The record-union., 1898-01-01
THE FRUIT INDUSTRY.
HOW TT HAS BEEN DEVELOPED
IN TWENTY YEARS.
California Fruit Now Being Intro
duced Into All the Great
Cities of the World.

The old adage, "Great oaks from llttle
acorns grow has never been better
illustrated than in the growth of the
fruit industry of California 1t is
worthy of more than passing note, IL
for no other reason, than that there Is
no other industry in any country in
the world that can show such an I'M
mense growth from SO diminutive
beginning in so short time. III, 1or
instance, the railway companies had
been asked twenty years ago whether
there was any prospect OF the frult
business of California increasing to an
extent that would give them freight
business of over 10000 carloads a year,
the probabilities are the freight trafflc
managers would have laughed the ques-
tion to scorn, and would have intimated
in the most gentle of railroad vernacu-
lar that the questioner was a fit and
proper candidate for a iunatic asylum.
Yet results show that there would not
have been anything absurd in the ques-
ton, for the railroads are doing to-
day what twenty years ago would have
been viewed as railroad impossibilities.
That the business has SO rapidly as
sumed such large proportions is due to
a few men whose foresight was as keen
as their business ability, and to their
determination to make a success of
whatever they undertook to do. Prom
inent among those men We're the two
Porter brothers, the founders of the
great fruit-shipping house known all
over the world to-day as Porter Broth
ers Company. But even they, with
all their business perspicacity, may be
forgiven if when, some twenty years
ago, they made their first small ship
ment of fresh fruit from San Jose they
did not fully realize the extent their
business would at a later period as
sumo, and which in that first ship
ment, they laid the cornerstone. That
shipment consisted of some peaches,
pears and plums. and was sent to Chi
cago. From that day to this their
shipments have gone on steadily in
creasing each year, so that now it can
be said they have not only this conti-
nent but Europe also for their markets.
To go back to early days for few
moments it may be said that the busi-
ness opened up by the two Porter
brothers had the immediate effect of
increasing business in three directions
at the same time. As they went on
opening up markets in the Eastern and
Western States they encouraged the
planting of more fruit orchards in Cali
fornia, and, as a consequence, the rail-
way companies We're obliged to increase
their rolling stock to handle the fruit
shipped. Then, the business being fair
ly launched, and better shipping facili-
ties provided, the Porter brothers saw
that the time had come for them to ex-
tend their sphere of usefulness and
that to conquer more markets it would
be necessary for them to increase their
business relations. They therefore in
corporated under the name of Porter
Brothers Company, with a paid-up cap
ital of S250,0O0, and established
branches of the company in the large
Eastern cities and appointed agents
in all of the other larger cities of the
United States. The present officers of
the company are: James S. Watson
President; A. ]. Hechtman, VicePresi-
dent: Stephen G.. Palmer, Secretary;
John r. Adams, Treasurer. The head
offices of the company are in Chicago
and the chief business offices on the
Pacific Coast are in Los Angeles and
Sacramento. Los Angeles represents
more particularly the business center
for their citrus fruit shipments, and
Sacramento that for deciduous fruit
shipments, with San Jose as their chief
shipping point for dried fruits In the
northern part of the State the COM