From the collection of the n m Prepnger 1.1 a AJibrary p San Francisco, California 2006 RURAL STATE AND PROVINCE SERIES EDITED BY L. H. BAILEY RURAL CALIFORNIA RURAL STATE AND PROVINCE SERIES RURAL NEW YORK E. 0. Pippin RURAL MICHIGAN L. A. Chase RURAL CALIFORNIA E. J. Wickson Plate I. Relief map of California. RURAL STATE AND PROVINCE SERIES RURAL CALIFORNIA BY E. J. WICKSON Emeritus Professor of Horticulture, University of California : Author of "California Fruits and How to Grow Them" : "California Vegetables in Garden and Field" : "California Garden Flowers, Trees, Shrubs and Vines," etc. : Editor Pacific Rural Press. gorfc THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1923 All rights reserved PKINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA COPYRIGHT, 1923, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and printed. Published January, 1923. of J. J. Little & Ives Company New York, U. S. A. Let California come in: California that comes from the clime where the west dies away into the rising east : California which bounds at once the empire and the continent: California the youthful queen of the Pacific, in robes of freedom gorgeously inlaid with gold, is doubly welcome !— William H. Seward of New York in the United States Senate, on the admission of California to the Union in 1850. PREFACE The purpose of this writing is to convey impres- sions of the characters, qualities and activities of California rural life and industries. It attempts to sketch formative conditions both of natural situa- tions and resources and of factors influencing local individualism and sociology. It also presents, with some detail of character and method, concrete agri- cultural achievements which are unique in American progress. Thus it is hoped to reveal the character- istics of the rural life through which natural condi- tions have been translated into industrial accomplish- ment. Two reasons may be cited as justifying this effort. First, it has not been hitherto undertaken in a com- prehensive way. Second, California is so young that more than two-thirds of the whole span of her life as an American state have passed under the adult obser- vation of the writer; and his knowledge of the pre- ceding portion was chiefly derived from personal acquaintance with those who had participated as young men in its earliest enterprises and continued their efforts for the upbuilding of the state for several decades — many of them enduring until the dawning of the present century. E. J. WlCKSON. UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, May 1, 1922. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGES THE PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING OF CALI- FORNIA 1_27 The structural geology 5-10 Topography and climate 10-18 Regional agriculture of California .... 19-27 The Northwest Coast region 20-21 The Central Coast region 21-22 The Southern Coast region 22-24 The Interior Valley region 24-26 The Mountain and Plateau region . . . 26-27 CHAPTER II THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 28-42 CHAPTER III OTHER RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA 43-59 Forests and Lumbering 43-52 Mines 53-56 Fish and game 56-59 CHAPTER IV HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN CALIFORNIA 60-110 The Americanization of California . . . 67- 79 vii viii CONTENTS PAGES Development by colonies 79- 82 State land settlement 82-88 Relations of mining and agriculture . . . 88- 95 Development of agricultural production . . 95-110 Rural manufactures in California . . 105-110 CHAPTER V AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, PLANTS AND CROPS OF CALIFORNIA 111-207 Hay and forage 111-125 Grain crops 125-152 Seed-growing and truck crops 152-164 Fruits and nuts 164-191 The quest of sugar 191-198 Special crops 198-207 CHAPTER VI ANIMAL INDUSTRIES OF CALIFORNIA .... 208-284 Cattle and dairying 208-284 Horses 238-247 Sheep 247-260 Swine 260-268 Poultry 269-277 Bees and honey 277-282 The silk-worm 282-284 CHAPTER VII COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 285-303 Special cooperative selling organizations . . 292-297 Methods of cooperative organization . . . 297-301 Other agricultural organizations .... 301-303 CONTENTS ix CHAPTER VIII PAGES IMPROVEMENTS IN IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND IN HIGHWAYS 304-334 Highways 326-334 CHAPTER IX GOVERNMENTAL WORK FOR COUNTRY LIFE . . 335-342 Financing farm enterprises 338-342 CHAPTER X THE EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH ORGANIZA- TIONS OF CALIFORNIA 343-362 Universities 349-353 Agricultural education and research . . . 353-358 Libraries 358-362 STATISTICAL APPENDICES 363-391 California counties 364-365 California climatic conditions 366-369 California soil surveys 370-371 California mining products 372-373 Statistics of forests, forestry and lumbering . 374-377 Distribution of auto-vehicles in California . 378-379 California farm crops 380-381 Commercial uses of California fruit crops ... 38 1 California dairy products 382 California cooperative and product-selling associa- tions 383-385 California irrigation districts 386-389 California public schools 390-391 ILLUSTRATIONS PLATE I. Relief map of California .... Frontispiece FACING PAGE II. The main geographical features of California 24 III. Climatic regions of California 54 IV. Soil surveys in California, 1921 86 V. A rice field in the Sacramento Valley ... 120 VI. Bean field in the heart of the Sacramento Valley 156 VII. A celery field on reclaimed land in the San Joaquin Valley 190 VIII. Rural homes in the citrus district of south- ern California 222 IX. Rural "homes and prune orchards in the Santa Clara Valley 254 X. Prune drying-yard with an environment of Eucalyptus trees 290 XI. Typical large dairy plant in the alfalfa dis- tricts 328 XII. Typical scene on the paved state highways which thread the California countryside . 360 RURAL CALIFORNIA RURAL CALIFORNIA CHAPTER I THE PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING OF CALIFORNIA THE name "California" was probably first used as a geographical designation by some Spaniard, now unknown, soon after the discovery of the peninsula of Lower California by Ximenes in 1533. As this peninsula is widely separated from the mainland of Mexico by the Gulf of California, it was natural that the early explorers should conclude that they had alighted upon an island. As there had been pub- lished in Spanish about 1500 a heroic novel describ- ing the deeds of an imaginary knight who received assistance in his adventures from the queen of an im- aginary island of fabulous wealth which the ancient novelist called "California," it was natural enough that the name should be applied to this new country which was supposed to be an island. This concep- tion was widely accepted and sixteenth century maps of the possessions of the Spanish Crown in the new world record the name California upon an insular area with its southern portion well enough defined and its northerly extension indefinite. 1 2 RURAL CALIFORNIA This rational explanation of the origin of the name California is important because fanciful accounts of the source of it have received such wide publication. One of these is that the name was derived from two Latin words "Calida" and "fornax" meaning "hot furnace." Concerning this conception it need only be pointed out that the name was actually recorded when the Spanish discoverers had experienced only the moderate temperature of a narrow strip of land between two ocean areas and where they probably found a beach fire very comfortable. They knew nothing of the heat of the interior valleys, far to the north of their landing place, of which the name California has been supposed to be descriptive. The State of California is the extreme southwest of the continental United States and its south and west lines are parts of the national boundaries in those directions. Among the United States, California stands second in area which includes practically a hundred million acres of the earth's surface. Ac- cording to the reports of the United States Secre- tary of the Interior, California has an area of 158,- 297 square miles or 101,310,080 acres, of which 156,- 092 square miles or 99,898,880 acres are land sur- face (20,000,000 acres being described as "arable" by the United States Geological Survey), and 2,205 square miles or 1,411,200 acres are water surface. In addition to these water areas, claim is made to jurisdiction over all Pacific waters lying within three English miles of the coast. California lies between the parallels of 32° 30' and PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 3 42° north latitude, thus occupying nine and one- half degrees of latitude. The most westerly point in California is Cape Mendocino with 124° 26' of west longitude: the most easterly point is in San Ber- nardino County, in an eastward bend of the Colorado Biver, with 114° 9' of west longitude. Therefore, if extremes of latitude and longitude were alone con- sidered, California might claim to be 9.5 x 10.15 de- grees dimensions, but the east and west boundaries of the State do not run north and south, as such calculation would require. California is cut ap- proximately on the bias, or obliquely, between these extremes. The northeast portion of such a square as parallel boundaries would inclose comprises the state of Nevada, while the southwest portion is occupied by the Pacific Ocean. The greatest width of Cali- fornia is a line drawn from Point Conception in Santa Barbara County eastward to the point of least longitude in San Bernardino County (noted above) and the distance is 235 miles. The least width of the State is a line drawn eastward from the Golden Gate to the south end of Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada (which is bisected by the State boundary line), the distance being 148 miles. The average width of the State is, therefore, 191£ miles. Its length calculated on its stretch of latitude is 660J statute miles, but owing to its oblique extension be- tween its parallels of latitude, its actual length, in an air line drawn from its northwest to southeast cor- ners, is 775 miles, and its coast line, following inden- tations therein, is 1200 miles. The coast line of Cali- RURAL CALIFORNIA fornia constitutes approximately two-thirds of the national boundary of the continental United States on the Pacific Ocean exclusive, of course, of Alaska. Disregarding the obliqueness of California, it is usual to designate the boundaries of the State as fol- lows: on the north, the state of Oregon; on the east, the states of Nevada and Arizona from the lat- ter of which it is separated by the Colorado River; on the south, Mexico ; on the west, the Pacific Ocean. It is the western environment of California which is overwhelmingly important. The Pacific Ocean is the dominating factor in determining the climate of the State: it is, in historical and economic ways, also the father of the State and it will be the archi- tect of the future of California, not only in its own development and its relations to national in- tegrity of the United States, but in its service to the world as the front line of occidental civilization and enlightenment. California is most eligibly situated and naturally endowed to discharge this world duty, for her front- age on the Pacific Ocean includes two natural land- locked harbors in the bays of San Diego and San Francisco, the latter being popularly estimated to have capacity enough to hold at anchor all the ocean- crossing craft, both naval and merchant marine, of all Pacific border countries. Government engineers have also given California a third safe harbor at San Pedro (Los Angeles) and several other indentations of the coast line are available for harbor improve- ment. The coast line of California lies but a few PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 5 hundred miles east of the great circle route from the Panama Canal to the chief Asiatic ports and has the natural ports of call for all ships which will be engaged in the vast future traffic between the two hemispheres via Panama, However, to embrace her geographical opportunity to act as an adequate Ameri- can factor in homologizing the two great eastward and westward moving civilizations, which must be ac- complished on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, Cali- fornia must advance to ten or twenty fold her pres- ent development in population, industry, learning and the humanistic arts and sciences. It will be one of the purposes of this writing to demonstrate that Cali- fornia has the natural endowments, the capability and the lofty purpose to justify her tenancy of such a place and to discharge such a function on the earth. THE STRUCTURAL GEOLOGY From the point of view of geology, California, and adjacent Pacific Coast territory of course, is a new country as compared with the area from the Rocky Mountains eastward, as formations conceded to be most ancient and preceding the appearance of life on the planet are not widely discernible. Although the most ancient tokens of earth structure are not abundant and must be intelligently sought for, the Pacific Coast is very rich in records of more recent geologic time. As has been picturesquely said, "The history of the relatively recent periods, of the geo- 6 RURAL CALIFORNIA logic yesterday, is written in more detail than else- where in the world. It treats of marine, terrestrial and glacial conditions : of the base-leveling of moun- tain ranges followed by vulcanism, earth movements and the re-birth of mountain systems." For what is, therefore, rare in California of the uplift of primeval rocks that have entered into the visible structure of older parts of the continent, there is com- pensation in the greater extent and variety of geo- logic action in later periods which these older parts have not so richly experienced, or, at least, of which they do not present to the trained vision such clear and complete record. ^ons ago, in times which geologists call "ter- tiary" because two great geologic epochs preceded them (and furnished materials visible in the struc- ture of the Atlantic side of the continent), there arose from the primordial world-spread of waters on what is now the Pacific Coast, ridges of earth-crust lifting above the flood the sediments which had for millions of years been collecting beneath it. These ridges separated the waters on the east from those on the west and created an ancient inland sea which has been called the "Great Basin Sea," covering the vast region lying west of the Rocky Mountains and which was designated the "Great American Desert" on the United States maps of more than half a cen- tury ago. These first uplifts of the earth-crust were not the mountain ranges of California as we now know them but were in a way progenitors of them. Upon their eastern sides lashed the waters of the Great PHYSICAL AXD CLIMATIC SETTING 7 Basin Sea and on their west rolled the waves of the primeval sea which was in a way the progenitor of the Pacific Ocean. These waters and the cloud- deluges that drained into them scoured from the as- cending ridges the sediment which they brought up, depositing it to a depth of thousands of feet in the depressions the uprising ridges left undisturbed. However, this first effort of the earth-crust to form a California was a failure. In the course of geologic time its uplifts were again submerged, carrying be- neath the primeval flood its shallow river-beds to be buried under renewed sedimentation. After a few more millions of years, the earth-crust made a new effort. The Great Basin Sea was drawn off toward the north. The most potent creative agencies were invoked. By a stupendous uplift the Sierra Nevada arose, carrying thousands of feet aloft the old stream- beds and other tokens of the primitive land which failed. Volcanoes broke out, raised high cones to form great mountains and to spread lava crusts of great depth over thousands of square miles. Then came new upward movement carrying the Sierra Ne- vada much higher than at present, and the local oc- currence of the ice age. Glaciers ground down the igneous rocks that had arisen and cut deep gorges in which ran new rivers carrying new depths of sediment to form broader valleys between and around the mountains. The Sierra Nevada was ice-clothed. The Coast Range had many of the growing-pains of the Sierra Nevada but in less degree. Later an era of subsidence dropped the coast region of the State 8 RURAL CALIFORNIA a few hundred feet, severing the southern California islands from their shore connections and allowing the Pacific Ocean to fill a shore valley and form the bay of San Francisco and other bays along the coast. Out from the present Pacific beaches of California, there are sharp and deep cliffs in the ocean floor that are believed to be the old shore of the primeval sea when California was in the making. Somewhere in geologic time, California assumed a form recognizable as the progenitor of the State as now seen. The Sierra Nevada and its north and south connections dominated its eastern borders and the ridges of the Coast Range looked down on the western ocean. Between the two, covering what is now called the "great valley of California" was an ex- panse of waters that later broke through the Coast Range and uncovered the foothills, the wide valley plains and enabled the great rivers to build up the lower central areas to reclaimable marshes which are now recognized as rich delta regions. While this was going on centrally in the State, glacial sculptur- ing, volcanic outpourings and meteorological agencies were developing topography in the mountain encircle- ment of the great valley which brought the State nearer and nearer to what we now recognize as out- standing local features of hill, mesa and valley areas supporting growth of plants and ministering suit- ably to the higher classes of animal life and later still to the uses of mankind. While such changes were taking place and previ- ously submarine activity perhaps had more to do PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 9 with the upbuilding of the California of today than surface agencies. It has been estimated that more than half the land surface is of sedimentary sub- stances. These include sandstones, shales and clays of inorganic origin. The ancient waters of the State, however, not only received and held fast these scourings from the uplifts by stream, wind and gla- ciers but supported a submarine growth of coral and other lime-collecting organisms which gave limestones literally thousands of feet in depth in some places. The other chief component of the California sur- face is of igneous origin. Less than one-half is counted as being chiefly granitic (of which the Sierra Nevada Mountains are a great irregular block of granite), and lava flows productive of other rocks and of volcanic ash. This line of creation is still active in the recent out-pours of Mt. Lassen in north- ern California, although the adjacent higher cone of Mt. Shasta has not been active. In the possession of animal and plant life in geo- logic time, the vestiges do not indicate that Cali- fornia was particularly rich as compared with other parts of the earth's surface, although in special in- terest of some of the forms, and in the unique man- ner in which the remains have been preserved, the paleontology of California is very notable from a scientific point of view. Owing to the multiplicity of geologic agencies and the diversity of materials they produced and trans- ported, not only within narrow geographical limits but by superposition, because of alternating eleva- 10 RURAL CALIFORNIA tion and depression of the crust upon which they worked, the geological map of California is a com- plex which baffles popular exposition, even though the owner of a single farm may have between his own fences almost an epitome of it. The popular wonder and significance of the geology of the State are em- bodied in the soils which have been created for the development of California agriculture and of which a sketch will be undertaken in Chapter II. TOPOGRAPHY AND CLIMATE From the brief outline of its geological history, it can readily be inferred that the surface conforma- tion of California would be strikingly diverse in both general and local features. Within the boundaries of California stands the highest mountain of the con- tinental United States1 (Mt. Whitney, 14,501 feet above sea level) ; the deepest valley (Death Valley, 278 feet below sea level) ; the greatest stretch of lati- tude of any state (9^ degrees) ; the longest sea coast of any state (1200 miles). In addition, California has the only active volcano in the continental United States and it is still making new topography. These and many similar facts are suggestive of great topo- graphical variety. Four transcontinental railway lines start at sea level on San Francisco Bay and run northerly, easterly and southerly, traversing dis- tances of 100 to 300 miles without rising more than 1 The term "Continental United States" as used by the U. S. Census excludes Alaska and Mt. McKinley, which is higher than Mt. Whitney. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 11 200 feet above sea level, while in the next 100 to 300 miles they must rise from 4,000 to 7,000 feet to reach the lowest crossing places in the mountain bar- riers. This is a good indication of central California's great stretches of low valleys and the height of the mountain ranges that encircle them. Study of the relief map (Plate I) will impress these facts, viz: (1) that California is thickly set with high mountains closely connected into continu- ous ranges roughly parallel and having a general trend from northwest to southeast; (2) that asso- ciated with these mountain ranges are wide open spaces which are for the most part broad valleys of relatively low elevation, although some of the open spaces, chiefly on the east side of the central and northern regions of the State, are high plateaux; (3) that such a multitude of mountains suggests that there must be innumerable smaller valleys at various ele- vations; (4) that in nearly all parts of the State there are mountains in sight, towering above the small valleys and discernible even from the central parts of the largest valleys as features of the horizon lines; (5) that such variation in topography, gen- erally within short distances, indicates great diver- sity in elevation, exposure, soil and other natural conditions which expresses itself in corresponding di- versity in agricultural production and in the comforts and hardships of living. Such observations might lead to a conclusion that California must be incongruous, narrowly antagonis- tic in its natural conditions and unfitted for great 12 RURAL CALIFORNIA surpluses of standard food commodities. Such a conclusion would be incorrect, for at least two rea- sons: first, California is so large that many subdi- visions may still include considerable areas; second, owing to peculiar topography, and conditions largely dependent on it, corresponding conditions are mul- tiplied through hundreds of miles of distance and ensure to hundreds of thousands of acres similar pro- ducing capacities, though they may be geographically far apart. This fact is demonstrated by the wide dis- tribution of the numerous large products that are now creating the wealth of the State and is made in- telligible by a review of environment and topography in their relation to local climatic conditions. Concrete illustration of agencies determining the climate of California will be secured by reference to the requirements of the orange, which is not only a world token of salubrity but is (next to hay) the greatest single crop produced in California, the "farm value" in 1920 being fixed by the United States Bureau of Crop Estimates at $51,425,000. Natural conditions befitting the growth of the orange exist in suitable situations in the interior valleys at the north, and in coast valleys at the south all the way from Shasta County to San Diego County. It is surprising that similar climate should be found through a distance of between seven and eight de- grees of latitude. If the north and south distance of over 500 miles that separates Shasta and San Diego counties be laid off in corresponding latitudes on the Atlantic Coast, Georgia would be at one end PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 13 and New York at the other. Between these two lo- calities on the Atlantic there is a vast difference in climate; within the two points named in California there is so close a similarity that both meet the temperature requirements of the orange. The differ- ence on the two coasts is due to the following factors : First, owing to ocean influences predominating over land influences, the west coasts of continents in the northern hemisphere are warmer in winter than the east coasts. Second, northern California is addi- tionally protected from low winter temperatures by the mountain barrier of the Sierra Nevada, extend- ing southward from the multiplied masses of pro- tecting elevations in the Shasta region, while south- ern California enjoys the protection of the Sierra Madre and other uplifts on the north and east of her orange region. Northern blizzards are, therefore, held back from entrance to California and are forced to confine themselves to their natural southerly and easterly direction over the interior parts of the Pacific slope, while the great blizzards of the north- west traverse the Mississippi Valley and, if they have sufficient impetus, extend to the Gulf and carry de- struction to semi-tropical growths even in northern Florida. The ocean bringing warmth and the high mountains defending against cold combine to give nearly the whole length of California semi-tropical winter temperatures. Latitude becomes, therefore, a small factor in the California climates. Third, the several ridges of the Coast Range, with their in- closed small valleys, serve as a colossal windbreak 14 RURAL CALIFORNIA against northwest winds, which might otherwise, now and again, bring a temperature too low for citrus fruits, where now they are safe from injury. The chief effect of these mountains is to protect the north- ern interior valleys and foothills from the cooling winds of early spring, and to allow the sun to expend the increasing heat directly in promoting vernal verdure. The result is quick growth in all lines, early pasturage, early grain harvest and early fruit ripening. The valleys of the coast side of southern California have no high range between them and the ocean. This is not so unfavorable as such an open- ing would be at the north, because ocean winds are gentler and warmer here. However, the absence of high barriers against ocean influences retards the springtime and causes a slow development of sum- mer conditions and later ripening of fruits The high barriers at the north so hasten spring and summer heat that early summer fruits in California are shipped from the north to the south, which does not occur anywhere else in the northern hemi- sphere. There is in southern California, east of the moun- tains, a district consisting of the Imperial and con- necting valleys, which has, during the last decade, rapidly and extensively developed, where protection from ocean influences tends to early ripening of fruits and early growth of vegetables and field crops. The same is true of some parts of Arizona adjacent and early fruits and vegetables move westward and north- ward. In that region the effects of local environment PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 15 are supplemented by the influence of much less north latitude. The orange has been chosen as an exponent of cli- matic characters that prevail over most parts of Cali- fornia, not alone for its own sake but because of its demonstration of an all-the-year salubrity which meets the requirements of many plants in several ways. It demonstrates a winter temperature which can go but few degrees below freezing nor stay there long and that indicates suitability for winter growth of most vegetables, grains, grasses, and other ever- green fruits which resemble the orange in temperature requirements. It testifies to a long continuance of adequate summer heat, indicating a long frostless growing season which favors the fullest development of tender summer vegetables, grains, forage plants, as well as of fruits of deciduous trees. It has also been demonstrated that climatic con- ditions favoring continuous or long seasonal growth of plants are suitable also to the earliest and fullest development of domestic animals and the largest yields of products from them with the least expendi- ture of money for their adequate shelter from stormy weather and the least time required for winter feed- ing and care. For a general understanding of California cli- mate, it is necessary to recognize the following facts : 1. The climate of California is insular or ma- rine and not continental, except as interior influences may touch the high plateaux which constitute the northeast borders of the State. It is stated on au- 16 RURAL CALIFORNIA thority that "a common feature of continental climates in all latitudes is their large range of tem- perature. Marine climates, on the other hand, are characterized by a small annual range. . . . The temperatures in a littoral or an insular climate are characterized by a greater uniformity, i.e., by smaller variations about the mean, than in a continental climate." 1 The practical demonstration that California shares in these qualities of an insular climate is found in the fact that the occurrence of a temperature below 20° Fahrenheit is exceedingly rare at any point in Cali- fornia valleys and then only of short duration; ground freezing is also rare and only superficial. In the mountains, however, lower temperatures are reached and a natural ice crop of considerable im- portance is secured. 2. The demarcation of a four-season year, common to the temperate zones, is displaced by division into two seasons, wet and dry. The wet covers fall, win- ter and spring, as rains are to be expected at any time from September to May, and the dry season cor- responds to summer. 3. The California wet season is the period of greatest activity in vegetation. All plants ex- cept those which can endure no touch of frost make their chief growth then. All important grains ex- cept corn and rice proceed from seed to harvest; all extensively grown forage plants advance from seed 1 "Handbook of Climate," Julius Hann (The Macraillan Com- pany, New York, 1903), pp. 139, 148. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 17 to hay, except alfalfa which in most places rests from January to March; evergreen fruits, oranges, lemons, olives and many other semi-tropicals, ripen their fruits; all northern fruits awaken from a short dormancy to bloom from January to March and ripen from June to November; all vegetables, except those counted tender, such as beans, melons and to- matoes, from an early start in the rainy season may come twice to edibility before the close of it. The term rainy season does not mean that rains are con- tinuous. In fact, they are often lighter and more intermittent than is desirable and, therefore, irriga- tion is frequently called for in some of the nine months as well as during the dry season. 4. As the rainy season is the chief period of plant growth, so it is also the best time for field work. Even harvesting of hay and early grains is largely accomplished before the dry season begins on June 1 and harvesting and sun-curing of late fruits is done after the rainy season begins on September 1. Thus California farmers have no closed season and need have no idle days except when rains are ac- tually falling in their own localities, for the oc- currence of rain is not widely synchronous and the actual number of rainy days varies in different parts of the State. The annual average number of days on which rains fell for sixty-two years in San Fran- cisco (which is approximately an average for the State) is sixty ^seven, while in parts of California producing the greatest amount of crops the number is much less. With so few rainy days, with no ground 18 RURAL CALIFORNIA freezing and no snow except in the mountains, Cali- fornia is an ideal place for a man who wishes to keep busy in the open air during nearly all the year, and to secure maximum results from annual activity of men, animals and machinery. It is obviously beyond the scope of this writing to undertake presentation of detailed data of California climatology or to discuss its salubrity from the points of view of physical comfort or escape from invalid- ism. The reader may draw inferences for himself from the somewhat new arrangement of meteorologi- cal data (set forth in Appendix B) which draws rec- ords from end to end and from side to side of the State — collocating them to show variations due to longitude, elevation, distance from the ocean, and the like. The arrangement also emphasizes the char- acteristics of the several regional subdivisions of California indicated in Plate III. Considering the geographical area included and the long periods of time covered, the tabulation in Appendix B comprises a summary of volumes of meteorology and by citing extremes as well as means of temperature for each month of the year, indicates with great definiteness what may reasonably be expected at any season in any region which the records represent. The data thus set forth, in connection with the descriptions of phases of rural life and the different requirements of various plants included in crop production, which will be undertaken in later chapters, can readily be translated into terms of significance to other phases of human life and industry. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 19 REGIONAL AGRICULTURE OF CALIFORNIA Although general statements based on the climatic satisfaction of the orange will apply to vast areas of California, as indicated, there are some parts in which such generalization is less true and some other sections in which it does not apply at all. It is this departure of the local from the general which gave rise to the claim that California has not one but many climates : in fact, from slight variations in tem- perature, moisture and soil conditions, measured by the particular requirements of different plants, there may be several climates on a single farm of a few hundred acres. Of course, soil suitability, moisture, exposure and the like, must be more or less closely prescribed and provided everywhere. The problem, however, is more complex in California than in most other farming states because a diversified topog- raphy makes more elevations and exposures, each with its own special characters, available for choice; also because crops are widely grown by two great water systems, rainfall and irrigation: and because California undertakes practically all the crops which are grown in the United States and adds to these some for which all the remainder of the country claims no adaptation. Eealization that similar pro- ducing conditions group themselves in all parts of the State, not by degrees of latitude but by similar- ity which runs largely along lines parallel to the coast line and to the trend of mountain ranges, can best be attained by tracing resemblance from the 20 RURAL CALIFORNIA point of view of crop production through several subdivisions of the State as indicated on the ac- companying regional map (Plate III). The descrip- tions of the divisions that follow will also include references to the meteorological factors * of tempera- ture, rainfall and the resort to irrigation when needed to meet the moisture requirements of different crops. The following statement of agricultural subdivi- sions of California, prepared by the writer after four decades of local observation throughout the State, was first published by the California Experiment Sta- tion in 1914 and is presented herewith with revisions suggested by later experience. Grouping local cli- matic conditions in their relation to crop production, the State may be divided into five regions, in which there will be some climatic features common to all, though they severally manifest sufficient differences of climatic conditions to determine roughly particu- lar agricultural adaptations in all of them, viz : 1. Northwest Coast region. 2. Central Coast region. 3. Southern Coast region. 4. Interior Valley region. 5. Mountain and Plateau region. The Northwest Coast region. This section is hilly and mountainous, being cov- ered principally by the Coast Eange and its foot- appendix B is arranged to show typical differences at sim- ilar latitudes and striking similarities, according to topo- graphical conditions, with great differences in latitude. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 21 hills. The valleys are relatively small and irregu- lar, although the Eel River Valley has great area and the flat lands at Humboldt Bay are broad and rich. The important climatic features are the mod- erate temperatures throughout the year, the high annual rainfall, and the prevalence of high winds and fogs along the coast. In most parts the rainfall varies from 40 to 100 inches, the variation being mainly due to elevation. Rains begin earlier in the fall and continue later in the spring than in other divisions of the State, but the rainfall is always smallest in July and August. This region most nearly resembles the East North Central and Middle Atlantic states in its agricul- tural operations and possibilities. It is eminently suited for the production of forage grasses and clov- ers, though alfalfa is less grown because of cool sum- mers. Grains chiefly raised are barley and oats ; corn and sorghums are likely not to ripen for lack of heat. The chief industry is dairying with grazing and root-crops. Apples and berries succeed admir- ably. The Central C.oast region. This region includes coast slopes, many small val- leys, a few of considerable size, and a large area of foothills and mountains west of the high ridge of the Coast Range, which at several points attains an elevation of about 4000 feet. Among the valleys are those of the San Francisco Bay district, the pioneer regions of commercial crop-growing and which now 22 RURAL CALIFORNIA constitute one of the largest highly developed and densely populated agricultural sections of the State. Central in this district lies the city and county of San Francisco., which enjoys the unique distinction of having produced the tallest sky-scrapers and the broadest cabbage fields in California. North of San Francisco the coast valleys are great producers of dairy and poultry products, fruits and field crops. South of San Francisco are the bay-shore valleys long noted for truck crops, fruits (the prunes of Santa Clara and the apples of Pajaro valleys) and the hay, grain and sugar-beets of Salinas and Santa Maria valleys, while adjacent hill lands are largely used for grazing and, on the coast side, for the dairy indus- try. The southern end of this region, comprising valleys and coast slopes, produces, in addition to graz- ing and dairying, sugar-beets and beans in abun- dance, and several situations are famous for their apples. The Central Coast region is very diversified in to- pography, intermediate in temperatures and rainfall between its neighboring coast districts north and south. It has a range of products wide as the State itself, except that citrus fruits are not commercially produced, although grown by amateurs at favoring elevations and exposures. The Southern Coast region. This region extends from the point where the coast takes a sharp eastward turn and proceeds southward to the southern boundary of the State. Its width PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 23 is determined by the distance of the high ridge of the Coast Bange from the ocean, narrow at the west, increasing toward the central part, where the San Gabriel and Santa Ana valleys extend northerly and easterly sixty miles or more from Los Angeles to the mesas and foothills of the high range on the east, and then narrowing again to its southern limit just below San Diego Bay. Owing to its environment and exposure, as well as its latitude, this region has more heat than the more northerly coast sections, though in its extensions away from the ocean it has had, in some places and at long intervals, a brief drop in temperature to a degree as low as other valleys with similar elevations. It is on the whole, however, most equable in its temperature and by this widely known characteristic has attracted settlement and develop- ment in some respects beyond other districts of the State. The products are large and various, includ- ing most of the present output of citrus fruits and walnuts, most of the beans, much of the sugar-beets and truck crops for overland shipment, and dairy, poultry, hay, grain,, and orchard fruits for a part of its local consumption. It is for the most part an irrigated district, though some crops are success- fully grown along the coast by rainfall and on the uplands away from the coast good results are at- tained by dry-farming. The rainfall average varies locally from 10 to 18 inches, part of which comes from the Mexican storm system in summer and early fall showers which are of little account except in truck fields and flower-gardens, and occasionally in- 24 RURAL CALIFORNIA terfere seriously with harvesting of beans and other field crops. The Interior Valley region. This region extends from the north end of the Sacramento Valley southward through the length of the San Joaquin Valley to the Tehachapi Mountains, which form its southern boundary. This pair of con- nected valleys constitute what is properly called "The Great Valley of California/' about 400 miles long and from 40 to 60 miles wide. It contains a larger body of productive land than any other subdivision of the State. Central on the west side of the Great Valley are the deltas of the two great rivers whose names designate their respective valleys. The break in the Coast Eange which gives outlet for their wa- ters to the Bay of San Francisco, also admits an in- terior extension of coast influences that modify .cli- matic conditions over these deltas and adjacent lands, as is indicated by the circular intrusion of Division 2 into Division 4 as shown on Plate III. This cir- cular area is somewhat different in climatic charac- ters, however, from those of either of the divisions to which it is related, for it is a blending of the two. In the extreme southeast part of the State another area marked Division 4 is connected with the Great Valley because it has closer resemblance thereto, both in characters and products, than to any other re- gion. It comprises the Imperial Valley and other valleys adjacent to the Colorado River. It differs from the Great Valley in having a higher tempera- OUTLINE MAP of CALIFORNIA Plate II. The main geographical features of California. PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 25 ture both in summer and winter and in its smaller rainfall, which is practically negligible, as all crop- ping is conditioned on irrigation. The Great Valley differs from the coast regions west of it in having a lower winter temperature, be- cause its dominating environment is the snow-clad Sierra on its east side and the Coast Range on the west. This contrast is more marked through the central and southward stretches of the Great Valley. Another contrast is in summer temperatures which may average more than twenty degrees higher on the east than on the west side of the Coast Range, as the ocean then has a cooling effect on the regions open to its influence. In rainfall the Great Valley has such marked dif- ferences that generalization is impossible. Roughly speaking, the Sacramento Valley may be said to have from 20 to 40 inches on different years, while the San Joaquin has from 4 to 16. This variation in rainfall is, however, overcome by irrigation which is practiced in the Great Valley over a greater acre- age than in any other section of the State. The products include all grown anywhere in California. The Great Valley has always produced the chief part of the grain and hay products of the State. Its more recent development has included all of the raisin output and the chief part of the alfalfa, on the basis of which it now leads in dairy industries. It stands first in the production of shipping and canning fruits and in all fruits grown for drying except prunes and on the edges of the valley the citrus fruit product 26 RURAL CALIFORNIA is large and increasing. Its central delta region leads in all truck crops and field vegetables except lima beans and sugar-beets, although for the latter it has immense capacity and excellent adaptation. The Great Valley raises nearly all the rice and its south- erly extensions, both the San Joaquin and the Im- perial valleys, produce all the rapidly increasing cot- ton crop. The diversity and the producing capacity of the interior valley region of the State are beyond description and estimate. The Mountain and Plateau region. It has been found by observation during many years that what are known as valley conditions pre- vail to an elevation of about fifteen hundred feet over the rolling region known as the foothills, which are the steps up to the high ranges. Above this eleva- tion winter temperatures fall lower, rainfall increases, snow flurries begin, and thence upward mountain valleys and plateaux are found at different levels to six thousand feet, which is about the top of Cali- fornia's agricultural lands, and above four thousand feet such lands are used principally for summer pas- turage. This mountain region has a winter like that of the eastern states with precipitation of rain and. snow ample to cause great rivers to flow down the west side of the Sierra and give the State its invalu- able water supply for power and irrigation. In the valleys among the great snow mountains there are farming districts of considerable present production and great future promise. The most marked charac- PHYSICAL AND CLIMATIC SETTING 27 ter of these high lands is the limitations placed on cropping by the short growing season and the fre- quency of frosts during the spring and, at the higher elevations, even during the summer months. There- fore, this division differs most markedly from other California regions and has closer resemblance to some of the interior states than to the coast and valley areas. In this region there is a modification of temperatures from the north to the south, as it is more open to the influence of north and south lati- tude and is not so fully dominated by local topog- raphy and ocean influences, which give to the re- mainder of the State its unique climatic characters. CHAPTEE II THE SOILS OF CALIFOKNIA THE soil of California was a puzzle to the pioneers. Their first conclusions and comments on its charac- ter and value varied according to the time of the year at which they first viewed it, but their conclusions were similar. If they came to California early in the rainy season, they saw valleys and hillsides cov- ered with grasses, clovers and flowering plants in such areas that the whole country resembled a park. If they arrived late in the rainy season, they saw wild oats and other plants so tall that they could be tied across the horns of their saddles. Early in the dry season there was no verdure, except in the moist river-bottoms, and the plains and hillsides were yel- low or brown with plants dried to death as they stood — hay made without hands, curing where and as it grew, nutritious because untouched by rain and eagerly eaten by horses and the wild herbivora with which the country abounded. If the pioneers came late in the dry season or later (until the rains be- gan) they beheld bare landscapes, hill and valley uni- formly sere and yellow with vestiges of sun-parched vegetation largely wind-swept into water-runs — mile after mile of bare soil seeming also to move with the 28 THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 29 wind and the wide plains and hill slopes apparently barren and inhospitable to plants. The limitless park of him who came early in the year had changed to the boundless desert of him who came late in the same year. From the two points of view the conclusion was at first similar — that such a country was of no agri- cultural account. Those who saw the park of the rainy season condemned the country for agriculture because the plants died in June and left the summer verdure-less just at the time of the year when the humid lands whence they came were green-clothed most abundantly. Those who beheld only the desert of the autumn did not know that the country was ever green and when told of it were not deeply im- pressed for, supposing that it had been green, what farming value had a country which would not stay green ? And so California passed at first, in the minds of the tens of thousands who came seeking gold, as a country hopeless for husbandry, and the soil was chiefly blamed for it. Was not the soil which they crossed in their rush from the landings at San Fran- cisco to the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, where the gold was, largely shifting sand and was it not like the shifting sand which those who rode for gold across the Great American Desert told them about, as the two streams of weary people met in the gold dig- gings? And are not all deserts caused by shifting sand, when the same sky covers both the deserts and the lands of permanent pastures which they all knew from childhood ? So it was that the pioneers, no mat- 30 RURAL CALIFORNIA ter whence they came, concluded at first that Cali- fornia was not a farming country because the soil either could not sustain permanent verdure or would not keep plants green just at the time of the year when the landscape should be green. These first general conclusions about the agricul- tural unsuitability of California were not seriously shaken by the observation of other newcomers who sought the gold after visits at the Missions, ranchos of the Spaniards who had gained Mexican land grants or the farms and gardens of the Americans who had established themselves before the gold discovery. At all these places these visitors saw in the dry season nothing green except alongside ditches in which wa- ter was running, and the trees and plants were largely unfamiliar to them. The demonstration that strange plants would grow in a way strange to them was taken to be a demonstration that away from these ditches, which could be provided of course only in a small way, the land would not support plant growth and surely would not grow those crops indispensable to American farming as they knew it. It is true that ample evidence was at hand at the Missions and else- where that the country would grow live-stock without irrigation. However, that fact was not very signifi- cant, for cattle-ranging was not then fully recognized as a phase of American agriculture and a piece of land with cattle-pens but no barns, hay-stacks nor cow- sheds could not be counted a farm. They blamed the deficiency chiefly to the soil, which was obvi- ously that of a desert and not of a farming country. THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 31 The depth of error into which the first Americans fell in their misconception of the agricultural capac- ity of California soils was well matched by the speed with which they arose from it. Only a year or two elapsed before daring adventures on the part of a few discerning men, in both coast and interior val- ley locations in the central part of the State, demon- strated that the soil was unusually rich and capable of incredible production of plants which would make their growth at the temperatures prevailing during the rainy season and could be carried along to full maturity after the rains had ceased; that tender plants requiring frost freedom and summer heat could be grown without a drop of rain from seed-sowing to harvesting, if the moisture of the rainy season were conserved in the soil by tillage. It was the first demonstration of the efficiency of dry-farming prin- ciples and policies in the United States, a whole gen- eration before dry-farming prophets began their work, both for good and evil, in the prairie states. When the pioneers observed more closely the soils with which they had to deal and the behavior of plants upon them, they soon reached several impor- tant practical conclusions: First: That the soils were, as a rule, different from those in the states and countries whence they came. Second: That there was great variation in the soils of different locations and that in many cases these locations were so near together that there might be several diverse soils within the limits of an ordinary farm — just as, judged by the behavior of the same 32 RURAL CALIFORNIA plants at various elevations and under different ex- posures there might be several "climates" on the same farm, as has already been stated. Third: That the soils were, as a rule, light, mel- low, naturally well drained and easily worked, al- though local areas might be quite otherwise. Fourth: That the soils were usually very deep, "deep as a well" as frequently expressed, because well-digging gave the pioneers their first evidence of depth. Occasionally bed-rock or impervious hard- pan was encountered very near the surface. Fifth : That in deep soils there was little difference in fertility between the surface soil and the subsoil; that in some mysterious way the soil had been "weathered" all the way down as shown by the fact that earth thrown out in digging ordinary wells or cellars would grow as good plants as the old undis- turbed surface. This was a surprise to those who came from humid regions where even too deep plow- ing would bring up subsoil which had to be made fertile by manuring and aeration. Sixth: That in spite of these widely prevalent facts there were considerable areas of land on the val- ley floors which might be either light or heavy, deep or shallow ; which in the rainy season looked rich and productive but would either grow no useful plants at all or else would start them along well in the rainy season only to destroy them soon afterwards before they could come to profitable maturity. Practical conclusions from the experience of the pioneers were that California soils were, as a rule, THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 33 deeper and richer than any they had ever known else- where and would grow grains, garden plants and fruits-trees to a surprising size and abundance, but that there were cases in which such results could not be attained. Almost from the first there arose a de- mand for scientific study of soils. After a few scat- tering soil determinations by chemists whose chief work was for miners and who accompanied their an- alyses by such exposition of soil characters as they could draw from European sources, a systematic and exhaustive study of California soils was begun in 1875 by E. W. Hilgard, founder of the University of California Experiment Station, and continued by him and his successors for about forty years. This undertaking not only placed California in the lead- ership of all states in soil investigation and under- standing, but it also resulted in an interpretation of the relations of climates and soils both in formative agencies and characters and in requirements of till- age and cropping. This gave the work world-wide significance in the contrasts which were made of soils formed under humid and arid and semi-arid condi- tions and the natural superiority of the latter when a system of agriculture which provided irrigation and tillage, as conditions might require either or both for different classes of plants, is faithfully pursued. Fortunately Dr. Hilgard lived to put his wide-reach- ing results into generally available form.1 On April 1, 1900, in the latter part of the period 1 Soils : Their Formation, Composition and Relations to Cli- mate and Plant Growth, by E. W. Hilgard. The Macmillan Company, New York, 1906. 34 RURAL CALIFORNIA of Hilgard's work, soil surveying and mapping was begun in California by the Division of Soils of the United States Department of Agriculture under the direction of Milton Whitney,, which in 1913 was merged into cooperative soil investigation with the California Experiment Station. Thus, California has had continuous field and laboratory soil study for forty-five years and the greater part of the agricul- tural area of the State has been covered.1 In ad- dition, the area of the National Forests in California, comprising about nineteen million acres in 1918, has been covered by the forest land classification of the Division of Forestry of the United States Department of Agriculture. These National Forests and their agricultural significance will be considered more spe- cifically in a later connection. The regions for which soil surveys have been made are indicated in Plate IV. By reason of their uniqueness and diversity and their adaptation to such varied production; because of the association of rainfall and irrigated agricul- ture; and because the latter presented demonstra- tions of great suggestiveness in the reclamation of arid interior states, California has presented a very attractive field for soil research from the points of view of actual crop production and of soil science. The results of such research by a score of investiga- tors are succinctly presented by C. F. Shaw, who has had charge of the government and state coopera- 1 A list of the areas covered by the Division of Soils of the U. S. Dept. of Agr. and of which soil maps and descriptions are available, is given in Appendix C. THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 35 tion in soil work since 1913, in a station publication * from which the following statements, leading to a correct understanding of the origin and nature of California soils, are selected: "In the humid regions of the world, and especially in the humid region of the United States, practically nine-tenths of the soils are either of residual or of glacial origin. The glacial soils have been trans- ported and deposited by ice, and while the glacial deposits may be very deep, the true soil is not deep. The subsoil is usually heavier than the surface, often clayey, and the practical feeding depth of roots is usually less than four feet. The residual soils are much more extensive than the glacial soils. They are formed by the destruction of rock masses, the disintegrated and decomposed fragments accumulat- ing on the surface of the hard rock to form the soil mass. Eesidual soils usually have a surface soil six or eight inches deep, resting on heavier material that grades to a clay at two or three feet in depth. At greater depths rock fragments are found in the clay and these grow more numerous until the mass is largely broken or 'rotten rock/ and finally the solid rock mass is reached. The total depth of the soil mass above the rock varies greatly, but usually is less than four feet. "In the humid regions, the transported soils, other than those formed by glacial action, are of little extent. The flood plains and bench lands along the rivers and creeks are exceedingly productive, but 1 Circ. 210, Calif. Exp. Sta., Berkeley, March, 1919. 36 RURAL CALIFORNIA their total area is small compared with the residual and glacial soils. "In California, as in all arid regions, the residual soils available for agriculture are of relatively lim- ited extent, forming about 10 per cent of the arable lands of the state. They are found on hill slopes and on mountain sides and their topographic posi- tion makes irrigation exceedingly difficult or im- possible, while the shallow soil mass makes dry farming precarious. "By far the larger portion of the agricultural lands in California are transported soils. For un- counted ages the winter rains have been washing the rock fragments from the mountain sides and carrying the material out to the valleys, spreading the mass out as broad sloping alluvial fans or as relatively flat valley floor. The accumulation of sediments in the valleys is often hundreds or even thousands of feet deep. "Soils formed in this way may be quite uniform to great depths or may be made up of successive layers of varying texture, sands, silts, gravels, or clays. As the soils are laid down a little at a time, year after year, they have been acted upon by weath- ering agencies breaking up the particles and making the plant food quite available. Under the climatic conditions that exist, with the hot dry summers and the low rainfall in winter, the weathering action of air and water, the beneficial action of bacteria and the formation of humus in the soil, occur to con- siderable depths and roots ordinarily penetrate to THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 37 depths of six to eight feet below the surface. In studying the soil,, it is necessary to consider at least a six-foot section,, instead of the usual three-foot section of the humid regions. The climatic condi- tions of the region and the mode of formation of the soils have brought about many features that are not common to the soils of a humid region. Owing to the deficiency of rain, the soils have never been subject to any great degree of leaching and most of the soluble materials have been left in the soil mass. "These transported soils fall into two groups — the recent transported soils and the old transported soils. The recent soils form about three-fifths of the arable lands of the state and represent the best and most desirable soils. The soil mass is usually quite deep, and uniform in general character. Nearly two-thirds of these soils have excellent textures, ranging from sandy loams to clay loams. These soils are easy to work and take irrigation water readily, making them very desirable for almost any type of farming. About 10 per cent of these soils are of a sand or gravelly nature, loose and open, and of a Peachy' character. Because of the low rainfall and conse- quent lack of leaching, however, the sands are much more productive than are similar soils in a humid region. Properly farmed, these sandy soils prove very productive and desirable. "Less than 3 per cent of the recent transported soils are heavy in texture — clays and clay adobes. The term 'adobe' does not indicate a specific kind of 38 RURAL CALIFORNIA soil, but refers to the structure. There are clay adobe, clay loam adobe, and loam adobe, although the latter is very rare. The name is given to any soil which on drying shrinks markedly and breaks into blocks with wide cracks between. An adobe struc- ture is undesirable because the soils dry out, not only from the surface but also from the sides of the wide cracks. The adobe soils are difficult to till and maintain in the proper state of granulation, but with good farming methods a good structure can be main- tained. These soils are very rich, giving high yields of the crops that are adapted to such heavy soils, especially grains and grasses. "The recent transported soils occupy level to sloping positions, and are readily put in condi- tion for irrigation farming. They are productive and are desirable above all the other soils of the state. "The old transported soils form about one-third of the arable soils of California. These soils occupy undulating or rolling topography with some hilly and broken areas. They have subsoils that are distinctly heavier and more clayey than the surface soils, and over one-half of their area is underlaid by hardpans at depths of from two to four feet below the surface. In most cases the material beneath the hardpan is loose soil very similar to that above the hardpan, and if the pan is broken by dynamite or other means, irrigation waters and plant roots may readily work down into the underlying soil mass. In such cases the hardpan is not a serious factor as it ordinarily THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 39 re-cements very slowly. In some cases the hardpan is underlaid by a compact, semi-cemented layer of soil, sand, and gravel that is practically impenetrable to water or to plant roots. With such soils, dyna- miting the hardpan is of little or no value as there is no good soil beneath for the roots to penetrate and no opportunity for drainage or aeration through the substratum. "There is another class of hardpan that occurs where variations in the soil-forming activities caused a layer of soil to be deposited, then a layer of ma- terial that cemented to a hardpan, then another layer of soil, another layer of hardpan, and so on. These hardpan layers are hard to handle, as blasting is not satisfactory unless each of the layers is broken. The hardpan layers do not, however, exist as con- tinuous sheets because in the process of formation of the soil, portions were washed away, the space being filled with other soil materials. This, together with the fact that the hardpan is often cracked and sometimes rather soft, gives opportunity for irriga- tion water and plant roots to penetrate to consid- erable depths. "Most of the old transported soils have medium textures, with about one-third of a heavy texture and with very few areas of coarse sandy nature. The soils are productive but root and water penetration is retarded by the heavy subsoils or by the hardpans, and their uneven topography makes irrigation diffi- cult and expensive. They give good results with most of the crops of the state, and when their natural 40 RURAL CALIFORNIA handicaps are overcome, they closely approach the recent soils in agricultural value. "Wherever drainage conditions are poor and there is a larger amount of water passing from the surface by evaporation than passes down through the soil mass, there is the possibility of an accumulation of soluble material or 'alkali' on the surface. The term 'alkali/ as ordinarily used, includes any soluble in- organic salts present in sufficient quantity to be in- jurious to plants. The most common materials are sodium chloride or common salt, sodium sulphate or Glauber's salt, and sodium carbonate or washing soda. This 'alkali' is not necessarily brought into the soil from some other location. It is merely a result of a regrouping of the chemicals that existed in the original rock, and the concentration of these com- pounds in the surface soil because of excessive evapo- ration. "If the soil has good natural drainage, any excess of water will percolate through the soil and will seep out to the country drainage channels, carrying with it in solution, small quantities of the soluble salts. In such cases, the waters evaporated from the surface cannot exceed the amount that passes down through the soil, and alkali accumulations cannot occur. If the natural drainage conditions are not good, arti- ficial drainage will be necessary if the land is to be irrigated and farmed. In arid regions, the irriga- tion of poorly drained lands will ultimately bring about the accumulation of injurious amounts of alkali. THE SOILS OF CALIFORNIA 41 "The soils of California taken as a whole are ex- ceedingly productive. They may be compared to the rich bottom lands of the humid regions. The un- favorable conditions that may exist, such as hardpan, alkali, poor drainage, poor structure, etc., can be readily recognized; but a superficial examination of the soil is not enough. Soils should be examined to a depth of at least six feet, bearing in mind that plants that would in a humid region send their roots two or three feet into the soil, are advantaged in Cali- fornia by having a root penetration of six to twelve or more feet." The reader may perhaps be assisted to a fuller realization of the unique characters of California soils and their diversity within exceedingly narrow limits by considering the foregoing carefully drawn details of their occurrence in connection with the references to topography in Chapter I. Let him remember that above the timber line he may stand upon many peaks and ridges of perfectly bare granite and look down upon valleys, fifty miles away and ten to fourteen thousand feet below, in parts of which borings of two or three thousand feet through the soil mass have not reached bed-rock. With such extremes within sight it is perhaps easier to realize the diversity at vari- ous elevations and inclinations between them. Determination of the adaptations and capabilities of California soils by the pioneers through their in- troduction and 'trial of plants from all parts of the earth, followed by definite understanding of general and local soil characters and qualities resulting from 42 RURAL CALIFORNIA scientific study, have exerted a marked influence not only in stimulating general diversification and build- ing up great outputs of special products not largely undertaken elsewhere in the country, but have also profoundly influenced rural life and development. Actual sight of what the soil could do induced many of the argonauts of 1849 to forsake their quest of gold for agricultural enterprises. Reports of their achievements by residents, tourists and expert inves- tigators during the first decade of California's state- hood were published in popular and scientific jour- nals and books and attracted immigrants of good men- tal capacity, experience in projecting new enterprises and possessed of adequate capital to invest in land and enlist in agricultural production both staple and unique. As these undertakings attracted persons of all nations, they brought to the new country knowl- edge of plants and products beyond the American range of cultures and productions, confident that California's natural conditions favored success with them. Soil characters and capacities have always been considered influential factors in determining human development and progress, and the soils of California are probably to be counted among the best of the natural advantages of the State. CHAPTER III OTHER RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA ALTHOUGH from the agricultural point of view California is a state of open lands,, requiring no clearing or at most the removal of a few scattering trees from large areas, it possesses forest of great ex- tent, comprised of trees which add to large economic values unique characters of longevity, majesty, sym- metry and beauty and biological habit which have in- duced science, literature and art to qualify them as the most remarkable trees in the world. These for- ests constitute one of the natural wonders of the State. Description and portraiture of them have been presented in nearly all popular publications for the last half century. Most exact exposition of their species, singly or in groups, has been made by botan- ists in text-books, monographs and reports. The United States government has reserved its right of continuous possession of vast areas so that coming generations may see living things which really began to grow on the face of the earth when Solomon was building his temple, three thousand years ago. Al- though the "big tree of California" (Sequoia gigan- tea) stands in the Sierra Nevada Mountains the su- preme manifestation of arboreal size, age, impressive 43 44 RURAL CALIFORNIA grandeur and creative power, this conifer is not it- self the embodiment of California's greatness in trees but only an exponent of it. A sister species, the red- wood (Sequoia sempervirens), of the northern coast region has specimens that are actually taller and have greater area. On the whole, the redwood is in- calculably greater in its service to mankind and it also has the power which no other great conifer pos- sesses, to restore the forest from sprouting stumps. Nor are the "big trees" comparable, in their posses- sion of area and industrial value, with either of sev- eral pines, firs and cedars which attain a stature, bulk and lumbering value in single trees and acre- product beyond the attainment of these species in any other state except in Oregon and Washington. Scientific interest has been centered in the "big trees" as survivors of a genus which in geological time was so wide-flung over the North American continent that it lived 'in Greenland, and yet it has now no living species on the continent except in California. Out of three hundred species of oaks in the whole northern half of the world, California has exclusively for her own fourteen species, of which single trees have achieved world fame in both popular and scientific publications. W. L. Jepson of the Uni- versity of California writes in his "Silva of Cali- fornia":1 "Even today scientific knowledge of the forests of California is still in its infancy, although it can now 1 "The Silva of California," page 9 : by Willis Linn Jepson : Memoirs of the University of California, Vol. 2, Berkeley, Calif., 1910. OTHER RESOURCES 45 be said that we have here the most remarkable de- velopment of coniferous forests to be found anywhere. While this statement is not true as to any one char- acteristic it is believed to be true as to the sum total of their characteristics, their richness in species, the features of their geographical distribution, their bio- logical history, and their commercial value both as to relative quantity and actual quality." The relations of the forests to the development of California rural life, both in its spirit and its indus- tries, are notable. As an inspiration to nobler thoughts and loftier sentiments, the great temples and communities of trees have been and always will be a great uplifting influence in life. It is conceiv- able that the first great service of the forests to the agriculture of California was their testimony to the capability of its interior districts for the excellent growth of plants. Prospectors searching for gold almost always returned with incredible stories of strange trees, not merely hugging the edges of streams but growing in continuous profusion across their valleys up their inclosing slopes and upward and beyond over ridges and up mountain sides until they reached scant vegetation again near the lines of per- petual snow. There were abundant tales of looking from the floors of glacial gorges thousands of feet deep and seeing great trees perched upon the bare granite; wonderful trees rooted in crevices of out- jutting rocks where no soil could be discerned and re- sisting by their own individual strength the forces of tempests against which trees in forests defend 46 RURAL CALIFORNIA each other. It is impossible to estimate now how great influence these early observations exerted against the conception that California, except where water ran, was a desert. It was not long before the early California farm- ers and miners learned that these great trees were not only wonderful but that their companionship was salutary to both body and spirit. When the lack of sanitation brought serious trouble to those who were mussing below with water from the ditches either for gold or for crops, through ignorance that malaria was the result of mosquitoes rather than of the water which bred them, the settlers fortunately recovered health and courage by dwelling for a time in the for- ests beside the pure cold springs and streams of the mountains. It is a notable advantage that through- out a distance of at least four hundred miles in the great interior valley of California, and for less dis- tances in shorter valleys, persons are nowhere more and generally less than fifty miles from mountain forests. Each year the government is extending roads and trails to supplement the State highways and make easy access to the well-ordered camping places and hostelries which are multiplying both at public cost and through private enterprise. Details of forest policy and practice, of private owners, of the national government in the manage- ment of the national forests and of the State officials in protecting forest property, are beyond the scope of this writing. Estimates of forest areas, of stand- ing timber and records of current production of OTHER RESOURCES 47 various kinds are given in Appendix E and furnish the reader data with which he can construct what- ever specific conceptions of the industrial achieve- ments and opportunities will serve his interest and purposes in connection with the forest resources of California. The commercial output of the forestry industries may be valued at about $60,000,000 annually and investments in lumbering equipment reach nearly as large an amount, constituting them the greatest man- ufacturing industry of the State. They furnish a home supply not only of the materials for the con- struction of farm buildings, and structures of great area and capacity which minister to agriculture, as warehouses, packing-houses and the like,, but of the containers in which about $250,000,000 worth of hor- ticultural products are annually marketed. Boxing fruit products alone consumes 250,000,000 feet of lumber. California would have been seriously handi- capped in establishing boxed goods from the farms and would have been largely denied the enjoyment of the safety, cleanliness and profit from such con- tainers, not to speak of cross-ties for 7537 miles of railway within the State to roll them over, if the producing farms had not been so near large forests and timber production within her own boundaries. There is also a direct return to the State of the value of forest products marketed beyond state and na- tional boundaries. Much of the one and one-half billion feet (board measure), which is the annual cut, goes by rail and sea to other states, even to 48 RURAL CALIFORNIA those of the Atlantic Coast, and many cargoes also to foreign countries. California has four national parks, six national monuments and seventeen national forests (formerly called forest reserves), concerning all of which defi- nite data are given in Appendix E. Although the na- tional forests in California occupy the roughest and most mountainous portions of the State, they con- tain resources conservatively valued at $250,000,000. They contain about one-third the timber of the State ; they provide forage for a large proportion of the live- stock ; they include sources of vast water-power. None of these resources is reserved from use except in oc- casional cases in which one use is incompatible with another. The mature timber in national forests is for sale, but the title to the land and the immature forest re- mains in the ownership of the people. Permits for grazing live-stock are sold from the point of view of the conservative use of all land adapted for graz- ing, the permanent good of the live-stock industry through proper care and improvement of grazing lands, and the protection of the settler and home builder against unfair competition in the use of the range. Permits for the development and use of wa- ter powers are granted under regulations which seek to prevent appropriation for speculative purposes, to secure prompt and full development, to prevent mo- nopoly, and to secure beneficial protection to the water-shed. It is officially announced that the national forests are "open to all persons for all lawful OTHER RESOURCES 49 purposes. The timber, water, pasture, and other re- sources are for the use of the people, and the min- erals are open to exploitation just as on the unre- served public land." Claims for ownership of lands within national for- ests may be initiated under the mining laws, the coal land laws, and the forest homestead act. Prospect- ing is not interfered with in any way. Timber may be used free of charge by bona fide miners and home- steaders who may not reasonably be required to pur- chase and who have not on their own claims a suf- ficient or accessible supply. Thus, in addition to the general uses of the forests for timber, stock range, water power, summer-recreation resorts, the natural resources of the national forests wait on in- dividual enterprise for development and will in com- ing years furnish homes and industries for a large mountain population. Toward the realization of all these great public services from her forested area, California is advanc- ing commendably. For administration of national interests and affairs, California is constituted District 5 of the United States Forest Service with offices in San Francisco whence proceed the transactions out- lined above, through officials resident in the several forests. California began legislative enactment and appro- priation to promote forestry about forty years ago and has proceeded somewhat irregularly and inter- mittently, but on the whole progressively, since that date. The existing phase of State policy consists of 50 RURAL CALIFORNIA the activities provided for by the legislature of 1919, thus : "The Governor shall appoint four persons, one of whom shall be familiar with the timber industry, one with the live-stock industry, one with the hay and grain industry and one at large, who together with the State Forester shall constitute the State Board of Forestry, which shall supervise and direct all matters of State forest policy, management and protection." The enactment is unique in providing that a majority of the board consist of representa- tives of lumbering and agriculture, but the arrange- ment has worked so well that the legislature of 1921 refused to include this board in a general merging of special commissions which was largely accom- plished by it. The functions of the State Board of Forestry are also somewhat unique, in that it has added to the usual undertakings of forest protection, promotion of tree planting along the highways (for which a State Nursery was established in 1921) ; the important work of county organization for sub- duing field fires and experimentation in the line of re- forestation of cut-over lands, to demonstrate to pri- vate owners the practicability and profitability of such enterprise on their part. Forest planting as a promising investment for fu- ture profit has been a popular topic for discussion ever since the pioneers began settlement on the tree- less plains of California but, beyond scattered plant- ing for local woodlots and for shade and ornamental purposes, very little has been accomplished. Now and then agitation arises for the planting of acacia OTHER RESOURCES 51 forests for the production of wattle bark for tanning, camphor forests for gum camphor, various eucalypts for hardwood as the native timber is practically all soft, but no considerable enterprise has resulted. This is chiefly because possible profit is necessarily re- mote and because the labor and water which such undertakings would require have always been too high priced to warrant entrance upon them. The only exception to such caution and conservatism was the boom in eucalyptus worked up by land specu- lators about 1905, in the course of which consider- able losses were incurred by investors who allowed themselves to be persuaded that eucalypts required neither good land nor moisture supply to make prof- itable growth. In this way the eucalypts, which are, when properly placed, the most profitable and satis- factory timber trees ever introduced into California, were afflicted with a bad name through no fault of their own. A concrete relation of the mountain forests to the foothill and valley development and prosperity lies in the service of these vast forested areas to the crea- tion of power and supply of water for irrigation of rural, and for domestic and industrial uses of urban communities, in the valleys and along the coast re- gions where gravity transports at. If one will follow the outlines of the topography of California, as given in Chapter I and Plate I, it will immediately be suggested that California is singularly a unit in nat- ural water storage and stream flow. The snow falls on the forested mountains and the streams from its 52 RURAL CALIFORNIA melting thread the valleys to the ocean. Thus Cali- fornia, speaking generally, receives water from no other state nor gives water to any other. It is true that in the extreme north of California the Klamath River rises in Oregon, but makes only a short run therein ; that the Truckee River escapes into Nevada, but the latter owns half the lake of which it is the outlet; and that the great Imperial Valley of south- east California is irrigated from the Colorado River which is the boundary of the State in that quarter. With these exceptions California catches her own water and keeps it, excluding that which cannot be withheld from the ocean. Less will be lost in that di- rection as more is stored for various uses in the de- velopment of the State, and as the requirements of power, irrigation, domestic use and navigation are finally adjusted. It is of incalculable advantage that California owns her own catchment areas, and that her streams live their whole lives within her own geography. The condition that makes this advan- tage realizable lies in the forested areas which catch the snow and hold the water for prolonged outflow during the dry season. The maintenance of the for- ests and the prosecution of engineering works to sup- plement their beneficence by regulated distribution to the valley streams and irrigation systems will se- cure the California of coming centuries a density of population and an aggregate of production which will insure prosperity. The present generation is awake to its duty in this direction and all sessions of the legislature consider ways for discharging it. OTHER RESOURCES 53 MINES Wholly apart from its relations to agriculture and agricultural people, some of which are indicated in Chapter IV, the California mining industry is great in its achievements, unique in its methods and varied in its products. Greatness and variety are demon- strated by the official outline of the products of 1920 (given in Appendix D) with a total valuation of $242,142,000. A few facts about the leading items in that statement are of popular interest and signifi- cant even in a book treating of rural affairs as showing the relations of California to other states and provinces in an industry often closely associated with agricultural development and a force therein. California has justified the name "Golden State" by leading in gold production for the last seventy- two years, except for a few years when Colorado held temporary leadership. California has yielded $1,720,- 139,958 during seventy-two years, nearly one-half of all the gold produced in twenty-two states of the Union since records began in 1792. The geographical and topographical prevalence of gold in California is also of striking interest as shown by the following statements : x "California is still the leading gold producer among all the states of the Union and there is still a greater number of gold mines than in any other state. 1 History of California by Zoeth Skinner Eldredge, Vol. V, p. 200. Special article, "California Mining History," by Charles G. Yale. 54 RURAL CALIFORNIA Gold is being mined in thirty-one of the fifty-eight counties. "Among the twenty-five gold mining states of the Union California has, as a gold-producing region, the distinction of holding the records on all counts. Cali- fornia has made by far the largest aggregate yield; the largest output in a single year ; the highest annual average; the lead as a gold producer for the greatest consecutive number of years; the greatest number of varied branches of gold mining and the widest dis- tribution of gold deposits. "Gold is mined in the highest parts of the Sierra Nevada, the foothills, the valleys and on the beaches of the ocean. Even in the wastes of the Mojave and Colorado deserts are many productive gold mines. In one county there are gold mines being worked at elevations of 9000 to 13,500 feet and at places more than 200 feet below sea level. In another county from the opening of a vertical shaft at 1500 feet above sea level they are mining to a depth of 3896 feet, or 2394 feet below sea level." The climate of California favors mining, as it does farming, with a whole year suitable for working in the open. Even in surface mining there is no unpro- pitious season, if water has been provided for the period of dry streams. The combination of mining and farming helps to keep some men busy all the year. Yale says: "In some of the foothills and upper valley counties men work in their orange and olive orchard0 and 1. Northeast Coast region. 2. Central Coast region. 3. Southern Coast region. 4. Interior Valley region. 5. Mountain Plateau region. Plate III. Climatic regions of California. OTHER RESOURCES 55 vineyards during one season and drift under them for gold at another season." Many times the value of the gold output is the petroleum product. The amount and valuation there- of for 1920 are estimated to be 105,000,000 barrels, valued at $194,000,000. This is not only larger than the output of any other state but constitutes 23.8 per cent of the total production of the United States. The oil product compensates California for her defi- ciency in coal, of which the supply is small in amount and of poor quality. Aside from general uses of the oil for heating, power in manufacturing, transporta- tion and generation of electricity — all of which are of great value in State development — the contribu- tion of the oil wells to agriculture is great and varied. California oil has chiefly an asphaltum base which dis- tinguishes it from the oils of the older states. This has proved of large use in highway improvement both as a cover for concrete road-beds and for direct appli- cation to dirt roads ; other petroleum products supply the motive power for irrigation and drainage pump- ing; for the engines of tractors and for farm motors generally, while the ample home supply of gasoline from oil wells is one of the factors which has enabled California to take the lead in the ownership of auto- mobiles which are run with cheap lubricating oils also from petroleum. Thus the petroleum product furnishes what is needed to move with and move upon, most cheaply and efficiently. Many important facts and influences could be cited in connection with other mineral products of 56 RURAL CALIFORNIA California, but they are not of primary agricultural significance. It is said that upwards of seventy metals and mineral substances are known to exist in California of which more than fifty are commer- cially produced. It is, however, agriculturally notable that California produces about 30 per cent of the potash now being derived from American sources. FISH AND GAME The formal reports of explorers and the gossipy narratives of visiting mariners, trappers and adven- turers furnish ample evidence of the abundance of wild animal life in California before the American occupation. The aborigines had little prowess as hunters and did not seriously dispute possession of the country with the cougars, several kinds of bears and many less noble marauders which preyed on the immense herds of antelope and other grazing wild- ings which occupied the valleys. The Spanish and Mexican rangers of the early days did not undertake any serious conflict with the "big game" of the country — their cattle and sheep were so abundant and cheap that it seemed better policy to divide with their enemies than to fight them. In fact, this abundance was perhaps a factor of protection to their nearer grazing grounds which the beasts had little temptation to invade. Indeed the rancheros and the herders for the Missions made direct contribu- tion to the support of the lordly carnivora of the country, as the horses, cattle, sheep and hogs which OTHER RESOURCES 57 escaped from their vaqueros were not thought worth pursuing. Instead of reducing the numbers of large, ferocious beasts, they probably multiplied them by filling the regions outlying the ranches with herds of domestic animals gone wild, which were more easily captured than the really wild grazing animals. The result was that at the time of the American occupation both the mountains and valleys of Cali- fornia were teeming with wild life — which was an inspiration to the early naturalists and was full of both sport and sustenance to the mining camps and pioneer farms. Of course, as American development of the country proceeded, the aggressive flesh-eaters were either destroyed or driven back to haunts in strictly wild regions where bold hunters have now to seek them — although occasionally, even now, they may advance singly far enough into the borders of farming country to stir up the excitement of a neighborhood hunting party. In the counties which include mountain grazing country marauding wild life is still held in check by standing bounties for trophies of the hunt and the rangers in the national forests pursue sys- tematic warfare for the protection of grazing animals. But on the whole, of the undesirable wild beasts of boldness and capacity there is little left but sport. Of desirable wild life, mammal, bird and fish, California has been fortunate in conserving most creditable resources. Legislative provision for cus- todianship of local species and for introduction of supplementary species from other parts of the world, 58 RURAL CALIFORNIA was begun soon after the organization of the State government and has proceeded toward systematic regulation of sport and industrial hunting and fishing to the present time. For more than half a century there has been at work a very well-informed and energetic Fish and Game Commission which has secured new laws for the protection of species, either by limiting or prohibiting, as conditions might require, and by cooperating with the national authori- ties in provisions for introduction, propagation and distribution. The result is that such desirable ani- mals as deer are reported to be increasing, although as many as 15,000 male deer are killed each year. Of wild ducks there is also an increasing supply although an annual kill of a million ducks is reported. It is not so notable that wild geese should also be numerous for the annual kill is only one-tenth as many. The abundance of quail is gratifying testi- mony to the efficacy of a closed breeding season, for this bird is multiplying in nearly every county, although uncounted thousands of quail-shooters go out after them as soon as the season opens and return heavily laden. Of stream and lake trout, owing to the maintenance of about ten hatcheries and the vast numbers planted out each year (estimated to be about twelve million small fry) it is possible that this fish is as abundant now as when the pioneers reported the streams teeming with them. The commercial fisheries of California are of con- siderable moment, about 4000 licenses for such busi- ness being annually issued. The value of the catch, OTHER RESOURCES 59 direct from the boats, was estimated to be $4,000,000 a few years ago and since that time it has considerably increased, both in quantity and value. Of the product in commercial form canned salmon has also greatly advanced. The production of sardines in olive oil is the largest sardine output of the country and the great tuna of the Pacific seems to be just coming into its own as a canned fish. Hunting and fishing are under State control in California and the issue of 250,000 licenses to indi- viduals for hunting and fishing is the record of a recent year. CHAPTER IV HISTORY AND DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURE IN CALIFORNIA As it is the purpose of this writing to characterize the rural life of California as an American State and to indicate agencies and influences which prevailed in its development toward present conditions and achievements, it would not be germane to pursue affairs that made no contribution thereto even though they are of great historical or ethnological interest. One such question is the aboriginal population. It is estimated that when California was entered for settlement by the Spanish missionaries in 1769 there Tiay have been a third of a million Indians, living in groups comprising hundreds of self-governing tribes speaking more than a hundred dialects, scattered throughout the State. Although this density of abo- riginal population gave California the leadership of the states, for it has been estimated that "with one- twentieth of the area of the United States California held one-eighth of the native population of the whole country," these strange people contributed to the Spanish development only inducement and oppor- tunity. The inducement was the saving of their souls from paganism : the opportunity was wide open 60 HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 61 because they had nothing of the war-like self-asser- tive character of the other Indians of the Pacific Slope and made no fight against being civilized. Nor did they contribute anything to the agriculture of the State, for they practiced no agricultural arts. They subsisted on nature's bounty and were not even hunters with prowess against big game. They were contented with vegetable food which they gathered from wild trees and shrubs and with such land and sea animals as they could catch in the fields and forests or dig from the sea shore. If they had been fierce like the Indians of the great plains, California settlement by the white race would have been delayed and accomplished with difficulty. If these Indians had ancestral agriculture,, there would have been vestiges remaining as there are now of prehistoric farming in Arizona and New Mexico. Although the pious padres may have reinforced the heavenly hosts with California Indians, they did nothing to improve their hold on the earth. The early Spanish and Mexican settlers reduced them near to slavery and though their successors, the Americans,, had perhaps more regard for their manhood and employed them at good wages, they did not otherwise advance their interests until quite recently. Of the large aboriginal population there now remain only about 15,000 living peaceably on reservations or doing useful work for farmers and in a few cases engaging in successful farming on their own account in American ways. There is wide agreement among historians that the chief contribution to the development of Call- 62 RURAL CALIFORNIA fornia by Spanish possession (1769-1822) and by Mexican possession (1822-1846) consisted in holding the country for American occupation in 1846. It was loosely but still sufficiently held by Spanish pos- session and prestige to exclude adverse entrance. The agriculture and rural life was that of old Spain, expanded and rendered heroic by the abundance of rich land and of servile labor to be had for the taking and the very few adventurous settlers at hand to take them. These few naturally surfeited them- selves with land and free labor and established over the areas they occupied a system of agriculture and a form of rural life wholly at variance with the American standards developed in the Atlantic states and being rapidly carried westward beyond the Mis- sissippi River. California was as loosely held agri- culturally by the people of Spanish birth and descent as it was politically, and both holdings disappeared together on American occupation. Although the few Americans who came to Cali- fornia before the gold discovery in 1848 and the throng which poured into the State immediately afterwards included the most adventurous, the pre- vailing sentiment among them (except with a small percentage of the swash-buckling and criminal classes that was speedily suppressed) was to pursue under- takings honorably with regard to human rights, to establish enterprises on the basis of thrift and effi- ciency and to develop a State of high ideals, socially and industrially. In thrift and efficiency there were broader views and more expansive methods than in HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 63 the older states, and it is possible that an inheritance from the free life of old Spanish rancheros may have been added to the adventurousness of the American pioneers or have suggested new ways to embody the spirit of it. All the settlers felt, however, that the old way was not the method to farm, either for the success of rural life or for the up-building of the country. The debt of existing California agriculture to the system that preceded it lies not in policies or in methods either of life or industry but in a demonstra- tion of the producing capacity of the State for food crops and, in a few striking instances, for the intro- duction of agencies and materials of production which have rendered valuable service in the American development. A few of the old affairs, some of which have "passed in the night" and some endured, may be briefly cited: The Spanish system of land grants and the con- firmation of three-fourths of them to their holders by the United States compelled a new American State to set forth on its career with a handicap of feudalism. Spain was conservative and only made about twenty grants during fifty years and grantees were each restricted to three leagues ( 4,438 J acres) of land: Mexico was lavish and gave nearly six hun- dred grants during twenty years and raised the limit to eleven leagues of land to each. Besides proper grants there were about two hundred which could not be established. Such large areas under single private ownership 64 RURAL CALIFORNIA and the creation of ducal establishments thereon may have been even desirable from the point of view of holding an unpopulated country with endowed landlords and a self-supporting army of retainers, but it was not only an anachronism after American occupation but a serious obstacle to development. Ownership of arable land in large tracts has always been popularly condemned in California and, although such holdings have been disintegrating for several decades, the inheritance of the Spanish grants and the aggregation of land in Spanish style by grant or otherwise have always been detrimental to the State. It was adding to the evil influence of the grants to allow the original owners of them to be robbed of the land by unprincipled lawyers and greedy speculators. Although the Spanish conception of exemplary agriculture and rural life was not acceptable even to some of the early Americans who became citizens of Mexico, and although these policies and methods were almost universally rejected by the pioneers of the American occupation, it is indisputable that an inheritance from the old regime entered into the conceptions and forms of enterprise of the new. It consisted in a new point of view of largeness as desirable in individual enterprise. This largeness of plan embodied itself not only in a new idea of the amount of land that a man should acquire but of his supremacy over the agencies and methods em- ployed in production. Under the Spanish system, a man could ride and drive great droves of stock HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 65 and rope from them such as would serve nearly all his purposes. To the American this seemed a very rude husbandry and it was largely abandoned. Yet when he worked the land he hitched more animals in a team and coupled on more wagons or plows than he had ever known to be handled by a single driver. Bringing such increased motive power under the direction of one man resulted in building for his use larger wagons, plows, harrows, and all kinds of harvesting machinery which became known as "Cali- fornia styles" of all such implements. It can be strongly maintained., therefore, that there came from the old regime some suggestion of largeness and freedom in conception and of the capacity of one man for largeness in operation. This suggestion gave a new character and purpose to care and thrift, and a new scope and variety to aims in production, greater freedom in thought and demeanor, and a more buoy- ant and satisfying spirit in rural life. Of direct gifts to American agriculture from the preceding Spanish and Mexican systems, there should be cited the large numbers of domestic animals (horses, mules, sheep, goats and swine) which served a good immediate purpose with Americans, although, as will be shown in a later connection, these animals were inferior and were displaced as soon as possible by introductions of both pure-bred and common stock of the eastern states. In the general handling of range stock, however, the old methods prevailed for a long time and still influence practice. The "vaquero" still rides in defiance of the "cow boy" of 66 RURAL CALIFORNIA the interior range states and the "rodeo" has not been lost in the "round-up." Although the padres were the founders of Cali- fornia agriculture because they entered at oiice on the production of foods for the sustenance of them- selves, their military guards and their Indian wards, and although they gathered huge possessions of live- stock and grains, grew many fruits and made much wine, their direct influence on the plans and practices of the American pioneers consisted of the demonstra- tions of the success of various fruits in their mission gardens. Mission farming and stock-growing had been destroyed about twenty years before American occupation by the secularization of the vast area of mission lands, ownership of which was transferred by grant to unclerical persons. These individuals had learned much of their agriculture from the pre- ceding experience of the padres and they neither increased the products nor improved the husbandry of their teachers. Mission agriculture :at the coming of the Americans consisted of remnants«of the padres' gardening within the mission walls, for many of the establishments had been abandoned and were falling into ruin. There was enough land remaining in charge of the padres at some of the missions clearly to show the success of many kinds of fruits, although their apparent ignorance of propagation, except by seeds or cuttings, and of the relations of tillage to moisture conservation and plant thrift, either by irrigation or rainfall, made them rude gardeners. Of the mission fruits of which the cuttings were HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 67 brought into California from old Spain via Mexico in 1769, two are still in good repute and of com- mercial value, the Mission fig and the Mission olive, the latter now being more widely grown and profit- able than any of scores of varieties introduced at much cost by Americans during the last half century. It may not be too fanciful to claim significance for the fact that the greatest gift which American agri- culture in California still cherishes from the sub- merged Spanish husbandry is an olive branch. Aside from her agricultural inheritance from Span- ish precedence, California fell heir to nothing of an industrial character. It is stated that there were not more than ten thousand white people in the State before American occupation, that is one to ten thou- sand acres of her area. Although the citizenship given by Mexico was insignificant in numbers, there was clearly discernible a social atmosphere that influ- enced the lives and manners of the multitudes which gathered from all parts of the world when the American flag was unfurled. The Spanish Califor- nians loved the land and joyfully accepted citizenship in a republic which they believed would make Cali- fornia great. Their chief gifts to the new State were the patriotism, deep human interest, courtesy and courtliness of manner and genuine and generous hos- pitality which characterized them. THE AMERICANIZATION OF CALIFORNIA California's acquisition of a cosmopolitan American population began long before the gold discovery. A 68 RURAL CALIFORNIA sea-faring man now and then took, to the ranchero's swaying life in the saddle as more delightful than riding the waves and one case is recorded in which the skipper himself deserted his trading ship because he preferred to guide his course by the light of eyes caught in the fandango rather than by the stars of a marine midnight. Thus, while a few men came from the sea, a few others,, in pursuit of peltry or the trade therein, wandered into California from the north and from the east and, finding the dolce far niente of the Mexican regime sweeter far than pio- neering on the Mississippi Valley frontiers or trap- ping and trading in the wilderness northward even to Hudson's Bay, embraced the hospitality and the daughters of the new country and lived happily ever after as Californians. There were not many of these earliest foreigners on the whole, but they were of several nationalities including English., Scotch, Irish, Germans, French and Portuguese and they laid the foundation for cosmopolitanism in California to which subsequent events, however, made much greater con- tributions. Americans prevailed in the affairs of the vast rich and open country of California from the first entrance of plains-crossing pioneers from the Missouri Eiver in 1826, in the person of Jedediah Smith who is recorded by historians as "the first overlander." Others soon followed and within two decades consid- erable companies of men were seeking individual fortunes in a country they believed would soon be a part of the United States. Both for personal advan- HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 69 tage and from patriotic motives, they were eager to lend their assistance toward that end, until war dem- onstrated its mastery and California was ceded to the United States by Mexico in a treaty of peace, which closed a war between the two countries, in February 1848, the month following the gold dis- covery by Marshall at Coloma, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, about fifty miles from Sacramento. The interest which in this connection pertains to the gold discovery centers in the character and volume of the population it brought to California, the crea- tion of its statehood and the foundation thus laid for the development of agriculture and rural life. Of the relations of agriculture and mining as the two greatest industries of the State, some considera- tion will be undertaken later in the chapter. At this time concern is rather with mining as an agency in the peopling of California and as an influence in determining the character of citizenship. The first effect of the announcement of the gold discovery was the practical depopulation of the few old Spanish towns in the central part of the State and the several settlements and farms which the Americans had established during the previous decade. However,, this unsettled only a few thousand in the aggregate for they comprised the population then within reach. The world-wide reports that fol- lowed the local exodus to the mines induced a rush to California which is spoken of as the swiftest and greatest movement of people known to history, although California had neither regular sailings on 70 RURAL CALIFORNIA the sea nor roadways on the land and was thousands of miles distant by either route from populous states or countries. It was,, therefore, several months after Californians were digging gold before distant areas heard of it and not until December 1848 did the President of the United States make announcement to Congress and exhibit in the war office at Wash- ington gold received from government representa- tives in the newly acquired country. Then followed the rush to California from all parts of the world, by sea and land, of adventurous persons whose bravery in perils, heroism in hardship and suffering, persis- tence in face of baffling obstacles, life losses by ship- wreck, by disease and by murderous savages of the interior plains and humorous experiences under all the conditions of tragedy, are abundantly recorded in the writings of the time and reviewed by all historians of the westward course of development in the United States. It is, however, only features of this move- ment and the character of the participants therein, in relation to the present rural life in California, that are pertinent to this sketch. The white population of California at the end of 1848 has been estimated at 14,000 : 7500 native Cali- fornians, Mexicans and Spaniards and the remainder Americans with a few foreigners. California was admitted a State of the Union in September 1850 and the United States Census of July 1850 placed the population at 92,597. This included the access of the gold-seekers "of 1849 and the spring of '50" which was the definition constituting a "real first HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 71 comer" in the standards of the time. The census taken in July 1850 made no account of those who had come and gone before that date, of whom there were thousands. It is estimated that not less than fifty thousand came by sea and even more by land in the first rush. Nevertheless, the gold-seekers were not wholly actuated by a mining motive. One historian writes : "It is still customary to speak of the immigrants of 1849 and the ?50s as gold-hunters and they were such to some extent : but they were something more and better. They were primarily home hunters, as is proven by the fact that some brought their families with them even in 1849 and a much larger number in later years. . . . Mining, if they resorted to it at all, was to be only an expedient. People were hun- gry for land to be tilled by their own hands. The greater number came to do each his part and in his own way, of the great work that has since been done." They were disappointed at first by the aspect of the country, but were almost immediately surprised by its agricultural capability, and their impulse was to try every plant and animal that was held in high esteem in the states and countries whence they came. As they were from numerous countries, the develop- ment of California was thus endowed at the very out- set with agricultural knowledge and materials of great diversity. Although the first comers before the gold discovery were chiefly from the frontiers of pioneering in the 72 RURAL CALIFORNIA Mississippi Valley states, and the first to arrive at the gold diggings were also from these western areas, it was not long before throngs pushed overland from states further east, came by ships around Cape Horn or made their way across the Isthmus or through Mexico. Thus California's new population was largely from the oldest and most fully developed states of the Atlantic Coast and they undertook to transplant the ideals, laws and institutions of civiliza- tion which the oldest regions of the country were then cherishing and developing. As California enjoys the distinction of having been admitted at once to statehood without passing through territorial organi- zation, so also the development of the new State was entered on by a population which lifted itself imme- diately above the slow courses of pioneering and rushed at once at the realization of an American commonwealth of advanced standards and attain- ments. It is recorded by all the historians that the legislative, educational and industrial undertakings of those who participated in the establishment of the State in 1850 were as high in moral and intellectual purpose, as resourceful in methods and as confident in expectation of results as the State has ever mani- fested in its later development, and the foundations of law, social life and educational effort were broadly and firmly laid at the very beginning. A corrobora- tion is the quick mastery obtained over crime and dis- order that arose in a mixed and adventurous popula- tion wholly freed from the restraints so strong in established communities. HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 73 California was as empty of law as it was of popu- lation when the Americans came. There were only a few old Mexican regulations framed for a pastoral people dwelling in a country where land was too abundant to be of much value, where credit was practically unknown and in which there were no judges, courts nor lawyers, except as local justices of the peace (alcaldes) dispensed justice in personal relations. It is conclusive testimony to the quality of the American pioneers and their insight as well as their devotion to the principles of morality and equity, that the rules and regulations which they adopted and enforced for self-government in their mining camps, and by which they established justice in a new country without laws and adjusted right and title to land and water in mining, were subse- quently largely embodied in the statutes of the State and of the nation. Nor is it less demonstrative of the earnest desire of these pioneers for equal justice that they inscribed in the constitution of the new State the practice of their Spanish predecessors that a wife does not part with her right to possess and to bequeath her individual property and that she has equal title with her husband to whatever community property accumulates during a period of marriage. Although there are property rights of women still to be secured, this conception of their equality, which entered at the very beginning into the organic and statute law of California, doubtless exerted a strong influence toward the attainment of full citizenship and suffrage for women, by amendment of the consti- 74 RURAL CALIFORNIA tution of the State in 1911. It is also an interest- ing fact that from pioneer days to the present time women have personally undertaken the farming of their own property and have been a recognized force in agricultural organization, not only in its social aspects and purposes but in the technical and com- mercial phases. 1 Women have, in fact, been leaders in the establishment of several unique agricultural industries which have attained great success. The rapid development of California during her first decade was not alone due to the ability of the people to conceive high ideals of statehood and citi- zenship but to the abundance of money that enabled them concretely to realize their conceptions and to found the institutions which they recognized as essential. The production of gold from 1850 to 1855 was, in round figures, four hundred millions of dol- lars, of which 1851 and 1852 produced seventy-five and eighty-one millions respectively. Such large and rapid production of gold is said to have met a world's need and later to have notably assisted in maintaining the national credit during the Civil War. Continent-crossing railways have multiplied from one in 1869 to six in 1921. California possesses two cities which are in the list of the fourteen greatest in the United States. The volume and speed of increasing population are shown in the United States Census reports, as follows: 1 According to the Census of 1920 California has 5,773 farm- ing women, including 5,406 owners, 315 tenants and 52 man- agers. HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 75 CALIFORNIA POPULATION AND RANK AMONG STATES ] Population Rank 1850 92,597 29 1860 379,994 26 1870 560,247 24 1880 864,694 24 1890 1,213,398 22 1900 1,485,053 21 1910 2,377,549 12 1920 3,426,861 8 While during the first decade of California state- hood, the per capita production of gold was the greatest in the world at that date, there was also attained agricultural production which rendered the State independent of imported foods. During the second decade, although the era of picking up gold in stream-beds and pulling it up with grass roots had practically closed and the flood of incoming settlers largely checked by the Civil War, a vast surplus of wheat was produced for export and subsequently Cali- fornia became for a time the greatest wheat-produc- ing state in the Union. In the third decade flocks were increased to such an extent that California became the greatest wool-producing state. During the fourth decade fruit production entered on its course toward the leadership of all California indus- tries by fuller application of the force of proprietary and cooperative colonization of fruit lands, by the dawn of cooperative enterprise in packing and dis- tribution of fruits and fruit products, which in 1899 1 The rural and urban populations of California counties and the number and valuation of farms in each, according to the Census of 1920, are given in Appendix A. 76 RURAL CALIFORNIA constituted California the greatest fruit-producing state in the Union — a standing which has been con- tinued since that time with a constantly increasing margin of supremacy. At the close of the seventh decade, California, in addition to her advance with fruits of all kinds, has leadership in three of the twenty staple crops (barley, beans and peaches), on which the government relies in the determination of agricultural valuation of all the states, and in 1920 was ranked fourth in the Union in value of all crops produced. It has already been claimed that in early days accession to California was largely a matter of courage and endurance. Afterwards, and even to the present time, another criterion of selection has prevailed, viz. : mastery of funds and business confidence and enter- prise. Development has been ministered to by people from every civilized state and nation, and has escaped a low average intelligence and ability because remote- ness and cost of travel have discouraged mass move- ment of inferior types. A few specific factors that underlie the advanced and most satisfactory type of country life characteristic of California may be cited: First: Broad views of education. The present expansion and profitability of the leading lines of agriculture is largely due to those who came to Cali- fornia in mature life and brought capital and minds well trained in business and professions. Their exam- ple, and their precepts also, are a strong force for breadth in educational efforts for agriculture. Cali- fornia is keenly conscious that common schools which HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 77 do not employ rural phenomena and points of view in their daily work are culpably narrow and neg- lectful. Education in agriculture from youth to man- hood is considered a fundamental need and teachers of all grades are alert to qualify themselves for the work. Such provision has definitely entered into the general educational system of the State, as will be outlined in Chapter XL Second: Social and financial recognition of agri- culture. The recognition of agriculture as a pur- suit which does not debar its votaries from the highest social standing has always prevailed in California. It is freely conceded, not only in theory but in regu- lar practice, and agriculture is recognized generally as a desirable vocation. There is, in fact, some danger that recourse to agriculture may be becoming too popular, even fashionable, with the urban popu- lation because they are disposed to exaggerate the profits and minimize the knowledge, ceaseless effort and command of adequate capital on which success depends. Financial recognition of agricultural security has been advancing during the last thirty years. It began in the acceptance of warehouse receipts for grain stored in country warehouses at that early date and since then loans on other gathered products or on growing crops have been freely available under ordinary financial conditions. The old disfavor of country real estate as compared with city property has largely passed away; in fact, much money has been loaned on too high valuations or prospects. 78 RURAL CALIFORNIA Rates of interest were formerly too high considering the security of legitimate country loans but consider- able improvement has been secured by borrowers on farm property and business during the last decade, as will be noted in Chapter IX. Third: Average excellence of country homes. With the understanding that light construction is advis- able under existing climatic conditions, it can be claimed that California country homes are of very high average excellence. It is probably true that there is a greater per capita consumption of periodical literature in California country homes than in other rural communities. The per capita supply of run- ning water, hot and cold, in farm houses and the use of it in all the devices of modern plumbing for cleanliness and sanitation are also very large. Elec- tric light and power for domestic purposes are widely employed. It is reported that 91 per cent of all houses where current is available are using it and 79 per cent of all houses in the State are elec- trified. Fourth: The benign influence of cooperation. Unquestionably the most powerful agency for advancement in the quality of rural life in California during the last two decades has been cooperation. While a degree of education is assumed, cooperation is itself a potent educational agency. It not only enables men to achieve, but it points the way con- tinually to greater achievement. Strong cooperative effort has secured protection and promotion for nearly all the leading products of the State ; it has obtained HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 79 nearly all the recent large provisions for agricultural education and research ; it has secured fair treatment from interests serving agriculture which formerly dominated rather selfishly; it has enabled producers to demonstrate possession of force, business acumen, soundness and capacity, which have commanded the confidence and respect not only of rival business interests but of financial institutions. The rise and progress of cooperation in its relation to agriculture will be outlined in Chapter VII. The recognition and enforcement of such relation may well be counted, perhaps, the most widely significant factor for agri- cultural advancement which the Americanization of California has accomplished. DEVELOPMENT BY COLONIES The first irrigated colony of California was organ- ized in 1857 on the true cooperative plan. Fifty members constituted the "Los Angeles Vineyard Society" which was organized in San Francisco and purchased 1265 acres of land about thirty miles south- east of Los Angeles near the Santa Ana River. The colony was named "Anaheim." The land cost $2 an acre and the water only the expense of diverting it from the river. The land was laid out in fifty twenty- acre farms, with roads on all sides, around a town site of building lots, and in 1859 the improved property was distributed to the fifty shareholders, each of whom obtained a twenty-acre farm partly planted with vines, a half-acre building lot in the town, a share 80 RURAL CALIFORNIA in a twelve-mile main ditch and laterals, and the like, for a total outlay of $1400. This was not only the first fruit-growing colony of California, but it freely gave more for the money than has ever been secured from colony promoters since that time. The last survivor of the original cooperators in the Anaheim colony died in 1921, and a few of the first subdivisions remain in the ownership of the families of the original settlers. About fifteen years after the beginning at Anaheim, colony enterprises began to be projected on a large scale, and by that time they had become less coopera- tive and more proprietary and speculative in their character. Settlers were sold land but not always water with it, only a right to buy water, the owner- ship remaining for a time or permanently with the projectors who purchased or appropriated it and built the works to bring it to the land. In spite of finan- cial sufferings, sometimes to the settlers and often to the water companies, the outcome of irrigated colony enterprises as a whole has been for the pros- perity of those participating in them and notably for the development of the State. Almost all have grown into large centers of population, production and trade, famous throughout the country and beyond, for their attractiveness to tourists and investors and for the satisfaction that permanent residents find in them. The irrigated citrus settlements at Riverside, Red- lands, Pasadena, Pomona and other similar enter- prises began before 1880. About the same time irri- HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 81 gated colonies were started in the Fresno district of the San Joaquin Valley and laid the permanent foundations for the raisin industry, which had pre- viously been demonstrated to be feasible in other sections. Later colonies developed beyond present enumeration, in all parts of the San Joaquin Valley, founded on all kinds of farming but always on an irrigation basis. Beginning later still, but continu- ing to the present, are the irrigated colonies in the Sacramento Valley, delayed by the fact that larger rainfall renders irrigation less essential and sale of subdivisions to unorganized settlers was the com- mon method of development. In this outline of settlements, the term colony is very loosely and broadly used to signify small sub- divisions of land which bring settlers into close neighborly association. Most of them had no other relationship at the outset, although they usually associated themselves in undertakings for mutual benefit soon after getting together geographically. While perhaps none has had the cooperative method so completely embodied as the original Anaheim colony (the actual cost of land, water and necessary improvements to unite them being divided equally among settlers without profit to promoters or organ- izers), nearly all groups of subdivisions have advanced in such ways that ultimately the owners of the land have become owners of the water and of the system by which it is secured and distributed, or are still on the way toward such attainment. This consideration touches closely on the law and philosophy of water 82 RURAL CALIFORNIA rights and ownership which are too elaborate and technical for pursuit in this connection. The colony method of multiplying small farms in California began during the first decade of American occupation and has continued to grow in popularity and achievement until the present time and promises to be even greater in the future. At first a few acquaintances associated themselves together; after- wards groups from stated localities in the eastern states and in foreign countries were gathered by personal solicitation and transplanted, and later still individual families from everywhere were brought together by processes of general advertising and pro- motive propaganda and geographically associated after arrival in California. In most cases communi- ties thus formed were the offspring of the marriage of land and water. Although colonies have been successfully established in regions of adequate rain- fall without a basis of irrigation, they have been fewer and smaller in accomplishment than the irri- gated colonies. STATE LAND SETTLEMENT Although large rural communities and populous towns of beauty, wealth and industrial importance have been developed from initial undertakings in land subdivision and colonization by private or corporate owners of land and water, many such enterprises were profitable neither to sellers nor buyers but involved loss and hardship to both. In some cases this was HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 83 the result of worthlessness, sometimes in the land, often in the promoters of the enterprises,, who too often failed to warn the purchaser that it usually takes high-priced land a long time to pay for itself and the improvements needed. In a greater number of instances, disappointments and failures accrued from unpreparedness to meet the requirements. This included, on the part of promoters, lack of water, of adequate capital, of wisdom and foresight; while to the purchasers for home-making, all the effects of the unpreparedness of the promoters were added to their own deficiencies in knowledge, thrift and rea- sonable anticipation. The results were naturally large failures on the part of colony organizers and devel- opers and small widely distributed failures among those who purchased from them, involving loss, suf- fering and forfeiture to such an extent that there came to be a saying that subdivisions yield profit and support only to the third or fourth purchaser in suc- cession, the last having the advantage of the improve- ments forfeited by his predecessors. This state of affairs in land subdivision and sale 'engendered the wide conviction that enterprises of this kind were too often a discredit to the State and an imposition on those who desired to make farm homes. In 1915 Elwood Mead was recalled to the University of California from very successful design and leadership of colonization in Victoria and New South Wales, to serve as head of the Division of Rural Institutions. As the result of his experiment in Australia and his study of government land set- 84 RURAL CALIFORNIA tlement in Europe, Mead was confident that methods of subdivision and farm home-making in California must be radically reformed. In 1915 the State created a Commission on Land Colonization and Rural Credit of which Mead was made chairman. On the report of this commission the legislature of 1917 passed a law, the first section of which makes this declaration: "The legislature believes that land settlement is a problem of great importance to the welfare of all of the people of the State of California and for that reason, through this particular act, endeavors to im- prove the general economic and social conditions of agricultural settlers within the state and of the people of the state in general." In accordance with its declaration of belief, the legislature of 1917 created a State Land Settlement Board, consisting of five members "with the object of promoting closer agricultural settlement, assisting deserving and qualified persons to secure small, im- proved farms, providing homes for farm laborers, increasing opportunities under the Federal Farm Loan Act and demonstrating the value of adequate capital and organized direction in subdividing and preparing agricultural land for settlement." The law also provided that a demonstration of such proceeding should be made by the Board which was authorized to buy ten thousand acres of land and to use a revolving fund of State money to the amount of $250,000 to be returned in full within fifty years with interest at 4 per cent for whatever sums HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 85 were actually in use by the Board in its transactions during that period. In 1919 the legislature reflected the popular approval of the undertaking by making an additional appropriation of $1,000,000 and by authorizing a State election on a bond issue of $10,000,000, but the vote was not taken because of a technical error in the statute. The legislature in 1919 also amended the law of 1917, removing the restriction to ten thousand acres and authorized the Board to acquire all the lands, water rights, and the like, needed for its purposes. The details of policies, methods and administra- tion of land settlement as authorized by the State are available in special publications l and cannot be recited in this connection. Briefly it may be stated that the plan is to furnish good land for the purposes indicated; to deliver such land with water (as the purpose and condition may require) and otherwise ready for cropping; to build highways con- necting all farms with local trade centers and general routes of transportation; to lend settlers funds (on long terms at low interest) for buildings, equipment and improvements which are approved by the Board ; to promote cooperative organization of settlers for social, educational, producing and product-selling purposes, and to furnish information and advice con- cerning all farming operations that are justified by local conditions. The requirements of the Board 1 "Helping Men Own Farms" by Elwood Mead, Professor of Rural Institutions, University of California and Chairman State Land Settlement Board (The Macmillan Company, New York, 1920). Reports and circulars Land Settlement Board, Berke- ley, Calif. 86 RURAL CALIFORNIA are (in addition to general essentials of morality and satisfactory personal history) that the applicant shall have had training and experience in farm life and industry and satisfactory qualification for the line he intends to pursue ; that he shall not own agri- cultural lands (including the sale made to him) exceeding $15,000 in value; that he shall enter on actual occupation within six months; that he shall pay down in cash 5 per cent of the value of the land and 40 per cent of the value of the approved improvement and equipment which he may desire and that he shall apply to the federal land bank for a loan on the land and improvements and pay this loan to the Board as an installment on his debt for the land; and that he shall be an American citizen or have declared his intention thereto. The Board may reject applications in its own discretion. The practical operation of the State Land Set- tlement so far as it has proceeded in 1921 is exceed- ingly satisfactory. The Durham colony in the Sac- ramento Valley upon an acreage of 6200 acres has installed one hundred and twenty families, and the Delhi colony opened in the San Joaquin Valley in 1920,, has one hundred and thirty installations on 8600 acres. The initial undertaking at Durham pro- ceeded with land selection and preparation, including provision of irrigation, in 1917, and the first unit was open to settlers in May 1918. A review of the settlement at the end of two years showed that it was paying its way, that settlers' installments had been met as they came due,, that a notable unearned Plate IV. Soil surveys in California, 1921. - HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 87 increment in land value had come to the settlers; that they had all paid their taxes, and their improve- ments, possession of high-class live-stock, development of social spirit, had added greatly to the resources and attractiveness of the county. It is an early demonstration that when the State buys, improves, irrigates and subdivides good land and coaches the settlers with farming wisdom and paternalizes them in desirable ways, it can make confident and satisfied farmers out of qualified young persons who might never otherwise get to the land which they desire to earn. Mead's work in California is attracting attention throughout the country and beyond. It was planned along educational lines as a demonstration of how land settlement could be undertaken with satisfaction to the settlers and to the State. It will not be the achievements of the few hundreds of farmers who are thus placed in successful action that will measure the results of the idea and enterprise. Far more important and extended must be the example of the policies and methods that are shown to be sound and practicable, how the land must be prepared and the beginning farmer made ready for the land and how the two can be kept in mutual operation. Evi- dently all parties involved are eager for it. When the Board announced its desire to buy land for a colony in 1917, it had offers of eighty tracts varying in area from 4000 to 12,000 acres each, and when the land was ready for settlers, more than 3000 appli- cations were recorded. Whatever may be the popular 88 RURAL CALIFORNIA conviction as to the length the State should go in actually placing qualified persons on good land, there remains the assurance that the State has shown the way, and if the Land Settlement Board should never go beyond the two colonies which it now has in opera- tion, it has already rendered a public service of vast and lasting advantage. By an act of the legislature of 1921 the State has identified itself more closely with the operation of land settlement by discontinuing the special com- mission which has conducted it since 1917 and merged the enterprise in a newly created Board of Public Works. The plan has worked so well that the State will not only continue its own operations but may also sponsor and supervise settlement by private owners, providing such enterprises are projected and carried out strictly in accordance with its own rules and requirements. RELATIONS OF MINING AND AGRICULTURE From several points of view, mining in California may be looked on as the father of farming. The Spanish farming that had been pursued for seventy- five years at the missions and haciendas, before the Americanization of California began in 1848, was utterly incapable of sustaining the population which the gold discovery, in the same year, induced. Food supplies of all kinds were brought by sea by all ships which could be chartered for San Francisco Bay, gold- seekers and provisions for their support arriving HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 89 together. Even the product of beef, which was the largest the new State afforded, quickly became inade- quate and large herds of cattle were driven in from New Mexico and Texas to supply the imperative demand. Perhaps there never was a capable agricul- tural country with local markets so empty of sup- plies and ready to pay such fabulous prices for them as California in 1850 and a few following years. Had it not been for the great demand for large and immediate production of food, agriculture would probably have advanced slowly, during a gradual settlement by Americans, as an expansion and modifi- cation of Spanish methods and purposes. The mining industry did more than merely gen- erate farming as a business. It endowed the latter with much of its own spirit, its greatness of industrial conception and its insistent demand for speed. Almost from the very beginning there was a readiness to pursue new ideals in agricultural production or to pursue old ends in new ways. There were, however, more tangible and concrete contributions from mining to farming at the very beginning. One of these was furnishing capital with which the earliest farming adventures were entered on before their outcome could be clearly foreseen. The prices of all food products were so high that temptation to have a try at farming was almost irre- sistible and fluctuation of prices resulting from plunges into over-production soon afterward demon- strated that farming was quite as much of a gamble as mining. Thus it came about that many who had 90 RURAL CALIFORNIA made a stake at mining became farmers and others who came to mine stayed to farm. Thus mining was closely associated with farming, so closely that many pioneers had a mine in a back-lot of their farms .where they dug out and washed gravel when the land was too wet to plow or plant, or they picked gold out of outcropping rocks when the soil was too dry to work. This division of individual effort between the two industries has not yet been wholly abandoned. The amount of money available for the capitalization of side issues can be imagined from the statistics of the gold product of the early years. Another concrete contribution of mining to farm- ing was the joint use of the foundries and shops created to manufacture mining machinery. Probably no farming state ever had such capable metal-working outfits within its own borders to draw on for equip- ment at its very beginning. As mining requirements grew less, farming demands increased both in quantity and variety. Practically the same course was also taken by investments, made in early days for mining, in storing and conveying water long distances in the mountains and foothills. Many reservoirs and ditches would have been abandoned as mining was either worked out or was proscribed by law (because navi- gable streams were being ruined by the debris from gold washing) if a new and profitable market for the water had not arisen in the irrigation of foothill orchards and pasture fields. Thus investments for the sake of mining became development agencies for the promotion of farming. Speaking at the State HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 91 Fair of 1859, Colonel E. D. Baker, one of the noted orators of the period, said : "The time will yet come when the ditches which traverse the whole mineral regions of California will be more valuable for agri- culture than they ever have been for gold finding." Although the mining interests may be credited with engendering at least a part of whatever indus- trial buoyancy and adventure California had beyond the endowment of other new western states, her agri- culture suffered at one time from a perversion of the spirit of adventure just as did legitimate mining itself. In the third decade (1870-1880), California reached a notable over-supply of grain and other staple products and exportation of them was wholly in the hands of speculators. The opportunity to get rich quick seemed to many farmers the outlet from their financial difficulties and many of them threw themselves into it. Many of the first generation of California farmers went out on this tide. They had neither resolution nor capital to handle their lands either in new lines of production or in subdivision and sale. Others supplied these essentials and Cali- fornia entered on a new era of agricultural develop- ment which brought the State to its current achieve- ments. The sad lesson was well learned. During the last forty years farmers have not largely invested in mining, either in its producing or gambling phases, as the soil and its products have shown superior attractions. On the other hand, large fortunes made in mining have been securely and profitably placed in farming lands and enterprises in production. 92 RURAL CALIFORNIA Greater than any contribution which agriculture in California has ever received from mining and more profound in its influence on the development of satis- fied citizenship and industrial permanence in the commonwealth was the quickly discerned opportunity in agriculture, which has already been suggested. It amounted to nothing less than a change in the point of view and complete transformation of purpose among the argonauts. These eager adventurers came with the determination "to make their pile and go back home." They nearly all hoped it would be very- soon when such competence would be attained. They declared they had "no use for the country except to get the gold out of it." Of course such a purpose and ambition or the methods that many employed to achieve them would never have made a prosperous and permanent state nor have ministered to the attainment of high ideals of manhood and citizen- ship. It was the discernment of the opportunities in agriculture and the desirability of becoming a part of a durable industrial and home-making popu- lation in a country affording new advantages in profit- able work and enterprise and exceptional delights in living, which so quickly transformed a dream of adventure into a resolution toward permanent devel- opment. "Our climate and soil will not only produce all the cereals, grasses, vegetables of mammoth growth and superior quality, all the northern fruits to perfection but the most delicate fruits, trees and shrubs of the tropics. Our even, healthy and delicious climate is HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 93 unsurpassed even by the world-renowned Italian — a climate that at once gives life and strength to the newly arrived invalid and renovates broken-down con- stitutions from other climes. In short what other country presents so many inducements to the man of the northern states, who is six months chilled with frost and four months living in snow-banks; or the man of the south, who once a year flees from the pestilential heat; or the western man, whose first god is his rifle as a protector from the Indian? To establish the fact that this is the best country to live and die in, seventy-five in one hundred who leave this state return again,, fully satisfied that California is the country !" 1 It is interesting to note that this declaration was not made from any idea of the decline of mining, for none was anticipated. The gold product was still going at upwards of fifty millions a year. It was merely the awakening of the public mind to a greater industry of which California was capable and the direction of effort and investment toward its realiza- tion. Agriculture was not either a successor to nor a supplanter of mining, for the latter still continues as a great industry, and made an output for 1920 valued at nearly two hundred and fifty millions of dollars for all kinds of mineral substances.2 How- ever, agriculture supplemented mining and has attained an annual value of output two or three times 1 Rept. of "Visiting Committee" to investigate Calif, farms : in Rept. of Calif. State Agr. Soc., 1857, p. 30. 2 An official enumeration of the mining products is given in the Appendix D. 94 RURAL CALIFORNIA as great. It gave a new objective in the building of a permanent state to those who had come for personal enrichment alone. It opened a greater field for the high average intelligence, daring, initiative and resourcefulness. Mining lifted California out of the inertia and hopelessness of the preceding regime. Agriculture, by what it achieves and by what it inspires and provides for, still holds California aloft. Of course the fact should not be concealed that California mining and farming have not always sidled against each other in mutuality and recipro- cation. Sharp issues have arisen which aroused con- flicts engendering much ill feeling. The most serious was the injury to navigable streams and the ruin of river bottom lands by deep deposits of debris from hydraulic mining which is now prohibited by law wherever such streams are within reach of mining wastes. Another problem, still pending solution, is the destruction of considerable areas of river bottom land by a system of dredge-mining which lifts good land from the surface to a depth of many feet, trans- forming a part of the landscape from a stretch of orchards and meadows into a desolate unproductive welter of cobble stones and coarse gravel. The dredge miners buy at high prices the land they desire and thus far have the undisturbed right to destroy it. As the gold product by dredging has averaged for a number of years upwards of seven million dollars annually and is greater than all other forms of placer mining combined, the permanent ruin of large areas HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 95 of deep rich land is involved and the State is impov- erished to an extent which must be looked on as a multiple of any possible present profit. This outlook naturally alarms all those who are not personally advantaged by the operation. It is an interesting fact that on these lands which are now being destroyed, the farmers were the first miners, for they found that it was easy to have wells in all their pas- ture lots because the gold washed from the gravel they took out in well-digging would often pay the cost of getting the well. DEVELOPMENT OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION From the point of view of demand and supply of food products, a unique situation arose immediately on the mining rush to California. A floating popula- tion of perhaps a hundred thousand arrived within a few months in a territory which had before sup- ported perhaps ten thousand. This one hundred thousand concentrated themselves in a district in which hardly one thousand had hitherto resided and they were at an average distance of perhaps two hundred and fifty miles from the settlements with which they were connected only by bridle paths and cattle trails. The local population had largely joined in the gold rush, leaving the old men and the women to care for the ranches as best they could. The field opened to local production and the prices which promised unusual reward can best be appre- ciated by citation of the quantities and values of a 96 RURAL CALIFORNIA few articles of produce that were imported by sea in 1853, viz. : Dried apples 12,000 bbls. at $12 $ 144,000 Barley 294,000 sacks at 2V> 4 per Ib. 735,000 Bread 60,000 kegs at $10.50 630,000 Butter 140,0€0 kegs at $20 2,800.000 Flour 298,000 bbls. at $10 2,980,000 Oats 150,000 bbls. at $4 600,000 $7,889,000 Obviously these were only a few staples and no higher class foods and provisions are included. Although the rancheros gained much gold by selling their flocks and herds to furnish meat for the miners, they did not conceive the purpose of multiplying animals for that trade but were soon driving herds and flocks in from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and from old Mexico to furnish a supply which they could probably have met by wisely farming the breeding stock they already possessed. Quite in contrast with the foregoing was the Amer- ican recognition of the opportunity for profitable agriculture and their zeal to realize it. The first fresh fruits for San Francisco and the mines came from trees and vines surviving the partial abandon- ment of the old mission orchards and restored to fruitfulness by Americans who leased or purchased them. This was only a side issue of the general effort. Almost immediately on their assurance that the soil was surprisingly fertile if farmed aright, the newcomers began to plant everything which they con- ceived to be acceptable in the local markets and they HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 97 increased values, already fabulous, by seizing seeds for planting that came in by ship for food. They planted such large areas of some vegetables that the very first crop produced an over-supply., and a part would not sell for enough to meet the cost of taking it from the ground. On the whole, however, food production was exceedingly profitable. The achievements of the first few years in nearly all lines of production were very striking and inter- esting, but are beyond enumeration in this connec- tion. Some may be recalled later in the discussion of special products, where they may seem particularly significant. A single contrast will suffice to show the general advancement. From 1849 to 1854 inclusive there were imported, chiefly from Atlantic states and Chile, flour and wheat to the value of five or six mil- lions of dollars annually. In 1856 California pro- duced wheat enough for her own consumption and some to spare, which sixteen of the oldest settled states on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts and the Mississippi River did not do. What was done with wheat was also accomplished with many other products. The most significant thing was not the accomplishment itself but the spirit and purpose to build a great state which it engendered. At the State Fair of 1856 the orator made this declaration : "An experience of eight years, during which we have dug and shipped so enormous an amount of gold, out of which we have saved so little, ought to convince us that we shall never get rich by this 98 HURAL CALIFORNIA process. In this respect we furnish the most striking illustration that history records, of how little the precious metals add to the wealth of people in the absence of agricultural and mechanical industry. In my opinion it is time we had begun to feed and clothe ourselves and thus keep our gold at home to enable us to build better houses, extend and establish our farms, erect churches and colleges, construct railroads and build clipper ships and ocean steamers. In these things do true national wealth and indi- vidual prosperity consist." At the State Fair of 1857 rivalry with the world's greatest producing region of semi-tropical products was announced: "Every agricultural product reaches its highest perfection in our valleys and hillsides and in a very few years they can, and undoubtedly will, produce vast quantities for exportation and turn to other countries the present Mediterranean fleet of six hun- dred and forty-three vessels which annually leave for our Atlantic ports loaded with figs, lemons, oranges, almonds and the products of the vine, cur- rants and raisins, to the value of seven and a quarter millions of dollars. Italy and the countries border- ing on the Mediterranean annually produce over two hundred millions of dollars' worth of wool and other products — one half of which are sent abroad. California has climate and soil very similar and with the perseverance and indomitable energy of her in- habitants and the twelve millions of acres of arable land, should also, in due time, freight to foreign HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 99 markets her six hundred and forty-three ves- sels." Naturally as the Mediterranean products reached the outside world by water, the speaker was impressed with California's fitness for rivalry through her equal maritime situation. The building of an overland railway was quite as early descried as requisite to the agricultural development of the State. This picturesque declaration of it was made in 1856 : "We have one great, overshadowing want — a rail- way connecting us with the Atlantic seaboard. We have been too passive under this neglect. We have for eight years past quietly shipped our millions upon millions to Wall Street, from which golden streams were distributed throughout the land enrich- ing every part of the confederacy, whilst in return for all this treasure we have received little else than our board and clothing with the indefinite promise of a railroad at some future day. It is time we had demanded as a right the fulfillment of that promise, and if we shall live to see the day when the iron horse, with his impetuous speed, shall come from the Atlantic to quench his fiery thirst in the cool waters of the Pacific, then will our fondest visions have been realized and clouds of doubt will no longer obscure the bright future of California." It may assist the reader to secure a comprehensive view of the development of agricultural production in California and the leading special features thereof if a scenario is undertaken, thus : 1850-1860. Decade of wonders and dreams. Dem- 100 RURAL CALIFORNIA onstrations of productivity of the State in surprising volume and variety of staple crops and of un-Ameri- can products, recognized. Local population fully supplied and importation of staples displaced by local products and exportation thereof begun. Conceptions of world entry of unique California products confi- dently cherished. 1860-1870. Decade of wheat. Beginning of exports of wheat by specially chartered ships to Europe, which grew into larger fleets, year after year, until the peak of the movement was reached in 1896, after having won title in 1878 as the "greatest wheat state in the Union," the title being, however, soon lost to Minnesota even while the California wheat product was still increasing. 1870-1880. Decade of wool. California attains place as largest wool-producing state, with twice as many sheep as any other, and secured her greatest wool product in 1876. Wool production gave way to the growing convictions of the better use of land for other products for which the first decade of an overland railway brought not only a shipping outlet but a multitude of new settlers eager to invest in more intensive agriculture. It was the dawn of new devel- opment which closed the pioneer period in rural life and industry. 1880-1890. Decade of fruit. Not of greatest achievement for after forty progressive years that is still in the future. It was, however, the decade of definite and adequate foundation; eager demand for land; successful colonization and subdivision; wide- HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 101 spread irrigation enterprise; the birth time of sys- tematic organization for production,, protection and world-wide marketing of California fruits and fruit products, by increasing overland railway transporta- tion. It was the first decade of multiplied produc- tion and of actual first steps toward cooperation of producers to handle their own products although such enterprise had been foreshadowed almost from the beginning. 1890-1900. Decade of dairy awakening. State provision for establishment of purity of product and sanitation of surroundings. Government provision for standardization of products for long shipment. Wheat begins its decline and barley to advance to greater production than wheat ever attained. Coop- erative fruit-marketing organizations struggle for permanent existence with many casualties. A decade of reaction from booming development in all farming lines and of confident reorganization on more reason- able plans and sounder foundations. 1900-1910. Decade of advancement of live-stock industries. Wider recognition of profit and promise in alfalfa. Realization of large investments in meat- packing enterprises and transition from pioneer methods and policies to systematic operations. Gen- eral appreciation of pure-bred live-stock develops from individual beliefs and efforts of preceding decades. Conviction dawns that California will advance to very great development of stock breeding and feeding by utilization of superior adaptations long foreseen, and that fruit and general farming 102 RURAL CALIFORNIA will derive advantage and extension from such devel- opment. 1910-1920. Decade of notable achievements. Great volumes and values attained in nearly all classes of production; only sheep, horses, mules, rye and wheat acknowledge peaks of production passed in pre- vious decades. Organization of nearly all groups of producers into notably successful marketing asso- ciations. The State provides for official promotion of cooperative organization of agricultural producers. The war gives special products increased demand and popularity. From an outgo of ten millions in gold for imported food supplies in 1849, California advances to a local production thereof commercially valued at seven hundred and fifty millions in 1919, three- fourths of which, perhaps, bring gold or its equiva- lents for the advancement of the State. To enable the reader to cover the whole field of California agricultural products at a glance and at the same time recognize details enough to give the review satisfactory definiteness, the following tabula- tion has been undertaken. It has been arranged to serve also an historical purpose, for entry is made of each crop or product in the particular year in which it achieved its largest record of quantity and the value is given for that year. In most cases the value is also the greatest ever attained but that criterion is not chosen, because high market prices may indicate less rather than greater volume. Quantities produced are a truer measure of capacity. The figures cited are chiefly derived from the records of the United HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 103 States Department of Agriculture. As totals of annual meat products are not available for recent years and will not be until the census of 1920 is compiled, the numbers of animals are the only index available of the extent of that important and growing branch of California agriculture : Product Tear of Greatest Product Apples 1919 Apricots 1919 Berries 1918 Cherries 1920 Figs 1919 Grapes, table... 1919 Grapes, wine. . . 1919 Raisins, cured. . 1919 Lemons 1921 Olives 1919 Oranges 1921 Peaches 1919 Pears 1919 Plums 1919 Prunes 1919 Almonds 1919 Walnuts 1919 Nursery trees, etc 1919 Greenhouse products 1919 Beans . . 1918 Barley 1910 Corn 1919 Oats 1912 Rice 1920 Rye 1907 Sorghums 1918 Wheat 1896 Quantity Value 8,640,000 bushels $12,528,000 175,000 tons 14,000,000 33,243 " 6,847,500 17,500 3,500,000 11,000 1,650,000 200,000 15,000,000 400,000 20,000,000 182,000 38,325,000 5,300,000 13,250,000 8,800 1,408,000 22,500,000 boxes 49,500.000 440,000 tons 26,400,000 115,000 " 8,280,000 42,000 " 2,520,000 135,000 " 32,400,000 7,250 " 3,190,000 28,100 " 15,455,000 4,080 acres 5,003,298 sq. ft. 8,584,000 bushels 46,500,000 " 4,768,000 " 7.800,000 " 9,720,000 " 1,251,000 " 4,896,000 " 45,097,000 " 2,920,458 2,099,308 46,353,000 25,575,000 8,535,000 4,290,000 24,831,000 1,063,000 7,889,000 37,430,672 104 RURAL CALIFORNIA Product G F Garden seeds . Hay . Year of 'reatest 'roduct . 1919 1914 1920 . 1920 . 1920 Hops Cotton (lint) . Cotton (seed) . Potatoes 1917 Onions 1920 Beets (sugar) . . 1916 Sweet potatoes. 1918 Cantaloups 1920 Vegetables 1921 Dairy prod- ucts 1919-20 Eggs 1919 Poultry 1919 Honey 1920 Wool 1876 Slaughtering and meat packing 1920 Forest products. 1920 Horses 1893 Mules 1909 Cows, dairy 1918 Cattle, other... 1918 Sheep 1880 Swine . . 1919 Quantity 20,621,610 Ibs. 5,265,000 tons 21,000,000 Ibs. 73,150,000 " 83,500 tons 15,225,000 bushels 3,713,500 " 1,477,426 tons 1,190,000 bushels 14,000 carloads 26,923 " (Appendix H) 64,123,885 dozens 12,929,044 " 9,500,000 Ibs. 56,550,970 " 518,824 83,000 597,000 1,701,000 7,646,800 909,272 Value $24,902,792 43,173,000 7,350,000 13,167,000 1,419,000 22,838,000 2,785,000 9,311,000 1,785,000 6,000,000 13,900,000 99,004,358 31,420,704 8,921,040 1,140,000 8,482,545 84,000,000 60,000,000 28,010,045 8,881,000 43,282,000 71,612,000 12,287,816 13,850,907 No formal total is appended to the foregoing because the compilation does not represent the prod- ucts of any particular year. It may, however, gratify certain curiosity to know that the values aggregate over seven hundred and eighty million dollars, omit- ting of course the valuation of animals because they HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 105 represent no product but stock employed in produc- tion, of which the items of wool, dairy and slaughter- ing products are stated above. It may also be noted that the figures include only products which reach magnitude enough to count as commercial commodities; also that the quantities reported are only those which actually enter into the larger avenues of commerce and do not include local consumption on farms or in rural villages. Rural manufactures in California. The standing of California as a manufacturing state which, according to the United States Census of 1914, was ninth in the "Union, rests on an output of manufactured commodities of an agricultural character, fabricated in rural rather than urban com- munities. This standing has been attained recently, for the increase during the decade ending in 1914 was 176.9 per cent in value of all manufactured prod- ucts and during the same period California advanced from sixteenth to ninth place among the states. The shifting of preponderance of manufactures from urban to rural environment is also of recent occur- rence and the result has been the quick transforma- tion of several small towns into cities of considerable size and great promise. The newer large towns have grown, not by the usual process of ministration to their rural environment, but through the incursion of organized rural producers to build up and equip their own establishments and employ laborers to give their own productions commercial forms and to manage 106 RURAL CALIFORNIA the sale and transportation thereof. In this way the countryside is assuming an initiative and proprietary interest in city building and manifesting its self-con- fidence and resourcefulness. All manufacturing, however, in which California has engaged has shown some picturesque features. Almost immediately after the gold rush of 1849-1850, foundries and machine-shops were equipped in San Francisco to supply miners' machinery. Inventors were active and new and more capacious gold-extract- ing outfits were designed and constructed than were previously known. When mining declined in Cali- fornia, such machinery was still in demand for ship- ment to newer mines of the Pacific Slope and abroad. As styles of mining changed and new methods were employed, new machinery was produced to serve them, but, although this line of manufacturing was of considerable importance decades ago, it was of too specialized a character to become a great industry. One item out of the mining requirements that has survived and become distinctively great is the manu- facture of pumps, which has increased because of multiplied uses for pumps of great power and capac- ity. Their services in large undertakings in drain- age and irrigation indicates that these devices are now vastly more important to agriculture than they ever were to mining. Another picturesque line of California manufac- ture is ship-building. Many ships have been built for freight and fishery service in near-by seas and for ocean-transit as freighters and liners; a few war- HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 107 ships of good repute have been launched from ship- yards in San Francisco Bay; during the World War these yards won some distinction for speed in con- struction, but greatness in this manufacture has not yet been attained. Of machinery for agricultural uses, the anticipa- tions of earlier days have never been realized. Although California inventors and manufacturers have recently achieved notably in design and construc- tion of tractors, not only revolutionizing tillage to a considerable extent but also showing European armies a new way to make war ; and although many tools and implements for special uses are largely made in California, nevertheless the appliances for common agricultural uses are furnished by manufacturers in other states. The most distinctively Californian machine is the "combined harvester," which cuts, threshes, cleans and sacks (or pours into a bin- wagon) as it traverses the field. However, the decrease of grain-growing has set bounds on its service and distinction. California manufacturing was handicapped by the absence of a coal supply until the abundance of fuel- oil and of hydro-electric power was demonstrated. Formerly there was a discouraging difference in the supply of factory labor and the rate of wages but these factors of general discouragement in manu- facturing are disappearing. Prophets in industrial lines are predicting that the advantages of mild climate and its incidental gains both to employers and workmen will tend to advance general manufac- 108 RURAL CALIFORNIA turing in accordance with the advance in population and trade which is being realized. At present, how- ever, her open door in manufacturing attainment is in the increase of distinctively rural industries. The totals of values produced by manufacturing in California, according to the United States Census, for the years indicated, are as follows : 1919 Value of products ........... $712,800,764 $1,981,204,781 Value, less cost of raw materials 265,326,233 762,346,183 Selecting from the schedules of 1914 manufactures of distinctively rural character, the rural contribu- tion to the development of California manufacturing becomes apparent, viz. : Canning and preserving ........... $ 61,162,849 Timber and lumber ............... 52,860,272 Slaughtering and meat-packing .... 50,011,820 Flour-mill products .............. 24,078,735 Butter, cheese, condensed milk ..... 30,466,428 Sugar-beets ...................... 15,528,666 Vinous liquors ................... 11,299,858 Leather, tanned and finished ....... 10,020,739 Food preparations ................ 8,010,713 Fertilizers ....................... 2,330,761 Agricultural implements .......... 1,962,235 Total ........................ $267,733,076 Thus it appears that 37 J per cent of the total value of manufactured commodities of California is rural. The total of $72,800,764 includes the products of seventy-one specified lines of manufacture and HISTORY OF AGRICULTURE 109 includes also $133,021,601 as the value of the prod- ucts of "all other industries" which are not specified. Those specified include everything from a newspaper to a bottle of medicine and those not specified may be taken to include everything else made by hand or machine for public sale. In such a broad and inclu- sive total, the percentage of agricultural manufac- tures is remarkable. It is also notable that of the four highest values assigned to specified industries three are those named first in the tabulation above. The second of these four is petroleum products and they might properly be counted also a rural industry as all the petroleum refineries are in rural districts and such a preponderance of gasoline is released on rural highways and in generating power for agricul- tural purposes. The greatest of all the manufactures of California is canning and preserving. This consists almost wholly of the canning of fruits and vegetables and the drying of fruits, with a small fraction of the value consisting of dried vegetables. Next in rank is petroleum products. The third is forest products and the fourth is slaughtering and meat-packing. The scope of these and the others in the agricultural schedule is sufficiently indicated by their titles. The progress and attainment of California in slaughtering and meat-packing are shown by the United States Census Bureau as follows: 191k 1909 190k 1899 Number of es- tablishments 108 94 76 64 Value of products ...$50,011,820 $34,280,000 $22,013,000 $15,817.000 110 RURAL CALIFORNIA The figures include, of course, not cattle only, but also sheep and swine. In view of the estimate of a product-value of $84,000,000 for 1919, "slaughtering and meat-packing" will advance to a higher place among "manufacturing industries" when the details of the census of 1920 become available. The same is true of all other agricultural manufactures. CHAPTEE V AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES, PLANTS AND CROPS OF CALIFORNIA IN variety of crops grown, California leads in this country, due largely to her great area, varied climatic conditions, and range of elevation. In estimating the quantities and values of certain staple crops in the different states for the year 1920, the United States Department of Agricul- ture ranks California as the fourth state on the basis of production, reaching a "farm value" of $587,600,- 591, as shown in detail in Appendix G. The farm value is of course less than the value crops bear when they reach wholesale markets and the latter is gener- ally cited in popular valuations of production. In 1921 California was advanced by the same authority to second place among the United States on the aggregate value of leading crops produced — because while the value of the crops of rival states declined from 60 per cent to 66 per cent, California crops declined but 41 per cent, owing to their unique character. HAY AND FORAGE The first decade of grazing of cattle and sheep by Americans was carried to over-stocking the land and "areas which carried thousands of animals 111 112 RURAL CALIFORNIA before, yielded scant sustenance to hundreds." Pas- ture improvement became the general demand. The necessity was conceived to be for perennial forage plants which would hold life in the root to displace the seed grasses, as the abundant annual plants were commonly called. Even after the idea of summer verdure on dry lands was abandoned, the hope remained of securing plants which, though sere above, could be started by the fall rains from the roots and not be dependent on growth from seed. All these nutritious forage plants which finished their life courses in a single year, and there was a multitude of them representing many botanical fam- ilies, were held at first to be native, although some of the most conspicuous and best of them were not indigenous but introduced, either with intent or by accident, by the Spaniards. Among these were wild oats (Avena fatua), bur clover (Medicago denticu- lata), alfilerillas (Erodium cicutarium and moscha- tum) and others of less moment and value. Some of these have advanced from California into the interior grazing states and have made a good record. Effort and enterprise to secure perennials began with the pioneers who sent for seed of plants which figured in the permanent pastures in all parts of the world whence they had come. Subsequently, the Agricultural Experiment Station pursued the search broadly and systematically from the very beginning of its activities in 1875. Actually hundreds of peren- nial grasses and forage plants have been introduced during the last seventy years. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 113 Naturally, as the chief difficulty to be overcome was the long soil drought of the dry season, much importance was attached at first to securing plants from arid and semi-arid regions. If the early Cali- fornians had known more about the forage resources of such regions and the ways in which grazing ani- mals are maintained in them, they would have expected and expended less in this line of effort for practically nothing has ever been gained by introduc- tion of forage plants which grew only in arid regions. Quite contrary to expectation, however, a few plants grown for centuries in humid regions and most hardy against soil saturation or even submergence possess a resistance which also serves them well in surviving the opposite kind of adversity in a certain degree of drought. There was disappointment that such grasses did not make a good turf but under moderate drought, even through a long rainless season on a soil naturally retentive, they kept life in the root. They assumed a bunchy habit of growth, and became coarser in texture as the result of their struggle with trying conditions. Though the ground-cover of bunch- grasses lacks the beauty, succulence and, in some respects, the value of the dense turf of the humid climates, its superiority to bare or weed-laden land is so marked that complaint of tussocky fields is silenced. So long as the bunch maintains its central inclosed life and verdure and will start freely into growth whenever intermittent moisture penetrates to its roots, the arid land stockman feels that he has perennial pasture, and has escaped the danger of 114 RURAL CALIFORNIA its running out, which always attends a dependence on annuals. It must be frankly admitted, how- ever, that though good grasses which will withstand protracted drought in some situations have been found, they will not survive the summer in all loca- tions. There are large areas of dry hills with shallow soils which rapidly lose their moisture, either by drainage or evaporation or both; and there are arid plains with loose soils which cannot retain moisture near enough to the surface to serve the purposes of shallow-rooting plants. In such trying situations even the hardiest perennial grasses thus far secured will not live through the dry season and do not give assurance of summer growth on dry hill and plain area without irrigation. On the other hand, there are large areas of valley and uplands in the northwest coast region and in the mountain valleys in the northern part of the State (see frontispiece and Chapter I) where rainfall is abundant and the dry season relatively short; also in the lowlands along the rivers of the interior val- leys, where the soil-moisture is maintained by summer overflow or by seepage, perennial grasses in consider- able variety have established themselves. The grasses which years of trial have shown to be best for mod- erately dry lands in such situations are English and Italian rye-grasses (Lolium perenne), orchard-grass (Dactylis glomerata) , red- top (Agrostis), and meadow soft grass locally called mesquite (Notholcus lanatus), tall oat-grass (Arrhenatherum elatius). Mention of early introductions should include also AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 115 red clover (TrifoUum pmtense), white clover (T. repens) and alsike (T. hybridum), because of their value to the upper coast valleys and in interior lowlands, where the water is constantly too near the surface or often rises to submergence, both condi- tions hostile to alfalfa. Red clover is also notably successful on irrigated land in the foothills. Timothy (Phleum pratense) is an introduction of note because of its growth on the upper coast and moister moun- tain valleys of the extreme north of the State, even though it resolutely refuses to succeed elsewhere. All the plants named thus far were introduced by private enterprise. Out of more than one hundred fifty introduced by the California Experiment Station since 1875, only four have shown themselves entitled to further consideration, viz., Smilo grass or many- flowered millet-grass (Oryzopsis miliacea), Schra- der's brome (Bromus unioloides), awnless brome (Bromus inermis), and Harding grass (Phalaris stenoptera). Some of these have established them- selves and are yielding value in wild pasturage, but none has solved the old problem of growth during- relatively low winter temperatures and soil-satura- tion of the rainy season and either summer growth or, at least, survival of summer heat and drought on valley plains and foothill slopes. Therefore, securing an all-around dependable grass for the improvement of unirrigated pasturage is still a problem. The rea- sonable policy of the olden time to refrain from over- stocking, to give the annual plants a chance to make seed before the rainy season closes and to return the 116 RURAL CALIFORNIA stock later, to graze the "dry feed/' and distribute the seed of the mature plants, remains the most prom- ising prescription for wild pasture maintenance. During the last few years, several coarse summer- growing plants have been introduced and have shown promise of giving large weights of forage on naturally moist or irrigated lands, but they are either dead or dormant during the rainy season and, therefore, do not meet the prevalent requirements for success in this connection. This is also true of Bermuda-grass (Cynodon dactylon) which has invaded cultivated land where its presence is not desired while it has satisfied a few with its river and levee bank-holding, and its tolerance of a certain amount of alkali in the soil. Some gold-seeker coming around the Horn and tarrying in Chile or some Chilean sending plants and seeds for sale in San Francisco (for such traffic is on record) introduced to California seed of a plant called "Chilean clover" in 1851 or earlier. In that year forty acres were sown by W. E. Cameron on the bank of the Yuba Eiver near Marysville. About forty acres were sown each year afterwards on the same ranch, until in 1858 there were 270 acres well set with the plant. The alfalfa was pastured from Feb- ruary 1 to December 1, 1857, for hire at the rate of $3 per capita a month. The books showed that 2270 head were pastured for ten months or an average of 227 a month or over eight head to the acre, cash receipts being $25 an acre each month. The alfalfa in three fields had been fed down twice and on June AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 117 15, 1858, when it was officially visited by a committee of the State Agricultural Society, was three feet high and in bloom. The alfalfa was not irrigated; the previous year a freshet had washed the bank, showing the roots twenty feet below the surface. "While all other grasses and clovers under similar circumstances are perfectly dry and yellow, the alfalfa exhibits most luxurious green/' is the report of the committee. Soon after its introduction it was given its Spanish name "alfalfa/' and after a longer interval it was recognized to be the old-world plant of historic renown, known popularly in Europe as "lucerne" and to the botanists as Medicago sativa. All lands do not have water at twelve to twenty feet; some have water only at hundreds of feet; some do not have soil open to the water at any depth but are shut off from it by impenetrable hardpans or layers of alkali; some lands have water which will not remain at a proper depth but will rise too near the soil surface or above it. Therefore, it was soon learned that alfalfa could not be the universal summer-verdure plant by rainfall on all lands because natural conditions sometimes gave it too high a water-table which caused its fleshy roots to decay and sometimes sank so low that moisture fell below even its surprisingly great powers of penetration. Alfalfa is profitable only when its demands are met by adequate irrigation. It will accept soil of great variation in quality and depth if irrigation is wisely administered so that it is never either desiccated or drowned. Thus alfalfa, which the pioneers hoped 118 RURAL CALIFORNIA would deliver them from irrigation, which they saw at first no way to apply to the vast interior plains, has become the greatest irrigated plant of the State and beyond. It is interesting that although lucerne was introduced at an early date to the Atlantic states both north and south, it never widely demonstrated supe- riority to other clovers nor did it advance far west- ward. On the other hand, the same plant under its Spanish name alfalfa, moved eastward from Cali- fornia until it again appeared full of honors on the Atlantic seaboard, where it had been neglected for generations. The eastward movement is interesting. The Mormons of Salt Lake were pioneers in irriga- tion by Americans on the Pacific Slope, but they had no alfalfa until they saw the California demonstra- tion and profited by it. Alfalfa followed irrigation water in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona and New Mexico. Then came the movement eastward from the Eocky Mountains. Kan- sas and Nebraska first, and the whole sweep of the Mississippi Valley; then to the Atlantic Slope from New England to Georgia. No single kind of plant (either herb, vine, or tree) is producing so great value in California as the alfalfa. No other comes so quickly to the home- makers' help on irrigated land or on suitable soil under rainfall, if properly protected from its enemies. No plant, save a vine or tree, endures so long in profitable service, or is so good to fit land for every other crop. Alfalfa is largely the basis of the fol- lowing marketed products of the State for 1919: AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 119 Dairy $74,515,381 Poultry 2,586,440 Eggs 18,120,080 Honey 950,000 It may seem strange at first to credit eggs and honey to alfalfa. The egg product in the alfalfa- growing districts is increasing rapidly, and even in the coast regions, where alfalfa is little grown, alfalfa hay and meal from the interior enter largely into poultry rations. As for honey, which was formerly made on wild bee pasturage, the chief product comes now from the alfalfa fields of the irrigated valleys. If it is objected that the dairy product should not be wholly credited to alfalfa, let it be noticed that no credit is given to the plant for its vast meat produc- tion and its contribution to the motive power in farm work stock. In fact, there are only enumerated what might be called largely by-products of alfalfa, but the case may be safely committed on the evidence given, in expectation of a verdict that alfalfa is worth more than a hundred million dollars annually to California. Naturally the absence of the meadow grasses of humid countries which excited the apprehension of the pioneers was accompanied by a quandary as to what they should do for hay. They learned that wild-oat hay, of which there was more than abun- dance, could be cut whenever there was a good annual rainfall. The pioneers soon found that wild oats were just as hard to eradicate as eastern meadow grasses were difficult to get in. Cronise in his 120 RURAL CALIFORNIA "Natural Wealth of California" (1868) gives the fol- lowing picture : "When California became first known to Ameri- cans the face of the country was nearly everywhere covered with wild oats. Though parched, in the long summer, the grain held firmly in its capsule, giving good pasture. The wild oat has bearded projections with bended joints like the legs of a grasshopper. The first rains limber out the joints which, being again dried by the sun, shrink, causing the berry to jump about, giving it wide distribution over the land — and falling into cracks in the soil is preserved in these natural receptacles from birds, squirrels and other animals." If hay could be made of wild oats which have par- ticular ability to hold on from year to year without perennial roots, the question arose as to why barley and wheat could not be sown to cut for hay when con- tinued haying of wild oats took away the seed and re- duced the yield too low. Therefore, the problem of how to get hay in California remained settled until the desirability of alfalfa was fully demonstrated and it became the chief hay of the State. Of the relative desirability of hay from grains cut green and from timothy and other meadow grasses, the only enduring opposition to the former was put up by the quartermasters of the United States Army, and this existed until very recently. When the con- tinued occupation of the Philippines made it neces- sary to ship hay across the Pacific, it took some ef- fort by local congressmen to get Pacific Coast con- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 121 tractors a chance to file bids and longer still to ad- mit the grains cut green to the place occupied by timothy on the army schedules, but finally oat and even barley hay became admissible to the govern- ment mule menu. This fact is mentioned to empha- size the contrast between the conservatism of the army and the ready acceptance of grain hay by the pioneers who saw what the Mexicans did with horses. The more specific demonstration came later when the race horse magnates put a test on the efficiency of grain hay and stopped at no expenditure to secure the advantage of it. Joseph Cairn Simpson, who was probably the greatest equine philosopher of the last century, was firmly convinced that the suprem- acy of California horses, so clearly demonstrated a few decades ago, was due in good part to the cli- mate and the feed, and he used to point to the prac- tice of expert horsemen as supporting his conten- tion. Simpson gave these facts: "A test between Timothy hay imported from Ore- gon and wheat hay of California resulted in a decided preference for the latter. That estimate has been endorsed by many trainers from the east. Hickok, Marvin, Goldsmith and Salisbury, after one trip east with trotters, when eastern hay had to be used, be- came so well satisfied of the superiority of California hay that in subsequent eastern trips they took a season's supply with them. There were differences of opinion as to which kind was best: wheat, oats, wheat and oats, and wild oats each had its advocates. The crowning testimony of its excellence was when 122 RURAL CALIFORNIA Edward Corrigan, known at the time all over the United States as one of the most successful man- agers and trainers of race horses (which achieved many notable victories on every prominent race course from San Francisco to New York and from Chicago to New Orleans) shipped a detachment of his horses .from California to England. Accom- panying the horses went several carloads of Cali- fornia hay — enough to last his large stable for a year. This was because his horses did not do as well in distant parts as they did when trained in California, and this he could only ascribe to the superiority of the hay, as all the other conditions in distant parts were favorable." Although grain hay was at first challenged, its victory was easy compared with the struggle alfalfa hay had to make for its deserts. The present popu- larity and wide use of the latter is in sharp contrast to its disfavor thirty or forty years ago, when sharp discrimination was made against butter manufac- tured from alfalfa-fed cows by city receivers who charged that its ill flavor made it impossible to sell it at anything like the price of coast butter and inti- mated that the cream must be "doped" in some way. The dairymen proved that they were feeding noth- ing but alfalfa and alfalfa hay and the trouble was corrected by changes in feeding materials and meth- ods and in handling the milk and cream. During the decade following 1880, there was great difficulty over bad butter in the then new alfalfa district around Fresno. "Country butter" was declared too bad for AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 123 good axle-grease and "city butter," sent through San Francisco from the coast dairy districts, was con- sidered indispensable to good housekeeping. Here again alfalfa and alfalfa hay came under indictment which endured for a time, until the large well- equipped creameries were opened in the alfalfa dis- tricts and began their conflict with the coast estab- lishments for standing both in quantity and quality of product — and thus the prejudice against interior valley butter faded away. Since then the greatest butter production in the State has developed in the interior alfalfa regions and the greater part of the city milk supply also comes from alfalfa feeding, the hay being freely used in the old coast dairy regions where the plant is not largely grown. Alfalfa hay for horses then came under indict- ment and city teamsters would not use it. Not only did it make the horses washy and prone to undue perspiration, but the public objected to having the pavements defiled with their excreta. Although al- falfa hay can be utilized in a proper way even for horses at hard hauling in the city streets, its unwise use has created a lasting prejudice against it, which it is hard for horse feeders in the alfalfa districts to consider reasonable as they rely on it largely for their country work horses. However, as city motors are now so largely fed on gasoline, the city hay sup- ply is a diminishing quantity, both in use and in public interest. On the whole, alfalfa hay may be said to have made good for all purposes, to a degree far beyond early expectations. 124 RURAL CALIFORNIA The extent to which dependence is placed in Cali- fornia on grains cut green and on alfalfa for the lo- cal and export hay trade is shown by the following classification of hays for the two latest years in which such segregation is available: HAY BY VARIETIES, 1916-1917 1916 1917 (tons) (tons) Timothy 44,000 101,000 Timothy and clover mixed . . 44,000 121,000 Clover alone 87,000 75,000 Alfalfa 1,838,000 2,237,000 Millet and sorghums 5,000 Grains cut green for hay. . . 2,056,000 1,714,000 Other tame hay 306,000 307,000 Wild, salt, and prairie hay. 240,000 259,000 Total all hay 4,615,000 4,819,000 One cannot be quite sure of the accuracy of this classification, because the schedule is the same as used in all parts of the country and those making estimates may have had to throw figures somewhat to get them in. The product of "timothy and clover" and of "other tame grasses" seems too large and those suggesting "coarse forage" are too small to include fresh-fed and siloed corn and sorghum, bean straw, and the like. The chief interesting item in the table is the relative standing of hay from alfalfa and from grains cut green and their total compared with the whole product, of which it is, roughly, four- fifths. Even the spread of irrigation has given little more of humid region grasses except in suburban lawns. Irrigation has merely magnified alfalfa, which AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 125 is now in a winning race against grains cut green, in which alfalfa has taken the lead during the last decade. It will require the careful enumeration of the census of 1920 to determine the matter definitely. It may of course be urged that the cry of the coun- try for "wheat to win the war" may have caused some grain to stand to maturity which would other- wise have been cut green for hay; but, on the other hand, much alfalfa was plowed up in 1917 to plant beans of which California quadrupled her normal product, also to "win the war/' Since then, however, the old land has returned to alfalfa and a vast area of new land has been added to its acreage, which has helped to gain the total valuation of the hay product of California, which reached $102,320,000 in 1920, although the tonnage, owing to war distractions and to seasonal irregularity, was less than in 1914. GRAIN CROPS During a century California has twice passed from a considerable surplus in wheat production to a lack of it for the uses of her own population, not by flood nor drought, nor by any other natural phenomenon, but by her own choice. In 1818 the missions pro- duced 82,500 bushels of wheat, and in 1840 the rancheros were exporting to Mexico as much as 12,- 000 bushels; in 1850 the American gold-seekers were crying for bread, and wheat and flour were brought in ships from all the quarters of the globe. In 1860 California produced wheat beyond her own needs and 126 RURAL CALIFORNIA began her career as a world supply. Before 1905, the State began to eat more wheat than she pro- duced and for a decade or more ranked as a consum- ing country. California does not stand as low in general cereal production as these facts might indi- cate, because she is now the largest barley-producing state in the Union and has attained, in volume but not in value, a higher producing and exporting mark in barley than ever attained in wheat. Wheat-growing by Americans came about in this way. During the first decade of greatest gold out- put, there was wide trial of agricultural production, chiefly for home use and to displace imports. This was successfully done with many products that did not require much skilled labor, but the crops which could be most easily, quickly and cheaply produced were demonstrated to be cereal grains. Wool, dairy products, fruit, and the like, were shown to be super- latively suited to the natural conditions but they all required more men, money and time than to grow grains. For these reasons, California fell into wheat at first just as. do all other new countries and found out later that her wheat was in particular request because of its whiteness and softness and its blend- ing well with the dark harder varieties which Medi- terranean and Atlantic ports of America were send- ing to Great Britain and the north of Europe. The war of the early sixties assured good prices and Cali- fornia entered the list of wheat supply countries under most favorable conditions. This achievement followed an agricultural and not I AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 127 a commercial initiative, which is rather unusual. At the opening of the first permanent pavilion of the State Agricultural Society in Sacramento, in 1860, it was announced that "samples of California-grown wheat sent to the chief agricultural societies of both hemispheres elicit the most unqualified testimony to its great superiority — which testimony is sufficiently corroborated by the price it brings in foreign markets whither the farmers have, from the last harvest, shipped already a very large amount to various parts of the world." At the State Fair of 1860, the late John Bidwell said: "From 1848 to 1853 we were dependent upon importation from abroad for almost everything — including the staff of life. In 1853 we imported 498,740 barrels of flour. We are now able to export half a million ourselves. In 1853 we imported 80,186 bags of wheat — now the scales have turned and we are able to export. Our success in raising to the greatest perfection this the most valuable staple of the world involves the momentous question of our capacity to augment the production until we can justly claim, that ours is the granary of the Pacific hemisphere/' General Bidwell lived long enough to see Cali- fornia become the leading wheat state in the Union, over Minnesota, her rival of that time, and to see her produce in 1878 and 1879, two wheat crops with a farm value for each of about $40,000,000, more than twice the value of her gold output for each of those years. 128 RURAL CALIFORNIA The production of wheat in California in United States Census years has been as follows : Year Bushels Farm Value 1850 17,328 1852 271,763 1860 5,928,470 1870 16,676,702 $15,592,000 1880 29,017,707 39,524,496 1890 40,869,337 22,131,778 1900 36,534,407 16,555,304 1910 9,900,000 9,306,000 1913 4,200,000 3,990,000 1917 7,425,000 14,850,000 1919 * 16,335,000 33,323,000 California's present capacity for wheat is shown by the quick return made to large production when both price and patriotism urged it in 1918. This was done without taking land from other crops, for all were largely increased by the same motives. No matter how great the population of California may become or intensive special industries, with fruits, vegetables and live-stock, there will always be land for wheat. Coast valleys and uplands, interior val- leys and foothills, mountain valleys, lands reclaimed by drainage, lands protected from drought by irri- gation or by rainfall conserved by tillage — every- where in fact, up to a certain elevation, wheat can be successfully raised, if the right variety is grown in the proper way. There is, therefore, much satisfaction in the dem- onstration that California can return to large wheat production without displacing other products and that 1 1920 was a dry yiear : acreage and product were reduced nearly one-third. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 129 having reduced wheat-growing until one-half the local consumption had to be supplied from outside, the State can not only return to eating her own bread, but can produce also for export, preferably not wheat but flour., for the milling of which she is well equipped and the exportation of which was large and active even when the wheat had to be brought from other states for the grinding. When wheat-growing in California fell to its low- est output, production was only about one-half of the local consumption. World experience indicates that no highly developed commonwealth where natural conditions favor the growth of wheat departs so far from a home supply. The ratio of imported to home-grown wheat in European countries is, in nor- mal times, as follows: Great Britain, three-fourths imported; Germany, one-third; France, one-ninth; Italy, one-fourth ; Spain, one-fifth imported. Great Britain is in a group by herself because of large population of trading, manufacturing and lei- sure classes and enforced idleness of so much land. The other countries are better instances of small farms and intensive agriculture and they are largely producing their own wheat, as the fractions show. In their cases, the grain is produced chiefly as a part of the output of small and diversified farming. Of the several countries, France most resembles Cali- fornia in area and farm products. To support her population, which is fifteen times larger, France only needs to import one-ninth of her bread requirements, although giving much land to high-class special prod- 130 RURAL CALIFORNIA •acts. France is a demonstration of the fact that a fertile country with a climate favoring it can be most highly developed in the line of special prod- ucts and still grow her own bread. From an agricultural point of view, wheat is an indispensable factor in rotations for the maintenance of fertility in the soil. A high-priced cereal is the col- lector of the value which the other factors of the ro- tation store up. There are two high-priced cereals, wheat and rice, and both will serve as rotation-col- lectors, but wheat is vastly more available because of the extra water and soil handling which rice re- quires. Therefore, wheat is indispensable in im- proved farming of the future. California should produce her own flour and enough for export. The milling process saves to the State the most valuable part of the grain, namely, the bran and other feeding stuffs required for dairy and other branches of the live-stock industry which indirectly enrich the soil and increase all products, with their by-products of manure. From this point of view, it might answer to import wheat and export flour, but California's milling industry will be most permanent and prosperous if it can command home- grown wheat. Great mills have a natural tendency to draw near to plenty of wheat. In the change of objectives from production of export wheat suitable for blending by foreign mill- ers to the local production of flour both for home use and export, it became necessary to demonstrate the possibility of growing in California wheats richer AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 131 in gluten to displace or reduce the need of import- ing such varieties to mix with the soft white kinds characteristic of the State. This was undertaken zealously with the result that several wheat varie- ties not formerly grown are now preferred. It is desirable for California to continue wheat production because the wheat plant makes its chief growth during the winter or rainy season and turns at once into vegetation much moisture which would otherwise be lost in run-off or evaporation. Because the winter is a growing season, it is possible to se- cure maximum results from a minimum of precipi- tation. Therefore, the arts of better tillage, which have come to be called dry-farming, will do more in California than in any cold winter climate. In districts where the rainfall is scant even for dry- farming, wheat is also desirable because it is irri- gated in the winter when water is most abundant in streams and least needed for fruit and forage crops. Wheat-growing in California is undergoing modification in cultural policies and methods which are beyond the scope of this writing, but assurance may be taken that they are contributing notably to the security and profitability of production. It has been intimated that wheat-growing during its four decades of great exportable surplusage brought to California as much value as the gold output aggregated, from the discovery to the pres- ent day. Naturally so potent an agency, influencing life, labor, trade, invention, manufacturing, trans- portation, and the like, has not only played a very 132 RURAL CALIFORNIA important part in the development of the State, but has shaped it to its own needs and uses. No indus- try has ever peopled the harbor of San Francisco with ships as did the wheat business and no trans- portation gambler has ever made and lost so much money in any craft as in ships for wheat. Similarly, no farm product ever gathered land into such ducal areas or moved over it such capacious machinery of production or broke up so many men by its lure into speculative production or trade as has wheat. It hastily subdued a vast area of wild lands which were afterwards largely turned to more productive uses — to fruit planting and alfalfa-growing, the latter the basis for large dairy production and for the chief part of the progress made in improved live-stock enterprises, for the most notable achievements with better horses,, cattle, sheep and swine have been se- cured on lands first farmed for export wheat. Wheat- growing also threw much land into good hands and the wheat trade furnished wealth for city building. Its effect on the development of good citizenship was also notable. Although it wrecked some families by the spirit of gambling and allied dissipation which it engendered, it stimulated a broader view of farm- ing in others and many of the best of the second gen- eration farmers, mentally well equipped and ade- quately capitalized, are the sons of the old wheat- growers of four or five decades ago. Although California wheat-growers never attained fully capable and continuous organization, they have from time to time undertaken cooperative enterprise AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 133 with more or less success. In the first decade of large exports (1860 to 1870), they undertook to ship wheat for growers' account but they lacked con- trol, capital and experience, and commercial competi- tors triumphed and never afterward yielded control. They did, however, achieve much for fairer financ- ing and storage in the following decade when, largely through the Grange, they secured from the legisla- ture a law providing for negotiable warehouse re- ceipts for grain in storage in the country and they built many warehouses at interior shipping points which relieved them from immediate sale or ship- ment to metropolitan storage at high cost. When wheat was greatest the growers had, however, the spirit of cooperative organization but were handi- capped in realization of permanent organization by the fact that in the public mind as well as in their own apprehensions, wheat-growing was regarded as a passing phase of production and not as an enduring industry. If, however, the current revival of interest in wheat should endure, there is every reason to be- lieve that growers will control the product by as- sumption of cooperative relations among themselves as so many other groups of producers have done during the last decade, as will be shown in detail in Chapter VII. Barley and wheat have had a close run for su- premacy in California. On the whole, barley has led in aggregate volume of production for the last sev- enty years and wheat in aggregate value. Wheat sprang sooner into production beyond local needs, but 134 RURAL CALIFORNIA barley endured longer in such surplusage; in fact, when wheat declined below local needs and wheat ships practically disappeared from our harbors, barley advanced in production. From a local point of view, though wheat can claim the greater aggregate of value for all the years together, barley came in 1917, owing to volume of product and war prices combined, to reach a single year's value of product which ex- ceeded the value of any single year's wheat. These elements in barley production justify the following statistical review, which can be compared with the similar record for wheat given on page 128 : Barley Farm Valise 1850 9,712 1852 2,973,734 1860 4,415,426 1870 8,783,490 $ 7,230,440 1880 12,463,561 8,979,349 1890 17,548,386 11,327,441 1900 25,149,325 6,388,153 1910 46,441,954 25,575,000 1915 39,440,000 24,453,000 1916 33,320,000 31,654,000 1917 39,150,000 46,980,000 1918 34,320,000 39.468,000 1919 * 30,000,000 42,306,000 California figured only once as the leading wheat state of the Union, while she took the leadership in barley before 1860 and maintained it for half a century. In 1909 the leadership went to Minne- sota and in 1915 North Dakota advanced above Min- nesota, making California third in the barley list; but 1916 restored the leadership to California and 1 Scant rainfall in 1920 reduced the crop, nearly 7 per cent, and low prices reduced the total value one-third. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 135 it has been retained since that date by a product of about one-fifth of all the barley grown in the United States. This supremacy becomes intelligible when it is understood that in California barley stands not only for potable virtues, which are now at least temporarily obscured except from the point of view of exports, but stands also largely for oats and corn, as will be cited presently. Barley was the chief bread grain of mankind in most ancient times. It is interesting, however, to remember that though barley did consent to go 12,000 feet high on the Himalayas, and north to Scotland on the map of Europe, it always manifested prefer- ence for semi-tropical salubrity and was the chief bread grain around the Mediterranean until the an- cient Romans brought wheat from Egypt and took to feeding the barley to their horses as they are do- ing in Italy and Spain to the present day. The Spaniards brought barley with them — to Lower Cali- fornia in 1697 and to our California in 1769. Bar- ley reached the Atlantic Coast about a century earlier, but fell into disfavor because it only yielded about twenty bushels to the acre and only then on land rich, early, warm, and mellow; while in California it yielded incredibly, even under the rude husbandry of the padres. At the East farmers grew oats more extensively, in California the movement was reversed, for barley was easier because of favoring soil and climatic conditions. At the first fair ever held in California, which was in San Francisco in 1851, a sample of barley 136 RURAL CALIFORNIA was shown from San Jose Valley of which it was said: "This sample represents a crop of 965 bushels from less than five acres." As this would be 200 bushels to the acre, we do not pass on its credibility. At the same fair another sample was shown "repre- senting a crop of 53,000 pounds-from 12 acres, grown by Madame Scoofy of Sonora." As this would be about ninety bushels to the acre, it is reasonable, for such a crop was frequently reported at that date and since then also. At the same fair there were mentioned stools of wheat and barley "with 150 and 200 mammoth stalks from one root — the product of single seeds/' which is also credible. The free-stooling of barley during the long winter growing season is matched by the suc^ cession of volunteering. In 1856 a committee of judges for the State fair made this memorandum: "Near Santa Clara on the road to Alviso we saw a field of fifty acres of volunteer barley. This is the fifth crop from a single sowing and the yield this year has averaged 43 bushels to the acre. It has received no special care." It is difficult now to ap- preciate the sensations of pioneer farmers who came from parts of the country where barley was aban- doned because it required the best land and best care to get even 20 bushels to the acre. Here was a man reaping annually more than twice that much barley from seed sowed five years before and the field had .never been given anything but a little harrowing since it was sown. California quickly became the chief producer of the grain in the Union, the product in AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 137 1857 being 5,980,485 bushels, while the whole United States in 1850 produced only 5,167,000 bushels. Early Californians, both Spanish and American, took to barley instead of oats because the former was easier to grow in the more arid parts of the State, where the early agriculture was undertaken. This was owing both to acceptance of aridity and to the greater resistance of barley to rust. However, this was not the full explanation. By virtue of its kernel contents and its adhering chaff, barley is really the only rival of oats for stock feeding, both in nutritive- ness and digestibility. Although in this conclusion Californians merely add their experience to that of the ancient Mediterranean peoples, they had a long struggle to convince others of the stock-feeding value of barley. It took a full half century, for instance, to convince the quidnuncs of the United States Army that barley was a wholesome cereal food for a government mule and if it had not been for the acci- dent of feeding this animal in the Philippines with supplies from the Pacific Coast, where barley was abundant and oats were shy, it is probable that to this day barley would be banished from the official mule menu. The vindication of barley must now be considered indisputable, for both the victorious grand champions from the University of California Farm at the Chicago International Show in 1917 had bar- ley as their chief grain feed. Excellent barley is grown in the Rocky Mountain states, and to the northeastward, in North Dakota, Minnesota, Wisconsin and in Canada. In this region 138 RURAL CALIFORNIA barley succeeds, not because it likes hardship but be- cause it is naturally very rapid in its course and can, therefore, sprout in the gentle springtime and sprint to a harvest before the autumn rains and fogs dim its brightness. Under such conditions barley is sown in northern climates from April 15 to May 25, about the time of its ripening in California. Growing in the California valleys from fall and early winter sow- ing, it advances more slowly during the rainy sea- son, stools more amply and under favorable condi- tions makes its notable acre yields in this State. The knowledge that barley has been grown in Cali- fornia since 1769 and that the variety most abun- dant since the American occupation is different from those largely grown elsewhere, has led some eastern writers to surmise that California had a native bar- ley from which the locally cultivated variety had been developed. Two conclusive facts oppose this view : California has no indigenous barley or Hor- deum species and no aboriginal population sufficiently energetic and intelligent to accomplish such develop- ment. Another assumption is that the common Cali- fornia barley is a legacy from mission agriculture and is, therefore, a descendant of a Spanish or Mexi- can variety which the padres introduced about one hundred and fifty years ago. This is a more reason- able belief, but it has not been demonstrated. There is no specific description of the barley grown at the missions preceding the coming of the early Ameri- cans. The question of whence came the six-rowed California barley is probably unanswerable. As soon AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 139 as the argonauts came in quantity, barley ran out of supply and importations were made from every- where. There were 294,000 sacks of barley imported at San Francisco in 1853, which gave quick impulse to local production. It came from the four quarters of the globe and they all had six-rowed varieties grown chiefly for grinding. Some of these perhaps brought the six-rowed which became the common bar- ley of California. For many years California brewers endeavored to popularize some of the two-rowed kinds which were relied on by European maltsters, but the result was a winning fight for the six-rowed. The grower's idea that it is better to have six rows of grain on the head than two is reasonable not only on the ground that conditions of soil and climate favor a six-rowed va- riety and give greater weight of produce, but this greater vigor in the plant itself enables it to develop a six-rowed head producing a kernel which carries amplitude of starch, gives a strong sprout in malt- ing and a low albumenoid content which best serve a brewer's purposes. The outcome of the whole mat- ter is that although many varieties from all parts of the world have been tried and some have achieved local popularity, nothing has been found fit to dis- place the "common California barley" which has been chiefly grown from the beginning, although re- cently the University of California Experiment Sta- tion has demonstrated adaptation to special condi- tions in several varieties which are becoming popular. It is an interesting fact that the pioneer barley- 140 RURAL CALIFORNIA growers of California had rather an ambitious dream of what they could do with the barley which sprang to a surplus production almost as soon as they touched it. In 1866 exports were made from this surplus, chiefly to Australia, of 741,815 bushels which suggested this dream, recorded in that year: "What shall we do with our immense barley crops? We are growing hops of the very best quality and within two years the supply will exceed, the local demand. We are annually importing millions of gal- lons of malt liquors for which we are exporting thousands of gold. Overburdened with, barley and hops we should not go abroad for ales- and porters, but should supply our own demand. Thia being accomplished we could save England the trouble and expense of doubling Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope to supply the immense quantities used by her colonies in the Indies and make money by the opera- tion. The State offers a liberal premium for the first ale exported and proved to stand sea voyages and changes of climate." The State by legislative act did offer $2200 as premiums for the first three considerable shipments of sea-going beer, but there is no record of payment thereof to a local brewer. However, California has contributed largely to the beer of the world, for ex- ports of barley in 1915 reached a total of 26,754,- 522 bushels or two-thirds of the total barley product of the State in that year, and this was for malting at foreign points. The outlook for barley-growing in California is AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 141 clouded by doubt. Will Europe lose its thirst for malt liquors and will the United States find more than enough barley in the northwestern states, as prohibition advances, and California be excluded by distance from American consuming centers? How far can local feed uses of barley be increased beyond the present one-third of the product which is now consumed in that way? Such questions are unan- swerable. It is fair, however, to conclude that what- ever dramatic situations may arise, barley, because of its winter growth which corn refuses, its short season and drought resistance with which wheat can- not compete, and because of its wider range of adap- tations and greater resistance to rust than oats, will remain the most popular grain among California growers to the limit of its profitability. Corn came from Mexico with the padres in 1769. They soon found that wheat, barley and oats were hardy against frosts, would make their chief growth during, the rainy season and were easier to produce than corn which had to be kept o-ut of frost by spring planting, and therefore, was pushed into the dry season to make its growth, which it resented by curl- ing its young leaves while the winter-growing cereals were spreading fiat blades to early maturity. The padres soon learned, of course, that on the lower moister lands, like those southward from the San Gabriel Mission (which was their greatest granary), corn could be brought through without irrigation, but not without more work than winter-growing cereals required. Therefore, the padres did not count 142 RURAL CALIFORNIA much on corn, and probably imparted this view to their early American visitors, for they also largely avoided corn. The first accounts of farming, after the gold rush, say little of corn, and the very first shows of produce were rich in tall and productive barley, wheat, and oats, but not in corn. Neverthe- less corn was grown, for it is reported that in 1856, "many corn crops at El Monte, Los Angeles County, average 80 bushels to the acre and as high as 120 bushels to the acre has been raised." In that year the product of the State was estimated at 165,464 bushels, while wheat was 2,937,236 bushels, barley 3,229,230 bushels, and oats 364,420. Soon afterward on the basis of good yields in widely separated places, there arose quite an inter- est in corn and large expectations were indulged in from 1857 for a few years and "yields of 80 to 120 bushels of shelled corn per acre from plants which attained a height of fourteen to twenty feet and carried ears nine feet from the ground" were re- ported in the records of the time. Thus, California can claim a share in the "tall corn" sensations of the same period which the Middle West enjoyed. How- ever,, even as early as 1858 the limitations in corn were quite clearly discerned, for in that year it was written: "There is not a doubt but that there are many fine corn-growing districts within the limits of California that are as yet unknown, so far as practical experiment has demonstrated their appro- priateness to the culture of the product." That suitability for corn depends on local condi- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 143 tions and not on geography is shown by the very in- teresting fact that for nearly half a century the two leading corn counties in California were over five hundred miles apart. Los Angeles County has stood first in corn for more than sixty years, excepting two or three dry seasons. Sonoma was nearly always second until 1899, when she stood first, because Los Angeles was dry. Since 1900 Los Angeles has held leadership, several other counties have advanced to rivalry for next in rank, and Sonoma has done less with corn. Every California county grows some corn except Alpine and Plumas, which are too high, and San Francisco. There are also some cultural requirements for success with corn which are more necessary than in states with summer rains, and these lead to choice of other crops. The maize plant is, however, greater in value in California than its grain product would indicate. The growth for the silo has increased prob- ably a thousand fold in the last decade, but even for silage maize finds itself rivaled by sorghums and alfalfa, for the latter can either get along better with- out irrigation or make more satisfactory use of it than corn. In census years California has produced corn as follows : Year Bushels 1860 510,708 1870 1,221,222 1880 1,993,325 1890 2,381.270 144 RURAL CALIFORNIA Year Bushels 1900 1,477,093 1910 1,878,000 1915 2,624,000 1920 3,150,000 The relative insignificance of these figures is very plain by proper comparisons. The California corn crop of 1919 was only about one two-hundredth that of Iowa,, while that of Iowa is but little more than one-seventh of the whole country. Roughly speak- ing, it would take about fifteen hundred states with California's liking for the crop to make the corn product of the United States. In contrast with the lack of great achievement of corn is the rapid advance of rice, the production of which in 1919 constituted California second only to Louisiana in the volume of product and first of all the states in the average acre value of the crop. It was natural that the first Americans looking on the vast area of low rush-grown lands along the courses and in the deltas of the two greatest rivers of the State should have dedicated them to the pro- duction of unlimited rice. Especially did their prophecies pertain to the deltas where the land was always subject to overflow. There were sharp ex- hortations to rice-growing both to use lands, then thought to be almost worthless otherwise, and to dis- place the forty million pounds of rice annually im- ported, partly to feed the sixty thousand Chinese who were then in the State. This was the current dream for two decades centering in 1865 and, though nu- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 145 merous small experiments with growing rice in the river deltas were made, 110 commercial quantity was ever gathered. On the other hand, utterly forsaking this dream and the kind and situation of land for which it was projected, rice-growing, which did not give Cali- fornia entrance to the list of rice-growing states in the United States Census of 1910, began about that time, chiefly in the Sacramento Valley, and within a decade reached such production that the State be- came second for rice in the whole country, as afore- said. It is dramatic also that, refusing the rich open soils of the deltas upon which other products properly handled rival the production of all other lands of the State, rice accepted hard rebellious lands on which other grains had become unprofitable be- cause of the exhaustion of organic matter from the soil and often because of the increase of alkali therein. Such lands were usually far away from the rivers but when water was brought to them by irrigation canals or locally supplied by pumping from shal- low wells, they held it up to the rice roots as coarse open soils could not do. The water, with adequate summer heat for large growth and safety for the ma- turity of the plant in a frostless autumn, produced surprising development. With the arrest of the wa- ter supply at the proper time, the land quickly dried out by evaporation in the dry autumn air and brought itself into an ideal condition for harvesting, with such a thick stand and full maturity of the plants that the average acre yield, as reported by 146 RURAL CALIFORNIA the United States Department of Agriculture, was for the year 1919, fifty-five and one-half bushels in California as compared with an average acre yield of thirty-seven and three-quarters bushels for all the rice-growing states of the country. Thus, the demon- stration of the suitability for rice of large areas of land which had become of very low productive value for other purposes, coupled with the high price of rice engendered by the war, induced large invest- ments for water supply and land leveling, brought the rent value of suitable lands to figures beyond all anticipations, and induced also large investments for rice milling and storage and organization of pro- ducers for handling of their products. All these things constituted a development which, both for speed and volume of investment and enterprise, no other specialty of California production ever realized within a single decade. Following are the records of the advancement of rice-growing in California com- piled from the reports of the United States Depart- ment of Agriculture : Production Year Bushels Farm Value 1910 3,000 $ 2,000 1911 6,000 4,000 1912 70,000 64,000 1913 293,000 293,000 1914 800,000 800,000 1915 2,268,000 2,041,000 1916 3,263,000 2,545,000 1917 5,600,000 9,800,000 1918 7,011,000 13,321,000 1919 9,300,000 24,831,000 1920 9,720,000 11,761,000 AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 147 Comment seems baffled by a product which in- creased ten thousand fold in a decade. It is too sud- den and too great to be either fully understood or ap- preciated. Perhaps the most significant fact about it is that rice added itself to the productions of Cali- fornia without notable disturbance of any other prod- uct, partly due to its using so much land which other crops were retiring from. If rice-growing continues to be profitable, the grain will assume mutually ad- vantageous relations to other field crops because of the rotation with them which conditions promise to make imperative. Holding water upon the ground all summer for the sake of the rice induces growth also of other aquatic grasses and weeds which are at enmity with the rice and the easiest way to destroy them is to turn the land back to dry-farming for a year or two, in the course of which such aquatic intruders will disappear in the drought, or be sheep-grazed with the stubble, following the early harvest of winter- growing field crops. There are many other cultural problems connected with the new industry under climatic conditions somewhat different from those in other rice-growing states, which are beyond the scope of this writing. There are also problems touching the types of rural life which it will engender or promote, the solution of which cannot now be fore- seen. It is clear enough, however, that such prob- lems are impending. In 1920 there came autumn rains which checked harvesting, a fall in price which caused losses and the question arose as to whether, because of its spectacular advancement and 148 RURAL CALIFORNIA potentialities of extension or in spite of them, rice- growing may not be advancing toward a tragedy for itself or for other interests, agricultural, municipal and commercial, from which it may detract river wa- ter supplies which are indispensable to them. On the other hand, rice-growing may hasten great move- ments for river improvement and flood water stor- age which are essential to the greatest development of California both in production and navigation. California is only one of seven states to secure place in the list of large growers of the sorghum group noted by the United States Department of Agriculture, and stands fifth. Pioneer Californians had an ambition to produce sugar, induced by the sight of true sugar-cane growing in the vicinity of Los Angeles. There was in 1885 a large introduc- tion by the United States Patent Office of sorghum seed from China under the name "Chinese sugar- cane/' Wide distribution was made in California. Its desirability as a forage plant was early discerned. In 1857, in the midst of the sweetest anticipations, in his State Fair address, Henry Eno of Campo Seco, Calaveras County, voiced this foresight: "If Chinese sugar cane cannot be successfully cultivated for the making of sugar and molasses it is believed it will prove of immense value for forage. At least two crops can be raised in a year. I have known it this year, planted May 10, to have reached a height of 10 \ feet by August. It was then cut down and a second growth started which was six feet high in September. It was irrigated." AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 149 A year later Elam Brown of Lafayette, Contra Costa County, declared that he had "found no other known plant at present grown in California that can equal Chinese cane. Whether profitable as a plant to be converted into syrup or not, its value as food for stock will secure it a permanent place in our list of valuable farm products." It is also rather clear that other sorghums also reached California about the same time, "Egyptian corn" or "dhoura" being one of them, for in 1858 Stephen Cooper wrote from his farm near Colusa: "I grow Chinese sugar cane and Egyptian millet. They are much alike, but I prefer the latter both for grain and fodder." Some years later, on the pub- lication of a full description of the plant, a San Diego County farmer wrote that he had been grow- ing it in a small way since 1863, and considered "one acre of Egyptian w^orth 25 acres of barley because one can irrigate that much from a well and keep two or three horses and several milch cows every year independent of drouth." In this way sorghum really came to its chief use in California interior valleys which a re-introduction of both brown and white dhoura in 1874 direct from Egypt largely extended. Isaac A. Grout, in January, 1878, wrote: "I was first to introduce Egyptian corn to the Central Cali- fornia Colony, but farmers outside planted it on small scale with great success. I consider it the best crop for the valley as it requires little water." It was probably at this pioneer colony of the Fresno district that grain and forage sorghums first demon- 150 RURAL CALIFORNIA strated adaptation to the needs of small farmers in interior valleys, which is conspicuous to this day. It was on the demonstration by the colonists -that large production was later undertaken and found profitable. However, in California the planting of sorghums has usually been for temporary needs, the land soon going into alfalfa or fruit-growing. For this rea- son, the crop in this State has not reached the large figures of Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas and New Mex- ica which, with California, produced in 1919 nine- teen-twentieths of all the grain sorghum credited to the seven states listed as commercial producers. These states produce, in fact, nearly the whole sor- ghum grain and forage production of this country, largely because in the southern extensions of the In- dian corn-belt into regions where heat is high and the air scant of moisture, sorghum is more depend- able and productive than maize. This is the chief ground of the popularity of sorghums in California. Since the uses of sorghum grain as a substitute for corn and barley in large scale feeding of swine and poultry have been amply demonstrated and its availability recognized as a summer catch-crop to follow winter-grown grain, if a moderate irrigation supply is available, and as sorghum rivals corn as a silo crop, its production was largely extended by the exhortation to grow all possible stock feed to "help win the war." The sorghum grain product of 1918 in California was estimated to be worth $7,889,000 (and in 1920 four and a half million bushels worth $4,850,000), while the capacity of the State for its AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 151 production is vastly greater, if profit be assured. Perhaps the most interesting fact about the minor grains of California is that they are so small in pro- duction and value. Oats, which are of good standing in most other states and countries, are of only about as much value as grain sorghums which are them- selves too small for enumeration in states where oats are great. This strange reversal of attainments is due to the fact that oats for grain are largely re- stricted to the coast counties and to the high moun- tain valleys of the interior and are practically ex- cluded from the great areas where wheat and barley are grown. Sorghum grains are excluded from both the coast and the mountain valleys and are grown in the wheat and barley region of the great valleys, but in the summer instead of the winter. This gives sorghums command of a much larger productive area in the use of which in the dry season, however, they are considerably dependent on irrigation. Oats are also reduced in importance by the fact that even in regions well suited to them, they are likely to be displaced by barley which serves the same stock- feeding purposes and is easier to grow and surer to come to profitable production. If, however, one considers the use of oats not for the grain but for the hay product, it has higher standing and much greater value than the usual consideration of value would accord to them. On the whole, the reason why oats are so small in California is because bar- ley is so great. Of much less importance and value than oats is 152 RURAL CALIFORNIA rye. In fact, the government in its enumeration of staple crops excludes California from even casual mention in the rye category. Eye is a good winter grower and is raised for winter pasturage and cut- ting green or for plowing under as green-manure, all of which services it renders better than other grains in rather trying places. Eye is also grown in a small way for grain on lands which have become weary for both wheat and barley and occasionally a cargo of rye is shipped to Europe, as the local de- mand for rye flour is limited. Buckwheat is even nearer the vanishing point than rye, in part due to its demand for frost freedom and requirement of rich mellow ground which can usually be employed to better advantage by other plants. The demand for buckwheat is almost negligible and buckwheat cakes are displaced by wheat cakes which are considered less heating to the blood. Buckwheat is grown to some extent as a maintenance ration for bees and as a summer-grown green-manure plant to supplement clovers and other legumes which are largely winter-grown in California valleys. SEED-GROWING AND TRUCK CROPS In the gold rush of 1849, many argonauts brought the very best seeds from their home regions in the older states for trial in the new country and se- cured later acquisitions by mail. Pioneers from all foreign countries also introduced seeds of the best home plants. As early as 1852 there were collected in California, in this way, a great variety of seed- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 153 ling plants. • The first commercial seed-grower on a large scale was A. P. Smith, near Sacramento. He began as a market-gardener in 1848 for Slitter's Fort and later expanded his operations to meet the miners' and pioneer planters' demand for trees and garden seeds. In December, 1858, this was written of him: "For the past few years he has continually raised tons of the finest seeds, which have been sold in every part of the State, in Oregon and Washington and the Sandwich islands and the annually increas- ing demand for his seeds is a flattering comment upon their value/' In June, 1860, this additional statement was made : "For several years, better seeds of all the vegetables that flourish in this latitude have been produced than have been or can be imported; this fact is now among the indisputable ones." Greater than A. P. Smith, the pioneer grower, in lines of publicity achievement, was D. L. Perkins, who began growing seeds in 1856 on land now included in the city of Alameda. In 1870 his business had so increased that he himself wrote of it: "It has been impossible for me to fill orders for seeds during the last two years. The time was when they would not buy of me, but that prejudice has worn off and they find that the seeds grown in Cali- fornia are better than foreign seeds. Probably there is no State in the Union so well adapted in its soil and climate as California for the raising of seeds; they seem to hold their vitality longer than those grown anywhere else." 154 RURAL CALIFORNIA Perkins' chief characteristic was his grasp of the advantage of long-distance publicity. At the Paris World's Fair of 1867 he exhibited his seeds, won a silver medal over eighty-four competitors and pre- sented the collection to the Imperial Garden of Ac- climatization of France. In 1868 he presented col- lections of one hundred and fifty kinds of California- grown seeds to each of four European and Asiatic potentates. From the efforts of such pioneers, seed-growing made a good start. From 1870 onward, both grow- ing and trade distribution were advanced and many seed farms were established, chiefly from Santa Clara southward in the coast valleys. In the eighties the attention of eastern seedsmen was arrested not only by the offerings of California commercial growers but by their own experience. When they offered prizes for the best products from seeds they sold, most of them were captured by Californians and they were thus compelled to conclude that California was the best place to let contracts to secure well-devel- oped and strong seeds for their trade. Thus by the efforts of local commercial growers and distributors and by direct contracts with eastern distributors, seed- growing in California came, as the decades passed, to be a great business, until in 1910, by the valua- tions of the United States Census, the production of vegetable and flower seeds constituted 42 per cent of the total value of the seed product of the United States in those lines. In recent years, owing to the interference with AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 155 foreign production by the war and because of high prices and patriotic propaganda, other states grew more garden seeds and California's share in the total production declined to about 20 per cent, but the range of kinds of seeds produced and their values show the variety and greatness of the industry : CALIFORNIA'S PRODUCTION OF GARDEN SEEDS IN 1919 Production Valuation Crop Pounds Beans — dwarf snap 1,006,000 Beans — garden pole 2,974,000 Beet— garden 1,568,000 Beet — mangel 502,650 Beet — sugar 826,800 Cabbage 3,500 Carrot 2,135,700 Celery 62,650 Cucumber 70,500 Kale 4,800 Lettuce 570,750 Muskmelon 24,600 Watermelon 34,000 Onion seed 2,256,100 Parsley 52,560 Parsnip 225,000 Peas — garden 4,983,500 Pepper 5,000 Pumpkins 54,200 Radish 2,068,000 Salsify 82,000 Spinach 329,600 Squash — summer 98,400 Squash — winter 256,500 Sweet corn 145,200 Tomato 149,000 Turnip — English 124,900 Turnip — Swede 7,700 of Crop 271,620 1,115,250 2,132,480 389,553 661,440 22,855 2,669,625 318,262 133,950 9,792 1,272,772 33,210 4,930 7,625,618 65,700 337,500 1,893,730 28,250 70,460 3,722,400 225,500 411,500 123,000 359,100 58,080 685,400 149,880 10,934 20,621,610 $24,802,791 156 RURAL CALIFORNIA Some of the above quantities constitute practically the whole product of the United States and others are large fractions of it. California produces 86 per cent of the garden beet ; 85 of the mangel beet ; 99 of carrot; 100 of celery; 100 of endive and lettuce; 96 6f onion; 100 of parsley; 98 of parsnip; 48 of radish; 100 of salsify; also the larger part of the flower seed grown in the United States. In addi- tion, there is a considerable production of seed- potatoes (for which the State has enacted a sys- tem of certification), grains and forage plants, mainly alfalfa, which is chiefly undertaken in the interior valleys and foothills, but data concerning the cheaper field seeds are less definitely determined.1 It is probably true that the total seed production of Cali- fornia has a value of about twenty-five million dol- lars annually as it passes from first hands. In 1920 California employed 41,562 acres of land in seed- growing, a little less than in 1919 when the acreage was 43,040. These figures rank California as the leading state in production of vegetable seeds. Truck-farming is an important industry in Cali- fornia and has attained very unique and profitable development. A large export product is sent by both rail and sea to distant markets, the total an- nual exports of "green vegetables" aggregating over forty thousand carloads when growing and market- ing conditions are favorable. It is a striking fact that storage of fresh vegetables is not necessary in 1 The legislature of 1921 enacted a pure seed law which re- quires the labeling of field seeds in containers of five pounds or more to show purity and germination percentages. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 157 California. The mild winter does not freeze hardy vegetables; consequently they are allowed to grow until the shipping season arrives, as in the case of celery, cabbage, parsnips, salsify, and the like, or are gathered, sacked and placed under some cheap shel- ter from the rains, as in the case of potatoes, beets, and carrots. No storage pits nor cellars are thought of. In fact, the most direct and cheapest method of loading cars is employed in many instances, for rail- way spurs are carried into the center of the celery, cauliflower and cabbage fields, the crates filled and the cars loaded from the ground on which the crops were grown. This not only reduces the cost of han- dling and eliminates the expense of storage, but it en- ables the grower to supply the winter and spring markets on the Atlantic side, in the Middle West and the great interior plateau, as well as the North Pa- cific coast territory of the United States and Canada, with vegetables fresh from the soil. California has in different parts of the State large areas of land excellently adapted to the various ex- port vegetables which are proving profitable. The soils are various, and yet all in the truck-farming class, viz., deep sandy and medium loams of the plains, warm, easily worked and rich; alluvial soils of both ancient and recent origin, holding moisture well and full of plant-food; peat and sediment soils, reclaimed in vast areas by dikes, as in Holland (ex- cept that the excluded water is chiefly fresh), ex- ceedingly productive and particularly adapted to the great crops of celery and asparagus. 158 RURAL CALIFORNIA The growing of vegetables for shipment fresh does not constitute the only opportunity in vegetable- growing. The output of canned asparagus, peas, beans and tomatoes is large and canners are always on the outlook to contract for their supplies. Be- yond this, also, there still remains market-garden- ing to supply cities and towns and the popular re- sorts of tourists. The work is often very satisfac- tory and profitable. Production is, however, in the hands of orientals to an extent that must be counted as undesirable from an American point of view. The principles underlying success in vegetable- growing are universal, but the methods in California are quite different from those applied elsewhere. Here the garden runs practically all the year in the open air. All during the winter, except in the mountains, successions of hardy vegetables are grown. Green peas, small onions, young beets, carrots, po- tatoes, and the like, can be ready at New Year's and continue for nine months, if desired. Asparagus begins in February and runs until May or June. Globe artichokes cover about the same season. Ten- der vegetables, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, corn, cucumbers, squashes and melons are safe in the open air from April until October and in some places con- siderably longer. Lettuce, radishes and other relishes can be had all the year, and the same is true of garnishing plants. The extent and variety of the commercial truck- farm crops are indicated by the following compila- tion, covering the products of 1920: AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 159 Fresh Vegetables Canned Vegetables ( carloads ) ( cases * ) Artichokes 60 Asparagus 490 1,024,813 Beans, string 99,269 Cabbage 1,223 Cantaloupes 12,849 Cauliflowers 2,167 Celery 1,440 Peas 366,679 Lettuce 5,764 Spinach 685,328 Tomatoes 1,500 1,858,822 Tomato products 833,019 Other vegetables 5,657 382,116 Watermelons 3,061 Potatoes, sweet potatoes and onions add figures to the shipment of fresh vegetables when prices in dis- tant markets and freight rates favor such movement. In 1919, 6,286 carloads of potatoes and 5,236 car- loads of onions were shipped out of the State by rail but no such movement was possible in 1920. There is also considerable shipment of vegetables by sea to foreign ports and for ship-stores, neither of which is included in the tabulation, which indicates only the uses made of a portion of the total produc- tion estimated in Chapter IV. Total valuation of truck-crops grown in California sometimes rises above forty million dollars. Bean-growing is the most important vegetable in- dustry of California. There are no native beans in the agricultural sense, nor does California share in the aboriginal endowment of beans, which, through the recent popularity of the tepary and other ab- 1 A case contains six one-gallon tins or the equivalent. 160 RURAL CALIFORNIA original sorts, handed down from prehistoric people, have made Arizona famous. Beans came with the Spaniards, or Mexicans, who are never very widely separated from frijoles, and were therefore brought to San Diego by the padres in 1768. According to the records, there were grown at all the missions during their active period, which ended in 1833, a total of 71,115 bushels of beans, of which 19,380 bushels were raised on land which is now central in San Francisco. Beans came to California with gold-seekers, as did other garden seeds, but made a slow start, for what reason is not now known. At the first display of productions held in San Francisco in 1851, there were exhibits of many grains and vegetables of surprising size and productivity, but in the details given there is no record of beans, though nearly all other gar- den growths are specifically mentioned, described and glorified. Even in the list of plants of which J. M. Homer grew crops in 1851 valued at $200,000, and for which he was awarded a silver goblet as a prize, no beans are included. At the State Fair of 1857 there was only one ex- hibit of beans, which led the judges to scold and prophesy in this way: "One sample of beans only was exhibited. When this product shall be properly understood and the quantity known that has been and is continually imported, a wise attention will be given to a crop that will always pay, if planted upon the right kind of soil. California pays annually for many thousand AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 161 bags of beans imported from foreign ports and thus a competition is brought to bear with a home product that a little knowledge would enable it to defy and even become a rival in the very ports which now send beans to us." Apparently Californians took to growing beans be- cause they could not quiet their commercial con- science over the sin of parting with so much of the rapidly decreasing gold product in paying for what they could produce themselves. The turn came rapidly and much satisfaction is expressed in con- temporary records over the fact, in connection with the product of 1859, that the average of 20.56 bush- els to the acre was set down in the United States census of 1860 as higher than attained in any other state, Connecticut following with 20 bushels and South Carolina next with 18 bushels. In 1860 also beans disappeared from the lists of products too largely imported and exports began. The records show the value of bean exports from San Francisco as follows: 1861, $10,214; 1862, $40,507; 1863, $11,608. The ability of the State to roll up a bean surplus was demonstrated, but the high hopes of profit were soon dissipated, for the crop of 1866 was worth only $1.50 a bushel, which, at the average yield stated, would give only $35 to the acre gross. There- fore, it is not to be wondered at that the acreage was reduced to one-half of that grown a decade be- fore. Nevertheless, a local bean interest had been awakened and the record says in 1867 : "Every known variety of bean has been tried and 162 RURAL CALIFORNIA all have given good yields when properly planted. The varieties of beans are so numerous that almost any one of the large produce stores in San Francisco has for sale more kinds of beans than can be found in most of the cities of the United States. Con- siderable quantities of beans are exported, but the greater demand is from the mining districts." California's greatest single achievement with beans was the large field growth of the lima. It was not only a fortunate demonstration of exceptional nat- ural adaptation in some parts to this fastidious va- riety which was content to run at will over the dry soil surface without poles or strings, but it was also a most fortunate commercial hit and lifted California bean exports to great opportunity and distinctive character. The earliest official record of this variety declares that John Cook of Santa Clara was awarded a prize at the State Fair of 1856 for the best lima beans. In early times, however, limas were grown for green vegetables chiefly and the development of the dry product, which was first achieved in Santa Bar- bara County in 1867, was a real discovery of great im- portance, for it led to the selection of new local va- rieties and to so great a product that for the last thirty years the lima bean has regularly constituted about one-half of California's total annual output of beans. It has also been the chief incentive to the development of unique cultural methods and ma- chinery for planting, cultivating and harvesting which have been of great importance and influence in bean- growing in other parts of the world. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 163 For a generation previous to the war, bean-grow- ing developed normally, production increasing as wider success was attained in marketing until beans moved by trainload and even Boston became a de- pendency of the California bean fields. For many years the product was chiefly from the central and southern coast .counties (Begion 2 and 3, as defined in Chapter I), the lima beans having always been exclusively from the latter, while other beans came to be also largely grown in Region 4 chiefly in the central areas of the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. Thus bean-growing was ex- tending naturally, adding new varieties and methods and invading new districts as adaptations were dis- closed and profitability demonstrated. Then came the war, the exhortation to grow beans without limit, the advancement of California to the position of first bean state of the Union, all of which is most com- pactly told in a figurative way, as follows : GREATEST BEAN STATES: VALUE OF PRODUCT TO GROWERS: 1909 1918 1919 California $6.295,457 $47,952,000 $19,418,000 Michigan 9,716,315 24,435,000 16,026.000 New York 3,689,064 11,122,000 7,105,000 California threw land recklessly into beans in 1918 and her chief gain from it was a demonstration of producing capacity. It was impossible to get from the product the valuation which current prices im- puted to it because of distance from the great war consumption in Europe and lack of shipping to reach 164 RURAL CALIFORNIA it; substitution of cheap Mongolian beans which were bought for the Allies and for the United States Army instead of the American beans which growers were exhorted patriotically to supply. The result was that Californians fared worse even than eastern bean- growers in selling their product and while the valu- ation given above was proclaimed, the beans largely remained in warehouses a prey to interest, storage cost and weevils. Lima beans suffered less than others but the whole product fell away from the peak of production in 1919 and still lower in 1920 when the value of the crop fell to $9,405,000— a slight increase above the normal established during the few years preceding the World War. The California bean industry has achieved much for its own protection and advancement by coopera- tive organization of growers, as will be noted in a later chapter. FRUITS AND NUTS The chief contribution of the Spanish missions to fruit production was perhaps the demonstration of opportunity in the adaptation of the State to grow all the fruits famous in the most ancient sacred writ- ings. When one remembers that the California pio- neers chiefly came from the states and countries in which, seventy years ago, the summer was a quick flash of strawberries and the winter a long barrage of dried apple pie, it is not strange that their imagi- nations were fired with discernment of opportunity when they beheld the olive of Mt. Ararat and Mt. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 165 Olivet, the grapes, pomegranates and figs of Eschol and the oranges of the Hesperides being freely used as the commonest missionary munitions to win Cali- fornia's first war against barbarism. Another incentive was production for home supply to exclude importations and to save the gold shipped to various parts of the world to pay for food prod- ucts. More specific reference to the efforts in fruit production are interesting in this connection. The ambition to produce a home supply of fruits arises in all new countries. Most notable about California's effort was the speed with which it was achieved. As early as 1858 the danger of producing fresh fruit beyond the requirement of local markets was pro- claimed and it was realized a few years later. In the early sixties planting was almost stopped, and, in spite of this, the product was too large for profit. Cheap fruit suggested canning and preserving, and as early as 1868, canned fruit and vegetables rendered the State independent of the eastern states and Eu- rope, and shipments worth $650,000 were made to the other parts of the coast and to the Orient. Dried fruits of fine appearance were also being produced, but eastern dried apples were hard to displace, a mil- lion pounds a year being brought to California from 1863 to 1865. In 1866 it was recorded that "large quantities of apples, pears, plums, peaches and nec- tarines were dried for home consumption." In that year also the California product of dried prunes was estimated as about thirty-five tons weight and of raisins about forty tons, which was about the begin- 166 RURAL CALIFORNIA ning of commercial production of these fruits. Still the importation of dried fruits from the eastern states and from abroad was valued at $1,745,000 annually. In 1866 also there came to San Francisco from the vicinity of Los Angeles 250,000 oranges, while at the same time about 3,000,000 oranges were received from Mexico, Central America and the Pacific Is- lands. In those days oranges were counted and whole- saled by the thousand fruits and not by boxes or carloads. It is notable that exhortation and effort for a home supply were always accompanied by anticipations of mastery of the American supply and reduction of importations of semi-tropical fruits to the United States, which is indicated in Chapter IV. The move- ment of the fruit-growers toward realization of an overland railway is also noted in that connection. There are, however, specific historical steps in the attainment which are interesting. From many simi- lar contemporaneous declarations, the following are taken as indicating quite definite conceptions of Cali- fornia's capacity and opportunity. E. L. Beard, in his address as president of the State Fair held in San Jose in 1856, said: "Within four years I ventured to predict our markets will be abundantly supplied with all the choice varieties of northern fruits as the most favored sections of the Atlantic States, and after a few years we shall actually pro- duce more olives, figs, raisins, oranges, lemons, prunes, dates and nuts than the present imports AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 167 of these articles into the United States, amount- ing to a value of over three million dollars per annum." In 1863 a writer in the Mercantile Gazette of San Francisco made this conditional prophecy: "The man who shall bring into proper notice and cultiva- tion in California the fig, the raisin and the prune will do the State greater service than if he should pay her public debt. There is no country in the world better adapted in every way to their successful cultivation than California. The United States is now importing these fruits at a cost of $2,318,978. In a few years, by proper exertion, our orchardists and vine growers may supply the demand of the whole country." It was only five years later that H. D. Dunn wrote: "From present appearances it seems prob- able that California will be enabled to supply the en- tire Union with raisins before the close of the pres- ent century." In 1869, when California was still counting and pricing oranges and lemons by the thousand fruits, it was written: "Citrus fruits, it is believed, can be grown here for the Eastern States with good success and profit. It would probably take California fifty years to supply the demand of the United States if her growers were to enter into the business with energy." These were all true prophecies. Measuring them by the values of American imports of half a century ago, they have been far more than realized. In fact, 168 RURAL CALIFORNIA California production has more than kept pace with the increase of the population of the country and ren- dered the importation of several kinds of fruit almost nominal, besides participating in the American ex- port trade. However, this was not simple nor easy to achieve. They began to push fruits and fruit products eastward by rail in 1870. Their progress was slow and the obstacles baffling. Mankind had never been called on before to lift ripe fruit more than a mile high twice while it was being trundled two or three thousand miles forward in ordinary freight cars over poorly ballasted tracks. Again, the first overland shippers were required to pay in ad- vance for freight as much or more than has since been sometimes considered a fair average selling value at an eastern point for a carload of fruit. The situation was full of pomological and commercial problems. In short, growers who began distant mar- keting of their product had to learn what fruit to grow, how to grow, pack and load it for long transit and how to sell it to get their freight money back. The orchards and vineyards were attacked by many pests and diseases from which the planters of the first two decades had declared the State forever free.1 Under the incentive of distant trade, California fruit-growers have naturally become important fac- tors in transportation. They have been influential 1 Distribution of pests has been checked for many years by enforcement of rigid quarantine laws and in 1921 a statute was enacted requiring that all local and distant nurserymen shall be licensed before they can sell trees and plants in Cali- fornia. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 169 in multiplying overland railways and the regulation of them by government authority. Just as their pre- decessors of the first generation promoted a highway across the continent, so did the fruit-growers and shippers of the second generation help to secure the second great novelty in American transportation, the Panama Canal. For a quarter of a century before the building of it, the California fruit-growers were among its most persistent promoters and it has mani- fested the advantage which they expected, although the measure of that advantage will be for coming generations to realize. California fruit production was really an act in industrial creation. The more distant objective of export was clearly in mind even while home supply was deficient. The conception of entering national and world trade in fruits before home supply was attained was unique, daring and original. The com- mon way, of course, is to project distant movement because local markets show surpluses which traders can gather and transport, building commerce first on short hauls, then on longer and longer still, until world currents are entered. California conceptions rose above any such evolutionary process and were really creative. Success in the upbuilding of California fruit in- dustries is the product of organization, both for its own specific purposes and for correlative attainments. So far as these related to the development of the state by colonization, they have been considered in Chapter IV. The relations of organization to com- 170 RURAL CALIFORNIA mercial promotion of fruit-growing will be discussed in Chapter VII, because the results were the outcome of a general ambition of farmers to do their own business and the success of fruit-growers acted as an incentive to groups of other farmers toward that achievement. There were, however, forms of organ- ization strictly internal in their activities and ex- clusive in their service to fruit-growing which ex- erted very marked influence. During the first three decades they consisted of fruit-growers, local socie- ties and clubs which were ephemeral but rendered important service, especially in the line of disseminat- ing cultural information. They were also instru- mental in the attainment of more systematic under- takings on rather broader lines, of which several will be sketched. Very specific in their work and very influential were the "Citrus Fairs" beginning at Eiverside in 1879 which unified people in sympathy and purpose and taught the motley collection of reformed sheep farmers, teachers, lawyers, doctors and tired busi- ness men, who largely comprised the early citrus colonists, the difference between an orange and a gourd and that girth and weight were not the chiefly valuable characters of a lemon. These citrus fairs were intensely educational. It is impossible for any- one who did not participate in them to realize how intense they were. No one knew which was the best orange and the best lemon to plant except an ex- hibitor and, if he had buds or young trees to sell, he had no doubts about it. When the question of the AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 171 very best was being incubated by the judges, exhibi- tors were too nervous to sleep and the whole com- munity was expectant. The question of the best orange was decided by side-tracking all seedlings and proclaiming the sovereignty of the Eiverside navel, which subsequently took a broader name. The de- cision on lemons was not so easy. They were all considered sour enough but the question was which one would not go bitter. Therefore, lemonades were made of all separately to see how they would taste the morning after, all samples being securely locked up so that no exhibitor might be tempted to come in the night and give doses of quinine to all his rivals. These early citrus fairs were well-springs of en- thusiasm and of optimism but they also taught close discrimination and loyalty to correct standards of judgment. Similar in influence to the early citrus fairs in southern California were the "Fruit-Growers' Con- ventions" which dealt chiefly with deciduous fruits, the first of which was held in 1881 and the fifty-third in 1920. These popular assemblies have convened once or twice a year in all parts of the State. They have been unique in their character and most effec- tive in their work and many of the great successes of special fruit-growers' organizations in regulating production, protection, transportation and distribu- tion have followed from the initiative at these great conventions. No other agency or institution com- pares with them in work done for the promotion of the fruit industry and the prosperity of producers. 172 RURAL CALIFORNIA They were from the first a novel kind of organization and in method and purpose quite unlike the horticul- tural societies of other states and countries. They set up no qualifications nor requirements of member- ship; they had no constitution nor by-laws. Their rallying cry was: "Let's get together and do some- thing/' and the growers did get together and did things continuously for forty years. It was in the same decade that promotion and protection of fruit industries was permanently grafted upon the State Government of California. Commis- sions on viticulture were created in 1880, and in 1881 repressive and quarantine regulations against fruit pests and diseases began by State authority. Prac- tically every session of the legislature since that date has amended and added to the laws providing for State and county protection of fruit industries and appropriated funds for the extension of such work. In this original line of legislation, California has provided models of purpose and enactment to all other states which have moved in the same direction since that time and has also influenced the policies and provisions of the national govern- ment. In the same decade also the foundations of dis- tinctly horticultural literature were laid by free and dignified publication by the State of the transac- tions of fruit-growers' conventions and of State Boards of Horticulture, Viticulture and Forestry ; by the enlargement and improvement of horticultural AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 173 journals and by the publication of special mono- graphs and books on local horticultural subjects.1 In the development of fruit industries, California has had notable help from other states through the placing of fruit products under the protective tariff. This offsets remoteness, higher cost of transportation and higher wages than ever paid in the Mediter- ranean countries which were her chief competitors. The handicap which impended through the free trade legislation of 1913 was averted by the world war and the revenue needs of the country after the war may render indulgence in free trade policies impracticable for a long time. In acknowledging California's great debt to na- tional help in population, capitalization and legisla- tion, it is not amiss to remember that she has achieved results which have had distinct bearing on the fruit development of the whole country, a few of which .may be cited. First, the relation of tillage to thrift and produc- tiveness of fruit-trees and vines. California demon- strated that clean garden-like culture of large fruit areas is superior to cow-pasture conditions; and first applied on a large scale the principle that adequate 1 The scientific and technical literature of California fruit- growing is considerable, not only in the publications of the State Boards mentioned but in those of the U. S. Dept. Agr. and of the Calif. Agr. Exp. Sta. There are also comprehensive treatises : viz., "California Fruits and How to Grow Them" by E. J. Wickson ; "Citrus Fruits" by J. E. Coit ; "Standard Cyclo- pedia of Horticulture," by L. H. Bailey, has descriptions of California methods in the treatments of all leading fruits and ornamental plants, as well as descriptive and botanical charac- terization of forest trees, etc. ; "Manual of Tropical and Sub- tropical Fruits" by Wilson Popenoe. 174 RURAL CALIFORNIA tillage is effective for moisture conservation, both in operations by rainfall and by irrigation, as will be outlined in Chapter VIII. To these early concep- tions, the State has recently added the widest dem- onstration that cover-cropping with tillage includes restoration of soil fertility in the act of securing the highest duty of water. Second, the relation of form to efficiency of plant performance. Methods and styles of tree and vine pruning have been devised and older systems from other parts of the world modified with such suc- cess that "California style" is recognized horticul- turally and accepted as a model for imitation in more recently developed fruit regions in all parts of the world. "California style" in pruning is, however, progressive and is undergoing modification as the re- sult of improvements demonstrated by research and large operations in practice. Third, the relation of plant protection to success in commercial production. California has devised original methods and demonstrated the value of new materials in insect warfare which other fruit-grow- ing countries have accepted as important improve- ments. In addition to her initiative in legislation to control and exclude pests, she first applied high- pressure spraying and invented devices to secure it; first publicly announced through an experiment sta- tion bulletin investigations which made legal control of insecticide manufacture and sale imperative, al- though a few other states preceded in actual enact- ments; first demonstrated the efficiency of lime sul- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 175 fide in killing armored scales on dormant deciduous trees, which is now universally employed for that purpose; discovered the availability of hydrocyanic gas for insect killing on tented evergreen trees and saved her citrus industry by systematic and timely invention which rendered the use of this treatment practicable and profitable ; first made great and strik- ing demonstration of success in bringing from abroad the natural enemy of an injurious insect which ar- rested the latter's progress and made world search for beneficial insects and introduction of them a sus- tained State policy. In a very different phase of fruit protection, California was first to demonstrate the feasibility of 'frost prevention by direct heating of the atmosphere. Fourth, the relation of new varieties to commer- cial fruit production. New varieties of fruits have been originated, which, in the case of peaches, plums, almonds and walnuts, constitute the larger part of the commercial product; the immense citrus fruit production has been built up with varieties of espe- cial suitability which were not commercially im- portant elsewhere. All these fruits of California birth and adoption have now a place in the world pomolo- gies and are becoming important abroad in all re- gions which have natural conditions resembling our own. In addition to his notable contributions to this attainment, the unique conceptions and original meth- ods of Luther Burbank have given California popular repute for leadership in plant-breeding and have stimulated public interest in plant improvement. 176 RURAL CALIFORNIA However, in fruit-growing California does not need new varieties so much as better ones of types already demonstrated to be supremely serviceable and ac- ceptable. In this direction, the demonstration of rigid test and acute selections as a basis of propa- gation made in California seems destined to be- come a moving horticultural force throughout the world. Fifth, the relation of enterprises and methods to fruit preservation. California is the leading state in the Union in the output of canned and dried fruits, and her styles of these products and methods of pro- ducing them are models in other parts of the world which have conditions favoring their use. The pio- neer policy of producing fruits directly for preserva- tion as a primary product and not looking on pre- servative processes as merely means for saving fruits from waste, was new to America though it was a prevailing practice in some parts of Europe. On it rests largely the development of great canning and drying industries. The California drying tray is an original invention of about fifty years ago, which by its cleanliness, ease of handling and econ- omy of space, immediately relieved producers from most of the cost and dirt of the drying floors used from time immemorial throughout the Mediterranean region. The use of sulfur for preserving natural color in sun-dried fruit is an ennobling of the older art of using sulfur as a bleaching agent. The California fruit box, so-called, but which was probably first used in shipping Oregon apples to San AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 177 Francisco, threatens to displace the old bushel basket and barrel, as fruit carriers everywhere. California raisin machinery has invaded historic Malaga. Packing-houses for all kinds of fruit em- body original work in plan, policy and appliances, and the remarkable results attained in careful han- dling of fruit in the orchard, on the road, in the pack- ing-house and in the cars, and in realizing the ad- vantage of pre-cooling. California grows many fruits of the temperate and semi-tropical classes. The list is growing and some are coming into prominence and acreage which are not yet enumerated by the official statisticians, while many others receive attention only from en- thusiastic amateurs. It is not the design of this writing even to approach the categories of kinds and cultures but merely to cite facts enough about par- ticular fruits to indicate to the general reader the materials and conditions that enter into the pursuit of the greatest agricultural industry of California and thus underlie the greatest fraction of the rural life and industry of the State. The fruits that are commercially great in Cali- fornia, and their relative importance, are concretely shown by the State Board of Equalization, on the first of March 1920, in the table on page 178.1 As it is the function of the State Board of Equal- ization to deal with taxation and as their enumera- tors are the county assessors, securing their data 1 The amount and value of the 1920 product of these planta- tions, also the movement beyond State lines and the quantities of preserved fruit products are given in Appendices G and H. 178 RURAL CALIFORNIA Numbers of Trees Bearing Non-learing Apple 2,276,406 1.149,300 Apricot 3,336,646 548,054 Cherry 750,794 301,917 Fig 543,940 386,024 Peach 10,708,395 980,40~3 Pear 2,168,198 1,098,668 Plum 1,133,145 261,553 Prune 11,829,832 3,329,634 Lemon 2,212,883 531,253 Olive 1,150,059 353,199 Orange 9,878,635 1,490,826 Pomelo 143,423 149,802 Almond 2,711,550 1,872,387 Walnut 1,173,123 381,068 Acres of Small-Fruits Grapes, table 64,823 15,938 raisin 138,922 19,814 wine 126,357 10,697 Strawberries 5,997 Other berries 4,890 largely from persons about to be taxed, it is unlike] ^ that the foregoing statement is exaggerated. • The to- tal number of fruit-trees growing in 1920 is, by the foregoing enumeration, 62,951,117 and, estimating the planting of tree-fruits at an average of eighty to an acre, and including the acreage of small-fruits, the total is 1,162,884 acres, which comprise 1.1 per cent of the total land surface of California and 5.8 per cent of the arable land of the State, as cited in Chapter I. The geographical distribution of fruit production in California is indicated in the discussion of the characters and products of the regions of the State in Chapter I. Leading facts about other phases of AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 179 production which may lead toward a general under- standing of the producing situation of each fruit will be briefly indicated. The apple industry of California has two distinct branches : one is the growing of early varieties for sale in the northern parts of the Pacific Coast and the interior mountain states before the earliest ap- ples can be ripened in those parts. The localities where early varieties are chiefly grown for such ship- ment are in the Sacramento Valley and the foothills surrounding it. The forcing heat of the spring and early summer brings early varieties quickly to nota- ble size, crispness and flavor. This heat, however, continued into the summer and autumn, makes the same districts quite ill-suited for the growth of win- ter apples which are prematurely ripened and lack quality and keeping power. The second branch of the apple industry then, the production of winter apples, is undertaken in parts of the State quite different in climate from that of the early apple regions. The requirements of a winter apple are fully met by two main divisions of the State, viz., the smaller valleys close to the coast; in fact, in some cases, the coast flats, where the exposure is directly toward the cool- ing breezes of the ocean which produce a cool sum- mer, a long slow-growing season which develops the greatest beauty and highest quality in a winter ap- ple. Similar results are also produced by the climate at an elevation of 2500 to 5000 feet on the interior plateaux and in the mountain valleys. The coast district has developed a greater commercial apple 180 RURAL CALIFORNIA industry than the mountains because transportation facilities for shipment are vastly better, but as the State advances the mountain districts will be em- ployed in this production much more largely. Apricot trees stand in the open air without protec- tion of any kind and bear large luscious fruit. Ex- cepting a few localities in other parts of the Pacific Slope, California has a monopoly of commercial apri- cot-growing. However, the apricot does not find all parts of the State suited to it. The whole north- west quarter north of San Francisco Bay and west of the high ridges of the Coast Eange does not grow apricots commercially, nor does this fruit any- where ascend above an elevation of 1500 feet on the foothills. It is particularly a fruit of the protected coast valleys south and east of the Bay of San Fran- cisco to the southern end of the State; also of the great interior valleys and lower foothills, avoiding, however, the low places in these valleys where spring frosts may injure the crop, though the tree is not harmed. A point of advantage with the apricot, as with the pear and peach and to a less extent with the nectarine and plum, is that it has three great lines of demand: First, as fresh fruit, second, canned, third, as dried fruit. Some counties pro- ducing apricots largely are 500 miles apart and their success shows how widely suitable locations are dis- tributed over the State. The cherry is one of the lesser orchard fruits of California because the regions which favor it are fewer and its commercial field is less, but in size and AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 181 quality of the fruit and prolific bearing of the tree, the cherry is a great fruit in locations which meet its requirements. The cherry requires a modification of summer heat and of the dryness of summer air and for these reasons does not thrive on the interior plains, even when irrigation is employed to regulate soil-moisture. In the central coast valleys and in those tributary to the great Sacramento Valley and on the river lands, where depth of soil prevails and modification of air dryness is secured by abundance of adjacent water, the cherry grows magnificently. Elevation also secures conditions suitable to the cherry in some cases, notably in southern California, where the product of trees in mountain valleys at an elevation of 2000 feet or more is satisfactory and profitable although the trees on mesas below, where citrus fruits thrive, are disappointing. The cher- ries grown are of the sweet varieties. Sour cherries grow and bear well but are not commercially desir- able. The peach ranks second among deciduous fruits and has a very wide range in California. It goes beyond the apricot in the coast valleys north of San Francisco; it grows beside the apricot wherever the latter thrives in the interior, rises a thousand feet above it on the foothills and goes lower on the plains into the frosted areas with safety because of its later blooming. The peach has a ripening season with different varieties and locations from May to Decem- ber, although, of course, the mid-season varieties con- stitute the great commercial crop. The varieties most 182 RURAL CALIFORNIA largely used are of California origin. The peach is chiefly grown in the great interior valleys, the San Joaquin and the Sacramento and the foothills,, though coast valleys participate in production. The nectarine is a smooth-skinned peach, but it bears no comparison in product nor popularity. Cali- fornia produces an excellent nectarine, and better demand for the fruit may at some time justify in- creased producing effort. The pear resembles the peach in its wide range over coast valley, interior valley and foothill situa- tions, but it extends beyond the peach, for it goes to an altitude of 5000 feet and descends to the low- est places in the valleys, for neither frost nor oc- casional standing water can avail against it. It es- capes frost by its slow start in the spring and it en- dures water and even a degree of alkali in the soil by the hardy character of its root. In ripening also it is not injured by a degree and duration of heat which ruins the quality of a winter apple. Until about two decades ago, the pear was free from the blight in California and there seemed no limit to the possibilities in pear-growing. Since then the disease has wrought havoc and many growers have abandoned it, but those who wage successful warfare are greatly profited. The varieties grown are com- paratively few and the Bartlett is chief, because there are fully two months between the first to ma- ture in early districts and the last in late regions, and during all this time supplies are ready for shipping and canning of this one exceedingly ac- AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 183 ceptable variety which permits no intruders while it is in season. Later pears are little grown al- though a few shippers are doing well with winter varieties. The choicest varieties of the European plum are hardy in California. Growers do not need to cir- cumvent the curculio and the black-knot for these have never appeared in the State. The French prunes were introduced at an early day and the prod- uct has won its way by displacing European prunes in American markets, has outgrown the require- ments of the United States and is being largely sold in Europe, even in France itself. California has in- vented new methods of handling prunes by machinery and other labor-saving recourses and has endeavored by human devices to contribute to economy of pro- duction to which nature contributes free sunshine and dry air. Probably nowhere can so rich and de- licious a fruit food as the California prune be so cheaply produced and it is warranted to expect that the world will need all that can be grown if or- ganization for distribution and trade is continued. The largest prune-producing valley is Santa Clara (which has nearly two-thirds of all the prune trees in the State) ; other coast valleys and the great interior valley participating in the production of the other third of the crop. Of plums, aside from varieties that are dried with- out removal of the pit (and therefore called prunes), the production is largely restricted to the Japanese and a few European varieties which are particularlv 184 RURAL CALIFORNIA. adapted to fresh fruit shipments and canning. These fruits are largely grown in the districts where early ripening can be counted on. The size and beauty of the canning plums are striking and the product reaches a good volume. California produces practically the whole of the almond crop of the United States. The almond de- mands much intelligent judgment on the part of the grower. It is a very restless tree during the winter because the temperature in the valleys is al- ways near the point which induces blooming and rather a light frost may injure blossoms and young nuts. It is very important to select locations where there is a minimum danger of frost. These are on the bench lands around small valleys, while the bot- tom lands in the same valleys might be quite frosty. Frosts are also less frequent on the plains of the in- terior valleys where there is a free circulation of air to equalize temperatures, while on the river bottom lands the trees may be unproductive. The almond does not thrive at elevations in the foothills and seems to be a bench and valley fruit, but even within these limits locations must be chosen with close at- tention to local topography. The wide distribution of the product shows that local conditions rather than wide geographical generalizations should be studied. The chestnut product is small and consists almost entirely of the Italian variety grown in the interior valley and foothills. On light loams all through the lower lands the peanut thrives well and makes a large product of AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 185 exceptionally large,, bright and well filled nuts. In southern California the chief product is on the lower lands of the coast region, while in the central and northern parts, peanuts are mostly grown on the al- luvial loams of the river bottoms of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley, although the crop is some- times made between fruit-trees on the light upland loams. Although sometimes quite profitable to those who have mastered the details, the crop has been recently unprofitable because of reduction of duties on importations and only a small fraction of the peanuts used in California are grown here. The pecan grows and bears well in the lower lands of the interior valleys. It does not thrive near the coast where the seasons are not well defined nor in the drier regions of the interior. On deep lands, how- ever, where moisture is ample and the approach of autumn is marked by rather sharp frosts, the pecan, stops its growth and matures its nuts satisfactorily. The product has not yet risen to commercial im- portance. The English walnut is the most important nut grown in California,, judged by the volume and value of the product, by the breadth of its adaptability to local conditions and the greatness of its outlook. The present product is almost entirely grown in three southern coast counties. In recent years there has been a large planting in the central part of the State and the product of the future will be drawn from a wider territory. The walnut tree is content with the coast, interior valley and foothill climates, pro- 186 RURAL CALIFORNIA viding it has sufficient depth of soil to sustain it and to furnish the constant, but not excessive, water supply that it needs. Where the rainfall is large and the soil deep enough to retain moisture and yet open enough to prevent standing water, walnuts yield satisfactory results without irrigation. In places with light rainfall or where the soil is too shallow or non- retentive to hold moisture for the long growing sea- son, irrigation is requisite. The grape grows in all parts of California from near sea level to an elevation of 5,,000 feet or more. It is contented with nearly all fertile soils from the deep valley loams, where the great fat firm-fleshed grapes are grown for raisin and table purposes, to the shallower soils of the high foothills and moun- tain slopes, where the grapes are less in quantity but of superior aromatic qualities. This wide adaptation gives an immense area suited for grape culture. The chief reason for the achievement and promise of the grape in California is in the fact that the European species (Vitis vinifem) thrives,, and thus the grower has command of all that the Europeans have accom- plished in centuries in the development of varieties for special purposes. The European varieties are the only ones from which raisins can be made; they also furnish the world's wine and brandy and they give size, beauty and shipping quality to table grapes beyond all comparison with American varieties. Table grapes are grown for local use everywhere and for shipping chiefly in the interior valley. The raisin interest is almost wholly concentrated in the AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 187 center of the San Joaquin Valley, although there is a raisin product of some moment in the Sacramento Valley and in southern California. The wine and brandy interests were widely distributed through the length and breadth of the State when prohibition prevailed as a national policy. It was apprehended that wine grapes could no longer be profitably grown, but prohibition multiplied the price for both fresh and dried grapes and induced a considerable increase of acreage of all varieties in 1920 and 1921, on the chance that grape-juice in various conditions might be in greater demand than ever before. Fruits of the semi-tropical class which have reached considerable commercial importance are indicated in the tabulation on page 178. Others are succeeding with amateurs, and some of them advancing to com- mercial recognition. The date fruits freely in the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys and in central parts of the State and an increasing commercial product is made in the irrigated areas of the Colo- rado Eiver district in southern California — all com- prised in Eegion 4. The banana is fruited for home use in many thermal situations. The pine- apple is grown in a small way in frostless places near the coast in southern California. The cheri- moyer is found in the markets of Los Angeles, while the avocado is becoming very popular in the south, and is also being planted in several other parts of the State. The guava and loquat are freely produced for local use and sale. The persimmon and pome- granate grow in nearly all fruit districts. Many 188 RURAL CALIFORNIA other semi-tropical fruits may be found in the dis- tricts which grow citrus fruits. Old fig trees of the Mission variety attain the di- mensions and aspects of oaks and bear so much fruit that it becomes of some importance in swine feeding. The fig is hardy in all central and southern coast and interior situations (Eegions 2, 3 and 4), except in a few places where the temperature falls ten or twelve degrees below freezing. This naturally sug- gested the fig as a great commercial fruit but produc- tion has been restricted by the fact that fresh figs are just beginning in long shipment and because un- til recently California dried figs have not compared well with the product of Smyrna. This condition has, however, been completely changed by the experience of the last decade. The fig industry comes on a new basis through the successful introduction of the pol- lination insect essential to the success of the Smyrna fig which is now being produced in considerable quantities and the percentage of current increase in fig acreage is greater than that of any other fruit except the grape. The olive has been successfully grown in California for more than a century, but its handling since the American occupation has been attended by many vicissitudes. Recently, however, the pure food laws have prevented the use of the word olive in connec- tion with substitute oils for salad purposes. Can- ning and bottling hermetically, with adequate ster- ilization, have made it possible to produce pickled ripe olives of suitable varieties with good keeping AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 189 qualities, and California is now producing largely and profitably good olives and olive products. Prac- tically all the counties of the State except those on the high mountains and on the upper northwest coast, have olive trees in bearing, the interior valleys and foothills of the Sierra Nevada leading in the production. Imported lemons have met sharp competition in the markets of the United States by the California product. Though lemon-growing is possible in most sections where oranges are produced, the lemon does best in nearly frostless places, being more tender than the orange. For this reason the chief product is in the southern coast counties (Region 3). The lemon is more exacting in production than the orange, which is marketable fresh from the trees, while the lemon requires curing and a good part of the crop has to be held from winter maturity to be sold in the following midsummer, when the chief demand for lemons occurs. California has accomplished more with the orange than with any other single fruit, not only largely supplying the United States but successfully selling the fruit in northern Europe. As explained in de- tail in Chapter I, the orange thrives in suit- able situations through a north and south distance of over 600 miles and the topography of the State is such that similar winter and summer temperatures occur all through this distance. By choice of early and late varieties and by using the variation in the season of maturity in different regions, California can 190 RURAL CALIFORNIA furnish fresh oranges in large quantities all through the calendar year and can make the United States practically independent of importations. Another advantage peculiar to the State is that the orange grown in a dry summer is more dense in texture and has much better keeping and shipping quality than one raised in a humid summer. The fruit is also more sprightly and refreshing, and though there is some controversy over the alleged superior sweetness of the Gulf fruit., the popularity of the California orange and prices which it commands are evidence of its wide popularity. The pomelo or grapefruit is also grown in Cali- fornia, hut has not met the extent of demand that was anticipated. In California the term small-fruits signifies only berries and currants, as the cherry is always classed with other great orchard fruits and the grape stands alone as the foundation of a great fruit industry, as has been indicated. Aside from supplies for home use and local markets, there is a large field for small- fruit growing for shipment. Berries are largely used by the canners. Small-fruits are also shipped to mar- kets from one to two thousand miles distant in the interior states and territories to the north and east. The earlier ripening of these fruits gives shippers an opportunity to place the product in this vast region, where there are home-grown supplies later in the year. The growing of small-fruits is scattered over the State and the special regions are widely distant from each other. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 191 On the whole, it is true that the immense fruit products of California are being easily disposed of at fairly remunerative rates, and the business enjoys a good outlook. There is, of course, fluctuation from year to year in the values of different fruits and in the market conditions which they meet at distant points. Such off-years strike the fruits somewhat ir- regularly and are discouraging first to one special grower and then to another, because localities are largely given to specializing, according to favoring culture conditions or otherwise. Nevertheless the fruit-growing districts of California have the busiest towns, the handsomest rural improvements, the larg- est assessment rolls, and are most attractive to home- seekers. THE QUEST OF SUGAR The different plants held to be available for sugar supply are true sugar-cane, saccharine sorghums, melons, beets and grapes. In the first decade of American occupation about five million dollars a year were paid for imported sugar either refined or raw, the latter being refined in the first sugar re- finery built on the coast which began operation in San Francisco in 1855. The knowledge that about one-tenth of all the gold annually produced at that time was being expended for sugar from foreign sources naturally aroused enterprise to keep the gold and produce the sugar if possible and it was thought at first that this would not be difficult. When the American came there was true tropical cane grow- 192 RURAL CALIFORNIA ing in Los Angeles, as there has been ever since. It probably came from tropical parts of Mexico or Cen- tral America, whence many plants were brought in early days. The demand for sweet cane for chewing out the sweetness was apparently considerable among the argonauts. In 1855 a crop from five acres at Los Angeles sold for $1000. It was all sold for chewing. It was said that "it makes good molasses, but does not granulate readily/' At El Monte, there was in 1856 "an acre of cane granulating well and making an excellent quality of white sugar," but nothing is said about the process which made it white, and one is left to infer that some small scale 'refining was practiced. True sugar-cane has been growing in small quantities in many parts of the State since that time, but has never reached com- mercial standing except as it may be salable from the fruit-stands for chewing. The plant grows per- ennially but it does not reach a high sugar percent- age near the coast for lack of heat and it refuses free growth in the dry heat of the interior. As late as 1893 an appropriation was made by Congress to provide for a test of true sugar-cane on the reclaimed low lands of the delta of the San Joaquin River, in the hope that moist heat would be found to suit the cane better, but no satisfactory sugar-content was secured. Such demonstrations only confirmed the conclusions of the pioneers as shown by the fact that they allowed to go unclaimed the large premi- ums which the State offered in 1863 for California- grown sugar from the sugar-cane. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 193 While the true sugar-cane was still considered a possible recourse, a saccharine sorghum commanded much interest from the impression that it was ca- pable of producing crystallizable sugar — which the name given to it, "Chinese sugar-cane/' encouraged. As early as 1859 there were "several kinds of cane crushers on sale in San Francisco." The State leg- islature in 1863 offered large bounties for sorghum sugar as well as for sugar from cane but none of these bounties was ever claimed and the law was repealed in 1871. Before that, however (1867), it was writ- ten : "Chinese sugar cane or sorghum has been culti- vated to a comparatively large extent in previous years. So far as known no sugar of consequence has been made and as a general rule, the quality of the syrup offered has been quite inferior and slow of sale at unremunerative prices." There was a revival of interest in sorghum molasses about ten years later when Peter Collier's quest of sorghum and corn-stalk sugar was causing large ex- penditures in the Middle West for laboratories and factories to secure sugar for 1 cent a pound. Im- proved varieties were introduced and some sorghum molasses was made with little profit, and there has been a scattered small production ever since. The call for sweetening during the war and the high price of sugar since, revived sorghum sirup making and one factory made ten thousand gallons in 1920, but no great production has been undertaken. While hope of home-grown sugar still lingered with the canes, the sugar-beet began to command 194 RURAL CALIFORNIA wide attention on the basis of its achievements on the continent of Europe and many highly antici- patory declarations were made in California publi- cations of the time. One writer exalted the oppor- tunity by calling attention in 1865 to the fact that "beets grow all the year in California and a single beet has been known to attain in one season^ near Sacramento, the remarkable weight of one hundred pounds." However, this misconception of size of the beet as an exponent of availability for sugar-making does not fairly represent the local knowledge of the time. There were many illuminating discussions and official publication of translations of European trea- tises covering the growth and contents of the beet, also methods and machinery for sugar manufacture. It is interesting that at the same time the idea pre- vailed that sugar could be made profitably from wa- termelons and this conviction actuated the first en- terprise. Before building was undertaken, however, the melon was scouted by the chemists and the com- pany decided on a beet-sugar factory instead. This was the Sacramento Valley Beet Sugar Company or- ganized in March 1868 but, as it was delayed in con- struction, the California Beet Sugar Company or- ganized in 1869 and its factory, in operation at Al- varado the following year, manufactured in Novem- ber 1870 the first beet-sugar in California, and has besides the distinction of being the first beet-sugar factory in the United States. In its original and subsequently enlarged form it has, with the excep- tion of a single year, been in continuous operation AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 195 for half a century, the pioneer of an industry which had ninety factories in operation in this country in 1919. Beet-sugar production in California underwent many vicissitudes. At first it encountered stiff op- position from the capitalists who had funds in- vested in the refineries for imported cane-sugar be- cause the beet-sugar factories brought no raw sugar to them but turned out sugar white in the first in- stance and, therefore, came into direct competition both with refiners and with traders in cane-sugar. The latter not only did their best in price cutting to make beet-sugar investments unprofitable but pro- claimed no future for it that further undertakings with the beet might be discouraged. Those who de- sired to promote beet-growing from an agricultural point of view had no recourse against such opposi- tion as beet-sugar production is impracticable in farm factories and large establishments requiring great investments are essential. Several poorly equipped factories operated for a few years but were abandoned, so that in 1880 the pioneer factory at Alvarado alone survived. This factory struggled along until 1887-1888 when it was sold and rebuilt and in that year no beet-sugar was made in the United States. At that time also a re- version set in among those interested in cane-sugar refining and they became convinced that beet-sugar was better for their investments and they proclaimed the beet as the hope of the United States as a source of home-grown sugar. Capital became available for 196 RURAL CALIFORNIA new factories not only in California but in other states. For a number of years California led the country in beet-sugar manufacture but more re- cently other states have shared this distinction. In- teresting facts about the numbers of factories in operation in California and their output and prices paid a ton for beets are compiled from the records of the United States Department of Agriculture as follows : BEET- SUGAR PRODUCTION IN CALIFORNIA year Number of Tons of Price to Tons of Factories Beets Used Growers Sugar Produced 1913 12 1,138,003 $ 6.10 171,208 1914 10 1,082,000 5.68 169,004 1915 11 1,249,111 5.86 195,343 1916 11 1,439,000 6.44 243,800 1917 14 1,321,716 8.16 209,325 1918 13 845,728 9.25 122,795 1919 11 815,896 13.36 131,172 1920 . . 1,037,000 163,700 The fourteen factories included above are widely scattered over the State. Three are in central coast counties (Eegion 2 of Chapter I) ; seven are in south- ern coast counties (Eegion 3) ; and four are in in- terior valley counties (Region 4). In some cases beets are carried over a hundred miles by rail to the factories. At the time of California's greatest output of beet-sugar (1916), her rank was second in the United States, Colorado leading by about eighteen thousand tons. Since that time production has decreased. Confidence in the industry was unsettled by removal AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 197 of the protective tariff against imported sugar and although the anticipated results of that action were arrested by the outbreak of the World War, the diver- sion of beet-growers' activities to the production of beans and other war-winning crops reduced the beet acreage. Besides, the uncertainties in the sugar market in 1918 and 1919 were urged by the managers of the factories as a disability on their part fully to meet the demand of the growers for increased valua- tion of beets. It is probable that the production of 1921 will indicate that all doubts have been dispelled, at least temporarily, and that the beet-sugar output will be the greatest in American history. It is interesting that in earlier years whenever more wine or raisins were made than could be sold profitably, there was always discussion of the possi- bility of using grapes for sirup. Although all fea- tures of its old environment have changed, the ques- tion still persists and in 1920 more casual discussion, careful research and investment of capital were given to the effort to produce profitable sirup from the grape than ever before. In spite of insufficiency of fresh grapes of all kinds to meet the demand, in spite of the prohibition amendment which has appar- ently doubled the value of California vineyards instead of reducing or destroying it, the production of grape sirup was one of the most active lines of promotion and investment of the year 1920. This activity apparently rests on the two assumptions that higher value for all forms of sweetening will endure for some time ; that the high values of grapes, grape- 198 RURAL CALIFORNIA juice and raisins will continue indefinitely, because of their substitutive uses, and therefore there will be much inferior fruit from the expansion of production of types of grapes peculiar to California, from which it will be profitable to manufacture a by-product of grape sirup, even if the old forms of sirup should return to normal values. Demonstrations of the soundness of these assumptions can only be reached in due course of economic, manufacturing and com- mercial experience. SPECIAL CROPS In 1919 California was not only the first state of the Union in hop-growing but produced about two- thirds of all the hops raised in this country. Hop- growing began in 1855 with roots brought from Ver- mont and planted in Alameda County by Wilson and Daniel Flint, of whom the latter continued a hop- grower for about half a century in the vicinity of Sacramento. The crop has been almost exclusively grown on riverside loams, although some upland loams have also been successfully used. The pro- ducing region has always remained in the central part of the State, both in the interior valleys (Region 4, Chapter I) and in the coast valleys north and south of San Francisco (Region 2). The first crop in 1856 showed that the prevailing characteristics of Cali- fornia hops would be large size and large acre yield due to the favorable growing conditions ; bright color, because the dry air prevented discolorations from AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 199 fungi ; richness in lupulin as the flowers are unwashed by summer rains. Foreign brewers soon found that using these hops in their usual quantities made their beer too bitter, and they came to be mixed with local products, thus securing a market for them in many European countries at a price which more than com- pensated for cost of long transportation. Hop-growing in California,, as in all producing regions, has undergone great vicissitudes. As hops are inedible to either men or live-stock and only potable to the former, the world's consumption is limited ; over-supply occasions worthlessness with consequent reduction of acreage; under-supply yields great profit to those who are ready to meet it and induces unwarranted expansion of acreage, because the ordinary man always plants when price is high and the trend surely downward instead of planting when price is low, acreage reduction sure, and prices bound upward for that reason. The growers who have made money in hops are those who steadily stayed in the business and not those who have jumped in and out of it. During the last half century, hops have sold three or four times at one-half to ten times the cost of production; that is from 5 cents to $1 a pound. Although there has been from year to year much planting and plowing out of hop roots, the decade record shows regular advancement, as shown in table on page 200. The increased price of the 1919 crop, for which an average farm value of 77 cents a pound was recorded, coupled with the increased production 200 RURAL CALIFORNIA Year Acreage Pounds of Hops 1860 60 1870 625,064 1880 1,119 1,444,077 1890 3,974 6,547,338 1900 6,890 10,124,660 1910 8,391 11,994,953 1919 11,000 17,875,000 1920 12,000 20,000,000 seemed to indicate that there would be a greater demand for hops. In this latter respect, however, the hop did not share the experience of the grape, for hops were only valued at 35 cents a pound, less than half the price of the previous year. Although notable achievement in cotton-growing in California was reached very recently and rapidly, it was preceded by more than half a century of experi- mentation. The entry of achievement was not, how- ever, an outgrowth of such apprenticeship, because large commercial production was ultimately attained in a district of the State not covered by the first forty years of trial culture, in fact, in a region which during that period was considered of no discernible agricultural value whatever, because it had no rain- fall of practicable significance and was not then looked on as capable of irrigation. The district of first successful demonstration was in the extreme southern extension of Eegion 4, as described in Chapter I, and as this includes the great central twin valley of the interior, where early cotton-grow- ing reached its greatest production, it not only dem- onstrates the immense area of the State available for AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 201 cotton-growing but renders all early efforts to estab- lish it interesting. In 1856 the California State Agricultural Society offered a premium of $75 for the best acre of cotton, evidently to determine whether the many growers of a few plants previous to that time could be raised to an acre standard. This test did not produce results, for, although continued for several years, no awards were recorded. In 1862 in the hope of escaping the effects of the war on the supply from the southern states, state prizes were offered of $3000 for the first hundred bales of cotton., to be followed by awards of $2000, $1000 and $500 for the same amount in the three succeeding years. These prizes were subsequently declared awardable in fractions for small amounts of cotton. In 1865 an award of $3000 was made to Matthew Keller for cotton grown in Los Angeles County. At that time there were about 700 acres of cotton in Los Angeles County and in southern San Joaquin A^alley. In 1871 Colonel J. M. Strong, after small tests for several years, planted a hundred acres in Merced County. The following year Merced County had seven hundred acres and Kern County one hundred and forty acres and in that year cotton gins were set up in both counties. In 1873 Merced County possessed from fifteen hundred to two thou- sand acres and the Buckley brothers made a ship- ment of ten tons to Liverpool, the first commercial export of cotton from California. In the few follow- ing years cotton was continuously grown in Merced, Kings and Kern counties, and the success of the 202 RURAL CALIFORNIA plant on land somewhat alkaline was demonstrated. On the data collected from such earlier undertakings and from his own researches into the character of the soils and climatic conditions and from observa- tion of many experimental patches then to be seen (for cotton had never ceased to be a favorite plant with experimenters),, the late E. W. Hilgard included California among the "cotton states" which he mi- nutely described in his monograph on cotton-growing in the United States,, a part of the United States census of 1880. It was nearly a third of a century later before cotton production became established in the Imperial Valley and subsequently extended by the stimulus of war needs to other interior dis- tricts of the State. During this hiatus, however, experiments and exhortations were not wholly absent. The chief dif- ficulty seemed to be to secure a labor supply to pick cotton at a cost which would leave a profit to the grower. The basis of picking with Chinese labor, on which growers were building previous to 1879, disap- peared with the adoption of the exclusion act. Kern County growers, some years later, tried the experi- ment of introducing a train load of southern negroes but they ran away soon after arrival, seeking town jobs. It was subsequently pointed out that the experiment had failed because the negroes had been gathered from southern towns and not brought from plantations. During this time also there was a continuance of exhortation because the California Cotton Mills AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 203 desired a home-grown supply to displace costly importations from Texas and pursued systematic propaganda to secure it. However, this availed little until cotton-growing took its new start in the Impe- rial Valley, in the extreme southeast corner of the State, where after a few years of small experiments and large planning, production assumed a commer- cial character in 1909. Since then cotton-growing has been commercially pursued in adjacent parts of California and Arizona and more recently in the San Joaquin Valley. The rapid increase in produc- tion and the satisfactory results obtained are shown by the following tabular compilation from the reports of the United States Department of Agriculture: Year Acreage Yield of Lint Average Price 500 Ib. Bales a Lb. 1910 8,000 6,000 10.8 1911 12,000 10,000 7.5 1912 9,000 8,000 12.5 1913 14,000 23,000 13.0 1914 47,000 50,000 7.0 1915 39,000 29,000 11.2 1916 52,000 44,000 20.0 1917 126,000 58,000 28.0 1918 173,000 67,000 30.0 1919 167,000 102,000 43.0 1920 275,000 143,016 18. The high average price is due to the fact that so much long-staple cotton is grown and the large acre value is also due to this in connection with the large weight obtained. In average price and acre value, California leads all the states except 204 RURAL CALIFORNIA Arizona where long-staple cotton is grown exclusively, beginning in 1917 and increasing rapidly. The production of cotton in California includes many economic and cultural problems and policies and the rapid advance recently made is largely attrib- utable to cooperation among growers in financing and constructing gins and oil-mills and in protecting their industry from all oppressive encroachments. The labor question which harassed the pioneers has not been eliminated but is being progressively reduced by dependence on white labor, an advantage being found in the fact that the dry frostless autumn allows the work to be done after most harvesting of other crops is finished. In the search for vegetable fiber, ramie produc- tion has been promoted as a great new field for enter- prise and investment. In 1870 John S. Finch exhib- ited ramie stalks and fiber at the State Fair and a special gold medal was recommended for his display. The plant was introduced and grown by him at Haywards, Alameda County. About that time a great prize was offered by the government of or for India for a machine which would successfully displace hand labor in extraction and processing of ramie fiber for manufacturing. In 1874 Finch and others associated with him constructed an elaborate combina- tion of rollers and dipping tanks through which the ramie stalks were passed in series by a succession of belts and carriers. This machine was started for India to be entered in the competition and to give an exhibition in the Hawaiian Islands en route. It AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 205 arrived in the Islands in due course but never was carried nearer to the competition nor the prize and the idea of growing ramie in California was for the time abandoned. In 1880 other inventors of ramie machines and processes appeared and in 1890 still others. The latter group gathered influence enough to secure the passage of a state law in 1891 creating a "department of ramie culture" which undertook official promotion of a machine for fiber extraction and of ramie culture to provide the raw material. The result was a boom for venders of ramie plants and the filling of much ground here and there with roots from which the growth was worthless because no device nor process came through profitably. In later years other promoters have operated with other machines and ramie plantations, but no industry has been established nor notable product marketed to this day. The growth of the ramie plant in Cali- fornia is excellent and immense areas are suited to it, but sound inducements toward its production have not yet appeared. Rising to public notice with about the same fre- quency and at about the same dates were agitations for local production of flax fiber by manufacturers7 agents, and their appeals for help to establish a new industry induced the importations of a collection of European fiber flaxes. These grew well but there was no industrial outcome, as no one wished to buy the fiber and the seed crop was not so good for oil- making as the variety currently grown for that pur- pose. This undertaking was followed by a related 206 RURAL CALIFORNIA one to raise the oil flax known as "California" for both seed and fiber, but this gave birth to no industry, although flax-seed growing for oil-making has con- tinued in varying amounts from year to year. Esparto grasses were introduced into California about 1880 in answer to exhortation from a California lady who had observed weaving industries in Italy and claimed that California women should furnish mats, Italian style, for olive pressing. The plants were widely distributed and grew well, but the women were not more disposed to weave baskets than they were to spin flax and it was found that olive presses could work better with American inclosing fabrics than with esparto mats. The same history belongs to New Zealand flax (Phormium) for, although this plant serves an excellent ornamental purpose in many parks and private gardens, no fiber has ever been commercially produced from it. The same is true of sisal, the Yucatan product of Agave species. Cali- fornia "century plants" have attracted much atten- tion by blooming at about one-eighth of the age their common name indicates and recourse to sisal produc- tion has been from time to time agitated but nothing has been realized, although from early days, cordage factories have operated with imported raw materials. Hemp has gone a little farther than cordage plants because, after scattered experiments in earlier years in various localities, there was commercial produc- tion on the lowlands of the Feather and Sacramento rivers but all such undertakings were abandoned about 1905, after shipment of the product to Europe. AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRIES 207 Experiments in hemp-growing were, however, re- sumed in 1922 on the basis of new inventions for fiber-extraction — in spite of the earlier conclusion that better use could be made of the land by growing products edible to man or to live-stock. Urged by the large importation of jute cloth and grain sacks from India for sixty years before elevators and bulk- handling of grain was entered on, the jute plant was introduced about 1890 but no one succeeded in getting a good growth in the plant which seemed to demand more strictly tropical conditions. CHAPTER VI ANIMAL INDUSTRIES OF CALIFORNIA In view of the fact that California's reputation for agricultural production rests chiefly on eminence in horticultural lines, it is interesting to note that in aggregate value of domestic animals the State stands fourteenth among the forty-eight of the Union. The progress by decades, as compiled from the reports of the United States Department of Agriculture, is as follows : VALUE OF ALL FARM ANIMALS IN CALIFORNIA 1920 $234,000,000 1910 127,599,938 1900 67,303,325 1890 65,575,427 1880 41,498,417 1870 40,306,300 1860 35,585,017 1850 3,351,058 It is notable that the great increases came during the first and the last two full decades. The great drive on fruit, which has resulted in an annual production with selling value of two hundred and fifty millions, did not cause a backward movement in animal husbandry, so the current great drive on 208 ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 209 animals need not be expected to depress the fruit industry, for the relations of the two are reciprocally beneficial in many ways. Especially in the line of producing animal manures which are coming into increasing appreciation for use on fruit lands, the live-stock industry may be considered as fundamental and indispensable. In connection with the total value of $234,000,000 of farm animals, the total annual value of marketed products is also interesting and it may be compiled from the data in Chapter IV in this way: VALUES OF CALIFORNIA ANIMAL PRODUCTS Slaughtering and meat-packing (1919) $84,000,000 Dairy manufacture and milk sale (1919) 74,515,381 Wool ( 1917 ) 12,180,000 Therefore, without counting the value of the manu- rial by-product and the locally consumed products on farms and in villages, there appears to be an annual gross product value of $170,695,381 from an invest- ment of $234,000,000 in value of farm animals. Of course the product value covers use of land and cost of labor and supplies, as well as a fair return on the investment, which is all that is expected of a prosperous industry. A categorical statement of the natural conditions affecting the live-stock industry in California with indication of their relation to policies and methods may be undertaken in this way : 1. The absence of snow and ground freezing, except on mountain valleys or plateaux, renders light 210 RURAL CALIFORNIA and cheap shelter sufficient. It is, in fact, frequently dispensed with altogether, but that is neither merciful nor profitable, in view of the little it costs to furnish it. 2. The mild climate gives a long grazing season and the dry summer furnishes dry feed, which is really good nutritious hay, cured as it stands. One who has land enough, including low and high, and pastures each in its best condition for green or dry feed, can carry all except dairy stock and hogs, without growing feeding crops and siloing. How- ever, he alone reaps the full benefit of the climate who provides alfalfa or other clovers., silage, grain and roots, to save his pastures from being gnawed and tramped when too wet and his stock from all set- backs by even short spells of hunger. A certain amount of farming should always be associated with wild pasturing. This is often dispensed , with, but it is not profitable in the highest degree. 3. The climate not only gives a long growing season to pasturage plants but multiplies the number of species which sustain the pasture. Speaking broadly, California pastures and fields include all the grazing and forage plants which can be grown in Europe from the reclaimed lands of Holland to the Alpine valleys of Switzerland. The hays, unwashed by rains and favored by dry air, have an average of concentrated richness and wholesomeness unknown to cured forage in humid countries (Chap- ter V). 4. The mild climate, free from set-backs due to ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 211 extreme cold, coupled with the provision of reason- able winter feeding, gives all well-cared-for animals surprisingly quick growth and early maturity. In old days strangers always over-guessed the age of sheep by their teeth, being helped to the error by their size. In a way this is true of all animals and it means great gain when weight is most cheaply attained; early sale of increase and quick turn of money; early maternity and, with some animals, more gestations in a year, because temperature, and, with proper arrangements, feed are always favorable for parturition and lactation. 5. California soils by variety in character, self drainage and retentiveness, richness and productive- ness, match the capabilities of favoring climate in promoting wild growth and give the enterprising grower wide field for choosing feeding plants accord- ing to his conditions and requirements. 6. Irrigation, whether from ranch brooks or wells or from a regular system, establishes mastery over variations in time and amount of rainfall or makes a grower practically independent of rainfall in regions that were formerly called deserts and are now among the leading stock -growing districts. To be a successful stockman, one should have land, capital, knowledge of the business, faith and positive liking for it. There is no sadder farm picture than a stockman scant of land. There can be no exact pre- scription of amounts of land, for animals require different areas, and lands vary in food productiveness and in acre valuation. To secure enough land, it 212 RURAL CALIFORNIA is still possible in California to go far enough away to find rich flats and warm slopes and running brooks and shady trees. The stockman should help occupy the State by going beyond the thickly settled areas; this can now be done with less social sacrifice than ever before, because a cheap automobile kills distance. The man who has too little land for stock is closely matched by the one who has too little money. Animal production is beyond all other farming, perhaps, in its demand for adequate investment. It is quicker than some others in return, if all goes well, but there must not only be investment but working capital from the start. The introduction of improved live-stock was one of the first enterprises of American settlers. They devoted much effort and money to the undertaking, which was full of difficulties and risks. Eesults in transforming the common stock of the country, as well as in producing pure-bred individuals of notable excellence, were speedily attained. The conditions favoring the growth of domestic animals, which have been noted above, seemed to be accentuated in the development of pure-breds and the wide public recog- nition of their desirability among the pioneers encouraged effort and investment. These funda- mental conditions have continued and have been supplemented not only by a wider recognition of the desirability of pure-breds but by the enactment of laws discouraging ownership of scrub sires in various ways. A concrete indication of the prevalence of pure-bred effort at the present day is found in the ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 213 United States Census of 1920 which is summarized in this way : Kind of Number of Number of Stock Breeding Farms Animals Horses 588 1,615 Cattle 5,179 32,388 Sheep 371 28,831 Swine 4,886 35,741 All the breeds popular in the United States are included in this summary; all the marks of distinc- tion provided by the breeders' associations have found some qualified claimants and a number of distin- guished records have been made. California breeders are shipping their pure-bred products to other states and to other countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean in which they hope to realize large trade and influence in the future. CATTLE AND DAIRYING Cattle ranging" was the chief industry of the Spanish and Mexican pioneers of California. The expedition from Lower California which reached San Diego in 1769 was in a way tripartite in that it had a spiritual head, a governmental head and an agricultural head. Whatever honor pertains to the agricultural phases of the effort to civilize Cali- fornia should be awarded to Captain Rivera who was the herdsman of Junipero Serra and Portola and successfully did the practical things essential to the success of the spiritual and political features 214: RURAL CALIFORNIA of the expedition. Captain Eivera seems also to have been the first to enter the new country, for he started northward from Lower California in March 1769 with his cowboys and 200 head of cattle, sheep and goats, arriving in San Diego in May. Probably neither Eivera nor any of his cowboys of 1769 had even the faintest dream of the outcome of the enterprise which was in part entrusted to him. Even the lush meadows and hillsides of San Diego in May probably did not suggest the full capacity for the animal industry of the new country to which he had driven his flocks and herds. Even if he had seen but a little way into the future, he would have beheld his 200 animals of 1769 multi- plied to 424,000 horned cattle, 62,500 horses, mules and asses, 321,500 sheep, goats and swine, as shown by the mission inventories at the time of the dispos- session of the padres in 1834. If Captain Eivera never saw the great multiplica- tion of the live-stock he introduced, he was also spared the sight of the most wanton but still unavoid- able waste which attended the use made of them. For nearly half a century the natural increase of the little bunch he had convoyed to such rich pastur- age and favoring salubrity was slain for hides, pelts and tallow to be traded with visiting ships. He also lost the farther sight which would have revealed his effort as a providential provision for the devel- opment of California as it has since been achieved. The services of the padres in the preparation for American occupation is inestimable. Suppose they ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 215 had not brought their live-stock and multiplied it as indicated, and if the rancheros away from the mis- sions had not had the materials for their own exten- sion, it is impossible to measure how the enterprise of the gold-seeking Americans of 1849 might have been slowed down. It is very sure that the people who made California a State in 1850 could never have accomplished it on a menu of acorn-cakes and clam-chowder on which the barbaric aborigines sub- sisted. It required plenty of roasted and boiled beef to start California on her career and the padres made such munitions available. The Americans had no idea of continuing Cali- fornia as a hide and tallow state, nor of prolonging the rude pastoral husbandry which satisfied the ambitions of their predecessors. Although histori- cally there were foundations laid for animal indus- tries by the Spanish occupants, the superstructures rest only remotely on those foundations, for they have now deeply passed from view beneath the achievements of the Americans who developed in central California herds and flocks on the basis first of the British and later of the Hollandish breeds. So strong was the feeling in support of improved stock in the early fifties that to charge a man with owning and breeding Mexican cattle was something of a social reflection and reproach while honor came to those who gave effort and money to importing good stock by driving the animals across the plains from the Middle West or bringing them by ship from ports on either side of the Atlantic. The terms 216 RURAL CALIFORNIA American and Spanish cattle were generally used. Pedigreed animals, horses, cattle, sheep and swine, were fairly rushed into the State by the pioneers. At the first formal cattle show in 1856 in San Jose, the president, E. L. Beard, said: "We raise a very large amount of stock and no state has greater natural advantages for the cheap and easy produc- tion of stock. I see also, in the fact that large sums are beginning to be expended by some of our most enterprising citizens for the introduction of the im- proved breeds, a token that we shall shortly take that precedence to which our soil and climate entitle us." It only took about a decade to fill the State with grades and thus establish a new common stock on which later achievements in improvement have been based. Writing in 1868, T. F. Cronise said: "The wild cattle of the Mexicans are poor, long-horned and lank, but they cross well with imported stock, carrying the fine points of the latter and the en- durance of the former. Great attention has been paid to crossing and very soon the pure native stock will be extinct, for it is unprofitable." Pure-bred Shorthorns were first to be officially rec- ognized. They comprised all the exhibits of pedi- greed stock at the cattle show of 1856 and of follow- ing years until Devons, Jerseys and Ayrshires were recorded in 1863 and Holsteins were added in 1872. Herefords were acknowledged in 1878; Guernseys in 1882; Angus in 1884; Galloways in 1886. Short- horns have never lost their . advantage of priority. For several decades the common stock was predomi- ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 217 nantly Shorthorn grades both in beef and dairy dis- tricts, then the Jersey began to shape the cattle in dairy service. Later the Hereford has reached marked influence in range cattle and Holstein-Frie- sian in dairy herds, until white faces became abun- dant on the range and black and white spots even more prevalent in the dairy pastures. In the line of pure-breeding, however, all popular breeds are represented by herds of good quality and large expen- ditures have been made to secure the popular strains of all the breeds. California-bred individuals have shared in the high prices which their kinds have attained in other parts of the country and have figured as champions in the great stock shows. During the decade 1910 to 1920, the pure-bred interests of California have advanced notably and the enthusiasm over efforts to breed only the best has echoed the zeal manifested by the early pioneers when they started out to displace the Mexican cattle, as has already been noted. These pure-bred herds have supplied many selections for shipment to the Orient and to other countries bordering on the Pacific Ocean. It is an ambition of the present gen- eration of breeders to embody the highest attain- ments of Americans in pure-bred stock and to meet the demand for the products of such breeding not only from all the interior states of the Pacific Slope but from all the shores of the Pacific Ocean, where interest in better live-stock is rapidly expanding. Californians have always looked forward to con- tributions to trade in distant parts. It is inter- 218 RURAL CALIFORNIA esting to note that as early as 1856 when Governor Bigler announced that the State stood eighth in the census of farm animals, this declaration was also publicly made by an enthusiast in the same year : "Why should we import cattle from Texas or Mis- souri? Is it not almost incredible that in a country like this, where cattle roaming over our mountains and valleys, live and grow fat upon the food which nature produces spontaneously, we should neverthe- less import them from countries two thousand miles distant and that too at an enormous cost? In the natural course of trade precisely the reverse should be the case and it will be the case before many years shall elapse. In my opinion the time is not very remote when California beef will be found in the New York market/' It should be remembered that this prophecy was made before the great range industry of the plateau states was conceived; before there was any packing industry in the Middle West to consume the animals from the summits and west slopes of the Eocky Mountains and before there were railways to move them eastward. Under the circumstances, there- fore, it was not unreasonable to conceive that the California coast with its wonderful natural pastures close to the ocean should send beef to the Atlantic cities by ship, as there seemed no other region so richly endowed for production and so eligibly situated for transportation. Of course the development of the region between the Sierra Nevada and the Eocky Mountains put an ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 219 end to such dreams. Nevertheless, California figured indirectly in providing for the great meat supply of the East and for the vast export trade therefrom to foreign countries, and not only supplied range cattle to stock the plains but the early contributions from the Southwest toward such common foundation stock reached their destination by way of California. J. B. Grinnell of Iowa, who made a personal examination of the range industry in 1881, tells of these contacts : "I met J. H. Hoppin who went from New York to California, and who about 1870 drove herds of cattle from the Indian Territory and Texas to California and Nevada and thence eastward to Wyoming and Montana, . . . J. Q. Shirley drove cattle from Mis- souri to California in 1853; then in 1869 brought cattle from California to Montana in a drive of sev- enteen hundred head." In this roundabout way the pioneers' dream of sending beef to the New York market actually came to realization. The movement of California cattle to Oregon and Nevada and the contribution of both states to the meat supply of the former were of course greater and have continuously prevailed, and California cattlemen owning ranges in Oregon and Nevada have always been numerous. The cattle which California furnished to the great interior range states were not the old Mexican stock. Of the early importations of pure-bred stock which have been mentioned, it was written in 1859 : "There is probably no State in the Union where more pains are taken or where money is more freely lavished 220 RURAL CALIFORNIA upon the purchase of animals of high blood than in California." The result of this effort and expenditure was the transformation of the common stock. Although the drives from the Southwest to the great plains were chiefly cattle of Mexican type, those gathered in California for this movement were very different, for they had more or less crossing with the pure-bred and had assumed a distinctive character known as American. In this contribution of graded stock to the ranges of the interior, California helped to demonstrate a matter which was greatly in doubt several decades ago, although now unquestioned, and that is the ability of improved stock to endure the hardships of the range. In 1859 a Butte County cattleman wrote: "I have since 1852 been engaged in stock breeding in northern California. Shorthorn grades I have invariably found to keep in good condition upon a smaller amount of feed than any of the native or common run of stock. Last winter I had a band of Shorthorn grades, common American and a cross between them and the native stock. Of the latter kinds I lost 18 per cent by starvation; of the grades not one. Because of half-starved condition many common cows dropped small deformed calves which died when dropped. My neighbor lost 50 per cent of his calves this spring from that cause. I have not yet lost a calf from a grade cow." The editor who published the foregoing added this : "If a cross of improved breeds produced a hardier ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 221 animal, we can see nothing to be gained in a con- tinuance of native blood in ill-formed carcasses. If they do not possess even the quality of hardiness or powers of subsistence on scanty forage, we can con- ceive of no reason for perpetuating them." They were not perpetuated. They were eaten when meat was high: they were killed for hides and tallow when meat could not be sold and when pastur- age was scant, as in 1864, when it was estimated that a million head had perished. Out of the depression in the early sixties which little survived unless it was top-crossed enough to be Americanized, there came the common stock from which drives were made to the new range states of the interior when their devel- opment began, as has been outlined. During all the decades since that time the use of well-bred sires has increased until the legislature of 1921 passed a law that on the open range no bull should be allowed to live unless "bred in a herd of the recognized beef breeds, the ancestral sires of which must have been registered bulls of the same breed for at least four generations and the dams cows of the same breed and of good quality." Only during about two decades of her history has California had a sufficient fresh meat supply of her own growing and even in that period her supply of cured meats was chiefly by importation. The decades of sufficiency lay between the in-driving of herds for the feeding of the mining rush of the first decade and the invasion of the valley ranges by irrigated horticulture, beginning in the third 222 RURAL CALIFORNIA decade and continuing to the present day, and by irrigated dairying on an alfalfa basis which began soon after and has also continued to the present with rapidly increasing production. The first limitation of valley cattle ranging came with the spread of wheat-growing and the no-fence laws which were passed in that period requiring a cattleman to drive his herds across the valleys between parallel lines of vaqueros to keep them off the plowed ground or the growing grain. This was a costly hardship but it was only a foretaste of the exclusion which came with the subdivision of valley areas into farms and the planting of fruits to be grown both by rainfall and by irrigation as the local meteorology determined. This practically put an end to cheap or free ranging in the valleys and in much of the foothill country and forced the cattlemen to become land owners or lessees for the winter carrying of their stock and to follow long drives to the mountain and high plateau lands and forests for summer grazing. Then came the closing of mountain pastures by forest reserva- tions and by prohibition of including public lands in range fencing. This was undoubtedly a matter of abstract justice but at the same time it rendered many enterprises for the turning of such pasturage into beef and mutton impracticable, caused such lands to be idle instead of productive and increased the hardships of the range industry. Fortunately a part of this handicap was soon lifted by a better policy of rendering public lands useful to stockmen, as noted in Chapter III. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 223 Thus cattle-growing became notably a hard busi- ness in marked contrast to the ease of its beginning. This condition., in connection with the low price of wool, almost extinguished the sheep industry in 1880, and had it not been for the money in beef which came with increasing local population and the readi- ness of wholesale butchers to invest capital in land and to grow their own cattle for slaughtering, there was at the time a good chance that California would close her career as a pastoral country except in dis- tricts devoted to dairying. One butchering firm bought land until it held title to lands equal to the area of Ehode Island and owned a hundred thousand head of cattle which could be driven to San Francisco over a distance of about three hundred miles, passing each night on a ranch of its own. Others owned land and cattle in less amount and the beef supply of California cities continued to be a big business in an American instead of in the Spanish way. It is interesting to note that the maintenance of the cattle industry in California has always been chiefly an urban contribution to rural development. The first state fair was held in San Francisco in 1853, but it was wholly an exhibition of plants and their products, and was popularly criticized as incomplete. The second state fair was also in San Francisco in 1854, and it was rounded out by a branch consisting of a cattle show which was of course richer in popu- lar Spanish equine exploits than in improved stock, but involved a conception and impulse toward the latter. The state fair of 1855 was in Sacramento 224: RURAL CALIFORNIA with a cattle show at a local race-track; that of 1856 was in San Jose and was prominently designated as "not only a fair but a cattle show/' and deserved the title, as has already been cited ; that of 1857 was of the same complete character and was held in Stockton; and the same is true of a display in Marysville soon afterward. Thus the five great cities of the fifties joined in declaring their conception of the desirability of the proper development of American live-stock industries in California and their confidence in the attainment of it. The contribution of these pioneer towns was not merely the arrangement of a popular assembly to promote sport and extend trade, which is always an urban motive in getting the country to the town. It was more than that, for the exhibits, in the live-stock lines especially, were largely imports made by city persons and the offspring thereof bred on their own country property. It was largely due to the free money of successful city dwellers, therefore, that California made such a quick start toward an abundance of pure-blood stock, and the early oblitera- tion of the Mexican types and the multiplication of grades which manifested the prepotency of their pure-bred sires as has been already claimed. While fruit production has never needed promo- tive effort, animal husbandry has always been in need of it, either in production, packing or commer- cial handling, and has never had it in the effective ways which the fruit industries enjoyed. The result is that about seventy years after American farming began in California, the fruit industries by their own ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 225 attractiveness and by the cultural and commercial ability of those whom they attracted, attained prod- ucts which though a glut on the local markets of 1858, were scarce in the markets of the world in 1919, although the value of a quarter of a billion dollars' worth were produced and exported. Another result is that the animal industries, which never have been adequately promoted, have not reached production equal to local consumption, and have never made anything more than spasmodic exporta- tion at odd times of the year. Such exports have been wholly insignificant when compared with the volumes that still steadily reach California markets from distant producing regions. For these reasons, California lands suitable to the production of meat are still largely idle or are not used with the up-to- date policies that should prevail. Evidently the phase which needs promotion, because it requires rather more courage and a higher degree of personal attention and mastery of practical and scientific details, is the installation of live-stock production on large tracts that may be turned from idleness and desolation to activity and industry. It is an economic- sin to let large tracts of land lie waste, not bearing their proper share of public expense. There has been notable progress in realizing more adequate development of the California cattle industry since 1900. First came the more serious intent of the packers from the Middle West to undertake local production. Two decades ago the visiting packers from the Middle West really came for recreation and 226 RURAL CALIFORNIA were wont to take a hand in a real estate game with a packer's dream of stockyards,, abattoirs and packing- houses. A few of such schemes materialized suffi- ciently to leave a few ruins of foundation walls on the rural landscape, but there was never much money either gained or lost by such enterprises. More recently free investment and real development was undertaken in a business-like way and San Francisco and Los Angeles began to have something different from the wholesale butchers of pioneer days and from the old style of buying meat animals and retailing of meat products. The great packers of the country have apparently arrived at a more adequate con- ception of the geographical and commercial rela- tions of California to the meat production of this coast and the meat trade of the new world of the Pacific. They proposed to enroll the coast produc- tion of animals, and the product trade from the terminals and ports of California, in their enlarged scheme of economic world conquest through inter- national trade. In this way California now has share in the national interest of stock-growing and product packing and a share also in the great national problems of how to make the packers best serve the public interest now pending solution. In a general way, the promise in beef production in California must be considered good. Although shipments are made to great packing points, it is currently stated that about half the animals slaugh- tered are brought from beyond state lines. There is plenty of land available for stock ranging that ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 227 is not suited to other lines of production and there is capability and space in the valleys for the growth of grains and forage for finishing stock for the mar- ket. Proper alignment and association of these two branches of cattle production should result in a much larger output. The use of mountain summer pas- tures, in the national forest areas and in private ownership, must be connected with areas in the foothills or valleys for care and feeding so that what is gained in the summer shall not be lost during the winter following and to the end that the calf percent- age shall not fall too low. There are also problems of fair financing of the cattle business, of transpor- tation, of legislation to encourage the stockman and protect him from wild beasts, from pests and diseases and from thieves, all of which prey on his industry. None of these things has been adequately provided hitherto but seems now likely to be attained through the wide association of cattlemen for the promotion and protection of their industry. A summary of the beef industry of California as of January, 1922, is prepared by the State Depart- ment of Agriculture, as follows: The number of stock cattle grazing annually is 1,250,000, and the number taken from the ranges annually for immedi- ate slaughter is: 327,330 steers, 242,168 cows, 21,673 calves and 7,717 bulls and stags. The value of range herds can reasonably be placed at $51,000,000; of lands for grazing $250,000,000; amount of capital invested is approximately $400,000,000. Before the American occupation, although cattle 228 RURAL CALIFORNIA were abundant and labor was to be had for the com- manding, there was practically no dairying. Milk was rare, but the poorest ranchero had plenty of beef in his pot. The mission padres had an abun- dance of olive oil to take the place of butter and they drank wine instead of milk and other drinks to which milk is accessory. However, it is not true that they had absolutely no dairying, for one early visitor testifies that the pre- Americans did have milk, but it was drawn from goats and it was difficult to get a pint of milk from six of them. Hardly less significant of the absence of a dairy industry was the testimony of the cattle of the hide-and- tallow breed of the Mexicans, of which it was said : "To get any milk at all the cow had to be lassoed, tied to a stake and allowed the company of her calf before a drop could be had." Although the hunters and trappers who settled in California before the gold discovery probably had cows somewhat broken to milk, the first good cows to reach the State in an;y number were those led or driven across the plains by the gold-seekers. There were a good many of them. They were fed or grazed along the trail and contributed to the family menu on the way. They were probably the best cows the pioneers Had or could find in the places whence they came. Such cows were the foundation stock of pioneer dairy efforts in the foothills and mountain valleys of the Sierra Nevada. When a family arrived across the plains it was quite usual for the men to go to gold-digging and the women to milking, ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 229 and the women often got more gold dust from the cows than the men did from the gravel. In the United States Patent Office report of 1851, Philip Lynch of Ophir, Placer County, reports on December 3 of that year : "About October 1, 1851, I bought two American cows, fresh with young calves, for $400. These cows have averaged 12 quarts each per day which I have sold at 50c per quart, totalling $720 for the two months. These cows I have fed on hay at $80 per ton, meal at $8 per cwt. and potatoes at $4 per cwt., at a cost of not over $100 for the two months. I would not sell my two cows for $1000." How the eastern rim of the State was populated by the offspring of these good cows which had walked across the plains is amply shown by early records. Let a single instance suffice. In 1857, Honey Lake Valley, a few miles from American Valley, in which the pioneer town of Quincy is located, produced over 5000 pounds of butter, which sold at 75 cents a pound; and to show "the exceeding richness of the pasture and the high character of the dairy stock" it is recorded that Mrs. Taylor, "who personally superintends the whole work, milks only fifteen cows and makes 250 pounds of butter per week, which sells readily at 75 cents per pound." Although some of these American cows and their offspring undoubtedly continued their journeys west- ward until they reached the coast, and some of the Mexican cows were taken to the mountain regions, it is probably true that the dairies along the coast were chiefly equipped with Mexican cattle. These 230 RURAL CALIFORNIA coast dairies began work early in the fifties, their opportunities being the San Francisco demand which was also drawing butter by ship from all parts of the world and paying high prices. It was a very rough kind of dairying at first and was carried on, as an old pioneer used to say, "by a lot of men who went into partnership with the calves" as the quick fluc- tuations in prices made it uncertain whether a man would do better by having butter or meat to sell, and so there was an effort to have both ready. However, this condition did not last long. The meat demand was met by driving in cattle from the west- ern states and Texas and this made meat so cheap that four-year-olds could be bought for $10 a head and the dairymen found this stock, though very poor for dairying, better than the Mexicans. For a time dairying with such cattle was profitable. In 1857 there were 130 dairies, of 25 to 200 cows each, ship- ping from Petaluma. In 1858 butter was worth a dollar a pound in San Francisco and cheese, made of skim-milk and buttermilk, sold at 25 cents a pound. Two years later these prices were quar- tered; the rough pioneer dairying could no longer pay and efforts for better practices and equipment began. In improving this stock it was the influence of the Durham that one saw most clearly and frequently on dairy farms for two or three decades later. Although Devons, Ayrshires and Holsteins were introduced quite as soon, the Jersey made the first modifying drive on the Shorthorn. The Jersey bull ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 231 on the Shorthorn grade cow was very popular in the later seventies, and, until the reintroduction of Hol- land cattle as Holstein-Friesians in the eighties held undisputed sway. For three decades past the Jersey and the Holstein-Friesian have contended for suprem- acy. During the last decade several other breeds have made first entry or have been reintroduced in im- proved form and will become influential. At present, however, one sees California dairy herds largely black and white. It was about 1860 that the system of dairy tenantry peculiar to California took form. In the coast region near San Francisco the lands were largely covered by Spanish titles, and these large tracts were cheaply obtained by men who had some money and some genius for finance. This coast region was seen to have large rainfall, covering a long rainy season, and therefore longer grazing and a cool summer. As all these factors naturally made for cheap feeding and easy milk-handling, it soon came to be thought that the coast could have no rival in dairy production and this impression prevailed for nearly a third of a century until it finally yielded to the refrigerator and the demonstration of the dairy value of alfalfa grown with irrigation. While the impression of the dairy sovereignty of the coast region prevailed, large tracts of land were secured, dairy cattle were gathered, either by importation or by crossing Mexicans and Texicans with more or less pure-bred sires, also imported ; sheds were built for milk racks, churns and vats; the cows 232 RURAL CALIFORNIA were kept under the sky and milked in corrals floored with mud or dust. These sheds and corrals were built here and there on the property, and a bunch of cows and men, including a cook and butter-maker, assigned to each. Later, these single places, to save the land-owner from worry and trouble, were leased to different tenants, the tenant paying the owner a cash rent for each cow and furnishing his own help and equipment and agreeing to raise a certain num- ber of calves. For fencing and new buildings and other improvements, the landowner furnished the materials and the tenant the labor. The owner had to keep the cows up to the number assigned to the ranch in the lease and for such supply he grew to milking age on the home ranch the calves the tenants furnished him. Roughly, this is the way the system began about fifty years ago and, in improved form as to stock, barns, dairy buildings and methods and reduced rent for each cow, it still prevails in some districts. It enabled many to get a start with small capital and to accumulate something with which to establish themselves as owners in newer dairy regions. It gave the pioneer land-owners considerable money, some of which they used in securing better dairy stock and buildings and sometimes in improving pastures. One of the by-products of the system was the invention of many novel appliances useful in the old time, but now largely displaced by outfits belong- ing to newer methods of manufacture, and therefore chiefly of local historic interest. Thus, in early days, there came to be California styles of butter- ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 233 rolls, boxes, churns, butter-workers and the like, different from those used elsewhere. In the mountains the dairies were established largely on government land and have always been chiefly owned by the operators. In the newer lands of the alfalfa districts, there is also a large preva- lence of self-owning dairy farmers. This fortunate condition is one of the benefits of the establishment of creameries and skimming stations which have ruled out the necessity for much investment on the manufacturing side required in pioneer days. This has given the modern owner more time and sometimes more money to secure better stock and to furnish bet- ter feeding and care. Although dairying to displace the huge importa- tion of butter and cheese from distant parts of the world began very early, its progress must be counted very slow. It took only about five years to shut out grain and flour and only a decade or so to place Cali- fornia in the front rank of wheat exporting states, and even less to bring fresh fruit production to the limit of local consumption. Imported dairy goods, however, continued to move in freely until the third decade of American occupation and has never been wholly excluded at all seasons of the year. From 1866 onward, local production of butter increased and importations were soon reduced from five million pounds a year to one million. It was not until 1878, however, that local production of butter first equaled consumption, exports at one season about 234 RURAL CALIFORNIA balancing imports at another. The production of cheese more speedily reached the local limit, for in 1866 more cheese was made than locally needed. These attainments were reached by evolution under purely local environment. In 1878 there was but one cow-milking barn in the State and that not a very large one; there was but one silo, and that a rough- board inclosure of a tank-frame which poisoned some horses with rotten silage; there was not a cream- separator, all cream being slapped from a pan with a stick; there was not a modern creamery, although some ranch dairy-houses were creditable in their way ; there was not a refrigerating outfit, though the mountain valleys had some natural ice-houses; there was not a power-churn in the modern sense, though a few bulls were hauling around sweeps ; the only dairy engine was such a bull ; there was no cream-ripening outfit; there was no enduring dairy association although joint action had been occasionally secured; no dairy instruction, no dairy exchange; there were good dairy breeds but no definite breeding nor agree- ment on points to be attained, nor exact measures of what constituted excellence; there were only a few alfalfa pastures along the Sacramento Eiver and their product was condemned; the sorghums were a curi- osity ; the interior valleys were practically conceded to be unfit for dairying and the dairy hope of the State was grounded in the coast and mountain fringes. Such, in the rough, was the dairy interest of Cali- fornia about forty years ago; and yet there were groups of good dairymen who struggled against all these handicaps and produced clean delicious butter ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 235 and made money. The achievements of these deep- seeing and energetic farmers laid the foundation of the recognition of the dairy suitability and resources of California and they and their children have been among the leaders toward the revolution of ideals, equipments and practices which has made the present product worth seventy-five millions a year. The decade from 1880 to 1890 was a transition period during which revolutionary processes were in operation. Cream separators introduced in 1881 began to multiply ; refrigeration was provided ; alfalfa acreage began to increase in the irrigated colonies in the interior valleys. These three agencies, operated with human insight, ingenuity and enterprise, engaged in transformation of the California dairy interest from a provincial affair into competition with the leading regions of other states and countries producing for the world trade. The progress thus begun ultimately accomplished such notable results as these: it shifted the geographical leadership in dairy production from the coast region to the interior valley; it radically changed all old methods and forms of production from provincial to world stand- ards; it displaced all old ranch provisions of build- ings and equipments for manufacture to large cooper- ative and proprietary creameries of exemplary capacity and efficiency ; it brought the products up to the requirements of interstate and export trade; it made practicable buildings on dairy farms, such as dairy barns, milk houses, power-plants, silos and other equipment for care and feeding of dairy stock, which were not known in its earlier history ; and, finally, it 236 RURAL CALIFORNIA opened the way for export trade and manufacture of by-products which modern requirements of the dairy interest demand. The decade in which tendencies in these directions became discernible, 1880 to 1890, did not see these attainments realized. The following decade was also a transition period not only in the growth of the tendencies which have been noted, but in the unfolding of others, mainly in the line of commercial problems to be solved, State enactment of promotive and protective laws to be secured and agencies for dairy education and research to be provided. All these were realized by organization. It is not neces- sary to describe the facilities now provided and the methods employed in the practice of dairy husbandry and the- processes of dairy manufacture in California, because they are the same as in other dairy states and countries, with such minor modifications and adjustments as local climatic conditions make desir- able. It is, however, pertinent briefly to present results which are a measure of attainment and a suggestion of meeting requirements essential to it. The creditable volume and value of current dairy production in California and the interesting diversity of it are set forth officially in Appendix I. Geo- graphical distribution is strikingly shown by compil- ing the 1920 products of the counties which produced more than two million pounds of butter and indicat- ing in connection with each its situation in the regions outlined in Chapter I, viz. : ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 237 County Stanislaus Region 4 Butter (pounds) 6,554,986 Cheese (pounds) 1,797,489 Humboldt 1 6,377,516 1,111,663 Imperial 4 5,648,099 635,877 Tulare 4 4,685,140 200,342 Kings 4 4,548,172 Merced 4 4,311,842 989,374 Sonoma 2 4,297,366 594,233 Fresno 4 3 264 002 154 570 San Luis Obispo . . . 2 2,555,238 318,517 Marin 2 2,519,490 945,325 San Joaauin . 4 2.353.005 841,992 These figures must not be taken as complete indica- tion of relative prevalence of dairying in the regions indicated because San Francisco draws market milk away from manufacture in Region 2, Los Angeles does the same in Region 3, and both cities receive milk from Region 4. The compilation, however, shows that the chief dairying is now done in the great interior valleys of Region 4 where meteorologi- cal conditions were held forty years ago to be prac- tically prohibitive of commercial dairying. The tab- ulation indicates the great geographical range of the dairy industry. Of the three counties which lead in production, Humboldt is on the coast in the extreme northwest corner of the State; Stanislaus is in the great valley in the center and Imperial is in the extreme southeast corner and 725 miles distant in an air-line from Humboldt. Divergence in conditions is as great as in distance, for dairying in Humboldt is done in a cool ocean atmosphere entirely by rain- fall vegetation while in Imperial there is practically 238 RURAL CALIFORNIA no rainfall, everything is grown by irrigation and the heat is great. HORSES California was the birthplace of the American romance of the horse for it was here that the hidalgo met the west American pioneer and transferred to him his passion for the horse and his skill in horse- manship. Centuries earlier,, of course, the horse and horsemanship came to the Atlantic states and carried westward chiefly English ideals and policies of both. Very different were the Spanish conceptions of the spirit both of the man and the horse and their rela- tions to each other in the business of life. Very rapidly, however, the western pioneer seized and appropriated this strange conception and was so quickly transformed from his old thoughts and ways with the horse that he convinced his successors, in the great business of developing the Eocky Moun- tain region and the Pacific Slope of the United States, that they at first knew neither the man nor the horse. The cowboy in his highest romantic lines is a product of the contact of American spirit and resources with Spanish grandiosity. One who passed through this cowboy college writes of its course of study in this way : "And big event indeed it was, the plaza thronged from dawn until far past midnight with a jostling throng, alight with the brilliant hues of serapes and rebozos, and blazing with the silver and gold decked ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 239 costumes of the men, where they were gambling, crowding about the bronco-riding contests in the bull ring, or lined thick the race course. Scattered among these hundreds of native Californians were always a few score Americans, bearded, heavy-booted miners; skin-clad, leather-faced trappers from the Sierra; ranchers, cowboys, and bronco-riders, these latter outgauding even the natives with bridle-bits and spurs inlaid with silver, sombreros and stirrup- leathers embroidered with silver and gold, pistol- butts set with twenty-dollar gold pieces — every last man- jack of the gringos more or less heavily and gaudily armed. For the bitterest enmity was con- stantly burning between the natives and the intrud- ers; and while the former were still chiefly armed with only their traditional reatas and knives, their majority was so heavy that the latter would have been up against hopeless odds without their artil- lery." * This was only the training school which made for skill and prowess; the application of both to the business in hand is, of course, the quality on which the fame of the cowboy rests. The same writer gives this suggestion of it: "The great intermoun- tain region between the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Range was then a boundless field of wild oats upon which ranged and fattened uncounted thousands of wild cattle and horses. The exigencies of the situa- tion produced a class of daring, clever horsemen never excelled in the world's history, habited always 1 "The Vanguard" by E. B. Bronson. George H. Doran Co. 240 RURAL CALIFORNIA in the now well-known gorgeous trappings of the Mexican cowboy. And then their saddles! If any inanimate handiwork of man ever owned the dignity and grace, that in creatures animate we recognize as marking a thoroughbred ancestry, a product of generations of careful selective breeding, it is the characteristic California saddle. No saddle ever made has equalled it, either in beauty or for the safe handling of the most massive bull that ever ranged the foothills behind Visalia." The horses by the help of which these dramatic things were achieved were those in which California abounded and were undoubtedly a product of selec- tion toward a type which met the unique require- ments of the life. Although the cattle and sheep were generic, the horse of the pioneer was specific and bred from the best available for its purpose. Before Americans came it had assumed a type, of which it was written at the time : "The native Mex- ican mustang has many excellent qualities. He is capital under the saddle and very quick in his move- ments. No horse excels him in keeping up a steady liveliness. He will subsist on scanty food and bear you sixty miles a day, upon occasion; his gait being always a gallop. He is light weight and not well suited for draft." At first and for several years, until the American preference for wheeled vehicles asserted itself, Cali- fornians new and old, old and young, moved in the saddle. Horses were so abundant that on a journey one seldom bargained for a horse, but caught a fresh ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 241 one and left his jaded nag as a fair exchange. This condition speedily disappeared when Americans thronged in, but still what was seen of it by the early comers and heard for years following, had an influence in shaping attitudes and suggesting points of view to the pioneers. The freedom of the horse and his rider on the open unfenced landscape undoubtedly suggested breadth and freedom in thought and action which has been characterized as "western/7 Horses gone wild were also abundant; it was perhaps first in California that wild horses were shot to rid the range of them. If it had not been for the prejudice against it, probably horse meat would have served a good purpose when the throngs of gold-seekers had eaten the State short of cattle and sheep. Although horses and the handling of them were the chief gifts of the Spanish regime to American agriculture in California, except in horsemanship which they admired and adopted, the American pio- neers were not satisfied with what they inherited. The best of what came to be called American horses, to distinguish them from Mexican, crossed the plains by hundreds or thousands with their riders and drivers and established a new ideal of the agricul- tural horse. The horses which came to California across the continent were of excellent quality. They were selected for their youth and promise of endur- ance of weeks and even months of hard hauling on the trails, all errors in selection being left on the plains en route. Selected stallions came also, paying 24:2 RURAL CALIFORNIA their way by carrying or hauling. Thus there were streams of American horses pouring down the western slopes of the Sierra, easily purchaseable at the mines because the owners had seen gold and had no longer sight for horses, until their eyes were reopened and then they reentered horse ownership by swapping mining claims for horses with later arrivals and followed their animals which had brought them across to the valley lands taken up for farming. In this way, the first American farms became equipped with horses of the best strains to be found at the time east of the Eocky Mountains and they were amply supplemented by importations especially for breeding purposes from all eastern and southern states and from the eastern Canadas which were then a treasury of high class horse-flesh. Proof of this victorious entry of the American horse to the territory of the Mexican may be cited. At the first live-stock show held under State auspices, in San Jose in 1856, thirteen premiums were awarded for American bred horses and two for mules. It is also recorded that four ladies and eleven men were entered for prizes in equestrianship, of whom, judging by the ethnology of their names, only one can be suspected of being of Mexican origin while the remainder were from more or less remotely English, Irish and German sources, that is, entitled to American registry. The records of subsequent exhibitions showed the same prevalence of American standards, both in horses and their owners, more and more abundantly to the present day. At first, of course, the proletariat of ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 243 California horses was Mexican, though over-lorded by American. Although the common horse stock of the State afterward became a predominant Ameri- can infusion, the Mexicans remained in service and even to the present day enjoy adequate honor in the range activities to which their historical quality entitles them. Although the picturesque sport features of Mexi- can horsemanship delighted the Americans at first and are still to be seen on occasion, they were always classified as spectacular and introduced at fairs as a wild element. Modern California ideals of sport with the horse, from the very first, were derived from the highest models of Kentucky and other states of the blue-grass region. The selection and breeding of horses for speed in race-track performances began with the pioneers who made importations of blood from the greatest per- formers of their day in the eastern states and were inspired to greater efforts by the attainments of their offspring reared under California conditions. These beginnings were developed into unexpected achieve- ments by the horse fanciers of 1870, and onward for three or four decades^ until it could be claimed that Californians not only took a leading part in the development of the American trotting horse, but dis- tanced all other states except Kentucky in large attainment, enrolled California-bred horses abun- dantly in the lists of champions of the United States and produced the horse which stood for a decade as the fastest trotter in the world. A generalization 244 RURAL CALIFORNIA and a specific instance of attainments are pertinent and significant, as described by W. M. Neal of San Francisco : "California trotters figure prominently from year to year in the 'season championships' for all ages and sexes, over all kinds of tracks, in all localities where racing is conducted. Year after year the great fami- lies founded in California furnish from their diverse ramifications the leading contestants for the premier honors of 'fastest performers/ or for the spoils of battle to be wrung from the winning of rich stakes. Of all the horse-producing states, only Kentucky outranks California in prestige in the realm of the trotter. To a thousand farms across the mountains and deserts to the East, to the countries of the old world where harness racing flourishes, to the breed- ing centers of Australia and to the islands of the Pacific where the Anglo-Saxon has carried with him his favorite sports, California has given of her bounty in speed-producing blood until today, when champion upon champion appears, born without her confines, perhaps, but owning blood allegiance to the great houses of Electioneer, Guy Wilkes, Sidney, Director, Steinway, McKinney, Dexter Prince and others of an equally lasting though slightly less luster, the debt of the world to California and her horses and horsemen is incalculable. "It fell to the lot of the Golden State to achieve her most startling success in the eyes of the whole world in the way of speed production when, on Au- gust 24, 1903, at Eeadville, Mass., the dainty Lou ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 245 Dillon (herself, her sire and her dam California-bred) settled once and for ever the long-mooted question of whether the 'two-minute trotter' should be classed as a reality or merely as the product of enthusiastic and optimistic conjecture. Piloted by Millar d Sand- ers she swept to the quarter post in :30J, to the half in 1 :03f , to the three-quarters in 1:31, and came to the wire in an even 2 :00, later in the same year reducing that mark to 1 :58J. There it still stands as a record for trotting mares, and there it stood as a record for all trotters until 1912, when Uhlan, trac-' ing in direct line to Electioneer, clipped the half second and established the present figures 1 :58." It is interesting to add that while Lou Dillon spent her declining years in Kentucky as a breeding matron, and thus became an installment payment of California's equine debt to Kentucky, the inter-state honors were made easy by the removal of Uhlan to California, to residence on the farm of his owner, Mr. Billings, near Santa Barbara. It may reasonably be claimed that the most endur- ing benefit from the demonstration of the quality of California-bred horses is probably the testimony it bears to the adaptation of the climate, soil, forage and water to the fullest development of excellence in the horse, which has more recently been demonstrated by national championships won by dairy and beef cattle. From an agricultural point of view, the sev- eral decades of breeding racing horses was no advan- tage, for it diverted the attention of too many farmers to breeding light and lanky animals instead of more 246 RURAL CALIFORNIA serviceable types for the road, field-work and heavy hauling. A sharp turn came in the popular idea of desirability in horses when the men who lavished effort and money on speed achievements passed from the scene and left-overs from racing stables largely constituted the offerings for ordinary equine service- ability. With the great owners of breeding farms there also passed away the idea of true sportsman- ship which largely actuated them. Speed contests became so demoralizing because of race-track gam- bling and attending immoralities that they were abolished by the State Agricultural Society in 1906 and soon afterward prohibited by State law. After the public lost its interest in sport under the old standards, commendable efforts were made by a number of breeders to promote the production of better types of useful horses and the breeding of roadsters, saddle-horses and drafters promised to regain the popularity which prevailed before the trotters and runners diverted attention from it. Good horses of all these types were bred, blood was freely imported from the best original sources and there has been a good demand for their offspring. Cali- fornia has not yet been able to regain her high figures for total number of horses in. 1893 and of mules in 1909. The horse has been displaced by bicycles, automobiles and later by tractors and trucks until the appearance of teams even on the rural highways is rather exceptional. On the farms, however, the teams still render chief service and are unlikely to be displaced. The breeding of horses and mules to ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 247 keep pace with the multiplication of farms, which is now taking place, may restore the equine census and exceed it. It is also reasonable to expect that whether there be numerically either less or more, they will be better from the agricultural point of view. This generalization is supported by the enumeration of pure-bred horses in California by the United States Census of 1920 which sets forth the total number of pure-breds as 1615, of which 759 are Percherons, 152 Belgians, 147 Shires and Clydesdales, while Thor- oughbreds number 113 and Standard-breds only 35 and "all other breeds" comprise the balance of 409 entitled to various registries. SHEEP Domesticated sheep were brought to California by the Franciscan padres, and by the soldiers who attended them on their mission-founding enterprise, in 1769. This introduction expanded into a large rude form of sheep husbandry very quickly. An early writer says: "Between San Diego and San Francisco in 1825 there were at the missions 1,003,970 sheep, and at the ranches away from the missions as many more." These figures have been impeached by later historians as exaggerations, but this writing is only concerned with the conception of the facts which exerted an influence in the early years of American occupation, and this indicates, that the coast district of California had been a very great sheep country. Another conception of the early days is interesting : 248 RURAL CALIFORNIA the American pioneers found a most lofty purpose in the mission sheep husbandry, and were so exalted by it that they forgot the services of the sheep in pro- viding food for hungry soldiery and Indians and in supplying vast numbers of pelts and much tallow for sale to coast trading ships from Atlantic seaports. They looked on the padres' sheep as a direct Chris- tianizing agency, for one writer says : "The Mission fathers reared their sheep solely for the purpose of obtaining a textile from which to fabricate garments for the savages as an auxiliary means of proselyting. Therefore they undertook sheep husbandry on such a scale, that in no long time, the rude inhabitants who flocked to the missions were clothed in garb more fitting their advent among those of Christian civiliza- tion/' Here, too, the picturesque conception of the pio- neers has been pierced by later historians, who have rummaged through the narratives of travelers adven- turing among the California sheep farmers of a hun- dred years ago. Not only do they forget to record the existence of any such tailoring establishments as would be required to fabricate for the Indians the elaborate and ornate costuming of the Spanish dons, but they distinctly repudiate the capability of such weaving outfits as they saw to produce Christian apparel. Though these narrators say that they saw, "at the larger missions, as many as two hundred or more women and girls at a time, spinning and weaving," they pronounce the resulting fabric suit- able for coarse blankets, but unsuitable for clothing, ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 249 because it lacked the process of fulling. They say that the soldiers and their families would have been naked at times but for the clothes brought by the traders. Thus it becomes clear that the only weaving was for blankets,, or, possibly, for rough clothing. However, it may be granted that the mission sheep did produce Christian clothing, but very indirectly, and then not for the Indians. The sheep gave the covering of their backs and kidneys for trade with ship captains, who brought fabrics and finery of all kinds for the personal adornment of the soldiers and rancheros and the families of both. Although the pioneers believed that there had been two million sheep grazing the coast lands in 1825, so many had perished for their pelts and tallow during the secularization of the mission properties, and so many were probably required to appease the appetites of the first run of gold-seekers in 1849, that the first census taken in 1850 records the exist- ence of only 17,514 sheep, or less than one per cent of the number said to exist twenty-five years before. J. E. Perkins, secretary of the first California Sheep and Wool Growers Association, which was organized in 1860, left this record of the mission sheep, which were then called natives : "In size, form, vigor and disposition they were all that is undesirable — shearing two to two and a half pounds of coarse, uneven, kempy wool, suited only for the coarsest fabrics and scarcely worth the cost of sacking and transporting to market. Yet it is from this basis that our flocks of the present day 250 RURAL CALIFORNIA have mainly sprung, and we owe to this basis the demonstration of the suitability of our climate and grasses to the growing of superior sheep, to which we are now approaching." It is probably not generally known to this genera- tion how energetically, enterprisingly and swiftly the American pioneers lifted sheep husbandry in Cali- fornia to greatness in State development and to national importance. "California for sheep!" was the cry which followed first the world-stirring out- cry: "California for gold." It arose before the greatness of either wheat or fruit was even dimly foreseen. The following is a public exhortation on wool-growing given by Colonel J. B. Crockett at the California State Fair held at San Jose on October 8, 1856: "In California, owing to our mild and equable cli- mate, sheep are liable to fewer diseases and multiply more rapidly than in any other portion of the world ; whilst our mountains and valleys furnish them with the most inexhaustible pasturage the year around. The cost of rearing them is, therefore,, exceedingly small, and, instead of importing them from abroad for daily consumption, our mountains and valleys should be dotted with sheep and every clipper ship that leaves our ports should bear away tons of wool to set in motion the looms and spindles of Great Britain and New England. The time will come and, in my opinion, is not very remote, when sheep culture on this coast will become a great and most lucrative branch of productive industry. Indeed, I am aware ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 251 of no greater benefit which an enterprising farmer can bestow upon California than by importing a flock of choice sheep of the best varieties to test our capacity to compete with Australia and other coun- tries, in the wool markets of the world." At this very fair premiums were awarded for exhibits of Leicestershires and Southdown sheep, and at the fair of 1857 awards were made to two exhibi- tors for imported French Merinos. Such sheep as Colonel Crockett prayed for were actually in Califor- nia two years before the date of his oration. J. E. Perkins wrote this as history in an essay for which he was awarded a premium by the State Agricultural Society in 1864 : "In 1854 enterprising sheep raisers, believing from the fact that poor sheep did so well on California climate and feed, higher classes of sheep could be profitably grown for their fleece alone, set about importing purebred merinos from Vermont and New York. Curtis & McConnell of Sacramento brought the first Spanish merinos from Vermont. Other importations -of Spanish and French merinos followed; also Cotswolds, Leicestershires and South- downs. Large quantities of Australian sheep were also brought in and sold at extreme prices." Introductions* of pure-bred sheep which began apparently in 1854 continued in great variety and numbers, so that at the state fairs before 1860, there were exhibitors to the number of thirty-four, showing 200 pure-breds at a single exhibition. The breeds for which premiums were awarded were Spanish, French, 252 RURAL CALIFORNIA Saxon, and Silesian Merinos; Southdowns; Cots- wolds; Leicestershires ; Shropshires ; Cheviots; Chi- nese. At the fair of 1861, W. M. Landrum exhibited Cashmere goats, "the first introduced into the state." Speaking of the array of pure-breds on 'exhibition, the committee of judges for 1860 enthusiastically reports: "No department of agriculture has more just claims upon attention of our people than wool growing. That many of our most enterprising farm- ers are actively awake to this idea is sufficiently at- tested by the numerous flocks of the finest classes of sheep already imported and reared here regardless of cost. We have seldom met so fine an exhibition in any part of the world, whether development of form or texture of fleece is considered." The spirit and achievement thus manifested by the wool-growers of the first American decade continued active and effect- ive for the two following decades. It is interesting to note that the first state -wide organization of flock owners was the California Sheep and Wool Growers Association organized on September 24, 1860 "to foster and promote the enterprise of sheep breeding and wool growing in all its branches; and to provide a remedy against a repetition of such efforts to establish a monopoly in the wool market of this state as characterize the operations of the wool buyers this year." The char- ter members of the first association numbered eighteen and they owned in the aggregate 64,825 sheep from which a spring clip of 157,000 pounds ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 253 of wool was shorn. It does not now appear just how the organization went to work at its local mar- keting problem sixty years ago. The cooperative action of California wool-growers, thus initiated, was influential in securing the wool tariff of 1867 which a representative of the woolen interest claimed "was imposed upon the wool manufacturers by the wool growers." However that may have been, the manu- facturers have managed to get the cream of all the legislation since that time and will continue to do so unless the growers can amass more influence and acumen than they have hitherto. It is also interesting to note that in 1866 Cali- fornia passed her first anti-dog law in the interest of the sheep owners, who demonstrated, to the satis- faction of the legislature, that they had sustained an aggregate loss by dogs of $828,095 between 1860 and 1865. Very little of the old mission material survived pelt-killing, neglect and feeding the gold-seekers. A far greater amount of similarly poor foundation was, however, within reach. Between 1852 and 1857 551,000 sheep were driven into California from New Mexico. In 1858 the Apaches of the Southwest, aggravated by the amount of good meat run in front of their keen appetites without contribution, took such toll that they stopped the driving. Of the New Mexican sheep thus introduced, the butchers were probably chief buyers, but there was plenty left for sheep rangers, for between the years just named this record was made : "Immense increase of sheep raised 254 RURAL CALIFORNIA and the drives from New Mexico brought the supply of mutton beyond the demand." Naturally the first thought of sheep-raising was to supply the local butchers and obtain the prices that all foods commanded during the great gold rush. This undoubtedly actuated the importation of the best mutton breeds of English sheep which have been noted as coming in so early that the first state fair awards went to them and not to distinctively wool sheep, which, however, quickly followed. As is the case with all new undertakings, the earliest pioneers in sheep-raising did not know where they were or whither they should go and their very first venture was a very poor one. Perkins writes in his historical sketch, already cited : " Scarcely anything but native or New Mexican sheep could be found and these, worthless as they were, were further debased by crossing with some Chinese rams imported in 1852. The only recommendation either of these classes of sheep possessed was their tremendous fecundity — the ewes often bearing triplets and some- times five and even seven at a birth." Another ac- count says that these Chinese sheep would drop two such litters in a year. Evidently the first great question was whether to grow mutton or wool, but it was very quickly answered. J. D. Patterson, looking backward in 1867 to his work of a decade before, wrote : "Though 1 imported from the best flocks in England, South- downs, Leicesters and Cotswolds, I believed that growing sheep chiefly for mutton could be overdone, ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 255 but wool growing for the whole world could not be overdone and I concluded that good wool-growing sheep, which are also good mutton sheep (though for that purpose alone not equal to the English breeds mentioned above) are best adapted to the wants of growers on this coast and I have paid most particular attention to the breeding of the merinos, both French and Spanish." This conclusion of Patterson was practically that of all wool-growers, and for several decades the dis- tinctively mutton breeds did not regain their popu- larity of the fifties. In fact, it has only been within the last two decades that the mutton breeds began to gain the recognition to which they are now entitled in this State and their relation to a new phase of California sheep husbandry has become clear. As has been shown, Californians had introduced practically all the known kinds of Merinos during the first decade of American occupation. It would be interesting to note some of the details of the way they contended for supremacy, but only the result can be mentioned, which was the survival of two Merinos, the Spanish or American and the French. The latter contributed very little to the greatest wool achievement for there were very few flocks kept pure at the time of the greatest wool produc- tion, though they did survive and are now far more influential and popular than forty years ago. Patter- son wrote in 1867: "The first pure merino sheep introduced into this state were purchased at my farm in Chautauqua County, New York, by Searle & 258 RURAL CALIFORNIA of the sheepmen in the inter-mountain states came from California or are the sons of men from Cali- fornia." It was claimed by a writer of the time that one hundred and fifty thousand sheep were driven east- ward from southern California and seventy-five thou- sand from northern California in 1881. Thus Cali- fornia largely passed on her flocks, flockmasters and herders to the great interior development of sheep husbandry when the industry in this State seemed hedged about by insurmountable difficulties. During the two decades following 1890,, the sheep interests of California passed through a very quiet period. The lowest point in numbers was reached in 1900 when the enumeration was 2,001,501 and the lowest point in valuation of sheep was in 1897, when the farm value was placed at $4,800,787 or $1.50 average value a head, for all sheep reported in that year. Conditions for grazing sheep in California remained adverse and public policy discriminated against the wool-producer. Associated efforts were put forth by leading California flock-masters to remedy both conditions but largely without avail. New interest was awakened in mutton sheep among which Shropshires have gained a leading place, there being, according to the Census of 1920, 6242 pure- bred Shropshires against 1372 pure-bred Hamp- shires,, their nearest competitors. Other leading mutton breeds are in much smaller number though being severally promoted by enterprising breeders. There has also been interest in newer breeds both of ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 259 fine and long wool types. As all of these have been crossed on common Merino stock, the quality and value of California sheep as a whole has notably advanced, although the aggregate number is increas- ing very slowly. The popularization of small flocks on farms and arrangements which give sheep a fairer standing in the national forest grazing give the animal an upward outlook. California wool-growers under the leadership of Ellenwood made a determined stand in 1912 and followed with a strong plea for consideration by Congress in 1913 for a tariff revision which would, by a fairer classification of wools, give American wool-growers a living protection. However, this was swept away by the free listing of wool in the tariff of 1913. The expected depression from this cancellation of government policy, which had pre- vailed, with a short-lived reversal, since 1867, was averted by the advance in prices caused by the out- break of the world war in 1914. The high prices both for wool and mutton during the war and imme- diately following it notably increased the values of sheep and wool but did not greatly increase the numbers of sheep nor the wool product as these figures show: In California 1910 1915 1919 Numbers of sheep . . . 2,683,000 2,450,000 2,943,000 Value of sheep $6,298,000 $12.250,000 $35,216,000 Wool, pounds 13,500,000 11,500,000 13,278,000 The advance which the figures show for California sheep husbandry is not of a character to indicate the 260 RURAL CALIFORNIA future of the industry. Valuation of the sheep of the State for 1920 was reduced about 10 per cent from that of 1919, although the numbers increased about 20 per cent. Decrease in value continued as war conditions faded away. It is reasonable to con- clude that the future of wool production as a special industry will largely depend on the popular attitude toward wool-growing with sheep kept as a factor in mixed farming or toward sheep-farming instead of ranging, on lands not desirable for other purposes, or toward types of wool to be had from sheep grown chiefly for lamb and mutton. There are great oppor- tunities for better sheep husbanded in better ways and in the breeding of pure-breds both for local use and sale and for the export trade with other states and countries. California conditions make for early maturity and exceptionally fine development. It is likely that sheep-breeding enterprises will draw quali- fied breeders to effort and investment in this State for pursuit of their high class production, even more abundantly in the future than in the past. The future of the sheep industry of California in all its branches depends on the terms on which competition with imported wools must be undertaken. SWINE Of all domestic animals the hog has most success- fully eluded the commendable efforts to catch and tie it to an approximate sufficiency of production to supply local consumption. This has not been due ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 261 to lack of adaptation of local conditions for hog- growing but to two other facts, in the main, viz. : first, pork, until recently, was not undertaken as a primary product but as a by-product of dairying and, in a less degree, of fruit-growing and preservation; second, owing to the lack of up-to-date packing estab- lishments, the demand for hogs for several decades was restricted to the supply of local butchers who made pork products only of the over-flow from their cutting-blocks, and gave it neither the quality nor style which characterized the "eastern" provisions from the Middle West. Until the operations of prop- erly equipped packing-houses began about two decades ago, California hams and bacon could not compete with the imported articles. Both California pork and its products were inferior and the output, even as by-products, was of uncertain profitability. During the last decade there has been marked improvement in all these lines. Breeding, feeding and care of hogs has advanced rapidly toward the best standards. Better pork has been provided with better handling: local pork products are displacing introductions; they are entering inter-state and export trade, and will henceforward carry the highest American standards. Swine were brought to California by the padres or by the soldiers who accompanied them, more likely by the latter. Probably they did not come with the initial expedition of 1769. At that time 229 animals are credited with arriving, but the kinds are not stated in such records as now appear. It is reason- 262 RURAL CALIFORNIA able, however, to exclude hogs, for one could hardly expect such pathfinders as Rivera's cowboys to drive such agile leggy beasts as the hogs of that day through such rough trail-less country as they tra- versed. However, pigs probably came in the ships which paralleled the land expedition, and came soon, for Captain William Shaler of the Yankee ship Leilia landed in San Pedro Bay in 1797 and "got supplies for a full year, including many hogs and sheep," which was, perhaps, the first export business in California hogs. The missions had hogs, though relatively so few that they were not often separately noted in their inventories. There is, however, segre- gation of the smaller animals in the statement that at seventeen of the missions in 1825 there was a total of 1000 hogs and 100,000 sheep. The ratio is probably about correct. The Spanish derivatives did not have all the early pigs. The Eussians at Fort Ross in Sonoma County had hogs with their other live-stock in 1812. From such sources, probably, came the native Spanish hogs which the Americans found here on their arrival, although it was said in 1860 that "the common hog of California was first imported from the Sandwich Islands/' It is prob- able that the common hogs came to California from various sources. The character of all of them is truthfully sketched in these words by C. H. Sessions, formerly a prominent swine-grower in Los Angeles County: "In former years, and in fact to the pres- ent day, there can be found on ranches in California numbers of the native Spanish hogs or 'razor-backs.' ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 263 They are very hardy, but are not proof against dis- eases of the more fashionably bred hogs. They take care of themselves and live in swamps and river bot- toms, but it requires two or three years for them to mature ready for them to put on fat/' Such hogs are still encountered on the over-flowed lands along the rivers of the interior valleys where they afford some sport to local hunters. Hogs of the best blood of the time came to Cali- fornia in 1853, being included in the efforts for improved farming in that year. After satisfying demonstration of the success of this movement, the State Board of Agriculture in 1860 published this memorandum : "Seven years ago a few men saw the peculiar adaptation of our climate to the rapid devel- opment of animal existence and hence the richness of the field for the rearing and improvement of stock. They purchased at great expense of time and money, in distant portions of the earth, at great risk, a few choice specimens of blood cattle, horses, sheep and swine. Their growth and tendency to multiply more than verify the predictions of the projectors of the enterprise/' This importation was not by association; it was a group of individual enterprises in which many entered in their own ways. Contemporary records show that the breeds of hogs thus brought to the State were Westphalia, Bedford, Suffolk, Berkshire, Essex, Yorkshire, Leicester, Chester-White, Irish Grazier, and China. All these were shown at fairs previous to 1863, and this claim was officially made 264 RURAL CALIFORNIA at the San Joaquin Fair of 1861 : "The 46 hogs of pure breeds, Essex, Suffolk, Berkshire, and Chester- White, exceeded all previous exhibitions in the State ; indeed, could hardly be surpassed even in old Eng- land/3 It was war time in 1861 and patriotism reached even to pigs, for J. D. Patterson of Alameda County exhibited : "Union Pigs, a new breed, product of an Essex boar and a Leicester sow, three months old and looking well/' It was quite the habit of the time to cross the breeds and expect much from it, which, of course, was not realized. It is interesting to note that the color question in breeds arose very early. In 1860, Carey Peebles of Santa Clara, who had pure-bred Suffolks, Berkshires and Essex, and was hogging-off grain with them, said that "the Suffolks are most profitable in the pen but they suffer when allowed to graze. On account of their thin hair they get sun-burned and have a mangy appearance/' This decision against the white hogs is frequently repeated in subsequent records. Out of the contest of the many breeds cited above, the Berkshire and Essex emerged as victors, in part on account of color, and later the Berkshire dis- tanced the Essex largely because of superior size and range quality. Thus the Berkshire survived as champion over all the breeds introduced with it in 1853, most of which were utterly forgotten. Keep- ing pace with the development of the breed at the East and in England by scores of large importations by different breeders, the Berkshire armed itself for ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 265 the contest with the more modern breeds of American naming. Of these new breeds the earliest to arrive was the Poland-China, the first Magie hogs being shown by Moses Wick of Butte County in 1872 and the next year by several breeders. A few years after, Poland-Chinas began now and then to beat Berk- shires and Essex in classes open to all, though the Berkshire still held the lead in such tests. Even the arrival of the Duroc or Jersey Bed, by several importations in 1885, did not shake the Berkshire in open sweepstakes and dropped from notice until reintroduced as the modern Duroc-Jersey by H. P. Eakle Jr. in 1905. The Berkshire and Poland-China rivalry began its interesting course during the eighties and still continues, with the Durocs holding strongly against both of them. Although it is true, as stated, that California pork producers have never caught up with the local con- sumption, they did at one time seem on the heels of it. The main purpose of spending so much time and money to get the best hogs in 1853 was to save the gold which was being sent away to pay for importations. The details of such achievements before 1860 demonstrated that the best hogs did better, in prolificacy and early maturity, than they did in the places whence they came; that barley and sorghum grain is as good as corn; that alfalfa is the best clover hogs ever grew on; that the cured meat from well-bred and well-grown hogs is exceptionally good and keeps well. The importation of salt pork was reduced from 51,169 barrels in 1853 to 29,444 in 266 RURAL CALIFORNIA 1859. "Thus it is seen/' said John Bidwell in that year, "that as we become able to supply ourselves with necessaries the importation of them declines." And during the next few years this truth became more apparent and in less than a decade H. D. Dunn wrote in 1867 : "With the exception of a compara- tively small quantity of salt pork, hams and sides, mostly imported in brine from the Atlantic ports, the domestic production supplies the home demand. But a few years will pass before importations will cease entirely and California become a large exporter of salted and cured meats to countries on the Pacific and to the interior." In the latter sixties the war contracts ceased and the pork packers of the Central West had too much product and the overland railway opened. In 1867 Holden said, in his address at the Stockton fair : "Mr. Hancock, of Cragin & Co., Chicago, who was here recently, told me his firm, on taking stock a year ago, had on hand 71,000 barrels of pork worth $3,000,000 and bacon worth $500,000. That is the way our Chicago neighbors do business I" It apparently occurred to Holden that the words of the enterprising Hancock were an inspiring incen- tive to local production, but Hancock was perhaps only the first of the procession of tired Chicago packers who have come to California since that time for recreation and have amused themselves with good strokes of business. Some of them have built up good local packing establishments and have been a great help in getting the California meat industry ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 267 as far ahead as it now is. Perhaps they did all they could profitably at the time but the fact remains that never again has the swine industry come so near to compassing the local demand and the hope of exports as it did just before the overland railway opened in 1869. This thoroughfare not only opened the way for the expansion of the packing industry of the Middle West to get its raw material in the beef and mutton line from the growing range industry of the farther west but it opened the way also for a freer westward movement of pork products of the Mississippi Valley states and acted as a safety valve against over-production for eastern consumption. California, having the largest population of the Pacific Slope states, was the main objective and was prospected for several decades by eastern packers as an outlet for pork products and not as a new produc- ing field for them. More recently, however, their views and policies have changed, and with free invest- ment and purpose toward local production by well equipped packers seems to lie the present prospect of supplying local consumption of pork products and of out-shipments in all directions. Such an achievement is, however, still far from attainment. Though some packers are making what they call their "best brand" from selected California grown hogs and claim that such hogs are as good as can be grown anywhere, there is a large importation of pork products from the eastern packing centers and large quantities of live hogs are brought from adjacent states for slaughtering. During the World 268 RURAL CALIFORNIA War there was a powerful propaganda for larger local pork production; the promotion of pig clubs among school children stimulated popular interest in the animal and the organization of growers' sales by the farm bureaus in various counties showed the way for better selling, which has always been essen- tial to encouragement of producers, but the business has been handicapped by high cost of production which average selling prices did not adequately recom- pense. In spite of this deterrence, however, the inter- est in pure-bred swine has been greatly stimulated and the general quality of the product has been advanced. The number of hogs in California in 1920 was slightly less than in 1919, when the peak in num- bers was reached. The geographical distribution of the swine indus- try has naturally followed the leadership of the dairy industry in its movement toward the great irrigated valleys of the interior where alfalfa is supreme and the growth of grain also most abundant. The ten counties leading in swine production are Imperial (which has nearly twice as many as any other), Kings, Tulare, Fresno, Merced, Los Angeles, Colusa, Yolo, San Joaquin and Stanislaus. All these coun- ties are in Region 4 except Los Angeles which is in Region 3, as defined in Chapter I. There is, how- ever, a distance of about five hundred miles between the extremes of the counties named and the swine industry is very widely distributed over the State. The basic factors of profitable pork production are alfalfa pasturage, skim-milk and barley. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 269 POULTRY Until very recently the poultry industry did not lift its product to the requirements of local consump- tion, which had to be met by shipments from the Middle West. Now, however, production has reached an annual total of $20,000,000 and large shipments of fresh eggs are made both by rail and sea to the Atlantic cities, 875 carloads moving in that direction during 1920. In 1921 direct shipments began to Europe via the Panama Canal and extension of the poultry interest entered a new phase, one feature of which was the ample capitalization of its cooperative association by setting apart one cent for each dozen of eggs handled, for that purpose. Expenditure for publicity to expand egg-consumption is contemplated. It is perhaps a unique characteristic of the poultry interest that it has advanced by specialization and not by association with other farming. The packing of eggs in the back room of the store for shipment on store-keepers' account is a rare sight, because most store-keepers sell more eggs to farmers than they buy from farmers, except in poultry centers where they naturally have much such packing to do, though it is very small when compared with the traffic which regular producers do largely for them- selves, or, in some sections, through the creameries which are their local emporiums and dispensers of cash payments. Specialization and concentration of the poultry interest is also shown by the fact that more than half the State product is snipped and sold 270 RURAL CALIFORNIA by producers, cooperative associations as indicated in Chapter VII. It is not known when and by whose agency domestic fowls came to California. They may have been taken as a matter of course and, therefore, not entitled to entry on the records of the time. How- ever, it is known incidentally that the padres and rancheros had them -because snatching from the saddle a chicken buried to the neck in the sand was frequently mentioned in travelers' records. The improved breeds of fowls of their day were brought to California by the American pioneers and were shown at the state fairs of 1856 and later, but they apparently did not attract much attention nor are there recorded exhortations toward multiplying poul- try products in the early days as were freely indulged in for the promotion of other branches of local production. But here again they may have been considered too incidental and a matter of course. Besides the chicken business was not, at that time, anywhere in America thought to be much of a pursuit for a man and the women may have shrunk from the trials of keeping hens in a wild open country which was a parade ground for skunks, wild-cats, coyotes and the like. Whatever the reason may have been, little was done with domestic fowls in the earliest American days and that came about and increased without particular promotion. As late as 1867 H. D. Dunn, who wrote a detailed promotive sketch of Cali- fornia opportunities, could only say this : "All the do- mestic fowls thrive well and increase rapidly in Call- ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 271 fornia: turkeys, chickens, geese and ducks, as also their eggs,, sell at profitable prices." In the same year the State Surveyor General made a census from the county surveyors' reports, which is contrasted with the last United States Census report in this way : Chickens Turkeys Ducks Geese 1867 1,030,579 113,119 73,310 15,217 1910 5,665,964 116,002 40,061 14,195 The figures show that only in chickens was any notable progress made during the forty odd years between the collections of data. The same course has been followed during the last decade and very marked progress has been made, for now Sonoma County has probably as many fowls as were counted in the whole State in 1910. Poultry-keeping has advanced both by increased production and valuation of the output to a total, currently estimated by ex- perts, to exceed $20,000,000 a year. The production of fowls and eggs is practicable everywhere in the State from the immediate coast across the hot valleys and up the foothills and moun- tains everywhere. The mild equable coast climates from end to end of the State make the least require- ments in the way of shelter; the hot interior valleys demand shade during high temperatures; the moan- tains necessitate winter protection from low tempera- tures. Therefore, a farmer can keep fowls wherever he has his farm, if he gives them fair play. It may be that they will not keep themselves so easily as in countries with moist summers which are less favor- 272 RURAL CALIFORNIA able to mites and other small vermin and more favor- able to natural growth of green feed. However, these questions, formerly zealously discussed, are now considered largely academic, as practical farmers keep fowls everywhere and because very large commercial production is now attained in localities which were formerly looked on as unfavorable to hens. In all parts of the State disappointments and sometimes disasters have attended ventures in poultry produc- tion as they have everywhere, but experience has demonstrated that they are more the fault of the man than of the hen, because her health and environment were not properly provided for. The chief regions in commercial poultry produc- tion as designated by G. H. Croley of San Francisco, in their relative importance (and their location in the regional districting of the State according to Chapter I) is as follows: 1. Petaluma district, including Santa Rosa and Sebastopol — Region 2. 2. California south of Tehachapi — eight counties — Region 3. 3. Hay ward -Livermore, including the suburbs of the city of Oakland — Region 2. 4. Santa Cruz-Watsonville-Salinas — Region 2. 5. San Jose-Gilroy-Hollister (Santa Clara Valley) — Region 2. 6. Sacramento- Stockton — Region 4. Y. San Joaquin Valley (beyond the portion included in No. 6) — Region 4. 8. Sacramento Valley (beyond the portion included in No. 6) — Region 4. 9. Sonoma-El Verano-Napa — Region 2. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 273 10. Santa Maria- Arroyo Grande — Region 2. 11. Martinez-Concord-Walnut Creek (San Ramon Valley)— Region 2. 12. Northwestern Coast district — Region 1. 13. Northwestern Mountain district — Region 5. 14. Eastern Mountain district — Region 5. It will be noted from the geography of California poultry production,, as above set forth, that it has extended from the coast regions into the interior valleys. In this movement it has followed the prog- ress of the dairy industry with this important differ- ence, that in the latter, the greatest county and regional dairy productions have departed from the coast to the interior, and the poultry interest retains both of these attainments near the coast, though interior production has become large. The Petaluma district, taking its name from a town in southern Sonoma County, on the north shore of San Fran- cisco Bay and connected with the city of San Fran- cisco by both rail and water routes traversing about forty miles of distance, became the leading poultry region of California about 1880 and it has maintained leadership not only in the amount of product but in invention of methods and appliances, originality in choice of materials and in systematic policies in pro- duction, for about forty years. The town of Petaluma is an emporium of trade in eggs. The immediate region produces little poultry feed and train and boat loads of grain, alfalfa hay and meal and by- products of the meat industry are brought in. Peta- luma is not only an egg but also a poultry factory, for 272 RURAL CALIFORNIA able to mites and other small vermin and more favor- able to natural growth of green feed. However, these questions, formerly zealously discussed, are now considered largely academic, as practical farmers keep fowls everywhere and because very large commercial production is now attained in localities which were formerly looked on as unfavorable to hens. In all parts of the State disappointments and sometimes disasters have attended ventures in poultry produc- tion as they have everywhere, but experience has demonstrated that they are more the fault of the man than of the hen, because her health and environment were not properly provided for. The chief regions in commercial poultry produc- tion as designated by G. H. Croley of San Francisco, in their relative importance (and their location in the regional districting of the State according to Chapter I) is as follows: 1. Petaluma district, including Santa Rosa and Sebastopol — Region 2. 2. California south of Tehachapi — eight counties — Region 3. 3. Hay ward -Livermore, including the suburbs of the city of Oakland — Region 2. 4. Santa Cruz-Watsonville-Salinas — Region 2. 5. San Jose-Gilroy-Hollister (Santa Clara Valley) — Region 2. 6. Sacramento-Stockton — Region 4. 7. San Joaquin Valley (beyond the portion included in No. 6) — Region 4. 8. Sacramento Valley (beyond the portion included in No. 6) — Region 4. 9. Sonoma-El Verano-Napa — Region 2. ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 273 10. Santa Maria- Arroyo Grande — Region 2. 11. Martinez-Concord-Walnut Creek (San Ramon Valley)— Region 2. 12. Northwestern Coast district — Region 1. 13. Northwestern Mountain district — Region 5. 14. Eastern Mountain district — Region 5. It will be noted from the geography of California poultry production, as above set forth, that it has extended from the coast regions into the interior valleys. In this movement it has followed the prog- ress of the dairy industry with this important differ- ence, that in the latter, the greatest county and regional dairy productions have departed from the coast to the interior, and the poultry interest retains both of these attainments near the coast, though interior production has become large. The Petaluma district, taking its name from a town in southern Sonoma County, on the north shore of San Fran- cisco Bay and connected with the city of San Fran- cisco by both rail and water routes traversing about forty miles of distance, became the leading poultry region of California about 1880 and it has maintained leadership not only in the amount of product but in invention of methods and appliances, originality in choice of materials and in systematic policies in pro- duction, for about forty years. The town of Petaluma is an emporium of trade in eggs. The immediate region produces little poultry feed and train and boat loads of grain, alfalfa hay and meal and by- products of the meat industry are brought in. Peta- luma is not only an egg but also a poultry factory, for 274 RURAL CALIFORNIA the hatching of chicks is no longer done in farm incubators but in central hatcheries of which there are eight large establishments and twenty smaller concerns, which hatch annually approximately 13,000,000 chicks, of which 60 per cent are installed on the farms of the district. The largest hatchery has a capacity of 250,000 chicks every three weeks and an annual output of more than two millions. About five million chicks are shipped to other dis- tricts of the State and beyond. As soon as they are dry, they are taken from the incubators and placed in light ventilated cartons, some with one compart- ment, but most have four, each holding 100 chicks. The chicks are sent to any point within seventy-two hours from the place of shipment without feed or water, in fact, they are found to be better off for this enforced fast until their natural supply of nutriment is exhausted. It is believed that the Petaluma district is unique in the world not only in its concentration and aggre- gate of poultry production but in the originality of its methods and policies. Naturally the activities of the district, both industrial and social, are extensively and pervasively gallinaceous as may be inferred from this delightful sketch written in 1919 by Miss Nellie Denman, president of the Petaluma Women's Club: "The poultry farms literally circle the city of Petaluma, forming a veritable amphitheater, divided into farm centers and districts all touching each other in neighborly fashion, and forming one won- derful chicken world. Yet each farm with its broad ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 275 acres of chicken yards and colony houses, green kale patches and cozy bungalows sitting in the shade of the eucalyptus groves, has a privacy and individu- ality all its own. Some of the homes topping the gently rolling ground are modern bungalows, others are the colonial type — each one of them electrically connected with lights, telephone and other conveni- ences of modern homes. Farther out again within a six miles radius of Petaluma are more farms, but more scattered, covering a larger area of rolling hills and valleys with red-roofed bungalows, white senti- nel-like windmills, shade trees and the ever-present flocks of white Leghorns." From pioneer times the white egg has been in California the standard of desirability. This pref- erence is conceived to be due to the fact that hens brought from Mexico were originally from the Medi- terranean and, therefore, white-shell breeds, while the eggs which came by ship from northern Atlantic countries were prevalently brown. Therefore, one could tell at a glance the history of the egg and eggs of long experience were discriminated against. Later when breeds of fowls laying brownish eggs were intro- duced the question arose whether such eggs were not really richer, as the shell-color might indicate, but it was determined by careful comparative analyses at the Experiment Station that there was no difference in contents though the shells differed in hue. There seemed then no reason why the old preference for the white egg should not prevail though the reason for it had disappeared long before, when the importation 276 RURAL CALIFORNIA of seasoned eggs by ship was displaced by the copious receipt of fresh eggs by rail in carriers. As the White Leghorn took clear precedence in commercial production, the standard became the large white egg now chiefly characteristic of California eggs both in local and distant markets. Other breeds which now share commercial production with the White Leg- horn are judged as to availability by their ability to rival the Leghorn in their large white eggs. In smaller production by devotees of different breeds and on farms and in villages, this character counts for less and is considered in connection with other forms of desirability in the breed. When shipments of winter eggs are made to eastern cities, white or brown eggs are sent to terminals in which a color standard influences local sale, and for the same reason white eggs are usually selected for shipment to Cali- fornia from other states. As shown by the census figures, the hen and her relatives comprise more than 97 per cent of the poul- try interests of California and other domesticated birds have not only relatively but actually decreased in numbers during the last half century. If these figures are accurate, the decline may be partly due to the decimation of the Chinese population which was great before the exclusion act of 1879, for the Chinese would not accept wild geese and ducks, which have always been abundant, as a substitute for tame birds. Turkeys also show but little increase during a half century and this may be attributed to two new conditions which have arisen, viz., the progressive ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 277 closing of the interior plains to range husbandry which best suits the turkey and the systematization of turkey production in some parts of the Mississippi Valley which includes the Pacific states in its sales' territory, and refrigerator cars and cold storage plants which promote the distribution of distant products in good condition. However, 'the California-grown tur- key, which is predominantly the bronze type, is highly esteemed and leads in market values. It is apparently also advancing in production for estimates since the census of 1910 place the numbers now grown from half to three-quarters of a million, nearly five times as great as ten years ago. The ostrich was introduced to California culture directly from South Africa in 1888 and ostriches have been grown in limited numbers for exhibition and for the plume product since that date, but they have never attained the popularity and profitability which were anticipated at the time of their introduc- tion. BEES AND HONEY By the United States Census of 1910, California ranked third among the states in number of bees, with 201,023 colonies, and first in value of product which was placed at $729,793. The honey product has been for half a century greater than local con- sumption and yearly shipments to other states and exports to Europe and Pacific countries are under- taken, from 70 to 90 per cent of the product being shipped beyond state lines. 278 RURAL CALIFORNIA Nature supplied California abundantly with wild bees, both of the "honey" and "bumble" varieties, and considerable business was done by bee-hunters to supply the early American towns and mining camps. The complaint lodged against the bees in the records of the time was that they were too much disposed to "select trees of large dimensions in places not easy of access the felling of which requires exces- sive labor and it is not uncommon for them to break in falling, shattering the combs and rendering the honey valueless." The difficulties in securing wild honey profitably, coupled with the need for honey for the flap- jack essential of the miners' menu, no doubt hastened the enterprise of the pioneers to secure tame bees whose sweets could be more conveniently commandeered. Such bees were brought from the Atlantic side by sea and were installed before 1856, for in that year there were at last three apiaries of more than a hundred hives each belonging to F. G. Appleton, Mr. Briggs and Mr. Buck near San Jose and they were surprisingly productive both of swarms and honey and in the value thereof. It is recorded that four, six and, in one case, eight swarms came from one hive; that the value of a hived swarm was $100 and the price of honey 50 cents and $1 a pound, prices which endured for several years. It is, there- fore, not strange that importations of bees continued. In 1857 J. S. Harbison brought bees from the East to the vicinity of the Sacramento Eiver where it was prophesied bees could not live, and the fifty-four hives he imported in December, less twenty which he ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 279 sold at $100 each,, had become eighty-one by the fol- lowing summer. Harbison is entitled to rank as the premier pioneer in California beekeeping for he not only began early but he invented an improved frame hive which was largely used. He participated in the development of the honey industry until his death in 1912 in San Diego County, where he had estab- lished himself in 1869 and where he had become at one time, perhaps, the largest honey-producer in the State. Harbison was one of a large group ol' bee- keepers who moved the apiaries beyond the cultivated area into the mountain canyons and upon the dry plains where the nectar of wild sages and other desert flora disputed superiority with white clover standard and where the producer had the advantage of limit- less free range and surprising production whenever there was rainfall enough to make the desert bloom. From such wild waste places a large export product of honey came for several decades. More recently the bees have reentered the cultivated area and the product from wild ranges is now exceeded by bees pastured on alfalfa, fruit-bloom, bean-bloom and other nectar-yielding agricultural flora in different parts of the State, even from the extremes of north and south boundaries. Portability of apiaries, which became common at first to meet the exigencies of seasonal variation in honey flow on desert areas, has recently become sys- tematically employed to meet bloom of large areas of cultivated plants, not only for the good of the bees but for the pollination of such bloom. Some 280 RURAL CALIFORNIA beekeepers now do a good business in renting the services of their bees in pollination of field plants and fruit-trees to increase seed or fruit production. A concrete instance of transforming bees into commer- cial travelers^ as practiced during 1920, is the fol- lowing : "The owner of 200 stands of bees started the sea- son in a large Santa Clara county prune orchard, where he was paid $2 per stand to keep the bees in the orchard during the blooming period. In addition to the money the beekeeper extracted a ton of honey and the bees built up strong colonies, which he moved over two hundred miles eastward to the orange orchards in Tulare county, with his hives filled with bees able to gather more honey than bees wintered in the district. The Tulare orange bloom lasted about five weeks, owing to cool weather. And then the bees were moved northward one hundred and fifty miles into Stanislaus county to get the benefit of various wild flowers and alfalfa bloom. In July the honey was extracted, the bees shaken from their hives into wire cages (to escape transmission of bee diseases), and then taken about two hundred miles northeastward into Nevada, placed in new, clean hives, and there gathered honey from alfalfa and wild flowers until fall when they were taken back to California in the wire cages. Thus the bees passed the season working full blast in four different localities ; their honey was taken all away from them ; and they were not even permitted to swarm. "This great amount of moving is exceptional. It ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 281 is more common for a beekeeper to move from his home place in the region to the citrus country and to return after the orange bloom has fallen. In such a case the hives are loaded on a truck or trailer, stopped up so that no bees can get out, and trans- ported to their temporary location where they are allowed to work until the supers are pretty full, when the bee-keeper sets up his extracting outfit in a movable screen room., and extracts- the honey, putting back the empty supers. When they are filled again, they are extracted once more and in a normal sea- son, the second extraction may finish the blooming period of the citrus trees. If it does, all the honey in the hives is extracted both in supers and brood frames, though the brood is not injured, and as soon as the bees are well settled in their hives they are taken back to the home place or to a new loca- tion. The honey is all taken out before moving because the seasonal heat, the weight of honey and the warmth of the confined bees while they are being moved would melt the wax and cause great damage to the comb." In many ways the beekeeping industry has altered its methods and policies to keep pace with changing conditions, including organization for production and marketing, which will be noted in Chapter VII. Bee- keeping is also increasing largely by installation of small apiaries on farms and in fruit plantations, such resources having recently been notably promoted by the patriotic propaganda to. increase production of sweetening and by the demonstration of the effi- 282 RURAL CALIFORNIA ciency of bees in increasing fruit production of self- sterile varieties. According to the Census of 1910, California was the first honey and wax-producing state in the Union, with a product of 10,264,716 pounds of honey and 126,445 pounds of beeswax, thrice as large in honey and more than twice as large in beeswax as Texas, next in rank among the states. There is, however, great variation in the annual product owing to seasonal uncertainty of honey flow of the desert flora> as has been suggested. During the last twenty years there has been variation from one to ten million pounds of product. Fortunately the art of beekeeping has mastered expansive and contractive measures ana policies to meet such variation and largely to maintain the bees in production commen- surate with such quickly alternating extremes. THE SILK-WORM The pioneer silk-grower of California was L. Pre- vost of San Jose who grew his first brood of worms from eggs obtained in France, in 1854,, having failed to secure a hatch from two importations of eggs from China. Prevost exhibited cocoons and appeared at many public occasions as the apostle of silk culture as an industry for California. He did a considerable business in mulberry trees and silk-worm eggs and before 1867 silk fabrics were manufactured at a small factory in San Jose; silk -worm eggs were profitably shipped to France in quantity, and in 1867 silk exhib- its from California won honors at the Paris Exposi- ANIMAL INDUSTRIES 283 tion. Meantime silk enterprises had been entered on near Santa Barbara, Sacramento, Grass Valley and other points and large expectations were cherished of profits both from local silk manufacture and from pro- duction of eggs for sale in France. The latter expecta- tion was arrested by the Franco-German War of 1870 and finally extinguished by the fact that California eggs were contaminated with the disastrous silk-worm diseases which Europeans were trying to escape. The calculation of profitable production of raw silk also proved illusory because, even with cheap Chinese labor then available, the cost of production was too great and all the earlier efforts at silk-culture were aban- doned. In 1880 agitation was revived on the basis of the suitability of silk-growing for a household industry. With this effort, which included promotive enact- ment and appropriation by the legislatures of 1883 and 1885. there was wide distribution of mulberry cuttings of several species imported and grown for that purpose, the establishment of an experimental filature and many publications. However, silk-grow- ing was not profitable after the State ceased to buy cocoons at a high price for promotion purposes. It cost too much to hire labor to pick mulberry leaves and to wait on the worms. After State promotion was withdrawn about 1888, effort was continued by individuals and societies but neither popularity nor notable production has been attained, although con- siderable energy and enthusiasm have been manifested from time to time even to the present. In the line 284 RURAL CALIFORNIA of manufacturing, more has been achieved as there has been in operation for many years a silk thread mill at Petaluma with a capacity of 60,000 pounds a year. It uses raw silk grown and reeled in China and Japan. Although silk-growing has been prac- tically abandoned, there is still a degree of confidence that silk manufacture from Oriental raw material will ere long be a great industry in Calif ornia,. and promotive effort in that line continues. CHAPTER VII COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS THE chief difference between American agriculture and that which preceded it in California lies in the fact that the Spaniards had one sublime earthly pur- pose in their entrance on this territory, to Christian- ize the pagan aborigines and fit them for civilized use of the vast country of which their ownership was recognized. In the undertaking to keep the land for them and to fit them for development into national existence as a new gem for the crown of Spain, it seemed desirable to keep them free from contact with the outside world. Plans for colonization with white people were urged on the crown but were not approved, either because isolation of the savages with the means of regeneration was held to be essen- tial or because funds were not available to promote colonization. The result was that trade was pro- hibited except as the mission padres conducted it and intrusion of foreigners was unwelcome, although hos- pitality to those who did gain access was generous and genuine. During the Mexican regime the earlier conceptions of service to the aborigines were largely abandoned and restrictions on trade and access of foreigners relaxed. However, agriculture had little 285 286 RURAL CALIFORNIA definite aggressive purpose and no initiative to serve such a purpose if it had been conceived. In sharp contrast with this insurmountable bar- rier to progress was the attitude of the Americans who discerned opportunities for development in everything and advantages in the natural capability and geographical situation of the country. They at once entered on organized efforts for the attain- ment of a distinctive and diversified agriculture such as a semi-tropical climate and a potential opening in world trade invited. The method which they adopted to attain fully and quickly the results they conceived to be possible and desirable was that of cooperative organization. It is probably true that the farmers of no other American state ever discerned so early in its history the benefits of organization and began so soon to strive for them. They were of course disappointed again and again in the time required for realization, but the effort was never abandoned and conspicuous success came to the sec- ond and third generations. In September 1851, just one year from the birth of the State, a state fair was held in San Francisco. It was not officially arranged for but was the result of spontaneous impulse on the part of the people to bring their products together and to compare their experiences. Products from valleys hundreds of miles apart were displayed, an oration was delivered and prizes were awarded. Other similar gatherings and fairs followed and in response to an appeal to the legislature the California State Agricultural COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 287 Society was created in 1854,, endowed with an appro- priation and authorized to hold state fairs in a series which has been unbroken to the present day. The early work of this society had this unique fea- ture. Committees were sent to every point where agricultural effort was being put forth and official re- port was made of the undertakings and results of all persons with plants and animals so that all might profit by their experience in the pursuit of farming under conditions that were new and strange to all. The whole State was a popular experiment station. The education of the pioneers by this method was rapid and its influence in the promotion of the early agriculture was remarkable. While organizations for holding exhibitions of achievements and for discussion of ways by which they were attained were multiplying, there was now and then an out-cropping of the idea that farmers should effectively organize for promotion of their industry and a fair consideration of it among other vocations. The first organized effort to secure a fair share of product value for producers was by the wool-growers, who formed an association on Sep- tember 24, 1860, "to provide a remedy against efforts to establish a monopoly in the wool markets of the State/' which wool buyers had in good working order at that date and on which the growers combina- tion had a marked deterrent effect. In January 1867 the secretary of the State Board of Agriculture addressed a "memorial to the people of California" in which it was said: 288 RURAL CALIFORNIA "California is exporting a large number of agri- cultural products: her grains, wines and wools are quoted in the markets of the world. Our farmers must make themselves familiar not only with our productions and home markets but with markets in which our surplus may be demanded. The channel through which such information may be obtained, to be reliable, should be created and controlled by the farmers themselves. Unless the farmers do so, they are at the mercy of the world and its multitude of sharp, unscrupulous tradesmen, instead of being the independent men they might make of them- selves/' The result of this movement was the passage of a bill to promote the formation of cooperative indus- trial associations in the different localities of the State to hold local fairs and collect information, for which the State should furnish an amount of money equal to that locally contributed. The bill failed to receive the signature of the Governor, who was perhaps frightened by the financial possibilities it involved. Five years later, in 1872, the State Board of Agri- culture published an inflammatory declaration from which the following is taken: "The truth is the grain merchants, the hucksters, the middle-men, the shippers, the railroads, the sack makers, the law makers, the assessors and the tax collectors manage to hold the agricultural classes in a condition of servitude unparalleled in a free country. COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 289 "It has been said that these things always regulate themselves. I question if anything regulates itself. The farmers and fruit growers must combine for their own protection,, as the grain dealers and huck- sters combine for their own profit — otherwise they will continue to labor for the benefit of those who, however useful as a class, produce nothing." Such declarations resulted in a meeting, during the State Fair of 1872, of delegates from various farmers clubs and other local agricultural societies for the avowed purpose of organizing a state-wide association to "serve as a medium of communication between the local clubs, to canvass the condition of the agricultural interests and their relation to the other industries of the State and., if possible, to devise some means for the better promotion and pro- tection of those interests in the future." Thirteen counties were represented and an address was issued to the farmers of the State "setting forth the disad- vantages under which the agriculturists as a class are laboring, the grievances which they are suffering and showing the importance of strong and perma- nent organizations and early and united action/' This organization was called the California Farmers Union, the name having of course no relation what- ever with the existing Farmers Union, which was organized over thirty years later. This original Cali- fornia Farmers Union in its "address to the farmers of the State" made these two declarations, which will sufficiently indicate the temper of half a dozen others : 290 RURAL CALIFORNIA "When the farmer is so fortunate as to produce a surplus and desires to send that surplus to the best markets, whether at home or abroad, he finds that not only the carrying facilities within his own coun- try but even those of the high seas are as effectually united and combined against him as if owned and controlled by one man, and though the article he has for sale bears a high and remunerative price in those markets, the exorbitant freight demanded and forced from him for moving it leaves no profit. "The customs of these men have grown so burden- some and exacting that in many portions of the State large quantities of perishable products, such as fruits and vegetables, are annually allowed to go to waste rather than send them to market, and the producers are unwilling losers of millions." It is also interesting to note that though several pages of such aggressive agricultural doctrine were spread in the Eeport of the State Agricultural Society in 1872, not a word about it ever appeared after- wards, and the Eeport for 1873 shows changes in the list of officers. Even now, nearly half a century later, it is clearly discernible that commercial and transportation interests realized that the farmers were getting troublesome, and caused the leaders of malcontent to be displaced by those who would confine the activities of the State Agricultural Society largely to horse racing, which they did very thoroughly for a decade or more. However, the farmers of 1872 were not wholly cast down by the disaster to their project for a state-wide COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 291 protective organization to be realized with State aid, even though the California Farmers Union only lived long enough to send a memorial asking Congress "to regulate freights and fares on overland railways and protect the people against impositions and oppres- sions by railroad monopolies." In 1873 the projectors of this Farmers Union joined with many others of the same kind and or- ganized the California State Grange,, a branch of the national order of Patrons of Husbandry, which was then valiantly attacking the old systems against the farmer in nearly all the states east of the Rocky Mountains. The California State Grange attained large membership and influence which endured for a decade or more, until much of its force was diverted to the Farmers Alliance. At the time of the greatest attainment of the Grange in enrolling farmers, which was about 1880, there had been no equal gathering of membership in any general farm organization. The Farmers Educational and Cooperative Union has a strong organization but is limited in geographical spread in California. Other undertakings have also attained limited area of influence and various lengths of continuous existence. The California Farm Bu- reau Federation (branch of the American Federa- tion of Farm Bureaus) organized in 1919 had in 1921 a larger membership than any other association of all kinds of farmers has hitherto at- tained in this State and is working more aggressively in the general farming interests. The Farm. Owners and Operators Association was organized in 1918 to 292 RURAL CALIFORNIA include actual farmers as full members, non-operative land owners as associate members and duly certified farm laborers as affiliated members. This associa- tion was reorganized in 1920 as the Federation of American Farmers, looking toward organization of proprietary farmers for promotion and protection of their interests by political policies similar to those adopted by the American Federation of Labor but to- ward somewhat contrary purposes. SPECIAL COOPERATIVE SELLING ORGANIZATIONS The organizations which have attained greatest suc- cess in California and have given the State a reputa- tion for successful cooperation are not those which undertook to associate all kinds of farmers in united action and influence. They are the groups of pro- ducers of particular products, the chief purpose of each being to give its own product the best merchant- able form and quality and to control the marketing of it in its own way, in some cases through its own selling agencies, in others by price fixing to the gen- eral trade. Such associations now cover nearly all the leading farm products and their numbers and various fields of action may be learned from the list of those operating in 1922, as given in Appendix J. Although few of these organizations existed in their present form and plan of action a decade ago, for most of them are much younger and all have vastly increased their operations and business facili- ties quite recently, nevertheless they may be looked COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 293 on as the offspring of aspirations cherished and of efforts put forth during the last four decades. Agita- tion for the special-purpose associations began in 1875 and many short-lived organizations were undertaken from time to time thereafter. Their demises were due to various conditions, viz., the impracticability of the plans proposed; the unwillingness of growers to take the risks ; the opposition of private trading con- cerns which naturally desired to protect their vested interests; the advantages such concerns enjoyed at that time in rebates from transportation companies and in cheap capital from recognized commercial credit which was then not available to organized producers. Various other causes and conditions operated against the earlier efforts at cooperation but there was one strong connecting line which led from one deter- mined venture to another and from one disappoint- ment to another until, by its continuous action, dif- ficulties began to disappear and achievements began to be realized. This unbroken influence toward suc- cess was exerted by informal assemblies of fruit- growers, called California Fruit Growers Conven- tions, which began in 1881 and which have been held annually or oftener until the fifty-fourth of them con- vened in Los Angeles in 1921. At these conventions all cooperative organizations for fruit handling by producers have had either birth or christening and to these conventions all which succeed report their plans and attainments. From the very beginning hundreds of growers have gone from end to end of 294 RURAL CALIFORNIA the State and remained several days in session for the purpose of deciding what growers can do to advance the industry in which they are involved and taking the initial steps to do it. These conventions with their gatherings of fruit-growers for unprescribed discussion and untrammeled action are not only carry- ing progress forward from year to year but from gen- eration to generation — as described on page 171. On this foundation of continuous interest and con- fidence and of unbaffled effort, California's notable structures in special-purpose cooperation have arisen. They are original in design and function and novel in some of the particular purposes they aim to serve, and in the methods developed for such service. The architects who planned these structures, the master- builders who translated the plans into visible forms and the leaders in organized industry and trade who have brought plans and forms into concrete operation have been men of mature age whom the attractiveness of California life and investment induced to bring their training and experience in professional and com- mercial life, and their accumulations of capital, from other parts of the United States for undertakings in agriculture. They already were wise in legal re- quirements and possibilities and in financial and com - mercial policies and operations. They won the con- fidence of those who had hitherto had little experi- ence or observation beyond the lines of crop produc- tion; they spoke with authority to the managers of transportation, of finance and of established trade. All these masterful resources they enthusiastically COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 295 made available to the effort to organize the fruit and other productions of California, In all the course of development of plans and conceptions into concrete operation, which covered several decades, there was a prevalent feeling of equality and mu- tuality among participators., whether their property holdings were small or large. The principles of true cooperation,, which they sought to understand and apply to the settlement of questions of profit- able production, exerted a strong influence on their attitudes and relations towards each other. Long and persistent effort toward cooperation, reason and fair play, not only attained these ends but constituted also an adult school in humanity and citizenship which has profoundly influenced the quality of Cali- fornia rural life. During the first quarter of a century of produc- tion of special products for distant marketing (ex- cept in the dawning of great ideas of commercial in- dependence for agriculture which have been noted), effort was naturally centered on cultural problems. About 1885 there arose to common view the impera- tive need (which previously had been dimly dis- cerned) of beginning correspondingly strenuous and systematic effort on the commercial side. It then began to be clear that such great production of fruits as natural conditions favored and human enterprise and industry were capable to attain, could only en- counter financial frustration unless the producers' ideal, of the greatest volume of production with rea- sonable profit, could be substituted for the traders' 296 RURAL CALIFORNIA ideal of the greatest profit from the least volume of production'. The producers' plan was to use all suitable land and supply a world of consumers; the traders7 purpose was to sell as much fruit as few buyers could pay high prices for, so that their margin would be greatest and his risk and investment least. There is, of course, an irrepressible economic conflict between these plans and the views and purposes which underlie them. It was in 1885 that the man who was then selling most California fruits in Chicago declared that "New York could take so little that it could be easily sent on by express from Chicago." It was poor prophecy, for in 1917 the carloads both of deciduous fruits and oranges which found a ter- minal in Chicago comprised only about one-sixth of the total shipments, five-sixths going east of Chi- cago. The declaration of the traders' conception of the opportunity for distant shipment in 1885 shows how futile would have been the effort to build up large production for distant shipment if growers had not discerned their commercial needs and taken steps to secure them for themselves. It required many faltering steps to make any head- way at all. In 1885 the first serious effort was made to attain self-marketing by growers, which the pio- neers had declared fifteen years earlier would be the only solution for producing problems. In October, 1885, the Orange Growers Protective Union was organized in Los Angeles, and in November follow- ing the California Fruit Union was established in San Francisco. Neither of these organizations lived long COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 297 nor accomplished much, but after about thirty years of evolution in organization, not less than 75 per cent of the fresh and cured fruits are sold and dis- tributed cooperatively by the growers thereof. In this thirty years' war California has not only ren- dered sure her own future in large production, but has set tlie pace for similar movements in all the large fruit regions of the United States. This attain- ment is the culmination of more than sixty years of broad conceptions, of clear foresight, of sustained and resolute effort and of investment of everything which makes for cultural and commercial success. Some measure of the attainment can be found in the facts that the fruit industries of California cover not less than one-fourth of the total value of the fruit indus- tries of the United States and that California's out- put of all fruits and fruit products is much larger than that of any other single state. This achievement would have been altogether im- possible if the traders' point of view had not been resolutely rejected by the producers. The effect of one concrete fact is indisputable: five leading fruit- growers' organizations expended $1,780,000 for pro- motive publicity purposes in 1919, thereby develop- ing a consuming demand which engendered prices beyond expectation. METHODS OF COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATION Readers who study the list of cooperative organiza- tions for agricultural purposes in Appendix J (page 298 RURAL CALIFORNIA 383) will appreciate that no detailed analysis of prin- ciples, methods and materials can be undertaken in this connection. Details of ways of handling such di- verse products as the very names of the associations indicate would fill a volume of close technical infor- mation. Usually readers who desire to know details about particular products can secure them by cor- respondence with the headquarters of the organiza- tions covering them,, which are located in the list especially prepared for this book, up to the date of publication. Discussion of the principles of coopera- tion which are applied in the operation of the Cali- fornia organizations is also apart from the purpose of this writing; nor is reference to them in detail at all necessary because careful treatises on the subject are available.1 Other methods of organization are given in detail in the reports of the California State Mar- ket Director, an officer charged by law with promo- tion of producers' marketing organizations. It will readily be inferred from the fact that three whole books and five reports, in addition to continu- ous popular publication, are required to outline and discuss them, that the policies and methods of Cali- fornia cooperative organizations are neither simple 1 "Cooperation in Agriculture" by G. Harold Powell. New York. Also by the same author, "Fundamental Principles of Cooperation in Agriculture." Circ. 222, Calif. Exp. Sta., 1920. "Cooperative Marketing : its advantages as exemplified in the California Fruit Growers Exchange" by W. W. Cumberland. Princeton University Press. 1917. "Cooperative and other Or- ganized Methods of Marketing California Horticultural Prod- ucts," by John William Lloyd. University of Illinois Studies in the Social Sciences, March, 1919. Also by the same author, "Cooperative Marketing of Horticultural Products." 111. Exp. Sta., Circ. 244, 1920. COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 299 nor uniform. It is also true that no universal for- mulas for organization and operation can be drawn from their experience because the organizations are still proceeding confidently in their several ways, each holding that its own way best meets the condi- tions of its own membership, the nature of its ma- terials or the requirements of the trade therein. Cali- fornia organizations are, in fact, in spite of the im- mense volume and value of the products they suc- cessfully handle, still going through a period of ex- perimentation with organic principles and methods and no one can confidently prophesy whether the final outcome will prescribe uniformity or diversity as the better policy. Without undertaking to determine how far exist- ing organizations claiming to be cooperative embody the principles of true cooperative organization of producers to do business for themselves, it may in- terest the general reader to know that two leading types of organization have been for several years in operation on a large scale. One is the non-profit incorporation legalized by a California statute of 1909, and given the same legal powers in carrying out its purposes as a capital stock incorporation, by a statute of 1921. The other is a capital stock in- corporation, which, in its latest and best form, lim- its the holding of the stock to actual producing mem- bers and limits the reward of the stock-holder to reasonable interest on his investment and distributes all excess earnings among members as producers and not as holders of capital stock. Capital stock organ- 300 RURAL CALIFORNIA izations operated for the sake of dividing earnings among stock-holders, with or without reference to their standing as producers, are not sufficiently co- operative to be considered in this connection, al- though they may be so in the way all incorporations essentially are. So intimately, however, are the non- profit and capital stock plans associated that a cen- tral exchange may be organized on a non-profit basis while the local associations which are affiliated under its authority may proceed on the issuance of capital stock which is non-transferable and must be re- turned for proper consideration to the association when the holder is no longer qualified for member- ship as an actual producer. Two concrete facts will enable the general reader to appreciate that California associations for giving special products acceptable commercial form and for selling them directly to large factors by private sale at fixed prices or by public auction to all bidders, or by their own agents, actually do control and market their own products. One is that an average of not less than 70 per cent of all the special products in- dicated by the names of the organizations in the list in Appendix J, are sold by producers' cooperative selling organizations. The other impressive fact is that in this way the return to producers was in 1919 an aggregate of over two hundred million dollars. In order to present concrete facts about the opera- tive means and methods of a number of Californian cooperative selling organizations, statements were se- cured for this book" by questionnaire, the responses COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 301 thereto being presented in the table on page 302 which is representative of the procedures of all now active in California, both those of largest transac- tions (all of which are included), and several of smaller business dimensions. The attitude of the public mind toward producers marketing organizations is seen in the fact that when the legislature of 1915 created the office of State Market Director and omitted from the prescription of functions to this officer specific reference to the organization of producers into marketing associa- tions, the legislature of 1917 repealed that law and enacted a new one in which the promotion of or- ganization of such associations was made one of the chief functions of the State Market Director. The conviction seems to prevail widely throughout the State that the achievements of such associations have been for the public good and that their continued and enlarged operation is one of the most important factors not only in the advancement of rural life in California but in the general development and pros- perity of the State. OTHER AGRICULTURAL ORGANIZATIONS Special prominence has been given to organizations of producers for product sale and distribution and for manufacture or purchase of supplies and the like used in production, because such organizations are widely accepted as most distinctive and characteristic of California. Another line is, however, hardly less COOPERATIVE ORGANIZATIONS 303 original and significant and that is organization to provide for irrigation outlined in Chapter VIII. Be- sides these two groups of undertakings which are locally original in design and method, California participates in others which are more widely preva- lent throughout the United States. One of these is Farmers' Mutual Insurance which was provided for by a special enabling act of the legislature and which had been pursued to satisfactory local operation in several counties. In 1920 there were twenty farmers' fire insurance companies in operation, writing in- surance to the amount of $22,624,656.30, receiving premiums and assessments (net) of $211,329.60 and paying losses of $98,422.99. Organizations, usually proceeding without incor- poration, such as farm bureaus, cow testing, stock- growers' and range cattlemen's associations, agricul- tural fair and stock show associations and the like, are widespread and active in promotive and pro- tective work. They are for the most part operating for the purposes and by the methods prevailing in other states and are notably successful and influen- tial. CHAPTER VIII IMPROVEMENTS IN IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND IN HIGHWAYS IRRIGATION practice is very complex and broad, for it begins with the fundamental relations of the plant to the soil and air in which it grows and ministers to the subsequent development of the plant until its commercially valuable product is attained. Ir- rigation enterprise is also broad and complex for it shapes and provides for everything, from the gather- ing of small waters from springs or pumps to the diversion of a river from its majestic natural flow to lose itself in wandering through the miles of canals and ditches prepared for it over thousands of acres of hillsides and plains. California experience and achievement show that irrigation is an art which im- mediately employs every true discovery of scien- tific research or common observation on the well- being of plants and their products, appropriates widely the principles and practices of hydro-engineer- ing and hydro-economics and attains its greatest achievements by the originality and successfulness of its appeal for service to statesmanship, legislation and finance. It may appear to the casual observer that a rivulet trickling from a spring or stream and 304 IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 305 hiding itself in verdure wherever gravity leads it, while all the surrounding landscape may be sere and bare, is a very simple thing. It is, however, quite otherwise. It is the suggestion on which the great- est civilizations of antiquity arose and also the great civilizations of the future will arise because the larg- est areas of earth surface salutary to man and the plants he lives on are more or less deficient in rain- fall to serve his highest broadest purposes. The peo- ples of northern and central Europe, North America and Asia which now dominate the world, are nat- urally disposed to look on irrigation as a vain at- tempt to make good some creative incompleteness and to claim that by the accident of irrigation arid coun- tries may become habitable. They forget that it was the accident of rainfall which made the narrow belt of adequate heat and moisture for a few staple plants during a short growing season capable of sustaining them. Irrigation is not merely a remedy for drought : it is a primary process of production. California has made notable contributions to the advance of irrigation science and practice. All the oranges and lemons, nearly all the raisins, walnuts, melons and alfalfa, the greater part of the peaches, table grapes, apricots, shipping plums, berries and summer vegetables and fractions of almost all other commercial products are secured by irrigation. This demonstration of the value of irrigated products on the markets of the world has exerted a marked in- fluence and created a wide demand for information concerning Californian policies and methods, not only 306 RURAL CALIFORNIA in new regions desiring to follow in this line of ad- vancement but in old countries, chiefly in the Medi- terranean regions, in southern Asia and in South America where irrigation has been practiced for cen- turies. During the decade preceding the World War nearly all foreign nations, either occupying semi-arid country or interested therein by colonial possessions, sent expert investigators to examine and prepare re- ports on Calif or nian achievements in irrigation en- gineering, organization and production. The United States government has maintained irrigation inves- tigations in California continuously for the last twenty years, covering all branches of irrigated farm- ing. The national policy of arid land reclamation by the erection of vast irrigation works in the arid states of the Pacific Slope, as provided for by the na- tional irrigation law of June 17, 1902, was largely based on and its constructive and operative meth- ods suggested by the individual, corporate and co- operative irrigation achievements of California. Thus, through reports of governmental investiga- tions and enterprises, through the publication of de- scriptions and comments by foreign experts and through private publication in popular periodicals and in technical journals and text-books, there has been created an irrigation literature so varied and extensive that the bibliography of it alone would fill a long chapter (if not a whole volume) and in this literature California enterprise and achievement occupy a large place. In this connection it will be the purpose to set forth a few facts and considerations IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 307 which may indicate the relations of irrigation to the development of the State and to the phases of rural life and industry that may be traced to parentage in artificial stream-flow rather than in rainfall. California cannot claim to be the area on which ir- rigation farming was first practiced in the United States, because there are vestiges of prehistoric ir- rigation works in Arizona, New Mexico and Colo- rado and records show that the padres from Spain who entered Texan territory in the first half of the sixteenth century found the natives irrigating their gardens and learned the practice from them. Thus the irrigation introduced by the padres in 1769 was a new thing only in California, where the Indians were unskilled in agriculture. Nor can California claim to be the pioneer in irrigation by Anglo-Saxons, unless the small-scale work of a few American set- tlers who established themselves on land-grants or purchased secularized mission lands, before the gold discovery, can establish such priority. It is custom- ary to award to the Mormons, who turned a Utah river out upon the plains in 1847, priority in large- scale organized irrigation in the United States. They led, however, by a narrow margin because the Cali- fornia gold-miners in 1849 were diverting streams to uncover their beds for mining and to get water for flow in artificial channels to distant uses to an extent and variety of enterprise which the Mormons did not attain. The relation of such undertakings by miners to agricultural development, from the be- 308 RURAL CALIFORNIA ginning to the present day, is suggested in Chap- ter IV. The history of irrigation in California as it might be set forth in terms of dates and places, persons and achievements would have local interest but no wide significance. It will be more useful and interesting to try to discern the times and ways in which cer- tain conceptions of the relation of irrigation to crop production under California conditions arose, in- fluenced achievement and became demonstrated as principles and practices of permanent acceptability and importance in the agricultural development of the State. The Spanish padres brought the irrigation idea to California in 1769 and during the following thirty- five years established twenty-one missions between San Diego and San Francisco at all of which irriga- tion was, to varying extents, provided. Although these establishments occupied a linear distance of about five hundred miles, they were all within the same cul- tural division of the State (Eegions 2 and 3 as de- fined in Chapter I) and, therefore, characterized by somewhat similar climatic conditions. They did not know, except by hearsay, anything about the much greater areas of the State which varied severally in their natural moisture from one-fourth to four times as much as the padres had to work with in their fields and gardens. They knew neither the parts of the State where irrigation is indispensable nor where it is unnecessary and therefore undesirable, because they never moved far from their establishments. It IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 309 was quite otherwise with the American settlers for they roamed the State from end to end and from side to side almost as soon as they entered it. Coming from Spain by way of Mexico, the padres brought the idea that irrigation was necessary for the trees and vines they wished to grow. They soon saw that annual grains and forage plants could be grown by rainfall almost everywhere throughout their pos- sessions, but they held to the idea that trees, vines and plants which continued growth into the dry sea- son must be grown on ditch-banks. The early Ameri- cans visited the missions but did not embrace their irrigation doctrine. They remembered their experi- ence in carrying corn through midsummer droughts of the Middle West and eastward by hoe and culti- vator and they began almost at once to apply this teaching to California conditions. They soon demon- strated by the behavior of the plants that applications of water were not needed as frequently as the mission farmers made them. They used less water and more surface stirring until they discovered that plants which made their chief growth in the warm, moist, winter weather and those which rooted deeply like fruit-trees and vines, even though they had to grow all through the dry summer, could reach satisfactory production without any artificial application of wa- ter, if the normal rainfall was adequate and the soil retentive enough naturally and sufficiently culti- vated during the growth of the plant. This was the first demonstration in the semi-arid region of the principles which are now the chief asset of the dry- 310 RURAL CALIFORNIA farmers of the inter-mountain states and which are sometimes claimed to be their more recent discov- eries. Seventy years ago California began to have "non-irrigators," who made a virtue of their creed and their practice, and though they often claimed too much relatively, they did demonstrate the feasi- bility of dry-farming by tillage for grain and for- age crops, winter truck farms, summer crops of beans, tomatoes, and the like, and the greater areas of orchard and vineyard, except of citrus fruits and raisins, were made productive by dry-farming with an average rainfall of 15 to 18 inches, taking the whole area together. This was the earliest large- scale demonstration of the efficacy of tillage to ren- der a small rainfall sufficient to produce a valuable crop of some kind. The Americans demonstrated that the supreme efficacy of tillage in moisture conservation is to be realized on irrigated areas and not on dry lands, and that tillage as a substitute for irrigation was an incidental, though immensely valuable., suggestion from experience in irrigation. The mission farm- ers knew no tillage except the opening of the soil in the first instance to receive the seed or cutting of a fruit-tree or vine. When it began to grow, water was run over the surface. When the surface dried and cracked more water was run over it. When the surface soil became a solid mass of root-fibers drawn up in the almost vain attempt to secure the water that rippled over the surface, which they had ren- dered almost impervious, these masses were hewn out IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 311 with mattocks, fresh soil put over the main roots and more water run over it, which penetrated the new soil and gave the main roots a new inducement to produce another outfit of feeding fibers. These grew until they in turn became matted, shut off their own moisture supply and were themselves finally hewn out, this proceeding in endless succession. Thus by departing from the methods of their pre- decessors, early American Californians demonstrated that under certain conditions crops can be grown under scant rainfall by tillage instead of irrigation. They also determined another fact of even wider im- portance, viz., that irrigation is not a proper substi- tute for tillage and that instead of being feasible to keep pouring more water to save the cost of till- age, it is required for the thrift of the plant that the more frequent the application of water the more frequent must be the tillage. Instead of a rule of "more water less tillage," which the Spanish set- tlers of California seemed to proceed on, the true rule as demonstrated by their American successors is "more irrigation more tillage." This is now the accepted policy and practice in other irrigated re- gions. When the early American settlers found that grain and hay could be grown without irrigation (for the hay consisted almost entirely of grains cut before maturity) ; that such plants and others, such as po- tatoes, beets and other roots, cabbage and most other foliage plants, peas, could be grown in the rainy sea- son wherever frosts were too light to injure them; 312 RURAL CALIFORNIA and that deciduous fruit-trees, grape-vines and ten- der plants like corn, beans, squashes and melons would make satisfactory summer growth with the moisture from winter rains which was conserved in the soil by tillage, they concluded that irrigation was not required for either winter or summer growth where the annual rainfall was about twenty inches. This amount of rain or more was usually received in the region of San Francisco and in the valleys north- ward, also on the riverside lands of the Stockton and Sacramento districts where the chief part of the early agriculture was practiced. Some settlers who had hastened to provide themselves with irri- gation works in imitation of the padres abandoned them. From this experience there arose and widely prevailed three misconceptions, viz., that the need for irrigation depended entirely on the amount of rain- fall; that products grown by rainfall were better than those raised by irrigation; that irrigation was an unnatural proceeding and, therefore, deplorable even if not actually impious. These three misconceptions influenced settlement for some time and delayed development of those vast areas of interior plains and mesas from which the greatest volumes of distinctively Californian prod- ucts are now secured. It is, therefore, pertinent to outline the truer conceptions of relations of rainfall to irrigation which gained ascendancy about 1870 and led to the wide improvement of lands by irri- gation which began about that time. The following seem to be warranted conclusions. IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 313 1. On fairly retentive soils a winter-growing short-season grain like barley or a short-season wheat may make a, good grain crop with ten inches of rainfall evenly distributed during the rainy season. However, the crop will be surer and larger if the crop is irrigated either before sowing or during growth. The profit will be determined by the sea- sonal distribution of rainfall and the selling-price of the crop. 2. On a deep fairly retentive soil a deep-rooting plant like alfalfa will give from one to three cut- tings of hay with fifteen to twenty inches of rain- fall, but will yield from five to ten cuttings by adding the same amount or more of water by irrigation dur- ing the season of continued growing temperature of the long summer and autumn. 3. On an average soil a drought-resistant plant like a grain sorghum will make a good growth of forage with fifteen inches of rainfall conserved by spring tillage for planting when the local frost-free date is reached. With a retentive soil and continued summer tillage, the same plant will make a grain crop. On a less retentive soil a heavier grain crop, or continued cutting of forage, may depend on sum- mer irrigation. 4. With fifteen inches of rainfall on a fine re- tentive loam soil, deciduous fruit-trees and grape- vines can be brought along to bearing age by good winter and summer tillage, but the same trees or vines will need a total of twenty to thirty inches of water, either from rainfall or irrigation, when in 314 RURAL CALIFORNIA full bearing to produce full crops of merchantable fruit. 5. Evergreen fruit-trees, like citrus fruits, need summer and fall irrigation (and sometimes winter irrigation also) irrespective of rainfall, although the amount of irrigation required will be influenced to some extent by the rainfall. 6. Shallow-rooting plants, like most berries and summer-growing vegetables, require irrigation irre- spective of the soil character and the amount of rain- fall and may die outright in the dry season if they do not amply receive it. The foregoing generalizations, which may admit of some exceptions in the case of certain plants and natural conditions, justify the conclusion that the desirability of irrigation cannot be determined by the local rainfall. There are places in California where the average annual rainfall is more than forty inches and yet irrigation is essential; there are other places in which the rainfall is even less than half as much and yet irrigation is needed only for citrus fruits, berries and vegetables which start their growth in the early summer, except on naturally moist low lands. These two regions of widely divergent prac- tice may be within sight of each other. Experience has shown that it is beyond human wis- dom to prescribe amounts of water desirable to pro- duce best growth of all plants in all places, because: (a) different plants require varying amounts of wa- ter and the same individual may need diverse amounts of water at different times in the growing season; IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 315 (b) dissimilar soils require different amounts of wa- ter to produce satisfactory growth of plants; (c) local climates, chiefly because of the degrees of thirst in the air, require different amounts of water and unlike intervals between applications, for the same crop; ( d) the size, quality and commercial value of all crops is dependent on adequate moisture accord- ing to the needs of particular plants to discharge their agricultural functions. The disagreement among early Californians about the desirability of irrigation arose largely from their lack of understanding of the relation between the highest thrift of the plant and the quantity and qual- ity of its product. It required a number of years of experience to reach a general appreciation of what a plant will do under certain circumstances. Then came the perception that irrigation improvements, under all conditions which require them, consist of assuring the plant the constant and adequate water supply which favors full development and produc- tiveness. It appears, then, that the successful grower must know the needs of his plants, the water capac- ity of his soil and the rate of use by the plant as well as the rate of waste at different times of the year, and depend on rainfall alone or on rainfall supple- mented by irrigation or by irrigation alone, according as either form of practice is required. A concrete illustration of the behavior of a plant under various growing conditions may be drawn from the possible performances of the peach, which ranks next to the prune as the most largely grown decidu- 316 RURAL CALIFORNIA ous fruit-tree in California. A peach, tree of an early variety, maturing three months from blooming, may perfect its fruit and buds for the next year's fruitage with an amount of moisture in the soil which would not enable a late variety to reach good size and juiciness four or five months from the bloom, nor sustain strong bud growth for the next year. The grower, then, with such a tree has poor fruit during the current year and a scant crop or none the fol- lowing year. It may cast its bloom the next year, and then it will turn all the available moisture into foliage and new wood, carrying fruit-buds, and fruit again the year after, thus establishing a habit of bearing on alternate years. If it is a variety of very prolific habit, it may continue to bear each suc- ceeding year smaller fruit until it fails of growth enough to hold a fruit-bud. In its struggle to main- tain its life against late summer and autumn evapo- ration, it will lighten its burden by allowing some of its branches to die back from the top. The roots thus gaining relatively greater strength by the reduc- tion of the upper branches, will be able to force out a growth of shoots near the main forks, and a new crown of foliage will appear at a lower level than be- fore, but the old struggle begins again and proceeds in the same way toward the same end, until, if the situation is very dry, the tree finally dies, a prey to vegetative debility, the first cause of all the trouble being lack of moisture supply adequate to its uses. In nature the species would either disappear or be modified in such a way that its fruit would be no IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 317 longer valuable from a commercial point of view. In cultivation the obligation rests on the cultivator to improve nature by irrigation so that the tree may be enabled to meet the expectations placed on it. What has been said about the peach tree is true as to the growth of all economic plants and trees, each according to its own degree, in view of its environ- ment,, its growth habit, and the requirement which man places on it. The plant comes out from its nat- ural into an artificial life. New standards are un- furled, new service is required, new purposes are in view, proper practices must prevail, and proper agencies be chosen. Among these agencies are rain- fall and irrigation; either of them may be dispensed with or both of them may be required; it is man's duty to know where and when. In early times irrigation was often looked on as a misfortune, because rainfall products were held to be better in quality and to maintain better condition during transportation. Of course, an excess of water will result in fruit low in quality and very perish- able, providing the excess does not kill the trees which would bear it, but the result would be the same whether the excess of water came from the clouds or from the ditch, though the danger from the latter source is greater. The general facts are that not less than three-fourths of all the fruit which Cali- fornia is now selling to best advantage in the most distant markets is from irrigated trees and vines, and that the greatest butter-producing regions which were formerly on the coast are now found in the ir- 318 RURAL CALIFORNIA rigated alfalfa-growing valleys of the interior; also that the city milk supply, both of San Francisco and Los Angeles, is drawn from irrigated districts and is of such quality that it may stand some irriga- tion after transportation and still meet metropoli- tan standards. All this demonstrates that investment for irrigation is like other investments for the im- provement of land, and governed by the same eco- nomic laws. Irrigation is in exactly the category with fertilization and drainage from the point of view of greater quantity and higher quality of products when- ever either of them is required for that end. The United States Census of 1920 summarizes the irrigation achievements of California as follows: Acreage in irrigation enterprises 7,204,366 Acreage irrigated in 1919 4,095,247 Acreage which enterprises were capable of irrigating 5,486,929 These acreages were 31.2 per cent, 43.7 per cent and 51.6 per cent respectively greater than in 1910, showing that the practice of irrigation has increased more than one-half during the last decade. Concerning the capability of the State for irriga- tion development and the relation thereof to the extension of production, Frank Adams of the Uni- versity of California, also connected with the irriga- tion investigations of the United States Department of Agriculture, makes this statement: "In at least 65 per cent of the 22,000,000 acres that make up the valleys, agricultural plains and foothills of California, intensive agriculture, if pos- IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 319 sible at all, is not permanently profitable without more moisture than the normal rainfall supplies; and even in the remaining 35 per cent, possibly ex- cepting the narrow coastal areas of the most north- erly counties, irrigation is distinctly a needed ad- vantage. Only about 4,000,000 are now irrigated— mostly from unstored stream-flow and underground sources. About 2,000,000 acre-feet of water-storage has been developed. Over 10,000,000 acre-feet ad- ditional storage capacity is known to exist where water is presumably available to fill it. The whole state is becoming increasingly conscious that only by the storage of flood waters now going to waste and the more economical use of irrigation water, can California fully achieve her agricultural heritage." California irrigation undertakings were originally predominantly proprietary and the product of indi- vidual or corporate enterprise. Of those classed as cooperative, very few of the older ones were or- ganized that way except in a progressive policy which attached shares of water stock to the land and finally constituted water users as water owners and sharers in management. The relation of public and com- munity control to proprietary interests as it existed when the United States Census was taken in 1910, and in 1920 is shown in this way: 1920 1919 Percentage of Increase Individual and partnership 1,502,870 961,136 56.4 Cooperative 1,215,696 779,020 56.1 Irrigation districts 577,168 173,793 232.1 Commercial 873,499 746,265 17.0 320 RURAL CALIFORNIA Thus a remarkable increase in cooperative owner- ship and regulation of irrigation enterprises is made clear. It is interesting to note that from the earliest days in California there has been a popular conception of public ownership and distribution of irrigation wa- ter struggling for domination over private ownership and sale. Before 1870 and afterwards, it took the form of demands on United States engineers to make surveys of the great interior valleys to determine their availability for irrigation and the adequacy of existing stream flow to irrigate them. Such sur- veys were made and their conclusions favored public enterprise but the cost was always far beyond any financing which seemed practicable. Later, individ- ual investors took up parts of the general enterprise, bought land and appropriated water. Others fol- lowed them on different lands but could not own the water because it was claimed, beyond all capacities of the streams, by prior appropriates. Issues arose in the courts and famous trials were held. The old riparian rights of the English common law came into conflict with the appropriation rights which Cali- fornia miners constituted the law of the land and which appropriates for irrigation engrafted their claims on. The common belief after several court de- cisions was that California should have the best irri- gation laws of the world while in fact it had the worst. Every legislature which assembled at the State capital after a year of short rainfall was urged by a public conscience awakened to the need of irri- IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 321 gation, to undertake a general irrigation law which would establish public rights and abolish private wrongs. Such a law was never passed nor even widely agreed on and yet agitation for public owner- ship of water and distribution of it fairly and benefi- cently continued. Societies were organized and pub- lic assemblies held to promote the popular conception. Sometimes it has been urged by genuine reformers and publicists, sometimes by rival interests to get some advantage over each other, but it has never been achieved in the dramatic way in which it has been dreamed of. It, or the ends it aims at, may perhaps still be possible of attainment in some more round-about way. In 1887 the legislature passed what has since been known as the Wright Irrigation District Law. The apparent purpose of the enactment was to restrain large holders of land who did not desire to meet the cost of providing irrigation for them, or those who already had both land and water of their own, from preventing other owners of land in the same com- munity from also securing irrigation by cooperative enterprise. The plan was to enable a certain num- ber of those owning dry land to act together and force others to take part with them in a community organization which would be empowered to acquire water, construct irrigation works and assess the cost on all the property benefited, roughly as a district is empowered to acquire a site, build a school-house and establish education within its own boundaries. This achievement was much more easily attained 322 RURAL CALIFORNIA on the statute book than on the land. Application of the plan was held up in the courts and when it struggled through such barriers it fell into financial entanglements because no one would pay cash for the bonds. Eecourse was then had to letting con- tracts for construction payable in bonds and this in- duced all sorts of constructive and financial limita- tions and disadvantages. Bad plans were laid, bad bargains made and the effort became a by-word for folly and inefficiency. Besides it all fell in a time of depression ; buoyancy had gone out of the land en- terprises which were previously booming; produce prices were low because adequate long-distance dis- tribution had not been fully achieved ; interest in all rural investments was slack and confidence was at low ebb. In 1897, a decade after the bad start was provided for, the law was amended, making it less liberal to those who desired to move cooperatively af- ter water and restricting the powers of those or- ganizations which were able to pass the preliminary obstructions. In spite, however, of all difficulties, some districts pulled through to success and became the exemplars for later undertakings. Their suc- cess also increased public interest and confidence and the achievements of their membership in profitable production reawakened a sense of reward and se- curity to those who made dry land safe for farming by irrigation. The restrictions on organization of districts by the law of 1897 prevented proceeding on a basis which was unsound either in engineer- ing, finance or agriculture but it did not preclude IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 323 all cooperative proceeding, as perhaps some of those who planned the restrictions intended that it should. The present state of district enterprises is directly interesting not only to land-owners who are per- sonally engaged in building up large, productive and praiseworthy social communities within their bor- ders, but also to the multitude of individuals and financial concerns which are investing in their securi- ties in all parts of the country and beyond. District organization seems clearly to be the agency through which all earlier anticipations of broad irrigation development for California will be attained. On the basis of the broadest cooperation, not only of the actual users of water among themselves, but of those most directly concerned with the public, as repre- sented by the state and national governments, and with investors everywhere, California looks forward not only to the reorganization of all old enterprises which need extension adequately to serve their com- munities but to the creation of new enterprises until all available water is brought to the land that needs it. The period of lessened activity during the World War has been followed by an era of greater energy than has ever been known hitherto. The State is actively participating in irrigation development. The law makes it the duty of the State Department of Engineering to assist those contemplating the for- mation of irrigation districts, and the same interest is now being shown irrigation districts by the State Water Commission, the agency in California which 324 RURAL CALIFORNIA has administrative charge of the appropriation of water. In fact all public agencies in California look on proper irrigation organization under some district plan, in which the owners of land exercise control and in which they possess the sovereign power of taxation for financing the construction, maintenance, and operation of necessary irrigation works, as es- sential to the proper development and prosperity of the State, and therefore worthy of their support. While in some of the newer district enterprises there is still much to be desired in the way of better busi- ness and engineering methods, there are already enough well-managed irrigation districts in the State to demonstrate that irrigators are themselves fully capable of handling very large and very important irrigation systems. There are in California eight successfully operating districts with areas exceeding 70,000 acres each, of which four exceed 125,000 acres, three exceed 175,000, and one contains over 600,000 with 400,000 acres already irrigated. Out of a total of seventy-four districts in existence in March 1921 thirty-six were in active operation early in 1921 and many other newer districts which had recently entered on organization at that date. Some leading facts about those in active operation are given in Appendix K, page 386. Irrigation development in California is now defi- nitely reaching the stage when all of the summer flow of even the largest streams is either fully utilized or in process so that the overshadowing effort is now distinctly toward conservation of flood waters for IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 325 irrigation season use. When this is attained there will result a saving of waste water of which measure- ment estimates would be intelligible only to engineers, but the outcome of it will be at least a doubling of the present irrigated area and coincident with this the making available of hydro-electric power in such vast quantities, especially on the great Colorado, as almost to stagger the imagination. To accomplish all of this, there promises to be such a further perfect- ing of irrigation district legislation and such a co- ordination of water use for irrigation, power, munic- ipal use, and navigation as shall insure the widest possible spreading of the benefits of the water re- sources of the State. For several past decades this has been, as it still is, the goal toward which the various agencies of the national and state govern- ments (the United States Geological Survey and its offspring, the United States Reclamation Service ; the Irrigation Investigations of the United States De- partment of Agriculture; the California State De- partment of Engineering; the California State Wa- ter Commission ; the California State Railroad Com- mission; and the College of Agriculture of the Uni- versity of California) have been or are now working. Recent enactments by the legislature, especially the Water Conservation Act of 1921 and the Santa Clara County Irrigation District Act of the same year, have for their purpose a larger realization of the idea of community control of water through the irri- gation district plan. This is to be accomplished by making it legally practical to join together in single 326 RURAL CALIFORNIA effort for larger conservation purposes all of the sep- arate irrigation districts or interests dependent in common on a given water source or related group of sources. Besides these extremely important acts, the legislature of 1921 enlarged the powers and increased the funds of the State Water Commission to permit it the more effectively to correlate and protect, in the interest of the public, the control of waters for the principal uses named above. Furthermore, it made a liberal appropriation to the State Department of Engineering (consolidated with other related State agencies into the State Department of Public Works) to enable it to extend greatly the public study of the water resources of the State and their fullest utilization for the public good. The ultimate attainment, however, seems to require that the great enterprise of the future, for the heartening both of those who plan and achieve it and those whose capi- tal shall furnish it forth, shall be a world concern, certified to all mankind by the public credit of the State, possibly of the nation also. HIGHWAYS The system of highways now installed which gives California distinctive position among the states for the mileage, gradients, and smoothness of her rural road- ways, has been realized by a process of evolution. During Spanish and Mexican possession, the popu- lation moved in the saddle along bridle paths and IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 327 cattle trails. The early American pioneers asserted their preference for wheeled vehicles but as they sel- dom desired to stay long in a place and were even doubtful of their desire to remain long anywhere in the country,, they were content to move across the landscape on any streak of mud or dust which would not upset them. As their early activities were chiefly along the foothills and across the mountains and the upsetting of a stage or a packed animal was serious, road-building on the grades became first imperative. California became famous for mountain roads while on her valley highways it was a pardonable exaggera- tion to say that vehicles could pass unseen because of the depth of mud in the rainy season and the den- sity of the dust in the dry. There were, of course, exceptions where the nature of the soil worked for good roads and where the supervisors of a county were honest, but generally the people were heavily taxed for decades for road purposes and still had no roads worth the name. It was not until 1895 that the legislature resolved to install system and method in road work and created a Bureau of Highways consisting of three commissioners to proceed toward that end. In its report of investigation this Bureau declared that California had during eleven years, 1885 to 1895, expended eighteen million dollars for highway purposes and had nothing but "deplorable roads because the money had been wastefully and injudiciously expended/' The Bureau of Highways of 1895 designed a system of State highways, pre- scribed methods of construction and upkeep and was 328 RURAL CALIFORNIA followed by a Department of Highways with a single Highway Commissioner who continued exhortation toward desirable ends but no funds adequate for the realization of results were available. During the first decade of this century while ce- mented highways seemed wholly out of reach, much attention was given to promotion of oiling dirt roads and careful specifications were issued, based on wide observation and study, by the State Highway Com- missioner. This recourse was a satisfactory make- shift and when the soil was sufficiently firm and the oil adequately and properly applied, the result was so good that oiling has been practiced to the present day, one county using more than 100,000 barrels of road oil at a cost of $229,951 in 1919, although the oil had practically doubled in value since it was first employed. There was also in other counties increas- ing expenditure for road-grading, wells and water- wagons for systematic sprinkling and excellent re- sults and good repute were achieved by progressive county policy in this direction. It was, however, not until owners of motor vehicles multiplied and insisted on good roads to run them over, that the system of highways which is now one of California's chief agencies of industry and development began to be realized. The foundation for a system of cemented high- ways in California was laid in 1910 by the passage of a State Highways Act by the legislature which provided for the issuance of bonds to the amount of $18,000,000. The bonds were voted by a bare IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 329 majority at a popular election. The funds avail- able from the sale of these bonds were expended be- fore January 1917, but this fact was foreseen and a second bond issue of $15,000,000 was popularly voted in 1916 by a vote of nearly four to one, the roads previously constructed generating a wide demand for more. In spite of the financial and constructive embarrassments of the war, the work still went on and public sentiment grew apace until a third bond issue of $40,000,000 was voted in 1919 by an over- whelming majority. Although these bonds were not salable in 1920, because the rate of interest (4J per cent) was less than other securities offered, and the prosecution of contemplated extensions of the State system was retarded, there was a gain in mileage of cemented highways through expenditures by various counties to secure them, the aggregate of county bond issues being 63 per cent of that which the State itself has provided. In this way and by the public and private contribution to extend the State system and to connect with national expenditure as provided by Congress and to carry the "ocean to ocean" highways to various points on the California ccast line, the work will be continued until the large expenditure, which the people have already approved by vote, becomes available. The following summary of provisions for high- way construction by the California Highway Com- mission or in cooperation therewith and under its supervision, is prepared as of the date of May 18, 1920: 330 RURAL CALIFORNIA Bond issues authorized by the State $ 73,000,000 Bond issues by California counties 46,093,000 Total amount allotted to California from Fed- eral Aid Road Act 8,378,175 Total $127,471,175 Of the foregoing the bond isues of 1909 and 1915 ($33,000,000) were expended. The bond issue of 1919 ($40,000,000) remained in the State treasury until the interest rate was raised to a limit of 6 per cent by popular vote at the election of November 2, 1920. According to a compilation by the State Highway Engineer, there had been constructed up to January 1, 1922, 1,765 miles of concrete-base roads, many reinforced with steel rods, and many surfaced with asphalt, 305 miles paved with asphaltic concrete of other materials, and 937 simply graded roads. The State system, including the roads specified in the bond issues and those provided for by special State appropriations, includes 6,300 miles or close to 10 per cent of all dedicated public roads in the State, exclusive of incorporated cities. The Highway Commission program called for expenditure of $15,000,000 in new construction during 1922. A few facts about the way state highways are constructed are interesting. When previously exist- ing road locations are used, they are corrected as to grade and alignment and to avoid traveling around section corners. Eights of way are of uniform width, preferably sixty feet. In mountainous country the maximum gradient is 7 per cent and minimum radii IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 331 on center lines of fifty feet and slopes flattened and cleared to afford clear sight of at least one hundred and fifty feet. Permanent culverts, gutters and ditches are provided when needed to prevent water from standing on the roadsides. Bridges are of re- inforced concrete, twenty-one feet wide in the clear and designed to carry sixteen-ton tractor engines. A minimum width of roadway of sixteen feet is re- quired in the mountains ; an average width elsewhere through the State of twenty-four feet, twenty-one feet through cuts and twenty-two and one-half feet where the road is part cut and part fill. After grading and rolling, a cement pavement was laid, for which the following specifications were chiefly used : The concrete base was generally fifteen feet in width and of prevailing thickness of four inches. When necessary the roadway was often wid- ened by three-foot macadam or gravel shoulders on each side of the pavement. Upon the concrete pave- ment a bituminous wearing surface was placed, con- sisting of half an inch in thickness of heavy asphaltic road oil and screenings, which has been very satisfac- tory in protecting the concrete pavement from wear. It should be noted that there is an intimate rela- tion between climatic conditions and the success of the highway system which has been for years ex- tending to greater mileage. No state which has a wintry climate can safely use such specifications. As the California Highway Engineer remarks: "It must be admitted that a concrete base as thin as four inches would not be at all suitable in localities 332 RURAL CALIFORNIA where the frost penetrates deeply into the ground and nowhere in California has concrete been laid un- der such conditions." In high mountain districts different and more expensive construction is em- ployed but perhaps nine-tenths of California high- ways will be constructed in valleys and foothills where ground freezing is infrequent and then only superficial. Although the specifications have made good against such freezing as the valleys and foothills receive, re- cent experience indicates that a thicker base may be necessary to enable the roads to carry the heavy weights of freighting trucks, which were not fore- seen when the roads were built. Since truck-haul- ing has been resorted to to fill the lack of transporta- tion caused by the war duties and deprivations of the railways, there has been injury done to the cement highways which may require heavier construction. The roads were planned for much lighter traffic than they have recently carried. In view of this fact it is significant that the Bureau of Public Eoads of the United States Department of Agriculture reported in May 1921 that 87J per cent of the main concrete highways of the State (1262 miles) were in good condition. Even if additional expense should be re- quired to render greater service to industrial trans- portation., California still enjoys an advantage in highway construction in the fact that all materials employed are abundantly produced not only within the State but at several distributed points. Suitable rock and cheap power for crushing are widely avail- IRRIGATION PRACTICE AND HIGHWAYS 333 able; cement manufacture on a large scale is pur- sued in all the chief divisions of the State; California petroleum prevalently has an asphaltum base and finishing materials are abundant from local sources. Highways constructed as has been outlined and crossing the State at least twice from end to end and from side to side, have been in operation for sev- eral years and have demonstrated their swiftness, smoothness and service; California in 1920 stands third in per capita of motor vehicles in the country, and fifth in the United States in number of motor vehicles owned, only New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Illinois having more. The actual number for California in February 1922 was 680,61s.1 During the year ending February 1, 1921, the State collected $2,395,880.75 for motor vehicle licenses. As has been intimated there is a striking inter-relationship be- tween the automobile and the good road in Cali- fornia experience. Cemented highways and the automobile add greatly to the joys and diversions of rural life and cause farmers to indulge in the recreations and inspira- tions of outings in the forests and beside the streams of the mountains adjacent to all California valleys. The prevalence of such uplifting recreations among farmers as well as the freedom of their social inter- course and their constant conference in farm ser- vice may be inferred from the fact that California farmers as a class surpass all other classes in owner- 1 Numbers of auto vehicles in California counties are given in Appendix F. 334 RURAL CALIFORNIA ship of motor vehicles. It was carefully calculated that of the 477,450 automobiles recorded by the State Motor Vehicle Department in 1919, 241,175 were owned in the open country and in communities of distinctly rural character. At a farmers' picnic on the University Farm in the Sacramento Valley in April 1920 there were 2,417 automobiles parked and counted. It was estimated from other data that there were 14,000 persons in attendance. Without auto- mobile transportation from the farms of the valley, it is doubtful whether one-quarter of that number of persons would have participated. The almost continuous traversing of the country- side by observers in automobiles is rapidly extend- ing knowledge of the agricultural geography and topography of the State. Eeal estate dealers claim that they need to be more careful than formerly in their descriptions of farms for sale and the en- vironments of them, because most parts of the coun- try are so generally known that exaltation of a lo- cality beyond its due is soon detected. CHAPTEE IX GOVEKNMENTAL WOKK FOE COUNTEY LIFE IN state work for the promotion and protection 01 agriculture, California has provided broadly and gen- erously for the last forty years. From the first this provision took the form of commissions provided by the legislature with executive authority and appro- priations for each line of productive effort which presented its claims with sufficient force at the capitol. Thus state work for farming was the product of co- operative effort by farmers. The first undertaking in 1880 consisted of a special commission devoted to the promotion of viticulture, followed in 1881 for horticulture, especially for the suppression of insect pests and plant diseases. This work has been liberally and continuously supported ever since and developed into an effective system for the exclusion of trees and plants from states and countries infested by pests until protective policies long prevailing in Cali- fornia developed into a national exclusion act in 1919. The State has also enacted laws by which the poli- cies of its general executive commissions could be locally applied through the appointment by the su- pervisors of county commissioners to enforce ordi- 335 336 RURAL CALIFORNIA nances conserving particular local producing indus- tries in horticultural lines. The several commis- sions having charge of special branches of agricul- ture acted independently of each other, each main- taining its own executive outfit and defining its work, to whatever extent the laws and the appropriations enabled it to do so. They had the privilege of ap- plying to the legislature for new laws and more money and usually secured both, if their clientele among producers was sufficiently insistent. Thus a considerable aggregate expenditure for agricultural service was attained and advocates of economy in the use of State money, thinking the same work could be obtained at less cost by reorganization, se- cured from the legislature of 1919 an act combining several previously existing agricultural commissions in a State Department of Agriculture in charge of a Director of Agriculture. This closed the careers of such commissions and entered on the solution of the problem of determining whether as good work can be done more cheaply by more concentrated or- ganization. This new plan went into operation on July 22, 1919, by the appointment of G. H. Hecke as Director of Agriculture. Hecke was previously State Commissioner of Horticulture and he worked out the details of the reorganization. The legisla- ture of 1921 continued the work by merging other special commissions with agricultural intent in the State Department of Agriculture and assigning others to the newly created executive departments with which their higher and more distinctive tech- GOVERNMENTAL WORK FOR COUNTRY LIFE 337 nical aims and requirements naturally associated them. As it stands in 1922, the State undertakings for the advancement of agriculture and rural life, apart from the general provisions for the public welfare in which they share, may be scheduled as follows : State Department of Agriculture — Invested with all the duties, powers, purposes, responsibilities and jurisdiction hitherto assigned by law to the state commissioner of horticulture, state board of horti- cultural examiners, state dairy bureau, state veteri- narian, stallion registration board, state board of viticultural commissioners, board of citrus fruit shipments, cattle protection board, state superinten- dent of weights and measures, state market director and state market commission. The State Depart- ment of Agriculture is organized in five divisions, viz., plant industry, animal industry, agricultural chemistry, markets, weights and measures. State Department of Public Works — highways, irrigation and drainage, land settlement. State Department of Labor and Industrial Ke- lations — workmen's compensation insurance and safety, immigration and housing, industrial welfare. State Department of Education — industrial train- ing in primary and secondary schools, State Forestry Commission — forestry and fire pre- vention. State Fish and Game Commission — regulation of hunting and fishing. Board of Regents of the University of California 338 RURAL CALIFORNIA — higher education, research and extension in agri- cultural science and practice (see Chapter X). FINANCING FARM ENTERPRISES California farming began with the handicap of very high interest rates on loans for undertakings and improvements in farming. There were the basic rates for far western loans, higher naturally as the State was the farther west and to these geographically normal rates was added the increment usually im- posed on loans for mining. In this way 1 per cent a month seemed a very moderate figure and if it was doubled and compounded nobody was surprised. There were no usury laws; any interest agreed to was legal, and it is so to this day. As decades ad- vanced, rates became lower but indisposition to coun- try loans was more marked than at first, as the city banks grew larger and more metropolitanized and country bankers alone would take country chances and naturally exact full pay for their favors. No great change took place in the cost of farm financ- ing until land development was taken up by com- petent persons who came to California with personal credit gained in their earlier commercial and pro- fessional lives and were able to deal with banks in something like their accustomed ways. Also some advantage was gained by cooperative warehousing of grain, as noted in Chapter V. No marked change was realized in bringing farm producers nearer to a parity with dealers in commercial commodities in GOVERNMENTAL WORK FOR COUNTRY LIFE 339 interest rate making until the cooperative product- selling agencies were organized by producers and of- ficered by those who knew how to talk and act in the bankers' chosen way. During the last twenty years and increasing vastly in the last decade, or- ganized growers of special products have been able to secure the capital needed for equipments and operations on terms and rates which have not en- couraged them to make complaint. Their credit has been good and their burdens considered fair. However, this progress did not reach the indi- vidual farmers very widely and in the largely un- organized lines of general farming, dairying and stock-growing, money was rarely obtained except on terms which were too short and at rates altogether too long. Agitation for loans to all individual farm- ers of responsibility and good repute, on terms and at rates which would enable them to use money suc- cessfully, began very widely throughout the State early in this century and discussion and effort for organization and financing of a system of rural credits were particularly pointed in California. This need was impressed on the "Commission on Country Life" x (appointed by President Roosevelt in 1908) and which submitted its report in 1909, in the fol- lowing words : "The American farmer has needed money less perhaps than land workers in some other countries, 'L. H. Bailey, New York; Henry Wallace, Iowa; K. L. But- terfield, Massachusetts; Walter H. Page, New York; Gifford Pinchot, Pennsylvania ; C. S. Barrett, Georgia ; W. A. Beard, California. 340 RURAL CALIFORNIA but he could be greatly benefited by a different sys- tem of credit, particularly where the lien system is still in operation. It would be the purpose of such systems, aside from providing loans on the best terms and with the utmost freedom consistent with safety to keep as much as possible of the money in circulation in the open country where the values originate. The present banking systems tend to take the money out of the country and to loan it in town or to town-centered interests. . . . All unnecessary drain from the open country should be checked in order that the country may be allowed and encour- aged to develop itself/' Following this declaration discussion of ways to provide rural credit continued in California as also in other states. The legislature of 1913 provided for two delegates x to proceed with the American Eural Credit Commission authorized by the government (as suggested by the late David Lubin of Sacramento) to study European methods of providing loans to farm- ers. After the return and report of this commission,, the legislature of 1915 created a commission of "rural credit and land settlement/' as considered in con- nection with the latter subject in Chapter IV. In 1916 Congress passed an act organizing twelve district Federal Farm Loan Banks on the basis of National Farm Loan Associations, the latter be- ing constituted of those who desired to make loans on the security of lands and farm buildings. The Eleventh District consists of California, Nevada, 1 Harris Weinstock and E. J. Wickson. GOVERNMENTAL WORK FOR COUNTRY LIFE 341 Utah and Arizona and the bank of the district is the Federal Land Bank of Berkeley, already men- tioned as adjacent to San Francisco, where the Federal Eeserve Bank of the district is located. The law also provides for organization of "joint stock land banks77 of which one is in operation in Califor- nia. The Federal Land Bank of Berkeley was organ- ized in 1917 and continued to make loans as provided until arrested in its work in 1920 by unfavorable conditions following a suit in the supreme court of the United States against the constitutionality of the law under which it was proceeding. This suit was decided in favor of the law on February 28, 1921, and activity was resumed. The Federal Land Bank of Berkeley has, in 1921, 176 tributary Na- tional Farm Loan Associations of which 102 are in California. This bank has loaned to farmers through these associations $17,777,000 of which $10,894,300 is loaned in California, the 3246 borrowers thereof being located in practically all the agricultural coun- ties of the State. Organized under the same federal law is the Joint Stock Land Bank of San Francisco which on March 31, 1921, had made loans to the amount of $1,848,700 to 128 borrowers. The growing appreciation of the character of agri- cultural security for loans, the recognition of the re- lation of fair financing of farming to State develop- ment and the prosperity of all industrial activities and, finally, the operation of the national law in organizing rural credit and in securing capital for agricultural uses on terms suited to farmers7 needs 342 RURAL CALIFORNIA and at rates of interest more comparable with those at which capital for manufacturing and trade is supplied,, have all profoundly influenced the attitude and practice of California money-lenders toward their farming clients. Farmers have always had the social good will and industrial esteem of all other Californians., as has been amply suggested in preced- ing chapters. To such consideration there has been added recently notably fairer business attitude and transaction. CHAPTER X THE EDUCATIONAL AND RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS OF CALIFORNIA IT is obviously beyond the scope of this writing to undertake discussion of the development of general education in California either from historical or peda- gogical points of view. Those desiring to view the subject from these angles will find both facts and philosophy in the ample literature of the subject.* General characterization of the spirit and achieve- ments of the California public school system, which extends from the most remote district school, through an ascending series of primary, grammar and high- schools to the University of California and which has also side-lines through a full complement of nor- mal and technical schools and institutions for those either physically or mentally deficient, all under the superintendence of the State and directly supported by it, will be enough to assure the reader that Cali- fornia has from the beginning as an American state occupied a leading place in provisions for public in- struction. 1 Reports of the California State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Sacramento : of the Commissioner of Education, U. S. Department of the Interior, Washington : of the National Educational Association, etc. Current events and discussions are presented in two educational journals : The Western, Jour- nal of Education and the Sierra Educational News, both pub- lished in San Francisco. 343 344 RURAL CALIFORNIA The first public school in California was opened in San Francisco on April 3, 1848,, in advance of the gold discovery, when the city had a population of 850. An early writer naively declares that it "would have been opened sooner if the population had not been to so large an extent already grown up." The con- stitution on which California was admitted to the Union in 1850 provided for a system of common schools to be supported in all districts of the State. Immediately also private schools and colleges were established by the missionaries which many religious denominations sent to guard the spiritual welfare of the gold-seekers. Thus, from the very beginning, the educational outfit of the State was developed not to meet a crying need of a juvenile population but an- ticipatory of it. This was fortunate because it en- abled the pioneer educators to proceed more leisurely toward the realization of a system of public instruc- tion which included many improvements on methods and policies prevailing in older states. During sev- eral decades this condition continued in California and afforded educational reformers an excellent op- portunity for progressive work. More recently, how- ever, with the swift gain in population, the demand for instruction has increased to such an extent that though outfitted for public instruction of all grades, from primary schools to the University, on most dem- ocratic plans and although public expenditure has been most liberal (over fifty millions a year), Cali- fornia is finding it difficult to meet the demand for educational facilities although the equipment is rela- EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 345 tively greater than in more populous states. The population having more than doubled in the last twenty years (Chapter IV), the popular demand for vocational training having been met as far as possible and the compulsory requirement that all youth shall attend schools until sixteen years of age are among the fundamental facts which constitute a demonstration that California must make new pro- visions of equipment and expenditure to justify and maintain her old standards of State policy in public instruction. What these standards have been in the past and especially the relations to rural life of the chief char- acteristics of the public school system are pictur- esquely outlined by the late Edward Hyatt, Super- intendent of Public Instruction 1907 to 1919, as follows : "The most striking characteristic of California schools, perhaps, lies in the provision and care of the children in the remote rural regions. No moun- tain top is too inaccessible to have its school ; no plain too distant; no sage brush desert too far removed. Where half a dozen children dwell there you will find a district school. And mark this : this remote school, so far away, so small, so weak has a standard school house, a standard teacher, a standard equipment and a standard length of term. There will be eight or nine months of school in a year. The teacher will have the same education and the same certification as in the proudest city. The books, apparatus and other educational appliances will be of the same 346 RURAL CALIFORNIA character as in the populous cities. It is the idea of a generous state that one child is as good as another, no matter where he happens to dwell. The expense of all this does not fall upon the parents of the children or upon the residents or property owners of the local district. It is provided by the general tax upon state and county property. "In towns, villages and well-settled fruit and farming regions . . . beautiful school houses dot the landscape everywhere. High schools, normal schools and other higher institutions abound. One of the strikingly original features of the California school system is its plan of furnishing text books to the children. It is the only state in the Union which manufactures its school books in a state printing office and distributes them free to the pupils." Having reached such attainments in a state sys- tem for general education in elementary and secon- dary branches of learning, California during the last two decades introduced into school work practically all the connecting links between academic studies and industries which were held to impart useful knowl- edge to the pupil and to promote his sympathetic interest in the character and opportunities of his environment. However, none of these seemed to reach ultimate desirability as conceived by parents and by progressive teachers. This conviction led to the reorganization of school initiative and control by providing in 1913 a State Board of Education consisting of citizens who are not of the pedagogical profession and empowered them to appoint experts EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 347 to study questions of education from the point of view of popular conceptions of desirability and of pedagogical practicability. This State Board of Edu- cation appointed three Commissioners of Education to superintend and revise elementary, secondary and vocational instruction ; four State Supervisors to deal with instruction in physical culture, agriculture, home economics and vocational war work. All these agencies were supplementary to the State Superin- tendent of Public Instruction, an elective officer existing from the beginning of the State govern- ment. Every session of the legislature has much to do with the re-fitting and extension of the school law and tries to keep pace with the progressive develop- ment of the school system in the public and the peda- gogical mind. The system has become very exten- sive as the statistics in the Appendix will sufficiently indicate. The work of the State Board and of its expert commissioners resulted in great progress toward an ultimate attainment in courses of study and equipment and ability in the use of them, which shall satisfy the public mind as to what the schools should do to fit youth for practical life. There is at least a wide conviction that the schools are moving forward in the right direction. The new point of view and direction of effort are indicated by the fol- lowing declaration by the Board of Education in its report of 1918 : "The most distinctive movement in education not only in California but throughout the United States, wherever the problems of elementary and high school 348 RURAL CALIFORNIA instruction are well solved, is along the line of prac- tical, direct-to-life instruction for the youth of high school age. For some time there has been a tendency to break away from the solid academic character of secondary education and while leaving ample oppor- tunity for the ten per cent of students who will attend higher institutions of learning to meet en- trance requirements, yet giving more adequate atten- tion to the needs of the ninety per cent whose educa- tion must end with the completion of the high school course. This revolution is practically completed in California where nearly every high school has its courses in commercial and domestic arts, manual training and mechanical arts, agriculture and school gardening. This instruction, however, with very few exceptions, is purely pre-vocational . . . and still falls far short of providing the youth with a mental and manual equipment for immediately en- tering a trade or industry. The real need, therefore, was seen to be an entirely new type of education; an education so practical in its nature and application that it would not only lead to a life work but be a valuable productive unit in the line of industry undertaken." The undertaking thus outlined actuated the State Board of Education and its Commissioner of Voca- tional Training. Its purpose is to impart better preparation to those who desire to pursue higher technical training and better to equip those who go from the secondary schools directly to participation either in rural industries or in urban commercial or EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 349 mechanical activities and make both rural and urban youth more competent in their respective environ- ments and more actively interested therein. It is a great undertaking and requires qualified instruction and large public expenditure, both of which are diffi- cult to compass. However, popular approval indi- cates that all its requirements will be ultimately pro- vided, both through the funds by the general govern- ment and supplementary appropriations by the State itself. The legislature of 1921 merged the control of all State educational institutions (except the University of California) in a newly created Depart- ment of Education, one of seven chief divisions of the State government — and provided liberally for its work. UNIVERSITIES As discussion in this connection is necessarily restricted to the point of view of rural life, it is only incidental that the constitution with which California was admitted to the Union in 1850 con- tained provision for the establishment of a University as well as the organization of a system of district schools which should embrace all parts of the State. It was not then foreseen that the University would become the "cap-sheaf of the California public school system" but that fact was realized when the Univer- sity was actually established in 1868. It was also provided by the constitution of 1850 that "the legislature shall encourage by all suitable means the promotion of intellectual, scientific, moral 350 RURAL CALIFORNIA and agricultural improvement." This is notable for its inclusion of agriculture in a category of the greatest possible concerns of the new State and notable also because agriculture is the only vocational interest mentioned in such connection, although at that date the State was just entering on its spec- tacular career in gold-mining. Mining education and research were provided for later; it is strange that they were overlooked at the beginning, when the public mind and the public purse were so full of gold. However, agitation for the establishment of a college of agriculture proceeded at all the fairs and assem- blies of farmers and in farming publications of the time just as agitation for a university was continued in the "intellectual" assemblies and publications of the professional classes. The farmers desired a col- lege of their own without high-brow domination; the religious denominations each desired that the insti- tutions they established should develop into a "uni- versity" and some of them adopted the name for their academies in anticipation of such event. The deter- mining force which merged conflicting views and ambitions was the Morrill Act of 1862 under the provisions of which the State organized the Univer- sity of California to constitute the "industrial col- lege" and to inherit all the educational bounty which the United States has poured out to endow and to promote higher education. Thus the two unrelated duties imposed by the first constitution of California, viz., to create a University "for the promotion of literature, the arts and sciences" and "to promote EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 351 agricultural improvement" were fulfilled by a single enactment, and the highest learning of the old school and the highest technical training of the newer edu- cational standards were irrevocably joined and placed beyond legislative divorcement by the incorporation of the entire organic act creating the university in the new constitution of the State which was framed in 1879. The University of California has become a great institution, ranking first in the country in its enroll- ment of students x and among the leading universi- ties of the world in- its instructional resources, equip- ment and achievements. It is situated in Berkeley near San Francisco and it has a Southern California branch in Los Angeles. It has also institutions for research and instruction at several other points. The following is a condensed statement of its organiza- tion and policies: "The University of California is. an integral part of the public educational system of the State. As such it completes the work begun in the public schools. Through aid from the State and the United States, and by private gifts, it furnishes instruction in literature and in science, and in the professions of engineering, art, law, medicine, dentistry, and phar- macy. In the Colleges of Letters and Science, Com- 1 Raymond Walters, registrar of Lehigh University and sec- retary of the American Association of Collegiate Registrars, in his statistics of registration- in thirty American universities on November 1, 1920, gives first place to the University of Califor- nia, with registration of full-time regular students of 11,071 ; a grand total of resident students of 16,379 and a final sum total of all students instructed of 36,904 persons. 352 RURAL CALIFORNIA merce, Agriculture, and Engineering these privileges are offered without charge for tuition, to all resi- dents of California who are qualified for admission. Non-residents of California are charged a tuition fee. In the professional colleges, except that of Law, tui- tion fees are charged. The instruction in all of the colleges is open to all qualified persons, without distinction of sex." The Leland Stanford, Jr., University, one of the greatest American educational institutions on a pri- vate foundation, is situated at Palo Alto, also near San Francisco. The following is an outline of the field covered by Stanford University : "In its internal organization, and in the scope of its instruction, Stanford conforms to conventional types. There are many departments, each repre- senting a larger or smaller field of knowledge, and covering ancient and modern languages, philosophy, education, mathematics, history, economics and po- litical science, the physical sciences, the biological sciences, and the more formally professional schools of law, medicine and engineering. Each department aims to provide equipment and opportunity for inde- pendent work, thus making the department, for those who have the ability and the calling, the equiva- lent of a vocational or professional school for those interested in its vocational or professional bearings, and a research laboratory for those devoted to pure scholarship. Stanford University has made a sensi- ble contribution to the educational progress of the Pacific Coast, because of the boldness and the vigor EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 353 with which it has stressed definiteness of aim and result as the possibility and the glory of the higher education. Tuition fees are charged. Both sexes are admitted but the total number of female students at any time is limited to five hundred. The institu- tion does not undertake agricultural instruction. The enrollment of students in 1920-1921 is the largest in the history of the institution." The possession of two great universities by a state so new as California is altogether unique and the provision for the pursuit of the highest learning per capita of population is exceptional. Besides the institutions named, several others, privately governed and maintained and scattered through the State, are providing instruction of college grade and making an honorable contribution to the educational resources of California. AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION AND RESEARCH The chief institution of agricultural education and research is the College of Agriculture of the Univer- sity of California with its central establishment at Berkeley and its branches and auxiliaries in all the leading divisions of the State. It was established at the organization of the University in 1868 and planned both for instruction and for research as an agricultural experiment station. Instruction was begun by E. S. Carr in 1870 and plantings on the grounds were made from that date until 1874, but chiefly for the ornamentation thereof. The conscious 354 RURAL CALIFORNIA agricultural life of the institution began with the appointment in 1874 of E. W. Hilgard as Professor of Agriculture and he continued his active leadership until 1905, and his honorary interest until his death in January 1916. Dr. Hilgard was not only the founder but the architect and builder of scientific achievement for agriculture in California and was one of the small group of men who were really origi- nal and influential in conceiving and determining institutional effort for agricultural advancement in the United States. His contention for the recog- nition of agricultural studies as entitled to the dig- nity of higher learning and possessed of pedagogic value; his success in commanding respect and sup- port for agricultural science when the very existence and usefulness of it in relation to farming were doubted or denied by those whom he sought to serve; his demonstration of the indispensability of illumina- tion by science to all the practical arts of food pro- duction— all these and services like them were funda- mental in the development of California and influ- ential everywhere. During the fifteen years which have followed Dr. Hilgard's retirement, activities both in agricultural instruction and research have attained notable expan- sion under the direction of his successors and Cali- fornia has thus maintained a position among leading states in the advancement of institutional effort and provision for agriculture. At the University of California in Berkeley (which is ten miles eastward and across the bay from San EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 355 Francisco), the College of Agriculture occupies two main buildings of concrete and granite, three frame buildings of considerable capacity and numerous out- buildings including greenhouses and barns. From its headquarters at the University seat, the College of Agriculture and Experiment Station direct their work of instruction, research and extension which is pursued in all parts of the State. University instruction in agriculture is carried on at Berkeley by seventy-three professors and instructors, teaching their subjects in 1921 to 611 regular students enrolled in agriculture, 450 students enrolled in other colleges, and to 5625 students in correspondence courses. The Experiment Station published in 1920, 850,000 copies of bulletins and circulars, and pursued in the laboratories fifty-eight research projects. At Berkeley also are the head- quarters of the Agricultural Extension work with a large local staff administering the service of county agents in thirty-seven counties (in twenty of which there are also assistant agents) and of home demon- stration agents in twelve counties. On the University Farm at Davis comprising 779 acres (with 100 acres additional leased), there is an outfit of thirty -one instructional and housing and farm buildings. Forty-seven instructors and assis- tants give instruction to 87 University students from Berkeley; to 727 Farm School students taking instruction of high-school grade (chiefly in agricul- tural and horticultural practice) for one to three years as they may elect; to 497 students in short 356 RURAL CALIFORNIA courses and 88 students in teacher training courses. The University Farm is equipped with an irrigation system, breeding herds and flocks, field cultures, orchards, vineyards and gardens and an operating commercial creamery. Research work in sixty experi- ment projects is also pursued. At Eiverside the College of Agriculture conducts a "Tropical School of Agriculture" with sixteen instructors and research men using 698 acres with laboratories and outbuildings, pursuing 63 experi- ment station projects chiefly in growing and mar- keting of citrus fruits. Instruction is confined to graduate students and specialists, although the equipment of a farm school is contemplated and partly provided for. At Fresno two hundred acres of the 5000-acre Kearney Eanch, owned by the University, is used for research projects in reclamation of alkaline soil, and in fruit and field-crop growing. At Porterville a branch experiment station is dealing with the growth of citrus fruits on heavy hillside soils, in cooperation with the citrus work at Eiverside. Another Eiverside outpost is at Whit- tier, a laboratory equipped for study of plant dis- eases. At Meloland in the Imperial Valley forty acres of land and farm buildings are used for experimental work with the growing of dates, cotton and grapes in. a region wholly dependent on irrigation. At Mountain View in the Santa Clara Valley are research headquarters and laboratories for the study EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 357 of deciduous fruit problems in culture and pest control. At Shingle, Eldorado County, a leased property of 4000 acres and- adjacent forest range of 17,000 acres are used for experiments and demonstrations with range cattle, in connection with the University Farm at Davis. At Petaluma a station for investigation of poultry diseases supplementary to the poultry work at the University Farm is maintained in cooperation with the Supervisors of Sonoma County. In connection with its instruction and research in forestry, the College has arboretums at Chico, Butte County, and at Santa Monica, Los Angeles County; also- a fine tract of natural forest of sequoias in Tulare County. In the various undertakings enumerated, the Col- lege of Agriculture expended during the year ending June 30, 1920, $884,513, of which $165,722 were received' from federal sources. As incidentally suggested here and there in pre- ceding chapters, the general interest and apprecia- tion of agriculture among Californians who are pur- suing other vocations is very marked and wide- spread and the influential participation of farmers in the social and industrial organizations of cities with rural environments is very great. In such places the chambers of commerce and boards of trade are for thTe most part rural development and improve- ment agencies which bring urban and suburban people into close social and industrial relations with 358 RURAL CALIFORNIA the strictly rural interests anct activities. This fact is productive of a degree of homogeneity in feeling and point of view which is characteristic of the State. It is not unusual to find producing farmers at the head of city organizations of various kinds and farmers' wives leading the women's clubs and other organizations of urban women. There is of course close association between the people of the villages and the surrounding farming country. The pastors of rural churches and the teachers in rural schools take earnest part in farmers' assemblies and welcome them to their meeting-places. Such associations are tending strongly toward the development of community spirit and effort through- out the whole countryside of California, but in the manner of it there is perhaps nothing which can be claimed to be novel or distinctive. LIBRARIES California has collections of books, both institu- tional and privately owned, which are very credit- able, considering the youth and population of the State. Of those that are public or institutional, the table on page 359 may be cited. As in other states, the provision of public libraries was stimulated and promoted by the Carnegie gifts of buildings which were scattered throughout Cali- fornia and served as exemplars of what the public should do for itself. An initiative in this line was put forth by the late James L. Gillis, who served as State Librarian from 1899 to 1917. His concep- EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 359 Volumes California State Library, Sacramento 320,000 San Francisco Public Library 212,807 * San Francisco Mechanic's and Mercantile Library 77,140 » Los Angeles Public Library 256,581 Oakland Public Library 225,906 University of California Library 414,000 Stanford University Library 262,850 tion was that a state library should be directly at the service of the people and not merely an adjunct of administration and legislation at the capital. In 1903 Gillis organized "traveling libraries/' collec- tions of books sent from Sacramento to local guar- dians for circulation in communities which applied for them. By 1911 five hundred and ten communi- ties were being served 'with collections of fifty volumes at a time. It was decided that the State was too large a unit for distribution in this way from the capital, and Gillis secured the enactment of a law providing for the establishment of county libraries which should serve as centers from which distribu- tion could be made, the State Library becoming then a source from which distribution to county libra- ries could be made of materials not in their collec- tions. Gillis did not live to see the full fruition of this work — in which his successor as State Librarian, Milton J. Ferguson, was associated with him. Fer- guson furnishes the following sketch of the law and its operation : 1 These two libraries were compelled to start anew in 1906, the former having lost 106,344 and the latter 300,000 volumes in the fire which destroyed the city at that date. 360 RURAL CALIFORNIA "Under the California law of 1911 the county library is created by ordinance of the board of super- visors, the governing body of the county, and re- mains under the general control of the board without the interposition of appointive trustees. This is a feature of great strength because the supervisors are the tax -levying power and are more readily disposed to give the library an adequate fund since they are directly responsible for its success. The maximum tax-rate is fixed by the statute at one mill on the dollar of assessed valuation. "The county librarian is appointed by the board of supervisors but since the law requires that candi- dates eligible for appointment must hold certificates issued by the Board of Library Commissioners, only after a searching professional examination, the buga- boo of politics has been effectively banished. Under the direction of the librarian the county system is organized and developed and this officer has very wide professional latitude in the selection of books, the employment of assistants, the establishing of branches and, in the history of the service, has, al- most without exception, given entire satisfaction to the over-lords, the supervisors, and to the patrons, the people. "In 1921, forty-six of the fifty-eight counties of the state have county libraries in operation. Three other counties have established libraries but have not levied the taxes for their support. The reports of the county librarians for the year ending June 30, 1920, showed that there were 3584 branches of county EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS 361 libraries. A bird's-eye view of the county library system of California will show not only thickly set- tled communities receiving splendid library service through branch libraries but also the most remote sections of each county having at their command all of the resources of the county library and through it free access to the State library. Many branches are from fifty to one hundred miles from a railroad and quite a number of them have their books sent to them on pack animals over the trails." The State Librarian not only gives effective sup- port and promotion to the county libraries but holds in his official eye all the libraries of the State and publishes a quarterly (now in its sixteenth volume) entitled News Notes of California Libraries, which is devoted "to the interests of the libraries of the state/' one number each year being a "Statistical Number" which gives the dimensions, characters and personnel of all California libraries, except those of schools, churches and individual owners. This pub- lication for October 1920 shows that the forty-one county libraries already mentioned received from public taxation during the year ending June 30, 1920, $718,984.03 and that they contained volumes aggre- gating 1,510,331. California has two hundred and eight library buildings, of which one hundred and sixty-eight were gifts, including one hundred and forty-two from Andrew Carnegie. To provide training for those desiring to qualify themselves for library service, the Los Angeles Library school was opened at the Los Angeles Public 362 RURAL CALIFORNIA Library in 1892 and has done good work. The Cali- fornia State Library opened a school in 1914 and continued until 1920 when similar instruction was undertaken at the University of California. There is also a School of Library Service well maintained in connection with the public library at Riverside. STATISTICAL APPENDICES Appendix A — California Counties: area, population, number and value of farms. Appendix B — California Climatic Conditions Con- densed and Compared. Appendix C — California Soil Surveys. Appendix D — Quantities and Values of California Mining Products. Appendix E — Statistics of Forests, Forestry and Lumbering. Appendix F — Numbers and Distribution of Auto- Vehicles in California. Appendix G — Quantities and Values of California Farm Crops of 1920. Appendix H — Commercial Uses of California Fruit Crops, 1920. Appendix I — Quantities and Values of California Dairy Products, 1919-20. Appendix J — List of Cooperative and Product-Sell- ing Associations. Appendix K — Statistics of California Irrigation Districts, March 1921. Appendix L — Statistics of California Public Schools, 1920. 363 364 RURAL CALIFORNIA *tt OJCOCOrHCO©COC5COCOM©t-rHacaOiNI>CCO5COlO©kOLC©Oi PS ° 0^©l00005t-L01NiN>OC!it-COOO^©©(M10001-©t-gOrH ^ rt $ OJ rH 0} (>.rHC<|C^ COrH -^ rH WO* rH H^2 ^ M £j c3 S. 1C C5 «O «O -COCO IOOO O5-^«O CD1* rH Q -> :£ ©g t- t- rH Ui -1Mb- WOO & ^ * « es-g §^ - 2.4, S«< c5.S.g"§ S o o-£ 1 STATISTICAL APPENDICES 365 t- CO ^Oi 00 I- O_CO fr- LO to N OP rH O T-KO 00 IN ITS W OJ 05 05 O rH r*ooooooooo >ooooooooo JOOOOOOOOO STATISTICAL APPENDICES 375 00 O<— < o rt 5s Q^ ri Crf ^ ^ O S g 1 o.3f^ o O * O B C3 to 10 o O ?» Oi o co « M oo o rf M 5! i .s a 1 - 376 RURAL CALIFORNIA APPENDIX ^—(Continued) SUMMARY OF CONDITIONS AND OPERATIONS OF CALIFORNIA DIVISION OF THE UNITED STATES FORESTRY SERVICE FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDING JUNE 30, 1920 : Number of National Forests 17 Area of public land, acres 24,003,190 Area of private land included, acres 5,111,929 Timber cut: 143,066,000 ft., value $328,452.73 Forage for 211,186 cattle and horses, value , . $152,841.26 Forage for 548,858 sheep and goats, value. . . $78,459.77 Receipts from 5,000 "special uses" $40,656.25 Total receipts $723,465.68 Value of improvements including: 355 miles of road 4,233 miles of trails 480 fire-breaks 4,653 miles of telephone lines 71 bridges 103 look-outs $1,718,943.00 Number of fires handled: 1,338, of which 641 were "lightning" and 204 were "campers" fires which burned over an acreage of 129,728 ESTIMATES OF CALIFORNIA FOREST RESOURCES Area of forested lands (22 per cent of State area) — approximately one half in Na- tional Forests 44,700 sq. miles Standing Timber (Board Measure) ....350,000,000,000 ft. Roughly classified as follows: Redwood 80,000,000,000 ft. Sugar pine 33,265,000,000 " California white pine 85,421,000,000 " Douglas fir 46,407,000,000 " STATISTICAL APPENDICES 377 APPENDIX E— (Continued) White fir 34,997,000,000 ft. Incense cedar 8,481,000.000 " Red fir 24,792,^00^000 " Various 40,000,000,000 " The United States Forester in 1919 estimated the value of the pines, firs and cedar in the foregoing- to be worth $7,001,190,000 at the mills at $30 per M. Adding to this the redwood, the total valuation would be about $10,000,000.00. It is also estimated that California has trees enough to last a hundred years without reforestation — at the rate of cutting her 375 sawmills have recently adopted. The policy of protection, economy and reforestation, however, prom- ises to render California's timber supply perpetual. KELATIVE LUMBER PRODUCTION FROM VARIOUS TREES The following comparative figures are taken from the United States Census of 1910 as production during the last decade has been irregular owing to labor cost, building demand, etc., viz: Kind of Lumber Feet, Board Measure Redwood 543,493,000 Yellow pine 399,067,,000 Douglas fir 103,169,000 Sugar pine 101,561,000 White fir 65,420,000 Incense cedar 20,846,000 Spruce 14,105,000 Oak 4,376,000 Hemlock 2,723,000 Ash 206,000 All others . 160,000 Total 1,255,126,000 378 RURAL CALIFORNIA APPENDIX F DISTRIBUTION OF AUTO-VEHICLES IN CALIFORNIA BY COUNTIES Compiled by State Motor-Vehicle Department at Sacramento Auto- mobiles Alameda 36,139 Alpine 32 Ainador 793 Butte 5,671 Calaveras 699 Colusa 2,380 Contra Costa 5,815 Del Norte 279 El Dorado , 753 Fresno 30,899 Glenn 2,915 Humboldt 4,503 Imperial 7,984 Inyo 1,303 Kern 12,697 Kings 4,841 Lake 936 Lassen 1,122 Los Angeles 161,736 Madera 2,117 Marin 2,638 Mariposa 300 Mendocino 2,485 Merced 4,295 Modoc 875 Mono 113 Monterey 4,309 Napa 2,766 Nevada 889 Orange 14,250 WO 1921 Auto- Trucks mobiles Trucks 2,111 42,018 2,221 2 43 5 60 942 55 314 6,471 329 68 852 63 138 2,539 130 371 6,803 415 34 354 33 85 938 93 1,589 34,093 1,663 144 2,806 139 307 5,427 360 432 7,870 353 38 1,276 37 723 15,860 773 207 4,928 197 64 960 66 42 1,309 39 18,888 211,678 11,142 135 2,576 132 164 3,397 170 36 361 39 201 3,028 246 247 4,808 229 22 943 229 2 125 28 218 5,046 249 166 3,216 197 43 1,089 33 469 18,406 513 STATISTICAL APPENDICES 379 APPENDIX F— (Continued) 1920 Plumas Placer Riverside Sacramento San Benito < San Bernardino . . . San Diego San Francisco .... San Joaquin San Luis Obispo . . San Mateo Santa Barbara . . . Santa Clara Santa Cruz Shasta Sierra Siskiyou Solano Sonoma Stanislaus Sutter Tehama Trinity Tulare Tuolumne Ventura Yolo Yuba . Auto- mobiles 2,865 2,865 8,362 14,263 1,823 11,491 17,644 47,969 14,714 4,138 4,138 7,824 16,605 4,141 1,931 191 2,197 5,059 9,418 10,840 2,281 2,282 169 13,156 901 5,528 3,858 2,009 Trucks 231 230 312 1,125 102 499 852 4,894 861 335 335 268 1,013 301 168 21 153 301 659 457 160 105 6 656 55 244 225 144 1921 Auto- mobiles Trucks 3,690 256 722 55 9,828 337 17,457 1,178 1,882 110 14,036 508 22,109 901 56,104 5,135 17,424 892 4,948 189 5,025 364 9,018 279 19,810 1,110 5,169 352 2,284 184 249 12 2,644 149 5,616 278 10,963 734 12,330 457 2,284 165 2,572 113 171 7 15,478 692 1,153 59 5,992 231 4,132 233 2,269 154 Totals 532,934 41,689 645,522 35,092 380 RURAL CALIFORNIA APPENDIX G QUANTITIES AND FARM VALUES OF THE SPECIFIED FARM CROPS OF CALIFORNIA FOR THE YEAR 1920 Compiled from the report* of the Bureau mates of the United States Department of Crop Almonds . , Apples Apricots . . Cherries . . Figs Grape-fruit Lemons . . . Production 5,500 bushels 3,000,000 boxes 115,000 tons 15,000 " 10,000 " 328,000 boxes 4,500,000 " Oranges 18,700,000 Olives Peaches Pears . . Plums . Prunes . Walnuts Grapes, raisin 10,000 tons 345,000 " 90,000 " 35,000 " 95,000 " 21,500 " 180,000 * " 160,000 " 380,000 " 3,150,000 bushels 5,425,000 " table 8 Gold discovery, influences of, 69 product, 54 Government work for country life, 335 Grain crops, 126 Grange organized, 291 Grapes, acreage of, 178 growing, 186 product, 103 sirup, 197 Grapefruit, number of trees, 178 Grasses and forage plants, 111 for arid lands, 115 most prominent, 112 Grazing, long season of, 210 Great Valley Region, 24 Greenhouse products, 103 Grinnell, J. B., quoted, 219 Grout, I. A., quoted, 149 Hann, Julius, quoted, 16 Harbison, J. S., 278 Harding grass, 115 Hardpan. 38 Harvester combined, 107 Hay alfalfa, 123 grains cut green, 120 product, 104 statistics of, 124 Heavy and light soils, 39 Hecke, G. H., 336 Hemp-growing, 207 Herefords introduced, 216 396 INDEX Highways, 304 cemented, 328 how built, 331 mileage of, 330 state, 326 state law, 328 state securities, 330 Hilgard, E. W., 33, 353 Hogs at missions, 262 black preferred, 264 early Californian, 262 improved breeds, 263 (see also "swine") Holden, quoted, 266 Holsteins introduced, 216 Honey-producing regions, 279 product, 104, 282 Hop-growing, 198 product, 104 Horses, American, 240 California-bred, 243 Mexican, 238 native hay for, 123 number of, 104 outlook, 246 victories of, 244 Hunting and fishing permits, 59 Hyatt, Edward, quoted, 345 Ideals from mining, 91 from Spanish, 98 Indians, 61 Spanish recognition of rights, 285 Insurance, farmers, 303 Interest rates reduced, 338 Interior Valley region. 24 Irish Grazier hogs, 263 Irrigation, 304 agencies, 325 American modifications, 310 and rainfall, 312 and stock-growing, 211 and tillage, 309 area of, 318 capability of, 319 contributions to, 305 disfavored, 312 districts, 321, 386 history of, 307 how much, 315 laws, California, 320 miners' ditches for farming, 91 Irrigation, Mission practice in, 308 national law, 306 New Mexico, priority of, 307 ownership, 319 products of, 318 Utah leader of Americans, 307 when necessary, 313 Jepson, W. L., quoted, 44 Jersey cattle introduced, 216 Jute, failure of, 207 Keller, Matthew, 201 Labor, State Department of, 337 Land grants, evil of, 63 Settlement, State, 82 Leghorn fowls leading, 276 Leicester hogs introduced, 263 Lemon-growing, 189 number of trees, 178 product, 103 Libraries, 359 state and county, 360 Library schools, 361 Live-stock, decade of, 101 favoring conditions, 209 improved, 212 industry advancing, 225 Loam soils prevalent, 37 Lolium perenne, 114 Lubin, David, 340 Lucerne, 117 Lumber, kinds and products, 377 Lynch, Philip, quoted, 229 M Machinery, farm, 107 Manufactures, rural, 105 Market Director, 301 Markham. W. G.. 256 Mead, Elwood, 83 Meat supply deficient, 221 INDEX 397 Medicago denticulata, 112 sativa, 117 Melon seed product. 155 sugar, 194 Mercantile Gazette, quoted. 167 Merinos, French and Span- ish, 251, 256 Mesquite, 114 Meteorological records, 366 Milling industry essential, 130 Mineral product, diversity of, 56 list and values, 372 Miners' machine shops useful to farming, 90 Mining, destroying good land. 94 food supplies for, 89 industry, 53 products of, 372 relation to farming, 54, 74. 88 Mission agriculture, 66 Missions, number and loca- tion, 308 Monuments, national, 375 Motor vehicles, numbers of, 333 Mountain and Plateau region, 26 Mules, number of, 104 N National Forests and Parks, 48 Neal, W. M., quoted. 244 Nectarine-growing, 182 Non-profit organizations, 299 Northern Coast Region, 20 ~Xotholcus lanatus, 114 Nursery trees, product of, 103 Nuts, 164 Oat-grass, 114 Oats, 151 product of, 103 Olive-growing, 188 number of trees, 178 product, 103 Onions, product of, 104 seed product, 155 Orange, exponent of climate, 12 -growing, 189 number of trees, 178 product, 103 Orchard-grass, 114 Organizations, capable pro- moters of, 294 early efforts for, 286 favored by State, 301 of producer's groups, 292 transactions tabulated, 302 Origin of word "California," 1 Oryzopsia miliacea, 115 Ostrich farming, 277 Overland railways foreseen, 99 Over-supply of products, 91 Pacific development, 4 harbors. 4 Panama canal, 4 Parks, national, 374 Patterson, J. D., quoted, 254, 255 Peach-growing, 181 number of trees, 178 product of, 103 relation to moisture, 316 Peanut-growing, 184 Pear-growiilg, 182 number of trees, 178 product, 103 Peas, seed product of, 155 Pecan-growing, 185 Peebles. Carey, quoted, 264 Perkins. D. L.. quoted, 153 Perkins. J. E., quoted, 249, 251, 254 Petaluma poultry leader, 274 Petroleum product, 55 value to farming, 55 Phalaris stenaptera, 115 Phleum pratense, 115 Pioneers, character of, 74 Plants, relation to irrigation, 313 Plum-growing. IS3 number of trees, 178 product. 103 Poland-China hogs, 263 Population, growth of, 75 Pork packing. 266 product. 261 Potatoes, product of, 104 398 INDEX Poultry, coast and valley, 273 districts, 271 improved breeds, 270 industry, 260 product, 104 Prevost, L., 282 Producers and traders' ideas, 296 Production prophesied early, 98 Products enumerated, 103 Prune-growing, 188 Prunes, number of trees, 178 product of, 103 Pruning, California styles, 174 Public schools, 343 department of, 337 Pure-bred animals, numbers of, 213 R Radish seed product, 155 Railroads, early demand, 291 Rainfall, table of, 366 when sufficient, 313 Rainy season described, 17 Raisin making, 186 product, 103 Ramie-growing, 204 Range area reduced, 222 Red-top, 114 Regional subdivisions, 18 Regions described, 19 Relief map interpreted, 11 Residual soils, 35 Rice-growing, 144 product, 103, 146 rotations with, 147 Riparian rights, 320 Rivera, Captain, 213 Rivers of California, 52 Roads, wasteful expenditure, 327 (see Highways) Rural Credit Commission, 340 Rural credit secured, 330 Rural schools, 347 Rye-grass, 114 growing, 152 product, 103 Saddle, primacy of California, 240 School of tropical agriculture, 356 Schools of pioneers, 344 Schrader's brome, 115 Seasons, wet and dry, 16 Seed-growing, 152 history of, 153 product, 104 varieties grown, 155 Sequoias described, 43 Sessions, C. H., quoted, 2G2 Shaw, C. F., quoted, 35 Sheep at missions, 248 first anti-dog law, 253 for other states, 257 growers organize, 252 improved by Americans, 250 Mexican described, 240 number and value, 259 numbers of, 104 outlook, 259 pure-breds introduced, 251 Shorthorn cattle introduced, 216 Silk-growing, manufacture, 284 vicissitudes, 282 Simpson, J. C.. quoted, 121 Sisal fiber, 206 Slaughtering and packing product, 104 Smilo grass, 115 Smith, A. P., 153 Smith, Jedediah, 68 Social recognition of farming, Soil areas mapped, 370 characters, 31 described, 28, 36 diversity of, 28, 41 relation to irrigation, 313 studies outlined, 33 unique, 42 Sorghum forage, 150 grain as stock feed, 150 sugar and sirup, 193 Southern Coast region, 22 Spanish agriculture in Cali- fornia, 62 State Board of Education, 348 Statistical appendices, 363 Stockholders' organizations 299 Stockman, essentials of, 211 Storage of water indispen- sable, 324 Strawberries, acreage of, 178 Strong, J. M., 201 Suffolk hogs introduced, 264 Sugar-beet production, 191 INDEX 399 Sugar-cane grown, 191 Sweet potato product, 104 Swine industry, 260 numbers of, 104 Temperature at various points, 366 Tillage, 173 Timothy, 115 Topography and climate, 10 Town development, 82 Transactions by growers' so- "cieties, 302 Transported soils, 35 Trees, value of native, 43 Trifolium sp., 115 Truck-farming, 156 Trucks, numbers of, 378 Turkey-growing, 277 numbers of, 271 University, Farm, 355 of California, 350 Stanford, 352 Valley region, Interior, 24 Vegetable-growing, 157 fresh and canned, 159 product, 104 Visiting Committees' reports, 287 W Walnut-growing, 185 number of trees, 178 product, 103 Water, public ownership of. 320 Weather tables, 366 Westphalia hogs introduced, 263 Wheat, decade of, 100 early production, 97 export begins, 127 in California, 126 in various countries, 129 preparation for other crops. 132 product, 103 Whitney, Milton, 34 Wine and brandy, 187 Women's rights provided, for, 73 Wool, decade of, 100 growers first organized, 287 product, 104, 256 production urged on pio- neers, 252 Wright Irrigation District Law. 322 Yale, C. G., 53 Yorkshire hogs introduced, 263