The morning call., 1893-08-21
COUNTRY HOMES.
They Can Be Made {
Source of Profit.
What Has Been Done on Two Ten
Acre Orchards in Alameda
County.
Correspondence OF THE MORNING CALL.


years ago the clerk or business man of
small means was working to secure
home in the outskirts of the city or "across
the bay" on the installment plan. content to
slowly paw for his home and continue at
! his desk or in business.
To-day these same city workers are
making every endeavor to secure a coun-
| try home, hoping when il is paid for TO be
| able to leave the city and become inde-
pendent producers.
1t is certainly one Of the best and surest
ways to secure independence.
What can $4,000 do In San Francisco?
1t cannot provide comfortable home and
leave q large enough balance to carry on
any business that will support family in
! comfort. In almost any of the great fruit
/ valleys $4,000 will buy fl ON ten TO fifteen
acres OF orehsrding in bearing, with
comfortable house and other buildings
/ upon it, This Will, II JudIclously planted
! 0here is always an if), yield an annual in
come of from $1,000 TO $1,000, or more than
/ 10 per cent profit on the whole sum ex-
/ pended for ranch and home.
/ Such very vague ideas are prevalent
/ among city people concerning these mat
! ters that a statement of actual results from
two i0-scre orchards as a sample may not
! be amiss.
There are iG the immediate neighbor-
hood of Niles, the center of the fruit pro-
/ dueing section of Alameda County, more
than half dozen 10-acre ranches. The
results from two Of these for three con-
secutive years have been obtained.
One has 400 trees, of which 1850 are
more than years old and in full bearing
| 100 prunes, 100 almonds, 100 cherries, 300
peaches, go aprcOts and 200 more trees
apples, pears. pinms. etc The results
we're: The first year, $500 gross, S225O
net; the second year. S1700 gross, $500
net; the third year. S1450 gross. S1400 net
The second place had thu first year S14OO
gross, $500 net; the second year, 5000
gross, $3.50 net; the third year. $500 gross,
! $3.50 Get. This place has 1850 trees, 900 Of
which are more than years old, being $50
plums, 30 almonds, 100 cherries. 80 april
cots. 300 peaches and 100 apples, prunes,
pears, etc.
In comparing the two places the net
results for three years have been $3.50 for
/ the first, with $50 more trees than the sec
ond place, which netted $4,000 in the three
years or trifle more than 500 month
! on the average.
The difference in the results obtained on
these two places is the ''ii'' IN the iudIclous
/ planting spoken of above, and it would be
! impossible to give in detail'in the limits of
this article the reasons exactly for the
/ varying results.
almond trees than the second, and 100
prune trees instead of 80 plums in the
] second, and almonds and pruneS are the
| great producers of this valley.
Such ten-acre ranches are not often for
sale, and when they are they are worth
from $4,000 to S12, 600.
buyer can pay as much as he likes, or
his purse will allow, for tools, wagons.
horses and cows. but $500 can easily pur-
chase enough to work the place well and
for the accommodation of the owners
The cost of all family supplies in any
one OF the first sections near San Fran
cisco is about the same as in the city: but
one can raise vegetables. have water free.
burn orchard wood (pruuings) a third of
the year, have chickens, eggs, milk and
butter, and with one cow even the expense
of her keep will be covered by the milk
and butter she produces.
The same returns from the same trees
year after year cannot be expected, or else
every orchard would have but one kind of
fruit.
One year there may be a scarcity of
peaches throughout the State from
drought or frost or heat or any of many
causes. TIE few orchards that hang full
will bring in splendid returns. Examples
of fancy returns to the acre are not want
Ing in every locality.
Last year one Gentleman near Niles took !
from seventy peach trees $500 another |
from 160 apicots S40S. This spring cher |
! ries have been sold in the orchards for |
500 an acre net the buyer doing all of |
the work. One gentleman received S525 |
! Tor seVentv-eight trees, 100 trees being the |
average plan ted TO the acre.
Ihe fruit Industry is yet in its infancy |
in many respects. The adaptability of |
| certain trees to ceI tain soils and climate
not as regards the health of the tree alone.
but as regards its fruitng capacity, is a |
matter that must be constantly studied.
! Frult-growing is business that can be
as readily undertaken by the clerk. the
business man, or woman, too, if she |
| wishes, as by the most carefully country
raised man or woman. Comm0n-sense. at
teDtion to details, a willingness to work
and liking for the business are about the
cniy requisites. Don't hesitate to learn
from the failures of your neighbors, and
don't try experiments unless you have
plenty OF money behind you.
If city man has laid by enough to
afford to pay reasonable proportion
down on an $1,000 Or $4,000 ten-acre ranch,
he can readily tell how much he can paw
down on the principal. and if he thinks he |
can manage financially he need bayeno |
fear but that he will succeed if-another |
important if-he is willing to do his own |
WORK. hiring only 10 spray, to thin or to
pick fruit.
In one season he will be able to tell |
which IS the 6est-kept place in the valley.
! ana plow when they plow, prune when |
they prune. ETC.. until he has learned, per-
! haDs. better ways by experience.
The hardest thing for city man to do |
IS to buy bare land and then to attempt to |
| plant It to suit himself and to run it while |
continuing at his desk. 1t is seldom done |
successfully.
Buy bare piece of land if you like, good |
| fruit land bare is always worth about half |
what good bearing orchards are worth in |
the same vicinity, then carefully find out |
the best and surest crops in the neighbor-
hood and plant those kinds and no Others |
In any quantity. In every section it is an |
easy matter to secure some one who is |
willing to take care of the land and trees
for the sake of proportion of the small |
crops they can raise between the trees.
| Roughly speaking trees of the proper |
SIZE to plant cost 25 cents apece. making |
$3.50 Tor the 1000 trees needed On ten acres. |
! These OF course you buy yourself.
In renting out your place it is TO the ad- |
vantage cf the caretaker to do COED work |
for the sake of his own crops. Thus you |
are at no expense for the care of your trees
| and land.
| At the end Of four wears you may expect
| your first crop and may feel assured of an |