Beets, Cotton and Fruit
Sugar Beet
The production of the Sicilian Boot, and the manufacture of
sugar from it, has progressed favorably during the past four
years. In 1870 the California Beet Sugar Company commenced
operations at Alvarado, Alameda County, where several hundred
acres were planted, and a sugar mill of fifty tons capacity per
day was erected. This mill continued work with some profit for
three years, when, for reasons of cheaper land and cheaper fuel,
the machinery and field of operations of the company were
removed to Soquel, in Santa Cruz County. At Alvarado the land
suitable for the sugar beet was valued at $200 per acre, and
rental at the rate of $20 per acre was paid. At Soquel land is
rented at from $4 to $5 per acre. The annual cost of fuel at
Alvarado was $30,000, and more than half that expense will be
saved in the better timbered region of Santa Cruz. The company
purchases beets at $$3.50 per ton, an aero producing about
twenty tons; eight to nine per cent, being sugar. Several
hundred acres have been planted in sugar beets at Soquel,
sufficient to keep the mill running at its full capacity from
the time of the ripening of the beets, in August and September,
as long as they can be preserved in good condition, generally
until April following. The results for the year 1874 are not yet
ascertained, but are reported as very promising. The proprietors
of this enterprise were Messrs. Bonestee & Otto, who had
experience in Europe, and were successful in establishing boot
sugar manufacture in Wisconsin, before coming to California.
At Sacramento were made the first attempts in this branch of
culture and manufacture, and for obtaining information upon the
subject, the enterprising founders of the company dispatched a
person to Europe, where he, for several seasons, observed the
processes at the farms and sugaries. Notwithstanding these
intelligent precautions, the establishing of the Sacramento
sugary was accompanied by many reverses and disappointments. In
1878-4 complete success was reported. The sugary has a capacity
of working 80 tons of beets per day, and a farm is planted of
750 acres, which produces from five to twenty tons per acre, y
eliding an excess of 10 per cent, of sugar at the factory. At
the Sacramento works operations commenced early in August, being
a full month earlier than boots are in condition in other
counties, or even in the cool climate of the bay and coast
counties of this State. The sugary is run day and night during
the season, thirty men, mostly Chinese, being engaged on a shift
of twelve hours each. The favorable results from these
enterprises are most encouraging. They have demonstrated that
California can produce sugar for consumption and for export. The
present establishments are capable of producing from 4,000,000
to 6,000,000 pounds annually, but as from 40,000,000 to
50,000,000 pounds are imported, there is room for more.
Tobacco
As with nearly every vegetable production in which California
now claims superiority, 30 with tobacco, the fact of their
adaptation to the soil and climate was only ascertained by trial
and experiment. Many experiments in tobacco cultivation were
made, and single stalks and beds were seen growing luxuriantly
in different parts of the State as a rare plant, but its curing
for the uses for which it is prized was deemed impracticable,
but for reasons few could tell. Recently a process has been
discovered and patented by Mr. J. D. Culp, of curing the weed,
and with the aid of this it is now believed that California
tobacco will surpass in excellence that produced in any other
section of the Union, and equaling the renowned products of
Cuba. This discovery has given a great incentive to the culture,
and from the small experimental fields of a few years since
there are now farms of hundreds of acres growing tobacco, the
aggregate, in 1874, being, estimated at 1,400 acres, chiefly in
Santa Clara County, of which about one-third was of the Cuban
variety. The successes have been so very great that the number
of acres will be largely increased. The yield of the Cuban, or
Havana tobacco is at the rate of about 1,200 pounds per acre,
worth fifty cents per pound, or returning $600 gross per acre.
The ordinary tobacco, however, brings a less price, but it is
claimed that even this will return a profit of $200 per acre.
The patentees of the curing process exact a royalty of twenty
per cent, upon the gross crop of all those who arrange with them
to adopt it.
Cotton
Several of the staples of other States are contending for the
first rank in this. Experiments have proven that "King Cotton"
can flourish well on California soil, and its cultivation is
advocated as far more profitable than the production of wheat.
The most extensive experiments have been made by Colonel J. M.
Strong, in Merced County, where one and a half bales were grown
per acre, of better quality than is usually grown in the
Southern States, and with less labor. One bale per acre is a
large return in the Cotton States, and there the field must be
plowed and hoed four times in the season; but the cotton grown
on the Merced required hoeing but once. In the South, it is
damaged and stained by the summer rains, and sometimes killed by
frost, neither of which are to harm it in California. The cost
of production in the most favored locality of the South is
twelve coals per pound, while in California it is but eight
cents. Such was the report of Colonel Strong in 1870, although
the newspapers in the localities where cotton is most cultivated
give the product at about 300 pounds per acre. The principal
cotton fields are in Merced and Fresno counties, and it is also
cultivated successfully in Colusa, Amador, Placer and other
sections. In 1874 about 1,000 acres were planted in Fresno, and
about the same in Merced, with an expected total product of
600,000 pounds of cotton, worth twenty cents per pound, the crop
being reported as excellent. Such an amount will appear quite
largely in the agricultural statistics, and will draw general
attention to the subject. There are millions of acres of
California soil adapted to the growth of cotton equally as well
as the locality in Merced or Fresno counties, where the
experiments have been made with such good results. This branch
of agriculture opens another grand resource of the State
awaiting development. The unrivalled water-powers afforded by
the mountain torrents which pour into the valley from the high
Sierra invite the manufacturer to apply them, and at no distant
day we may expect to see near the fields where the cotton is
produced the mills which prepare the fiber for market.
Fruit
The capacity of California for the production of fruit is
practically unlimited. The climate of lovely Los Angeles, where
the grape, fig, orange, lemon, pomegranate and other tropical
fruits grow to perfection in great fields and orchards, is the
same as in the great valley of the Sacramento and other
sheltered localities in the northern part of the State. The
orange may be taken as an extreme proof of both capacity of soil
and of climate, it requiring the one rich and the other
temperate and free from severe frosts. Its successful
cultivation is more satisfactory proof than the most careful
register of the thermometer, and is comprehended by the educated
as well as by the uneducated. This noble fruit of the most
beautiful tree known grows to perfection wherever planted, in
the valleys of the Coast Range, throughout the Sacramento
Valley, and in the foot-hills of the Sierra Nevada. Early in the
decade of '50, a gentleman at Bidwell's Bar, a mining town of
Butte County, planted an orange seed as an experiment. From it a
tree grew, which, to the surprise of all, flourished, and within
ten years after became a source of revenue to its thoughtful and
careful owner. This town is in the foot-hills of the Sierra
Nevada, and in latitude 39° 30'. Farther north, in the
Sacramento Valley, also in Napa and Sonoma, oranges are grown,
and always in the open air. In the gardens of Marysville,
Sacramento, Stockton, Folsom and other cities, is seen this
highly ornamental tree, with its dark green foliage, from which
peers in beautiful contrast the golden fruit, most attractive to
the eye and profitable to the possessor. There is no limit to
the production of this desirable fruit, and the great amount
consumed, not only where raised, but throughout the United
States, promises a market as extensive as our capacity to
produce. The oranges of Los Angeles, for several seasons have
found a ready market in San Francisco, and are so superior to
those from the Pacific Islands that the latter only find
purchasers at reduced rates. A single tree, eighty years old, in
Los Angeles County, has produced in a single year upward of
$1,000 worth of oranges. The Pacific Railroad opens an unlimited
market for this fruit, which can be safely transported, and
invites the farmer or horticulturist to engage in its
production. It may be said that the soil and climate in which
oranges grow to such perfection as in California are capable of
producing anything. The pears of California have also attained a
wide celebrity, and are, with other perishable fruits, exported
largely to the states of the east. By some it is asserted that
apples and peaches, although beautiful to the eye, are devoid of
the flavor of those of choice localities in the east, but this
is contradicted by experienced pomologists who have made careful
tests. With choice selections and careful culture all fruits in
this state are as superior in quality to those of other sections
of the Union as they are in size and appearance. There is
scarcely a limit to the range of varieties that may be
successfully grown, even many of the fruits of the extreme
tropics, as bananas, are growing in Fresno, and coconut trees of
three and four years growth flourish at San Jose and in the
Golden Gate Park at San Francisco. The delicious strawberry is
found in the markets at almost any season of the year, although
in the spring months the yield is most prolific. Every berry,
from bush or vine, known in horticulture, here finds its home,
and improves in its quality. To give the list, statistics of
production, and description of varieties, would fill a volume.
Grapes enter largest in the arrays of figures, and of this class
the product of California equals, if it does not surpass, that
of any other section of the globe.
The disposal of the vast quantities of fruit produced is an
important problem, and the doubt of its favorable solution has
retarded the progress and care of culture. The transcontinental
railroad affords the opportunity to send to the east that which
is grown convenient to the line, and a profitable business has
arisen. Cars are prepared for the purpose, and a system for
packing and care adopted, by which the fruit is retained in good
condition. The cost of transit to New York is very great, being
about 81,200 to New York for a single car load, consisting of
from 3.50 to 400 boxes of fruit. The many carloads going
eastward during the season indicate that the profits are
encouraging.
Another means of disposing of the fruit is in drying; and for
this, processes have been invented by Messrs. Alden, Cassidy and
others, which desiccates it in a few hours fit for packing for
commerce. By means of an endless chain of light shelves,
ascending through a column of heated air, the fruit is dried in
superior condition, retaining virtues and a freshness that are
destroyed by the time and many mishaps of the old customs. At
the Fairs of 1874 raisins, prunes, apples, currants, potatoes,
pears and many other articles prepared by the Alden process were
exhibited, which appeared superior to anything heretofore shown,
and demonstrated the practicability of thus preserving and
rendering marketable our perishable products. An extensive and
exceedingly profitable field is thus opened for California
fruits. At present large quantities of raisins and dried prunes
are imported from Europe, which may now be supplied by home
production, and we may also supply in great part the entire
Union. Grapes or plums, selling at from one to four cents per
pound, when converted into raisins or prunes, losing two-thirds
of their weight, are raised in value from five to twenty fold.
California Gazetteer |
AHGP California
Source: Pacific Coast Business Directory for 1876-78, Compiled
by Henry G. Langley, San Francisco, 1875
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