The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1902-04-04

fruit land will bring $50 to 800 an acre,
lhis good land when set to deciduous
fruit is worth $500 an acre or in oranges
3years old will bring 5000 if in good or.
der. One large land owner here, 7. P
Whitney, who owns 25, 600 acres of land
in California, has 80 acres in oranges
alone and is putting out more. His
groves are nearly all bordered with palm
trees and they certainly are beautiful,
Ihls same gentleman owns whole
county in New York where he has large
hunting and fishing preserves.
AS small as Penryn is, there are 8 or 4
frult companies there. To give you some
idea OF the amount of business done, the
Penryn Fruit Co., of which my brother is
manager, shipped last year 800 cars of
fruit OF all kinds. The boxes in which
frnlt is packed are all bought "knocked
down" and in the vernacular of the
country are called "shook." This one
company will use Is cars of '.shook" in
single season, besides 2 cars of paper
to wrap in. This makes the cost OF
packages in which to get the fruit to the
consumer about $4,000 just from this
one company. Shook and paper are
furnished to growers at cost. The
grower makes the boxes, picks, wraps,
and packs the fruit and delivers it to the
frult house where the different kinds and
varieties are separated and shipped to
where they will sell best, and the work is
SO systematized that the company can
tell just where any certain growers fruit
on certain day went, what expense was
attached to it and what it brought.
Placer county enjoys the distinction of
being the only county in California that
SHIPS Its fruit the same day it is picked.
| Work in the fruit house in the forenoon is
usually dead snap but they make up
tor it in the afternoon and night. Often
work is not done and employees home
until after midnight. The fruit is packed
in the ends of the cars only, and then it
takes about S5 worth of lumber to brace
it to keep from shaking about. 1t is
then iced and sent out-no one knows
where. The orders come in after the car
starts, and 1t is diverted to the proper
market.
There is peculiar belt through here,
only 3 or 8 miles wide called the Their.
NAL belt, where practically all the fruit in
this section is raised, and the temperature
and conditions vary so with the altitude
andsposition that man may grow GER
tain fruits, successfully in one plane and
his neighbor, an eighth of a mile away
will be total failure and not on accoun;
Of skill either. The growers here are
just awaking to the possibilities of the
orange business. 1t is queer, but fact,
that oranges mature here fully a month
earlier than they do in the famous Los
Angeles and Riverside district 500 miles
south.
The average paying fruit ranch is about
20 acres, though like farms in our coun-
try, there are lots OF them both larger
and smaller. From what can see SO
far, the condition of what we'd call the
average rancher isn't any better than the
average in the Dakotas. He can live IN
more ease, have less exposure than the
Dakotan but doubt if he is any happier.
The most of the help is heather, ''that is,
Chinese or Japs. No matter whether
heather or white, the laborer is supposed
to board and sleep himself. Nearly all
help is by the day inrtead of month and
they get from 81 to $1.25 day. When
you consider Chinaman can live on
rice and rats and sleep under a barrel
stave-for it doesn't rain here from April
to November-they ought to live pretty
economically in summer.
Well, | must close this or you'll be
calling time on me. We go to Los
Gatos in a few days.
w. c. SHORT.