Los Angeles herald., 1890-06-26
A BOOM YEAR FOR FRUIT GROWERS.

"A
The fruit dealers of the east are look
ing with anxious eyes towards California
for supplies to make up for the almost
absolute failure of the fruit crop in sew
eral of the states that have heretofore
been depended upon by the New York
market. Messrs. Scobel & Day, who are
the cohsignees of all the fruit shipped by
the California Fruit Union, say that this
season we shall meet with hardly any
competition in the eastern markets, and
therefore the prices will rule high and
prove very remunerative to our growers.
Speaking of the plum crop Mr.. Day
says that it has been very seriously in
jured in Delaware, Maryland and New
Jersey, but that even at its best the
plums raised in those states cannot COM
pare in size and quality with the Cali
fornia fruit. 'To sum up the prospects
ahead for California producers" says
Mr.. Day, "they are certainly more than
encouraging, and it is probable that
higher prices will obtain in this
market on all well selected, good
fruits than have been seen for
years. New York and the imme-
diate vicinity, with its immense popula-
ton, is an enormous consumer of fine
fruits in summer, and as supplies can
not be obtained from any other part of
the eastern country, it naturally follows
that the entire demand will fall on the
California fruit sent here"
Mr.. Days remarks are significant,
and the fruit-growers of this section of
the state will not fail to take the hint
and ship all the fruit they possibly can
| to the east. But the lesson does not end
here, especially to people in Southern
California. We have millions of acres
OF virgin land, unsurpassed anywhere
for the growing of all kinds Of fruits.
The high prices that are obtained this
year may not be reached every season;
but it is fact that the famous fruit re-
gions of New Jersey and Delaware are
giving signs of deterioration. There is
partial failure of the crop very fire.
quently of late, and no crop is raised now
at all in those states without incurring
great expense for costly fertilizers to
give strength to the soil. We
have seen it stated that Cal
ifornia fruit-growers are placed on an
even footing with the eastern growers
from this fact, and that the cost of
nitrates, ETC., will about offset the cost
of transportation from this state to the
east
We have, therefore, permanent and
unlimited available market for our fruits
in the Atlantic cities, and this should
encourage all who are seeking for prof
liable business to go into fruit raising.
Pomona is shipping carloads of apricots
| to the east. That fine fruit grows
to beautiful proportions almost ev-
erywhere in this section, and
where there is one tree now
planted out there ought to be a
thousand. But the eastern fruit dealers
seem to be enamored of our .plums. The
French prune grows here to perfection
that gives it precedence over the best
imported from the south of France, and
it is greatly preferred over the Spanish
prune, which was very popular few
I years ago. No man can make mistake
in planting out prune orchard in this
| section, and all who do so will find in a
few years that they have bonanza
a good mine.
This has also been a boom year for the
English-walnut growers. They have
brought better prices this season than
ever before, land in the Los Nietos country
this TACT has created unusual activity in
planting out new orchards Seflor Ber-
nardo Guirado sold fifty acres OF his one
hundred and twenty-five acre orchard,
near the Ranchito, few days ago at a
| figure that aggregates about $4,000.
That is at the rate of about $500 an acre.
Nor can this be considered high price
for bearing walnut orchard, for the re-
turns this year from ll-bearing trees
in this same orchard have been at the
rate of over 5000 an acre. As there is
no risk of failure in this crop, and as the
nuts are not perishable and can there
fore be kept if speculative corner is
made upon them by the buyers, it may
be looked upon as a most enticing in
dustry.
What we want here is for our people
to realize that they cannot overdo the
work of planting out fruit and nut trees
The prices may not always be as high as
they are this year, but we shall always
have an unlimited and good paying
market for our fruit products in the
United States.
| TuH uraaf ailo-n d.a-nt,o rtor rn M ~