Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-01-02
value is incalcuiable. The hay will sell at
Sc to $40 per ton.

value Is lncdiculdDie ne nay Will sell jl |
Sc to $40 per ton.
FIG CULTURE.
Most any part of California will produce
this fruit. On the banks of the rivers in |
the county under consideration the fig tree |
attain to great size, and is remarkably |
productive, The common black fig re-
quires absolutely no care or attention. |
The tree grows like the oak, and is equally |
vigorous and hardy. /, attains great
size, and when covered with its large green
leaves and rich handsome fruit is beauti-
full sight. The first crop is usually sold
green, but the second is allowed to fall to
the ground. and when sufficiently dry the
figs are thrown into sacks and readily COM
mand three and one-half to five cents per
pound, at which price they are very profit
able. The Smyrna, or .'fig of commerce."
Is now being introduced, and there seems
TO be no good reason why California may
not in the near future supply the millions
annually consumed in the United States,
and which now are imported from Europe.
NUT-GRowING OF VARIOUS KINDS.
Almonds have long been found reliable
and profitable crop. The tree will do well
on any laad that will grow peaches, and as
the crop. is rarely light, and never fails, the
grower has sure source of income from a
fine almond orchard. At IL to IA cents per
pound, which is the ruling rate, they pay
well.
Walnuts grow well here. The English
soft-sheli walnut has not been extensively
planted, but enough are growing to demon
strate that 1t is profitable crop. Z. IL.
Murphy has an English-walnut tree on his
ranch, on the Costumes river, in Sacra-
mento county, that is thought to be the
largest in the State. This, however, may
or may not be true, but it is a monstrous
large tree, and yields heavily of very fine
quality. Black-walnut trees are grown for
shade and ornament. Peanuts, of fine
quality, are extensively grown.
OTHER PRODUCTIONS.
Hundreds of carloads of beans are grown
on the rich bottom lands of Sacramento
county and each year are shipped to the
Eastern markets. They are very profit
able crop and failure has never been
known. Broom corn is grown very ex-
tensively, as is also Egyptian corn; the
latter making good and cheap food for
stock. Sweet potatoes do remarkably WELL
and are very largely cultivated by the
Chinese, who also raise vast quantities of
other kinds of vegetables. There is a
grand opening for intelligent field farming
by skillful white growers. Cabbages, po-
tatoes, onions, garlics, ETC., ETC., find good
market throughout the States and Terri
tories west of the Missouri river, and the
growing of them cannot easily be overdone
Licorice is being successfully raised at
Florin, in this county. The plant does
well, and may soon become leading pro-
duct.
/ sACRAMENTo A FRUIT-sHIPPING CENTER.
We now reach an important feature in
the fruit industry of Sacramento county,
and one to which particular attention
| should be drawn. 1t may not be generally
known, but it is fact that nearly 90 per
cent. of the green fruit (other than
oranges) that leave the State of California
for the Eastern States and Territories is
shipped from Sacramento. 1t is true that
other adjacent fruit districts supply some
of this fruit, but it is shipped into Sacra-
mento as the natural center, and here
billed out to Eastern points. The quantity
grown in Sacramento county is large
itself, and when there is added to this the
product of Ell Dorado, Placer, Yolo,
Solano and other counties, the aggregate
| becomes immense. To move the vast
quantity of fruit, entire trains of ten to
| twelve, and sometimes more, cars each are
chartered and run almost daily during the
rush of the business. These trains are
run East on passenger train time, and at
| low rates of freight-still better rates being
expected soon.
Besides these special fruit trains many
car loads are dispatched daily on passenger
and freight trains, and the fruits of Cen
trail California are now, as before stated.
| almost as well known in all the cities of
the East as in Sacramento.
During the season just closing October,
1897 nearly 5000 car loads Of fruits and
vegetables have been shipped from Sacra-
mento to Eastern trade centers, and when
this quantity is added to the immense
amount consumed by local and San Fran
cisco canneries an idea may be had of the
vast yield of the district tributary to Sac
ramento.
THE VOLUME OF SHIPMENTS.
AS showing the importance to which
the fruit shipping business of Sacramento
has grown, the following, taken from the
Chicago Inter Ocean of October %, 1887, is
not out of place:
Sacramento has become the great fruit
shipping center of the State for the Eastern
markets, as the official figures abundantly
demonstrate. During the year 1886 Sac
ramento shipped East in green fruit
twenty-siX times as much as Los Angeles
and San Francisco combined, and about
nine-tenths of the entire amount of Cali
fornia fruit. The figures from the railroad
companies books show that San Francisco
shipped 525, 200 pounds, Los Angeles 201,-
$50 pounds, Sacramento 10, 440, $50 pounds,
which is certainly substantial showing
: = A good idea of the city's export
business may be gained from the official
figures Of the Southern Pacific Company,
which show that of the total of 81, $685.
pounds of freight shipped over that road
from the entire State during August of the
present year Sacramento shipped about
one-fourth.
Sacramento is and will continue to be
the chief fruit-expcrting market of the
State. Its advantages in this particular
are so pronounced and so firmly estab-
lished that the city can afford to ignore
the claims Of and misrepresentation CT all
envious rivals"