Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-09-14
hall ALONE THE COAST
ALL ALONG THE COAST
Many Fertile Valleys in Cali
fornia.
BIG PROFITS IN APPLES
ONE FORTY-ACRE ORCHARD
MAKES 5000 A YEAR.
Mnnfhd
Strawberries Grown for Ten Months
Of the Year-Thousands of Car
loads Of Celery Shipped.

Of the Year-Thousands Of Car
loads Of Celery Shipped.
BY WILLIAM E. CURTIS.
Special Correspondence The Star and the Chicago
Record Herald.
WATSONVILLB, Cal, September 8. 1906
Along the coast of California, all the way
between Los Angeles and San Francisco,
are little valleys lying cozily between the
foothills and easily irrigated by the noun
tain streams Each Of them has Its indi-
viduality; each its peculiar soil and other
conditions which enable the farmers to
produce special results in agriculture and
horticulture. In one the chemicals con-
cealed in the soil make celery Of a high
quality; another may be just the place for
berries; third for apples; fourth for
prunes. The scientists have discovered these
secrets and have applied their knowledge
in such way as to produce surprising re-
suits. Down in Orange county. for exam
pie at Santa Ana and elsewhere, the most
prodgious crops of celery are produced
from peat lands, and nothing else Is grown.
Celery Farm Of 1000 Acres.
There is farm of 1000 acres which
market last year; another Of 1900 acres
and smaller farms fill up the valley which
Is adapted to this crop. The best celery is
grown in what was formerly bog Of vege-
table peat, consisting of roots and foers in
every degree of decomposition. The most
of 1t Is black vegetable mold. 1t Is so full
of moisture that the horses used in its cul-
ture wear wooden shoes eighteen inches in
diameter, fastened to their hoofs by steel
clamps, so that they will not get stuck in
the mire. Even the men wear wide soles
on their shoes, while the wagon wheels have
tires twelve and fifteen inches wide
The plants are started in hotbeds. When
they reach proper size they are trans
planted in rows about four feet apart, so
that team and plow can be driven be-
tween them to bank up the earth The cut
ting begins in October and continues all
winter. Everything Is done by machinery
and the shipments vary from ten to twenty
carloads day. The celery market extends
from Vancouver to Panama and az far
east as Bar Harbor.
The Mustard Seed District
Lompoc valley is the mustard seed dis
trict and the farmers there devote almost
their entire attention to its cultivation
They produce more than one-half of the
entire supply of the United States This
season S crop Is estimated at 1900 tons
which Is shipped to the cities of the east
and sold to manufacturing grocers pickle
factories an dto the trade in general. This
valley lies about seventy miles north Of
Santa Barbara.
The Pajaro valley, which opens on the
bay Of Monterey, about one hundred miles
south of San Francisco is devoted espe-
clally to berries and apples. 1t includes
an area of about 10, 600 acres and is cut nm
into small holdings of orchards, berry and
vegetable farms. The roads of the Pajaro
valley are especially good and they are
sprinkled several times day throughout
m Of
for the benefit of travellers, but to prevent
the dust from injuring the fruit. There
fore 1T is an exceedingly agreeable place
to visit The climate is even and like
other places in the ne1ghborhood. it is
never too cold or too hot Frequent fogs
which blow in from the ocean during the
summer are disagreeable. but they are
very important to the fruit raisers and are
responsible in large measure for the fine
haNof and the large crops Of the fruit.
Strawberries for Ten Months.
This year the Pajaro valley has 100
acres in Strawberries. The season is not
confined to the month Of June and early
July. as it Is III the east, but extends from
the beginning of April until the end Of
January. During all that period the ripe
berries are picked every evening and are
shipped by the trainload to San Francisco
every night except Saturdays. THE straw
berry special as 1t Is called, picks up the
berry cars at all of the small stations dur
ing the early part of the night and delivers
them TO the ferry boat at Oakland early
enough to be served the breakfast ia
bleS at the hotels and restaurants OF San
Francisco sixteen hours after they are
picked. During the year 1904 100 carloads
or about ten million quarts of berries
were shipped from the Pajaro valley to
san Francisco and other markets. three
fourths of them being strawberries. The
rest We're raspberries, blackberries and a
new invention known as th~ "loganberry."
Apples Of the Pajaro Valley
But the greatest crop of the Pajaro VAL
ley is the apple. There are 1900 acres in
orchards, and average of sixty-seven
trees to the acre, which, by a slight cal
culation, you will notice makes a total of
about $4,000 trees. A committee from the
board of trade. who politely showed me
about told me that there were two mil
lion trees, covering 40 600 acres, but, if that
were so. there would be no room for the
vast quantities of other fruits and berries
produced in the valley. 1t is generally safe
to discount the statements of the patriotic
boomers about thirty-three per cent. Upon
reviewing my notes of the information
which they so kindly gave me, I discovered
that their apple orchards. apricot orchards
prunes. hop fields, sugar beet farms, straw
berry beds, etc, covered about 10000 acres,
while there are only $4,000 acres In the en-
tire valley and plenty of unoccupied land
for sale to all corners.
icOpie mere use EleSdpNOHeS IN Ordinary
conversation, to expand the facts instead
of the volume of sound Pajaro valley
boomer will drive you into a corner and
tell you the most amazing stories you
ever heard and every word of them will be
true except what is eXaggeraton And the
newspapers are just bad. l picked up
local paper yesterday and read these
bla ling headlines:
Development of the southwest!
Enterprises that promise large fortunes!
THE march of progress and material
growth In the land of perpetual sunshine!
The text of the article did not quite JUS
tify the exuberance of the headline writer.
1t contained four propositions. One of the
paragraphs set forth the demand for eggs
and poultry, and the high prices offered
for those commodities, and stated that a
certain Capt. Mitchell had purchased 40
fine white leghorns-hens and roosters-and
was going to set up a poultry farm. The
second paragraph was devoted to the dairy
industry and announced that two Cinnamon
had purchased a herd of cows and intended
to peddle milk and cream in the commune
ity The third gave the details of a meet
ing Of citizens and the appointment of a
committee to entertain a party OF eastern
excursionists who We're expected In town
the next week, and the fourth paragraph
reported q rumor that the Santa Fe rail-