nectarines 
Expenses. 
Two men employed 
Hay and grain for three horses 
Taxes 
Family expenses and domestic 
Net income over all expenses 
£ 
S. 
d. 
500 
O 
O 
4OO 
O 
O 
148 
O 
0 
8 
0 
0 
24 
O 
0 
l6 
0 
0 
2 
0 
0 
2 
O 
0 
IIOO 
O 
0 
£ 
s. 
d. 
146 
0 
0 
54 
0 
0 
2 4 
0 
0 
248 
0 
0 
629 
0 
0 
"i 100 
0 
0 
Major Nolton’s family consisted of six. In this 
report no account is made of eggs, fowls, and two 
cows, the returns being consumed, but at a glance it 
will be seen that the handsome return of £629 was 
netted off such a small orchard as 19 acres. 
As another illustration I quote the returns of a 
property near my own—that of the late Mr. F. R. 
Storie, an Aberdonian — " My gross receipts from 
four acres of Peaches amounted to £206. Among 
Pears I consider Bartlett's the best variety. From 
an acre and a half of young trees I took off £25 
worth of fruit. Nectarines are a very good crop, 
bearing and paying well. I have netted £20 an acre 
on this fruit. Apricots pay from ^25 to £30. French 
Prunes do very well, and from four and a half acres 
of this fruit I received £200. With a judicious 
selection of fruit trees there is much money in 
fruit.” 
Both of these accounts are very satisfactory, and 
it must not be forgotten that both Major Nolton’s 
and Mr. Storie’s orchards are still yonng, and that 
the older trees become, the heavier will be the returns. 
In giving such instances as these—although these 
are only two out of thousands—I do not wish readers 
to think that such results can be attained imme¬ 
diately on a settler's arrival in California, unless he 
is in a position to purchase outright 'an improved 
orchard or vineyard. Long, weary months of anxiety 
and labour are necessary before either a vineyard or 
an orchard can yield such returns as the two cited. 
Still, in no part of the world can a man so soon see 
the result of his labour as in California, and in a 
very few months from the time of his going on to 
what may be considered a waste and useless piece of 
land, it can be transformed into a veritable paradise. 
As an instance of this, I may en passant, cite my own 
vineyard, of which I took possession some four years 
ago, in a desert state. 
Within some sixty days I had the whole 160 acres 
ploughed over twice to a depth of 18 inches, 
and carefully harrowed ; the whole planted with some 
70,000 vines, 10-ft. bv 8-ft. apart; some five miles of 
roads and avenues laid out; whilst on the borders of 
the avenues I planted, one alternately, Fig and Olive 
trees. In that time I also constructed some seven or 
eight miles of irrigating ditches and canals ; enclosed 
the whole property under close wire fence ; erected 
suitable buildings, stables, and coach-house ; and 
planted no fewer than twenty-nine different varieties 
of fruit trees, and a vine arbour of some twenty 
varieties of grape vines ; whilst, as an adornment to 
the residence, I laid out a lawn and flower garden. So 
that within the short space of three months I had 
transformed into one of the most promising vineyards 
in California a piece of land which only sixty days 
previous might have been considered a barren piece 
of waste and useless land. This will give some idea 
of the forcing nature of the soil, and the magnificence 
of the climate of California. 
With such results as these it is but natural that 
the intending settler should wish to know what 
capital is required for the opening up and bringing 
into successful bearing a vineyard or an orchard. 
This, of course, is largely determined by the amount 
of capital he has available for investment ; but my 
advice—with the experience I have had—is that it is 
better to own a well-kept twenty acre orchard or 
vineyard than a forty acre tract poorly attended to 
owing to lack of sufficient capital. But assuming the 
settler, to have sufficient capital to open up and pro¬ 
perly cultivate a twenty acre orchard or vineyard,until 
it begins to yield him a return—which cannot be cal¬ 
culated sooner than three or four years—I estimate 
that he should possess at least £500. With this sum 
and provided he is willing to work, he ought in the 
course of four or five years to be in an independent 
position. With such a sum to commence with, he 
will be in a position to pay a portion of the price of 
his land, build himself a modest house, erect a barn, 
stable, and fowl house, and purchase all requisites 
necessary for making himself a comfortable home; 
and should he be further blessed with a thrifty wife, 
it will be no time before he is enjoying himself, with 
her help, under his own vine and Fig-tree. 
Although I mention this sum as necessary for the 
intending settler to possess before proceeding to 
California, I could enumerate hundreds of instances 
where I haveknown men landing in California without 
any other capital than their own labour, and working 
themselves (with the help of a wife) up to such a 
position as to be able, through saving and economy, 
to own an orchard or a vineyard within a few years 
of their arrival. In no country in the world can a 
man who is willing and anxious to get on be so 
successful as in the Golden State of California. 
In this account I have given you of California and 
its possibilities as a field for emigration, especially 
to those who are willing and anxious to work, and 
who are, at the same time, not afraid to put their 
shoulder to the wheel, I do not w r ish readers to 
imagine that my description has been over-drawn, 
or that I have been carried away in my statements_ 
as is generally credited to the ordinary American. 
Mr. Malcolmson intends, through the influence of 
some prominent citizens of Aberdeen, to arrange for 
the purchase of a mist desirable tract of land,of some 
16,500 acres, known as the San Fernando Ranch, 
near the City of Los Angeles, in Southern California, 
and to colonise the same with a thrifty lot of Scotch¬ 
men. 
--J-- 
BEGONIAS AND 
GLOXINIAS. 
Where one is to get the best results from seeds of 
these splendid bulbous subjects they should be sown 
at once. Above all things choose seed of a good 
strain ; a very little of this is infinitely better than 
more of an inferior character. It is more necessary 
to sow the former of these two subjects than the latter i 
because the Gloxinia will produce small crowns if 
sown during midsummer, and these may be left in 
the pans where they have been pricked off into at the 
first time of handling, and by potting them on early 
the following spring, good plants may be had for the 
ensuing summer. 
In sowing seeds of these and similar dust-like 
kinds of seeds, it is very necessary to prepare the 
soil carefully. It does not matter so much what 
constitutes the compost so long as it is porous, and 
the pans or pots are well drained. Not so much 
that the seed needs to be kept dry, as that the fine 
thread-like roots should be able to penetrate into the 
soil, and not be liable to stagnate when watered. 
Much the best plan is to thoroughly saturate the soil 
after the pans are prepared, and then sow the seed 
and keep it close and dark by placing a shaded pane 
of glass over the pan. If these are plunged and kept 
in a gentle bottom heat of some 65° to 70°; the seed 
will soon germinate, and may then be gradually 
hardened off to the light and ordinary air of the 
house. 
Prick them oft' into other pans of similar 
material as soon as you can handle them, giving 
them a very gentle watering with a fine rose or 
syringe, and growing them close to the glass after 
having placed them in the warm bed to gain a fresh 
start.— P. 
-- 
ARUM PALESTINUM. 
This recently introduced plant comes from the Holy 
Land, and apart from that association,seems likely to 
meet with a considerable amount of favour in this 
country, on account of its distinctness and well 
marked characteristics. Large quantities were in¬ 
troduced to Germany recently, and were sent out 
from thence under the name of A. sanctum in 
allusion to its native habitats, but it had previously 
been named as above by Boissier in his Flora 
orientalis, as well as in the Botanical Magazine, t. 
5,509. The habit of the plant is similar to that of 
the common Arum maculatum of our hedge banks 
and woods, but is stronger in growth, and taller, but 
nevertheless,fairly compact, and easily accommodated 
as to house-room, compared with Richardia africana, 
the Trumpet Lily or Arum Lily of the market, and 
requires the same cultural treatment as the latter. 
The leaves are hastate, light green and shining. The 
flower scape rises slightly above them, bearing a 
spathe 12 in. to 18 in. long, about 4 in. broad, recurved 
above the middle, and more or less twisted. It is 
blackish or maroon-purple, velvety and shining, 
while the protruding portion of the spadix is almost 
black. The under surface of the spathe, curiously 
enough, is green. The plant also possesses the re- 
commendable property of net being fetid when in 
bloom, as so many of the other members of the order 
are. It is beginning to find its way into this country, 
and has been flowering for some time past with Mr. 
T. S. Ware, Hale Farm Nurseries, Tottenham, in a 
cool greenhouse. 
