Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1909-05-26
New and Unusual Crops
By Frederic u HaSkin

trainers to tame it. They have now
turned their attention to the june
berry, and 1t promises to succeed the
huckleberry in the affections of the peo-
pie, especially those in the treeless
regions of the country.
The avocado. or alligator pear is
thriving well in it's new surroundings
on American soil. 1t is a tropical salad
fruit, eaten like the cantaloupe. 1t
GROWS luXuriantly on the isthmus of
Panama, and the canal diggers regard
it as more than a substitute for the
ROCKFORD. The trees planted in Florida
have thrived and alligator pear grow
ing promises to become a profitable
business The taste for it needs little
cultivation, but all connoisseurs agree
that it makes a delectable dish. There
is a vast profit In its production,
single tree producing from ten to sixty
pears, with prices as high as SO dozen.
The growing of medicinal plants is
becoming an important occupation. 1t
is estimated that the American people
annually import S15,000,O00 worth of
medicinal plants from Europe, and the
bulk of this sum might just as well be
kept at home. Ginseng has long been
the favorite crop, but the prices were so
high that overproduction resulted. At
one time the ginseng growers had TO
burn about three-fourths of their crop
to keen up prices. China is the prin-
cipal buyer of American ginseng, but it
will have none but the wild roots. Con-
seuuently the demand for cultivated
ginseng is very much smaller now than
it used to be. Golden seal is supplant-
ing ginseng as a successful crop,
great many growers finding 1t exceed
ingly profitable. One grower reports
that his beds have yielded him clear
profit at the rate of $25O0 an acre.
When one comes to compare the
profits of different crops he has to
marvel at the devotion of the average
farmer to the cereals. Federal census
data shows that the average per acre
value of flowers in the United States
Is S2014; that of nursery products, $40;
of onions. $136; of sugar cane, $87, and
of small fruits, ISL. Yet there is
hundred acres or more of wheat and
corn, with a per acre value of less
than 500 grown where there is one
acre of the above mentioned crops
Even slippery elm produces bark that
would give. per acre value of 5000
year. Asparagus is the most profitable
garden vegetable, a prominent gardener
figuring his yield at $500 per acre.
1t has been figured that an acre of
land under glass will produce as much
as fifty acres in the open, yet even
the small farmer seldom takes such a
nlEIlOu OIL lI1CI6dSillE his lllNOliiCs Il NV
ers under glass are the most profitable
crop. 1t is estimated that $5,0O0,OOO
worth of carnations are grown every
year. 1t will be news to most people
that John d. Rockefeller is the great
est producer of Violets in America. His
Tarrytown estate IS in the very center
of the Hudson river violet-growing dis
trict and he welcomes every dollar
that comes from the sale of his vio-
1.#r nf
growing violets on the eastern shore
of Maryland has been the talk of
floral circles for some time. These
women were without income and de-
pendent upon their own efforts. They
elected to grow violets and studied the
subject with the care that physician
studies medicine. Although they nave
only been in the business few years
they have an independent income.
The economic value of the work of
those who seek to introduce new crops,
and to combine by hybridization the
good points of old ones, is little realized
by the average reader 1t has been es-
timated by one well acquainted with
the subject that the work of Luther
Burbank has increased the value of
crop production on this continent to
the extent of at least $4,000 900 a year.
There are no less than a thousand
prominent plant students now working
along the lines of plant hybridizat1on,
and it is thought that the next ten
years will witness a greater change
in the growing of small crops than all
the years before. 1t is believed that
the orange will soon be grown profit
ably as far north as South Carolina,
the crossing of the sensitive Florida
orange with the hardy but worthless
orange bush of the north making this
extension of it's range possible.
Perhaps the most hopeful indication
for the future is the Pingree potato
patch idea carried to its logical con-
clusion. In and around every city there
are hundreds of vacant lots, and the
charity associations have been assist
ing the poor to cultivate these spaces,
transforming them into spots of beauty
instead of eyesores. The poor and the
unemployed are thus given an oppor-
tunity to occupy their time with prott.
It is said that during a recent year the
vacant-lot gardens of Philadelphia gave
employnent to over 900 families, and
that the products Melted $4,000, not
to count the health of mind and body
that grew out of the work. The lessons
that have been learned in farming
vacant lots have led many families 10
move into the country where rent IS
cheap. to go into the trucking busl-
ness for themselves. Having had tho
advantage of practical scientific IN
struction there are few failures among
them. Most of them work small crops
that bring big returns.
Downright 1909, by Frederic J. Haskin.l