Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/59

CALIFORNIA. is adequate even for fruit-culture. The cultivation of fruit and the preparation of it for the market now give employment to more people than any other industry. Of the great variety of horticultural plants grown in the State, the most notable are the vine, the citrus fruits, oranges and lemons, and the prune, the latter being more extensively cultivated than any other orchard fruit in the State.

Viticulture was early introduced by the Spaniards, but no specialty was made of it until 1857. At present it receives much attention in almost every agricultural section of the State. The choicest and hardiest European wine-grapes have been imported, and are rapidly replacing the less desirable varieties. The phylloxera has created great havoc, and the only way of overcoming it seems to be by grafting choice varieties of grapes on native wild vines known as resistant vines, which the phylloxera will not attack. The production of wine and raisins (see table below) has reached enormous proportions, and the State supplies the whole country with table-grapes of superior qualities. Fresno County is especially famous for its raisin crop.

Oranges were first planted in Los Angeles, and up to about 1872 the production was confined principally to that region. A large part of the long interior valley has since been found to be adapted to citrus-culture, and the citrus belt now extends along the foot-hills from Shasta to San Diego, a distance of over 700 miles. Owing to the dry warmth of the inner valleys and to the longer days in summer, the fruit ripens at Oroville, Newcastle, etc., six weeks earlier than at Riverside or Pasadena. In southern California oranges are gathered fresh from Christmas to July, and lemons and limes all the year. Nine or more varieties of oranges are grown, and from the sweet navel, or seedless orange, a non-alcoholic wine is made.

In the year 1899-1900 over 17,000 cars of citrus fruit were shipped from the State, the value of which exceeded $8,000,000. The production of prunes is greatest in the Middle Coast counties. The State produces about half of the total crop of the United States, and has outstripped even France. The production of apples, peaches, pears, and cherries is also enormous, but the output for each of those is at least equaled by other States. Berries grow luxuriantly, and in the southern part of the State strawberries are gathered almost throughout the year. The success attending the production of apricots, almonds, olives, figs, and walnuts is of especial interest, inasmuch as the experimental stage has now been

passed, and they have come to occupy an accepted place among the staple products of the State. Almonds are grown principally in the central part of the State; olives and walnuts in the southern part; while figs and apricots have a more general distribution. A large number of other tropical or semi-tropical fruits and nuts are now being successfully introduced. Vegetables are raised in great abundance, being shipped abroad. The conditions are especially favorable for the sugar-beet, the State ranking with Michigan in the production of that plant. The following table shows the development of the fruit industry for the last decade:

Thus it will be seen that the horticultural development in California has been rapid and continuous. For certain products, however, further immediate extension seems improbable, as the supply now equals the demand. Such products as can find a foreign market may and do continue to develop.

. The equable climate greatly favors stock-raising. By shifting the stock from the foothills in the summer to the valleys in the winter, pasturage is afforded for the greater part of the year. The increased production of alfalfa has greatly advanced stock-raising. The State was formerly one of the foremost sheep and wool producers, but for twenty-five years the number of sheep has constantly decreased, and at the close of the Nineteenth Century was less than one-half its former size, being about 2,000,000. Large numbers of cattle are shipped into the State from Arizona to be fattened for market. Dairying has but little developed. The general breed of horses is not of a high grade, but there are a number of large horse-raising farms which are noted for their superior breeds, and their trotters, especially, are in great demand in the eastern markets. Ostrich farming is limited to a few ranches.

. California has been subject to a variety of conditions, the effect of which has been to guarantee a steady development of the manufacturing industry, but within very definitely restricted limits. The State's comparative isolation and remoteness from other centres of population, and the heavy freight charges necessarily incurred in transportation to and from the State, have given a field free from competition. At the same time, these very conditions have denied entrance into the more extensive market of the world, except with those manufactures for the production of which the State's superior resources give a decided advantage. California is further held back by the high