Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1905-02-03
LARGEST OLIVE RANCH
In THE WORLD
The San Fernando Valley in
California as Described by A.
Decker.


and the larger part is sent to the
mill to be converted into the most
delicious oil known to commerce.
San Fernando is the center of the
olive industry of California. Here
beside the ruined walls of San
Fernando Mission are the oldest trees
in the state set out by the good
| fathers, over one hundred years ago
and here is situated the great Sylmar
olive ranch, the largest in the world,
with two Thousand acres of land and
trees 10 actual bearing.
An olive ranch of two thousand acres
| is pretty big affair. One may look
through long rows OF olive trees three
miles long and hundreds of them.
| The grove lies two miles from the
station at San Fernando at the base
of the mountain.
There are good roads in the San
Fernando Valley loaned or oil
sprnkled, paradise for Wheelmen.
We rode between orange and lemon
trees ladden with fruit, between
| English walnutS still in full leaf but
robbed of their nuts. Between wind
brakes and hedges of tall Eucalyptus
and cedar and then out on the I'M
improved cactus and sage brush waste
| which looks like a desert but which
| with little water will blossom like
the rose and is worth from $4,000 to
$4,000 an acre just aS it is. And
| then came the olive trees 10 mathemat-
ically straight lines, the leaves d deep
glossy green above, between sheeny
| Silvery white.
There are three varieties of olives,
two of which are used for picking and
the other for oil, the latter having
yielded as high as forty gallons to the
| ton of fruit. Olives for picking are
gathered while green. The olive
blossoms in May and the fruit ripens
in early winter. Last year this ranch
produced about sixteen hundred tons
of fruit. Ordinarily the olive tree
does not require irrigation.
While we have been learning these
things, we were walking down toward
the mill which is long low building.
On one side is long room extending
the whole length of the building,
containing the watts in which the
olives are picked. On the other side
is the crusher, consisting of two great
rollers that move around in a cone
shaped bed and crush the fruit without
breaking the pit and the hydraulic
press in which the crushed fruit is
laid up cheese something like ''pomac'
in cider press and squeezed out by
hydraulic pressure. Water comes out
with the oil but the latter quickly
rises to the top and is transferred tC
the settling tanks. From there it is
taken to the filters, where every atom
of foreign matter is taken from them
1t is then left in great glass lined
tanks to aye awhile and is then
bottled and stored in vaults in the
basement of the factory.
| We had heard OF the Mission olives
that cluster about the ruin of the old
Mission of San Fernando and after
dinner at the San Fernando Hotel
walked down to study them.
The ruins lie on the open plain
about a mile and half west of the
modern Village of San Fernando all
silent and deserted; the church used
as barn, the former clOisters as
[ stables and for the storing of farm
implements. A good road leads down,
eucalyptus trees.
| In the former court of the monastery
there was great straw stack sur.
rounded by cattle, and just without
the half-ruined walls two adobe huts
in which MeXicaDS dwelt. No other
sign of life was apparent except that
now and then carriages, wagons and
cavaliers passed going to or returning
from the village, or to the ranches
scattered over the plain but hidden
from sight by the green groves around
the dwellings.
| Few people perhaps have any con-
ceptions of the extent of these ruins,
once large and prosperous village.
There are many Give trees still stand
ing that tradition says, were set out
when the Mission was founded ole
hundred and seven years ago. They
are still infants as regards size, being
about as large as a small mans body
and are mere babes in years; for the
olive tree attains extreme age.
A very old man was sitting in the
door of one of their hutS, smoking and
thinking he might know something
of the life that had once been, we
crossed over to talk with him. "Yes'''
said he, ~ remember well when the
Mexican soldiers came to drive the
good padres out and take their
property. 1t was in 1885. That was
in Father Ibarra's time. All the
buildings were in perfect repair then.
All these waste fields were fruitful
with wheat and vines, while thous-
andS of cattle graZed upon the plains.