The San Francisco call., 1907-06-02


field Wherever he tills nature
ciprocates and there is the story Of
the land fructifed.
The transformation wrought upon
the sand dunes of San Francisco. the
wheat lands around Sacramento. the
black soil that surrounds Stockton. the
brown foothills OF Napa and Sonoma
furnish the best pictures Of the Won
derful agricultural skill of the ItalianA
Where the san Francisco city hall
. stands was once a vista of Italian truck
gardens. and before the gardens there
were only white sand hills. The men
from Liguria and Lucea soon saw that
the gold mad population of the new
city had 10 eat, and would pay big
prices for vegetables. They found their
fortunes there on those white sands in
stead of in the placer gravel OF the
mountain streams Gathering fertiliz-
ing material wherever they could find
II, the skilled gardeners soon had
every staple vegetable growing. and
San Francisco was fed well from their
industry What was then away out
in the Mission" was also garden dis
trfct- The present city hall site was
out in those days. relatively as are
the garden patches OF windmill val
ley" today. and only the circumstance
of litigation prevented the humble
Italians WHO titled those sand hills
from being among the millionairss OF
that period. Ii was the hope and ambi
tion of every one of these truck gar
deners to own his own piece of land
and they tried to acquire their small
tracts in the vicinity of the city hall
site, but titles were i'm doubt. the land
being part of one of. those grants that
furnished grist for the legal mill for
so many years. This scare prevented
buying at truck garden prices land
n
italian agriculturist rarely lets go OF
a piece ofslaHd when once he acquires
IL. and it lis probable that all those
humble gardeners of the early days
would be wealthy realty holders in
this time of San F;ranciscoes greatness
had it not been for the question OF
titles They would have farmed the
land long after the advance OF the city
had crowded buildings upon them had
they owned them. AS the city moved
outward HAYES, valley became the truck
gardening center
Birth of the Park
tits claimed that Golden Gate park
itself owes its existence to the example
furnished by the Italians. The city
saw what wonders the truck gardeners
could do upon sandhills by the use of
loan and water and the redemption
of the. sandy strip. that is now that
wopderfuI pleasure ground began. It
the, existence Of thi- park is due, even
remotely, 10 tire aacthod followed by
the Italian gardeners in those days. not
only the city but .the state certainly
owes them gratitude for resort that
does a great deal toward making Cali
fornia favorably known elsewhere.
There IS no. time of the year that
one cannot See these Italian gardeners
taking Vegetables of endless variety
,.<.,f ,f,ei,., r<f h..
city. that they so carefaly cultivate.
So much. do they take Off these lands
that inexperienced persons might
imagine d new crop OF something came
in every week, but the. production is
not quite SO rapid as that StiIl, the
careful cultivation and fertitziRg give
several crops year. Indeeds this land
is declared by % college professor to
be the most intcnsively cultivated land
IN the United States
Around Stockton and Sacramento the
Italians bought small tracts of land
that in spfing We're. green with the ,
wlieats crop and' during the long dry
season. were brown wastes of stubble-
These lands, producing threifs one crop
of grain a year. We're not very valuable.
The first thing the Italians aid was to
develop water. The indispensable wind
mill was usually feserted to for this
part of the. work. though gasoline en-
glnes Tor pumping are coming into use
on these tracts quite generally now.
Then came the close working OF the
soil and the adding to its strength bg
all the fertilizing material that could
be gathered: then the setting into the
ground of fruit trees, slips and vine
cuttings and the p.gnting of that be-
'w-:rering array OF vegetables. beans
tomatoes and peppers that supply tho
market and the peddlers wagons. To-
day, i'm all the territory around these
two cities there are luNuriant orchards.
vineyards and gardens that make tns
landscape "a, delight to the eye and rur-
nish food products unstintedIy. The
land that WAS worth small prices for
wheat mas reached enormous value in
its state of higher cultivation and the
demonstration OF what can be done
with this soil when used for fruit and
garden purposes has sent up the price
of all the bare acreage surrounding II.
thus adding to general values. On the
lowlands below these cities can also
be noted the agricultural touch of tha
Italian, and many q fruitful orchard
and productive garden on the river II
Continued on Inside Paxa Thia
Section-l