Los Angeles daily herald., 1888-06-15
SMALL FRUITS.
What an Ohio Man Thinks
of the Prospect.
LOS ANGELES AND VICINITY
The Most Favorable Part of the
United States for their Profit
able Production.

Among the recent visitors to Los
Angeles was Mr.. James Everett, of Ohio.
who for number of years past has been
engaged in raising small fruits for the
Cincinnati market. His visit to this part
OF the State was for the purpose of ascer
tanning whether or not there was field
here for the same line of business. In
conversation with HERALD reporter,
last Monday, Mr.. Everett said that he
had visited many localities in the State
and he had found none that he thought
so favorable for small fruits as this
county. "In fact" said he, 81 have
seen very few pieces of ground in Los
Angeles county but might be used
for small fruit culture with great
profit. Small fruits, according to my
experience will give greater profit for
a small outlay than any other agricul-
tural product. / have cleared fifty per
cent. more money in small fruits in Ohio
than on wheat, corn, potatoes, or any,
thing else have tried. There we have
but one crop year, and the prices we
obtain are not very large, and il can
make small fruit profitable there, / do
not see why l cannot make it more go
here, where some fruits can be made to
give monthly returns. Since have been
here have seen strawberry plants which
bore new fruit every month. have seen
raspberry bushes that bore the year
around, and | have seen fig trees that
gave three full crops each year. viii
you tell me why the production OF these
three fruits will not put money in my
pocket?"
The reporter could not answer this
question, SO he asked Mr.. Everett why
he thought Southern California the best
place for these fruits.
Mr.. Everett replied "While in the
northern part of the State the past winter
| saw everywhere, frost that would inter-
fere with the growth of small fruit.
There is no denying the fact that frost is
good for some kinds of fruit, peaches
and apples, for instance; but in the case
OF Strawberries, raspberries and figs,
frost has deteriorating effect both on
the flavor and quality of the fruit. Then,
while North, | noticed that there was a
great deal of fog. 1t did not make any
difference how far inland / was, tie fog
was there also. OF course there were
some few sheltered spots where the fog
seldom came, but these were very
few. Every one knows that fog at
the wrong time has bad effect on
small fruit, and in this part OF the
State l have not seen enough Jog to injure
the most delicate kind Of fruit. The only
drawback | see to the successful raising
OF small 1ruit in this part of the State is
the lack of water, and from what / have
observed, think it will not be long until
every acre OF ground in the county will
have enough and to spare of this neces-
sary fluid. 1t can be developed or
brought to the surface anywhere in the
the county, and the fruit-grower can now
lind plenty of unoccupied ground with an
abundance of water. Strawberries i'm
particular require in this climate good
deal of water, and this fruit consider to
be the most profitable. 1t is a won
der to me, now that | have looked
over the ground, that there are
so few who go into raising strawberries
on large scale. The market price is
high all the year round and even if it
grows low with over supply this fruit in
! its preserved state brings high prices in
the Eastern States. 1t is true that the
gathering of the crops is rather expen-
| sive as compared to some others but the
average prices are so much higher that
this makes no difference"
| Cherries? | see no reason why cher
ries cannot be raised in Los Angeles coun-
| ty as well as up north. l see that most
OF your cherries come from the north and
| think that it is strange that more of
this fruit is not raised here, especially
when the prices are so favor
able for the producer. California
seems to be particularly favorable for the
cherry. / have never seen in the East
so many choice cherries as l have seen
in California, and that they range in
price from six to twelve cents per pound
is wonderful to me. An orchard of cherry
trees with such prices is better fortune
for man than gold mine with its un-
certainties. l am told that producer
can obtain $50 per ton for figs. With an
orchard that will produce three crops a
year, no person could want for much of
| this worlds comforts that he could not
purchase with his profits. / think L
shall sell out my farm in Ohio and settle
in Los Angeles county. shall probably
purchase fifty-acre ranch close to town,
}and in five years 1 will be sufficiently
lwell off to enable me to live at my ease
iand simply supervise things the rest of
NV 1;fa