AGRICULTURE
While Los Angeles emerged during the 1880s from its acknowledged position
as an unruly frontier town, the economy of the city and its hinterland remained
primarily agrarian. Throughout the decade agriculture provided the primary
source of income for Southern Californians, as it had during the Spanish and
Mexican eras. Even within the city it was a major occupation.
By 1880 the leading farm commodities in Southern California in terms of
dollar value came from vineyards and citrus orchards. Los Angeles County had
over 5 million bearing vines, with 1.3 million inside the city limits. Orange
trees in the county that had reached bearing age {from six to ten years}
numbered nearly 200,000, more than five times the count in 1870.
The wealth of the region was largely agricultural. The total value of farm
land, buildings and equipment reported in the 1880 census exceeded $12 million
compared to only $1 million invested in manufacturing. Even manufacturing was
geared toward agriculture, producing goods for the local farm economy or
processing farm commodities. As early as 1870 Los Angeles wineries were worth
$350,000, more than double the value of all other manufacturing plants in the
county.
The "Boom of the 'Eighties" is usually told in terms of the rapidly
escalating price of city lots and creation of an inordinate number of
townsites, but the permanent population increase throughout the county largely
resulted from creation of a growing number of ten and twenty acre farms, carved
out of much larger holdings that remained from the days of the ranchos. Towns
that sprang up during that decade were nearly all agriculturally oriented,
dependent upon the farmers around them for their prosperity. Thus it was not
surprising that letters to the editor dealing with economic matters focused on
agriculture, its problems and prospects.
A) THE THREAT TO THE ORANGE GROVES
At the beginning of the 1880s one of the state's largest citrus groves,
which had grown from the initial two acres of oranges planted by William
Wolfskill in 1841, was located within the city between San Pedro and Alameda
Streets, and extending from Third to Sixth. Across Alameda from the Wolfskill
grove Matthew Keller had planted an orchard in 1853 on part of his 70 acres,
and the D. H. Bliss orchard faced Alameda and the Wolfskill property just north
of Keller's grove. A few blocks away on Aliso Street Jean Vignes had
transplanted trees from Mission San Gabriel in 1834 to create the area's first
private grove.
Wolfskill enlarged his orchard by planting 2000 trees in the mid-'fifties
though only 32 were bearing fruit in 1856. By 1860 he had over one hundred
acres in oranges, and for years his orchard was one of the state's most
prolific producers. John Hittell, in his survey of California resources,
estimated that in 1862 two-thirds of the state's citrus trees were on the
Wolfskill property.
After Wolfskill's death in 1866 supervision of his orchard passed to his
son Joseph. Under his direction the Wolfskill grove sent oranges by train to
the eastern market in 1877, the first such shipment from California.
During the 'sixties and 'seventies there was a rapid expansion of orange
production. Orchards and vineyards dominated the southern regions of the city,
particularly between the river and San Pedro Street. In other parts of
Southern California the break-up of vast holdings and the collapse of both the
cattle and sheep industries, followed by a vineyard blight in what is now
Orange County in the early 1880s, stimulated the planting of orange orchards.
The 1870s also saw the introduction of the Washington navel orange, an
import from Brazil by way of the Dept. of Agriculture in Washington, D.C. Two
young trees reached Riverside in 1873 and had produced their first fruit by
1876. Seedless, the navels were propagated by budding them onto existing
seeded root stock. With introduction shortly thereafter of the valencia, which
matured later in the season than the navel, California was in a position to
supply the nation with citrus fruit much of the year.
As the decade of the 'eighties opened, orange production had spread
throughout Southern California and reached new records both in acreage and in
dollar value. J. Albert Wilson, writing in 1880, reported that orchards and
vineyards surrounded Los Angeles on every side and extended within the city
limits. A chart produced by the Southern Pacific Railroad revealed the rapid
development of orange groves in the San Gabriel Valley, from 1300 acres in 1877
to 2200 acres in 1879. The 132,000 trees growing there in 1879 nearly doubled
the 1877 total. Yet less than 30,000 had reached fruit bearing age.
But during the 'eighties citrus production in the city peaked, then rapidly
declined. Two factors are cited as responsible for this sudden reversal. One
was the great influx of tourists, settlers and speculators brought west by
increasing competition between the Southern Pacific and the Santa Fe after the
latter line reached the city in 1885. The price of a ticket to Los Angeles
from eastern points fell dramatically and travelers by the thousands streamed
in. Lured by the climate and swayed by the skilled tactics of developers, they
snapped up land and drove up prices to a point where farmers and orchardists
were unable to resist the temptation to sell their land at huge profits.
Coupled with this was the sudden appearance of a new orange pest, Icerya
purchasi, the cottony-cushion scale, that entered the state in the 1860s from
its home in Australia, brought in with nursery stock. Commonly known as the
white scale, it threatened to decimate orange orchards as it spread southward
from groves near San Francisco. Experts were not in agreement regarding the
remedy and by the beginning of the mass eastern migration to Southern
California in the mid-1880s the citrus industry stood on the edge of ruin.
With speculators urging growers to sell at prices far beyond what most of
them had paid, and with the value of their groves in terms of orange production
in doubt, orchardists were sorely tempted to take their profits from land sales
rather than continue what seemed to be a losing battle with the scale.
LETTERS FROM THE PEOPLE revealed a great division among those most
concerned about the survival of the industry. "W. E. D.," cautioning against
the destruction of the city's orange groves, realized that the blight
threatening the orchards came from more than just the cottony-cushion scale.
His letter was not, however, the first notice that urban life was encroaching
on the city's groves and vineyards. On Feb. 12, 1869 the Los Angeles Daily
News had reported with pleasure:
The unprecedented advance of real estate in Los Angeles
during the past year has given an impetus to enterprise that
is fast making it a very active city. The demand for lots is
great and the prices paid are high.... That productive vines
fifty years old or upwards should be taken up, wine cellars
removed, and bearing orange trees in considerable numbers be
uprooted for the purpose of making room for those who must
have houses to live in, and lots upon which to build them, is
an evidence that enterprise, so long slumbering in Los
Angeles, is now awake, and determined to keep pace with the
demand of the times.
"W. E. D." was very likely William E. "Billy" Dunn, city attorney in the
late 19th century, legal counsel for the transit operations of Henry E.
Huntington and Moses Sherman, and a founding partner in what became the
prestigious law firm of Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. Both Dunn and future
partner Albert Crutcher had arrived in Los Angeles in 1885 and invested in real
estate. Dunn's warning, in late summer, 1887, came as the real estate boom was
already running out of steam. It ended abruptly a short time later, though
scholars do not normally cite the issue raised by "W. E. D." as one of the
factors in the sharp decline in land prices that followed.
{Times, Sept. 16, 1887, p. 12}
Protest Against the Destruction of Orange Groves.
Los Angeles, Sept. 13.--[To the Editor of The Times.] I
desire through your columns to call the attention of your
readers to what I consider a most important matter. I refer
to the destruction of the beautiful orange groves throughout
the city, by what seems to be the most stupid neglect. Acres
and acres of the finest semi-tropical trees are dying in the
Longstreet and many other tracts for the lack of a little
water and cultivation. A few owners have saved their trees
but by far the great majority are letting their property go
to destruction. On all sides I hear from our Eastern
visitors expressions of amazement and disgust at the short-
sightedness of our lot-owners. It is a painful fact that in
a brief period our orange groves will become a blemish,
instead of what they have been before, the pride of our city.
I am engaged in the real-estate business, and I would
say to all lot-owners who are thus neglecting their places,
that they are making a fearful mistake. It is my experience
that lots covered with dead and dying orange trees are almost
unsalable. Many will find when it is too late that their lot
speculation has proved a failure for this reason alone. The
city will furnish through the ditches a half day's water to
anyone for $1.25. Plenty of men can be found to do this
irrigating for $2. For this trifling sum your property can
be saved. When our Eastern visitors come pouring in this
winter you may depend upon it they will turn away from the
neglected and weed-overgrown lots, covered with dead trees,
and put their money in more promising localities. The
prospect is so startling that I hope the most urgent efforts
will be made to bring lot owners to their senses. There is
no time to be lost. Many of our best groves are ruined, and
many more will be in two or three weeks. Let us "turn over a
new leaf" at once and show that our boasted enterprise has
some foundation.
W. E. D.
State Inspector of Fruit Pests W. G. Klee, whose title reminds one of the
overly-detailed bureaucracy of the French monarchy, echoed the concern of "W.
E. D." Implied in his argument, however, was the necessity of collective
action, which might mean by direction of the state. That was not a view that
appealed to all orchardists.
{Times, Oct. 7, 1887, p. 2}
A Warning
FROM THE STATE INSPECTOR OF FRUIT PESTS.
Los Angeles, Oct. 6.--[To the Editor of The Times.] I
have spent the last week in looking over the various parts of
this county, so rich and varied in its resources. Everywhere
I hear the carpenters' busy hammer, and the most wonderful
activity is being displayed in building hotels, developing
water, etc. Town after town is springing into existence, but
with it, alas! the once beautiful orange orchards and
vineyards are going to destruction. Orchards on which
thousands of dollars have been spent, which but a short time
ago were the pride of the owners, are falling victims to the
merciless King "Boom." His retainers are the scale-bugs and
all insect pests the vegetable kingdom is heir to. In vain
does the bona fide fruit-grower protest against the invasion
of the merciless destroyer. The avalanche that rolls on him
awes him, and before he knows it he succumbs to the apparent
tempting pecuniary offers of the real-estate man, gives up
his home and enters the field of speculation. Thus the fever
of money-making, having started from Los Angeles and
Pasadena, now reaches out far into San Gabriel and Santa Ana
Valleys. I know many will say, "Hear the voice of the
croaker; these things will right themselves after awhile, and
don't amount to much after all. The money is here, and will
come until all this country is settled up. We have our
climate, the glorious sunshine, which even scale-bugs cannot
deprive us of." True, but this is becoming rather stale.
Although the majority of the people come here for their
health, they also come here with the expectation of making a
living, and the industry which invariably is held up to them
by the untiring real-estate man is the fruit industry, and
especially that of growing of citrus fruits. Unless there is
called a halt soon, and people awaken to the necessity of
preserving the orange and lemon orchards, it will soon be a
difficult matter to show the intending settler a healthy and
profitable orchard in this county, and the goose that has
been laying so many golden eggs will die.
I am well aware that the white scale is one of the most
difficult insects to fight. I know that thousands of dollars
have been spent on it, and that many people have become
discouraged trying, chiefly because there was no concert of
action. Whatever remedies are used, they must be used
thoroughly, nor will one remedy suit every case, all of them
will be failures unless everybody is willing to help. People
must be prepared for a little sacrifice in their gardens to
help the common cause. People not directly interested in
fruit-growing must remember that the prosperity of this
country is largely due to the orange; that it has been the
emblem of Southern California, and that they are called to
defend it. We hope that in the coming meeting on Saturday
the fruit-growers will show their presence in sufficient
numbers to assert their rights. We hope to be able to
convince people, that in the newly-discovered gas remedy may
be of great service to the fruit-grower.
Still it will need the ingenuity of the Yankee to make
it more simple and easy in its applications, and it will also
need capital to handle it successfully. To discuss these
matters, we ask the presence of the fruit-grower, as well as
everybody else interested in the welfare of the county. I
am, yours truly,
W. G. KLEE.
State Inspector of Fruit Pests.
To control the scale and other pests, the legislature instituted the first
state plant quarantine in 1881 and that same year Los Angeles County
established its Horticultural Commission, consisting of three members. While
commissioners had authority to serve an abatement notice on property infested
with noxious insects, that power could be enforced only if some citizen had
filed a complaint. A change in the law in 1889 permitted the commission to act
on its own initiative.
Unwilling to rely on state action, some orchardists sprayed, others
fumigated, hosed the trees down with cold water, white-washed the trunks or
even hand painted each individual leaf in some cases - all with mixed results.
Growers who relied like W. Blanchard on spraying were concerned about the great
cost involved and sought a means to reduce the expense and to make sure that
what they did was not negated by neighbors who failed to take any action.
{Times, May 11, 1889, p. 6}
Save the Orange Trees.
Los Angeles, May 8.--[To the Editor of The Times.] Are
we going to let the red and white scale bugs destroy all of
our orange orchards or not? That is a question that ought to
receive some attention from the Supervisors of this county.
In the past three years there have been over $3,000,000 worth
of trees destroyed, and if something is not done to check
this pest there will not be an orange orchard in this county
in five years more, and it is and was the golden fruit that
attracted the attention of the people of the United States,
and it is a sin for us to let the orchards die. There is
nothing that a man can make so much money out of as a good
orange tree or orchard if he takes care of it, and if the
fruit is clean. I sold my oranges from 1500 trees for $2700
net this year, and my next crop will be much larger if I can
keep the scale down. I have had some 80 trees that had the
scale last spring, and this spring I can only find 18 that
have any scale, and what are left are the white scale. That
goes to show that by work the scale can be checked so that
they will not do much harm. It will not do much good for a
man to spray his trees once or twice, but go for them
whenever you see one of them, the same as you do with the
gophers. Every man that has trees should have a spray pump
and keep it ready for use. There are a good many washes that
will kill the scale, but most of them will hurt the trees or
fruit. The only one I find that does not hurt the trees or
fruit is Compere's. The trees that I sprayed with this wash
are the brightest and healthiest in my orchard. I sprayed
some of my trees with caustic soda and resin wash, but it
marks the fruit badly and makes the trees look yellow, and
they don't bloom this year, while all the balance of the
trees did. But the orchard on the south side of mine is full
of scale, and it should be somebody's business to see that
such places are cleared up. Suppose the county spends a few
thousand dollars? For every thousand they spend they will
save a million to the county.
W. BLANCHARD.
Klee had recognized the expense involved in eradicating the pest;
Blanchard, a year and a half later, noted the even greater cost if the battle
were lost. George C. Edwards, who eventually found real estate sales more
lucrative than spraying groves, endorsed Blanchard's proposal for collective
action by offering a very specific suggestion that appealed to the agrarian's
cooperative spirit.
{Times, June 6, 1889, p. 6}
A SUGGESTION FOR CO-OPERATION.
Pasadena, May 30.--[To the Editor of The Times.] "Save
the Orange Trees." Under this heading there appeared in The
Times of the 8th inst. an interesting letter from Mr. W.
Blanchard giving his experience as a fruit-grower, and
expressing a hope that the Supervisors would step in and
assist in eradicating the scale pest. Mr. Blanchard also
gives his experience of the different washes and emulsions in
use, and states that the only one he finds that kills the
scale without injuring the tree is Compere's. Now, this is
exactly my experience after three years' trial, and during
that time I have sprayed some 18,000 trees in this county,
but the drawback to its universal use is the price charged by
the manufacturer. I, on behalf of some of the largest
orchardists in this neighborhood, have been in communication
with Mr. Compere, and find that the cost is almost entirely
due to the amount of handling, cost of putting up freight,
and such like incidental charges, and that but for this it
might be manufactured by the fruit-growers themselves at a
cost not exceeding 1 1/2 cents a gallon when ready for use.
I have also ascertained that the formula and right of
manufacture can be purchased of Mr. Compere upon fair terms,
and I think if the growers would combine and subscribe a sum
for the purchase of this emulsion perhaps the Supervisors of
the county might see their way to supplement their
contributions, and in this way the non-resident owners of
trees would be forced to contribute to the expense of
eradicating this pest they have done so much to encourage by
neglect of their orchards.
I should be very glad if owners of orchards, and others
interested, would express their views in your valuable paper,
or address their communications to me, at Pasadena--
postoffice box 801. Yours truly,
G. C. EDWARDS.
Other orchard pests had threatened the industry before and been deterred,
giving hope that the white scale would likewise be overcome. That optimism was
demonstrated in this 1887 letter that compared the current fear about white
scale with previous concern over black and red scales. Red scale had been a
serious problem early in the 'eighties and was the only orange blight that
writers of several letters in 1882 had complained about. The white scale had
not yet become a serious problem in Los Angeles by that date. Ironically, in
the column adjacent to "N's" comment about the decline of the red scale threat
the Times ran a news item noting that growers in San Bernardino were protesting
importation of orange trees from Santa Ana where red scale was reportedly still
prevalent.
{Times, Dec. 14, 1887, p. 3}
The White Scale.
Los Angeles, Dec. 13.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Last summer, under the caption "Clean the Trees," The Times
had a vigorous editorial calling upon derelict property
owners to tackle the white scale bugs which were playing
havoc with their orchards. This caused a general spraying of
orange trees, but now the new crop of scales are covering the
trees and "General Apathy" reigns supreme. "Thousands of
dollars," says Prof. Klee, in a late article, "have been
expended in spraying and many have become discouraged
trying." The reason of this discouragement is that the
expense has been altogether disproportionate to the
thoroughness of the work, too little care has been taken not
to unnecessarily injure the trees and the spraying has been
done at too long intervals. Now, if those who own even two
or three acres of orange grove on which the white scale has
found lodgment, would purchase a spraying apparatus and
superintend the spraying themselves the result would be
likely to be far more satisfactory, for with an outfit always
on hand the warfare against the scale is likely to be kept up
vigorously and continuously. The entire outfit can be
procured for about $20 and the best material for spraying at
15 cents per gallon, and as each gallon requires to have
added thereto four gallons of water, it reduces the price of
the compound actually used to 3 cents per gallon. The
writer, stirred up by your editorial, concluded to try this
plan, and trees which seemed six months ago about to succumb
have this season put forth a luxuriant growth. By keeping up
the spraying as necessary I expect to have a crop of oranges
next year which will well remunerate me for the expense and
trouble, to say nothing of the visual pleasure derived from
the beautiful dark and light green foliage of the trees, for
a thrifty orange grove is "a thing of beauty and a joy
forever."
While likely always to be an enemy to be guarded and
fought against, still it is pleasing to note that the white
scale's powers of destruction are waning, and its spread from
one orchard to another becoming less and less rapid each
year, as has been the case with its predecessors, the black
and red scale. Col. Wheeler of San Francisco remarked that
he was in Los Angeles when the black scale first made its
appearance, and one of the pioneer orchardists, calling his
attention to it, sorrowfully remarked: "I fear we shall never
be able to raise oranges in Los Angeles." While still a
detriment, their power for evil has been reduced to a
minimum, and this may in time be the fate of the white scale.
"So mote it be."
N.
Albert F. Kercheval contributed numerous letters on agriculture to the
Times in the 1880s. A '49er who mined in both the Mother Lode and Nevada,
Kercheval settled in Los Angeles in 1870 and became one of the community's
leading horticulturists. He was elected president of the county Horticultural
Commission and also served on the city council. To some growers he would come
to represent a bureaucratic establishment that did not know what to do about
the problem facing the industry yet dictated unreasonable solutions to which
the growers must conform. This letter, written at the peak of the white scale
infestation, may explain why those growers had little faith in the commission's
efforts to stem the blight. The Weiss grove, about twenty acres, was two miles
south of the Plaza, near the present intersection of Alameda and Olympic and
near Kercheval's grove.
{Times, Oct. 4, 1888, p. 6}
Are the Bugs Sick?
Los Angeles, Oct. 3, .--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Is the terrible cotton cushion scale, like the yellow
Mongolian pest, about to "go" and leave our groves forever?
This is the question suggested by a visit to the beautiful
orange orchard of Mr. Alexander Weiss, on Alameda street, in
this city. A day or two since the writer was informed by Mr.
W. that there appeared to be trouble and demoralization in
the legions of the white scale holding possession of his
grove, and requested me to come over and investigate. It is
proper in this connection to state that Mr. Weiss is one of
our most painstaking and thorough horticulturists, and, until
within the past year, spared no effort, labor or expense in
combatting the advance of the terrible foe, but becoming
discouraged from the fact that the surrounding orchards had
long since been abandoned to their fate by the owners, gave
up the fight, although continuing to cultivate and irrigate
as usual. During the past summer, many of his trees have
been literally white with the voracious and virile insects in
all stages of development, every leaf, limb and twig being
coated completely, but within the last two weeks a great
change has taken place, and on many trees they appear to be
sick, dying and dead. On some of the trees worst affected,
they can be scraped off by the handful; great and small, eggs
and all, dead and dry as Egypt's mummies, and can be reduced
to impalpable powder by the slightest rubbing process.
Occasionally one may be found amongst them with a semblance
of vitality, and on other trees the mortality seems to have
made but little progress, or is just in its incipient stage.
Whether by some mysterious disease, or law of Nature, they
are about to disappear entirely, or that only a partial
decimation is taking place, time only can determine, but
certainly the facts as above stated give strong ground to
hope that Nature's cure may yet effect a result where human
science, art and labor have utterly failed. Upon examination
of several trees in surrounding orchards, a similar state of
affairs was found to exist.
Questioned as to a theory to account for the phenomena,
Mr. Weiss had none, but it was suggested that President
Cleveland's message, the Mills Bill, and the possibility of
withdrawal of all protection for our citrus industries, had
discouraged the bugs and made them sick unto death.
A. F. KERCHEVAL.
Kercheval was not alone in his amazement at the unexplained disappearance
of the white scale. Professor D. W. Coquillett, an entomologist with the U. S.
Dept. of Agriculture who would later be instrumental in the elimination of the
pest, explained in a more scientific manner than Kercheval the decline in
scale, particularly red scale, that he found in the San Gabriel Valley. Like
Kercheval, he found a bit of humor in a very serious matter.
In a second letter, written several months later, Coquillett identified the
parasite of the red scale and confirmed his earlier findings. By that time the
efforts of Albert Koebele, sent to Australia by the Dept. of Agriculture to
seek a solution to the scale problem, resulted in the introduction of a
parasite that would soon end the white scale threat. Coquillett, who set up an
experimental citrus field lab at the Wolfskill orchard to test various pest
controls, was a leader in distributing Koebele's parasite, the Australian
ladybug or Vedolia cardinalis, throughout Southern California. {It is now called
Rodolia cardinalis.} By the summer of 1889 its experimental use at the Wolfskill
grove had demonstrated its value. San Gabriel orchardist J. R. Dobbins, cited by
Coquillett, served on the county Horticultural Commission in the mid-1880s. He
was largely responsible for the introduction of the valencia orange in the region
and was one of the area's largest growers. Jackson A. Graves was lawyer, banker
and sometime-historian as well as a citrus grower.
{Times, Dec. 24, 1888, p. 2}
Bug Destroyers.
THE OUTLOOK GOOD FOR A RIDDANCE OF THE SCALE.
Los Angeles, Dec. 22.--[To the Editor of The Times.] We
recently had the pleasure, in company with Mr. A. Scott
Chapman, of visiting some of the principal orange groves in
the San Gabriel Valley. Those who have never seen this
valley, especially that portion of it lying at the very base
of the foothills, have missed seeing one of the finest
portions of this banner county of the State.
Cosy homes nestle among groves of orange trees,
interspersed with fine specimens of our native oaks, which
lend their beauty to the already exceptionally beautiful
landscape. The day was fine, could scarcely have been any
finer if it had been made expressly for the occasion,
reminding one of the soft, warm, halcyon days of Indian
summer in the East, when Nature seems to be doing her very
best to give to her children the necessary vigor which will
enable them to withstand the rigors of the approaching
winter. Here, in this favored valley, however, the sequel is
quite different, and after Dame Nature has infused her
creatures with the requisite vigor, she kindly wards off the
inclement winter weather, permitting her children to expend
this increased vigor either in the usual pursuit of business
or of pleasure, according to their own inclinations.
As in the traditional Garden of Eden, the advent of the
woman and the serpent--what a combination!--caused the
exclusion of mankind from that enchanting place, as the
advent of the white and red scales--pardon the
comparison--has threatened to cause the exclusion of mankind
from this modern Eden. Rumors were afloat, however, that
these pests--the scales, not the woman and the serpent--were
dying in great numbers from some unknown cause, and it was
mainly to satisfy ourselves of the nature of these rumors
that the present visit was made. We found that the scales
were indeed dying in large numbers, but the cause thereof was
far from being unknown; a careful examination of the red
scales revealed the presence of the tell-tale holes in their
anatomy out of which the minute parasites had made their
escape to the outside world. The scales which had thus met
their death at the hands, or rather the mouths, of these
little parasites were mostly females, and, what seemed very
singular, were always located on the upper side of the
leaves. As if it were not enough for us to have discovered
these indications of parasitic attacks, it was our good
fortune to meet Madam Parasite herself, a fussy, petite atom
of animated nature scarcely discernable with the naked eye,
busily engaged in searching for new victims in which to
consign her future progeny.
Evidences of the presence of this little but powerful
friend of the orange-growers were found in three different
orange groves situated several miles apart, showing that
already it is quite widely spread over this valley; and,
although its legitimate victims--to which it is heartily
welcome--may for a time carry everything with a high hand,
still it is very evident that this parasite, which is
carrying out one of the fundamental laws of Nature, will
eventually reduce their numbers to such a degree that they
will no longer be able to prevent our orange groves from
producing their accustomed quota of fruits.
In several places we found that the white scales of all
sizes and ages had perished in large numbers; and Mr.
Chapman, who has closely watched the progress of this
mortality, tells me that it reached its greatest height in
the month of August, when fully three-fourths of the scales
succumbed to the inevitable. It would appear that this
mortality was due to the enfeebled condition of the trees
attacked. The fact that the greatest mortality occurred
during the time when the trees were in their stage of partial
dormancy, when the flow of sap is very limited, gives
additional weight to this hypothesis.
While on the subject of scale diseases and parasites, I
may state that several years ago, Messrs. J. W. Wolfskill and
Alexander Craw {Wolfskill's superintendent} found a pear
orchard in this city very badly infested with San Jose
scales, so badly infested that during the entire growing
season the trees had scarcely made any growth; a few years
later they were much surprised at the changed appearance of
these trees, which had neither been sprayed nor fumigated,
and upon carefully examining the scales they found that a
very large proportion of them had been perforated by
parasites. At the present time these trees are remarkably
clean and healthy, while scarcely a living scale is to be
found upon them.
The advent of these scale-destroying parasites among us
is very opportune, and the fact that our National Department
of Agriculture, through Prof. Riley and his assistants, is
now engaged in introducing other scale-destroyers from
foreign lands, gives us great hopes that in a few years, at
the farthest, the reign of the ubiquitous scale bug will have
drawn to a close, and our orchards and orange groves, the
pride and ground work of our delectable State, will again
flourish in all their glory, as of yore.
D. W. COQUILLETT.
{Times, Aug. 4, 1889, p. 3}
The Pest Must Go.
THE RED SCALE MEETING ITS WATERLOO AS WELL
AS THE WHITE.
Los Angeles, Aug. 3.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
About six months ago I took a trip through the San Gabriel
Valley in company with one of our representative orange-
growers, A. Scott Chapman, and gave a brief account of it
through the columns of The Times. I there recorded the
discovery of a minute parasite that was destroying large
numbers of the red scale, I recently had the pleasure of
again visiting portions of this valley in company with two of
our more prominent orange-growers, J. A. Graves and Col. J.
R. Dobbins, and found that the parasite above-mentioned, a
species of Coccophagus had continued its good work in a very
encouraging manner.
This was especially the case at Mr. Cogswell's, at
Sierra Madre Villa. When I visited this place, about six
months ago, the orange trees were very badly infested with
the red scale, but at the present time they are remarkably
free from them. Mr. Cogswell informs me that these trees had
not been sprayed with anything except pure cold water for
over eighteen months and it does not seem possible that the
water alone could have had the effect of freeing the trees of
the scales; it would evidently have no effect whatever upon
those already covered over with a shell. The recently
hatched ones would evidently be washed from the trees and
destroyed, but as these become covered over with a shell
within 24 hours after leaving the parent, the time when they
would be affected by the latter is very limited. The only
hypothesis we are able to give that would account for the
disappearance is to suppose that they were destroyed by
parasitic and predaceous insects, and that the dry, empty
scales had been washed from the trees by the force of the
water.
Our party were fortunate to discover several of the
adult parasites, and in many of the scales still remaining on
the trees were the tell-tale holes out of which the adult
parasites had made their escape. Of predaceous insects we
saw quite a number of larvae of the lace-winged fly, an
unnamed species of Chrysopa, which evidently contributed not
a little toward the destruction of the red scales, since I
have repeatedly seen them with one of their jaws inserted
under the shells of one of these scales, busily engaged in
extracting the juices of its victim.
As additional evidence for believing that the above
result was brought about through the agency of parasitic and
predaceous insects I may mention the case of an orange grove
adjoining the one owned by Col. Dobbins. Several months ago
this grove was in a very pitiful condition, owing to the
ravages of the red scale, but at the present time it is
looking remarkably healthy, and Col. Dobbins informs me that
it has not been sprayed even with cold water for over a year.
While these parasites and predaceous insects will
undoubtedly accomplish much good in restricted localities, it
cannot be expected that they will destroy the red scale in
such a wholesale manner as the Australian ladybug, recently
introduced by our National Department of Agriculture, is
making away with the icerya or cottony-cushion scale.
Wherever these ladybugs have been colonized they have thrived
and multiplied in a manner that is simply astonishing. This
is especially the case on the large orange grove of Col.
Dobbins, where I made the first attempt at colonizing these
ladybugs on trees in the open air. Thirty-five of them were
colonized on one of the trees February 22d, and 110 others
were placed on several of the trees on the 21st of March.
They have multiplied and spread until every tree in the grove
is now inhabited by them, and so industrious have they been
in their work that the icerya in this grove are rapidly
becoming a thing of the past. A few months ago Col. Dobbins
wrote me he was willing to wager that by the middle of
November next his grove would be practically free from the
icerya--an assertion that many of his fruit-growing friends
were inclined to receive cum grano salis; but the industrious
little lady-bug has exceeded even his most sanguine
expectations, and he now asserts that his grove will be freed
from the pest by the middle of August, and few persons who
take the trouble to examine his grove at the present time
will doubt his assertion.
As might naturally be expected, the freeing of the
orange groves from the ravages of the icerya lifts a great
weight from the shoulders of our growers, whose groves were
afflicted with this pest. One year ago many of these groves
were in a very precarious condition, and their owners thought
very seriously of abandoning them. At that time we had
washes that would destroy these pests, but washes cost money,
and the rapidity with which the trees became reinfected was
disheartening, to say the least; in fact, so rapidly did this
take place that the impression prevailed in the minds of a
few that the pests were resurrected. Or, as my German
friend, who is a trifle left-handed expressed himself: "You
can kill the bugs, but they won't stay killed." Now,
however, all this is changed, the imported lady-bugs, armed
with nothing more formidable than an insatiable appetite,
having already killed millions of these pests so very dead
that their chances of a subsequent resurrection is extremely
small, and it is only a question of time--and that, too, of a
comparatively short time--when the remaining iceryas will
have shared a similar fate.
D. W. COQUILLETT.
Critics argued that agricultural bureaucrats and self-styled experts were
misguided and misinformed. When the highly respected San Gabriel
viticulturalist and one-time state senator Leonard J. Rose of Sunny Slope spoke
publicly on the raising of cabbages he was chastised in the letters column for
having made a mistake "often made by well-meaning men in public addresses and
in public prints, that of assuming to give advice upon a subject he is
practically ignorant of." The views of Rose and Kercheval on the white scale
brought forth the same charge, though in this case they were commenting about a
citrus industry that recognized them as leading growers. This anonymous
letter, bearing not even a pseudonym, appeared in the letters column a few
weeks after Kercheval offered his explanation for the demise of the white scale
on the Weiss property. The influence of the Times was recognized by the writer
in the opening paragraph.
{Times, Oct. 29, 1888, p. 2}
The Deadly Scalebug.
Los Angeles, Oct. 27.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Recognizing the great interest manifested by orange growers
throughout Southern California generally in the great inroads
made on groves of the golden fruit in this county by that
seemingly unconquerable pest known as the white cottony
cushion scale, I would ask space in the journal of most
general circulation in this county for the expression of some
ideas extended experience have inculcated in my mind
regarding this destructive member of the insect family.
I have noted recently several contributions to the press
from alleged experts on the white cottony-cushion scale
question. My experience has taught me that the views given
expression by these writers are, in most instances, as
erroneous as they are ridiculous. I would call the attention
of orange-growers in Los Angeles county to the remark made by
the Hon. L. J. Rose on the white cottony cushion scale at the
recent meeting of the State Agricultural Society. Regarding
the migratory disposition of this scale pest, Mr. Rose held
that the scale never, after depositing itself on the tree,
migrates downward or toward the earth. Senator Rose is
mistaken. I have noted often that the upward or tree-top
migration of the scale occurs during the forenoon, the
downward migration occurring toward nightfall. While not
presuming that all scales so migrate, I assert that
invariably the male bug does. He goes directly to earth and
into the ground.
Again: Mr. Kerchival, a leading grower, holds that the
scalebug nuisance is fast becoming a thing of the past, and
asserts as a reason for this declaration, that he had noted
the ground underneath his trees covered with scale, dead.
Mr. Kerchival underestimates this matter. It is a fact that
the white cottony cushion scale bids to soon wipe out
entirely some of the most famous of Los Angeles county's
orangeries. Mr. Kerchival's reason for believing as he does
may be easily dispelled. It is a well-known fact that the
"mother bug" is gradually eaten up by her young before the
latter leave the shell. The white portion left by the
offspring is nothing more than a cover of protection to them,
and it drops to the ground when vacated by the young.
I hold the white cottony cushion scale can be totally
eradicated from our orchards, if the proper authorities
exercise common sense and discretion in the execution of the
work. The idea promulgated that the police department can
abate the evil is, to my mind, a ridiculous, a perfectly
untenable one. Men of experience, men who have studied
carefully this question, should be employed. There are
plenty of such men in this county--and allow me to say, in
conclusion, men who would gladly aid the extradition from our
beautiful groves of oranges the diminutive, but frightfully
active, destroyer now slowly, but steadily, ruining them.
The city government and county officials should at once take
action in this matter. The city authorities convene next
Monday, and then and there they should consider as to the
best means for staying the evil.
Kercheval strongly believed that orchardists who so neglected their trees
that they became a breeding ground for pests, ultimately endangering
surrounding groves, should be forced by law to correct the offending
conditions. In his opinion, growers ought to have a social responsibility to
maintain an orchard so that it would not jeopardize the groves of their
neighbors. Absent that responsibility, the state had a duty to intervene. The
reference to police department action in the preceding letter's concluding
paragraph should be read in that light. In the midst of the white scale threat
in 1887 Kercheval outlined his position in the Times.
Scale infestation at the Bliss place, soon to be subdivided, threatened
neighboring orchards, including the holdings of Joseph Wolfskill, whose battle
against the blight was necessitated in part by the failure of growers like
Bliss to effectively fight the scale.
{Times, May 9, 1887, p. 7}
A Deadly Nuisance.
Los Angeles, May 7.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Whoever may pass by the once beautiful Bliss place, upon
Alameda street, can there view a most loathsome and
threatening nuisance. The trees are simply alive with the
deadly white scale and not a single effort, apparently, is
being made to disinfect, or in any manner to prevent the
rapid multiplication and spread of the awful scourge. No
more fruit can possibly ever again be borne by these trees,
and they should promptly be burned up right where they stand.
A few armfuls of straw about the body of the tree, a little
coal oil sprinkled thereon, and a match applied, will
disinfect them most thoroughly, and at an expense of not
exceeding 10 cents per tree. There may be other neglected
orchards in this city requiring similar treatment. There
are, or ought to be, State laws and city ordinances covering
such cases, and no time should be lost in enforcing them.
Will our authorities make an effort to do their duty?
A. F. KERCHEVAL.
Although both Kercheval and his anonymous critic urged government to act on
the matter of eradicating scale, the heavy hand of government was distasteful
to many growers, and calls for passage and strict enforcement of pest
eradication measures brought forth from them bitter, mocking replies. Much of
their ire was directed toward the county Horticultural Commission, of which
Kercheval was a leading member.
Though a large segment of American farmers rejected a laissez-faire
position and supported state and federal intervention in economic matters, the
belief that government agents were incompetent bureaucrats out of touch with
reality was as much a part of the mindset of many Americans then as it would be
a century later.
"Angeleno," "Taxpayer," "A Sufferer" and "Victor" voiced that sentiment at
a time when the scale problem seemed out of control and efforts by the
commission had failed to correct it. "Vedolia C.," a pseudonym taken from the
short version of the scientific name then in use for the Australian ladybug,
wrote after the crisis had passed, shortly after Orange County had been created
out of a portion of Los Angeles County, leading to the removal of Orange
resident Hiram Hamilton from the Horticultural Commission.
{Times, Oct. 13, 1886, p. 1}
"A Costly Humbug."
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: The Horticultural
Commission is just now making a loud appeal to our public
authorities for more men and money to make war on the white
cushiony scale. Experience has proved to me, and to every
candid person, that this public crusade to demolish the white
cushiony scale is a very costly humbug. We have not made a
step of progress in demolishing it, and have only succeeded
in demonstrating that under our present regimen it is an
expensive, foolish and positively illegal appropriation of
the people's money. We have been trying this scale crusade
on, now, for over a year, and we have quite as many "bugs" as
when we started, while our citrus trees are very much reduced
in numbers and health, from numerous sprayings, and have
spent more money in the operation than the people in the
"infected districts" have derived from a sale of their citrus
fruits. But you very rationally ask, "What will you do about
it? I will answer you: Abolish your horticultural
commissions, your fruit inspectors and all such illegal
bodies, and leave the demolition of the bugs to the voluntary
mercies of those who have them on their premises; if they
prove to be a nuisance to them they will remove them, their
interests will prompt them to do what is necessary and proper
in the premises, and if anyone should not be satisfied with
that policy, do not ask for any more courts or officers or
mocking of the law than you now have, but go to any Justice
of the Peace and have the person who has the bugs on his
premises arrested for maintaining a nuisance on his premises,
and if you can prove that he is guilty you can have him
punished, and after you have once proved in the courts that
the bugs are a nuisance, you will then be able to have
"everybody in town" arrested, tried and convicted, who has
"bugs" on his premises, and you will have won the battle.
This is the ordinary way to get at it, and, indeed, the
only way. Then why attempt to do by an illegal body what you
can do with the courts and officers you already have open to
you, the properly constituted authorities to test this
question, if there is anything in it at all as I fear there
is not!
I believe it is right and proper for our authorities to
offer large rewards for the discovery of an effective and
thorough "medicine" that will annihilate the "bugs"; but
please abolish this Horticultural Commission, "Bug"
Inspectors, et id omne genus!
ANGELENO.
{Times, Oct. 15, 1886, p. 3}
That "Costly Humbug" Again.
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: As a taxpayer and
horticulturist I heartily endorse what "Angeleno" says in
Wednesday's Times concerning that "costly humbug," the
Horticultural Commission, so-called, and their army of
inspectors. It is about time for the taxpayers to begin to
look into this matter of expense and useless waste of the
people's money.
This so-called Horticultural Commission have caused
hundreds of beautiful orange and lemon trees to be either dug
up or killed by means of their unskilled experiments in
spraying. They have drawn their salary with regularity, but
have found no remedy for the white scale, and yet illegally
annoy or compel, by threats of arrest--under the shadow of
their authority--fruit raisers to spend large sums of money
in a way which the intelligent orchardist feels and knows
that, to all practical purposes, he is throwing away his
money.
As a matter of fact, while scale bugs "are plenty, and
as lively as ever," we say this with all due respect to the
host of city and county inspectors.
I hope the taxpayers will speak out in tones so loud
that our Board of Supervisors will hear and know that the
taxpayers have no further use of that "costly humbug," the
Horticultural Commission.
TAXPAYER.
{Times, Oct. 19, 1886, p. 2}
Strong Language.
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: I am glad to see you
come out on the infernal bug commissioners. I have always
considered it an outrage on the taxpayers. I, for one,
bought my place and paid four prices for it on account of
having fine trees on it, and then comes the damnable Council,
and other framers of said commission come in and say we must
cut our trees down or they will fine us $100 and hire some
one to cut them down for us, and then levy a tax to pay them
for going around to blate and show their authority, just as
if a man would not try and protect his property after he had
paid four times the worth of it to try to save it. I had to
destroy seven or eight fine trees which cost me hundreds of
dollars as I could have bought in a vacant block for a large
amount less, and then to have a law passed to make a man
destroy his property and pay for doing it is horribly
ridiculous and unfair to an extreme.
A SUFFERER.
Los Angeles, Oct. 17.
{Times, Oct. 22, 1886, p. 2}
Bug Juice.
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: Your readers who
complain so heavily of the annoyance caused them by scale-bug
inspectors should learn how to pacify them. A few dollars in
hand, or even a glass of whisky in some cases causes them to
pass on entirely oblivious of the noble army of scale-bugs
which have possession of your trees, while failure to add
some trifle to the handsome sum they draw from the public
funds (supplemented by "commissions" for work obtained and
"wash" recommended) opens their eyes to an alarming extent.
VICTOR.
Los Angeles, Oct. 21, 1886.
{Times, July 31, 1889, p. 5}
"Vedolia C."
JUMPS UPON THE INTELLIGENT BOARD OF HORTICULTURE.
San Gabriel, July 29.--[To the Editor of The Times.] An
article in the Sunday Times, entitled "The Scale-bug War,"
should by rights be termed the humbug war, for certainly such
has been the result of the policy pursued by Los Angeles
county's intelligent Board of Horticulture.
Notwithstanding it is a well-known fact that Nature
keeps in check its most destructive creatures by means of
parasites feeding upon them, this brilliant board insists
upon pursuing the suicidal policy of cutting back and
spraying.
At the time this present Board of Horticulture came into
existence, the vedolia cardinalis was well established in Mr.
Wolfskill's orchard, and doing effective work. The heroic
policy of cutting back had been pursued in the Wolfskill
place, and in consequence there was but little verdure on
which the white scale could exist, and the vedolia made quick
work of it. A colony was also settled at Col. Dobbin's
place, in San Gabriel, fulfilling their mission in a manner,
the effectiveness of which the most credulous could not deny.
And yet, in the face of all this comes this o'er wise board
and orders that all trees infected with the white and red
scale insects must be topped back, and the remains sprayed
with an emulsion or wash.
Every effort possible was put forth by the interested
fruit-growers to induce the board to give up its mossback
methods, and use all its efforts in spreading the parasites
among infected orchards. In vain it was illustrated to this
wise body that the washes used were not only injurious to the
trees, but had undoubtedly in the past kept down, if not
entirely destroyed, the parasites that Nature has provided
for the destruction, or at least subjection, of the red
scale.
However, in pigheadedness, was the motto the board
adopted, and right royally have they lived up to it. For all
they are servants of the people, and their employers expected
some returns for wages earned, it has been left to the
enterprise and energy of two public-spirited citizens, at
their own expense, to save our orange orchards from entire
destruction.
"Honor to him to whom honor is due." To Mr. Wolfskill
of Los Angeles and Col. Dobbins of San Gabriel alone, the
honor is due for all that has been accomplished in
exterminating the white scale. Mr. Wolfskill has given away
from his colony over 20,000 of the vedolia cardinalis.
Meanwhile Col. Dobbins has established in the San Gabriel
Valley, from Alhambra to Covina, and from the mountains to
Downey, 226 colonies of 100,000 of this parasite. It is hard
to realize the time, trouble and expense to which Mr. Dobbins
has been put in the dissemination of such a body of insects.
From early in June up to date the approach to his residence
has been a public thoroughfare, lined from early morning to
night with eager fruit-growers anxious to obtain the panacea
of their horticultural woes and troubles. The Colonel has
attended to them all without any compensation, save the
satisfaction of knowing that the orange industry was to be
saved from entire destruction.
The Tribune, however, would repay such efforts by the
Sunday article, wherein "the people of Los Angeles county are
to be congratulated upon the successful effort of the
intelligent (?) board of horticulture;" and in addition to
this base ingratitude, "the Tribune is happy to be able to
state that the Horticultural Commissioners have discovered,
and are now using an effective remedy that costs
comparatively nothing."
It may possibly put a damper on the Tribune's state of
felicity, as also bring a blush to the bronzed faces of the
"intelligent" board to be informed that this "simple wash" so
recently discovered, consisting of resin, caustic soda and
water, was formulated by Prof. Albert Koebele in 1886 and has
been extensively used ever since, both in Los Angeles and the
San Gabriel Valley orchards. Furthermore, in this valley
this and all other washes have been discarded as injurious to
trees and destructive to parasite life.
It is impossible at present to find a live cottony
cushion scale insect in any stage of existence in Col.
Dobbin's orchard. This happy result has been accomplished by
assisting the vedolia in every way possible in its passage
from tree to tree. Still at this late date we are gravely
informed that "the commissioners have erected five large
buildings with cloth sides, in which, apparently, to imprison
and starve the vedolia or render it a cannibal. Why this has
been done no common horticulturist can find out. And again,
why this board isn't cognizant of the undisputed fact that
the chilocorus or twice-stabbed lady-bird and the lace-winged
fly and another parasite not yet named are now feeding on the
red scale and that further spraying insures the destruction
of these good Samaritans, is past all understanding. And
still, again, why an inspector appointed by this board should
only last Thursday serve a notice on a South Pasadena
orchardist, giving him just five days in which to wash his
orchard, infected with the white scale, when it is a self-
evident fact that the vedolia is putting in its best licks on
the pest, is past the comprehension of any one outside the
County Board of Horticulture.
Possibly the division of the county was a blessing in
disguise, as it will relieve this board, so highly endowed
with reason, of its non-resident member, who can retire to
his district, where slashing and spraying prevails, and where
the trees stand without leaves.
VEDOLIA C.
Undeterred by criticism of the commission, even by an editorial in the
Times criticizing the Horticultural Commission for pursuing its cut and spray
strategy despite the success of the ladybug, Kercheval justified the action he
and his fellow commissioners had taken to eradicate the scale.
{Times, June 29, 1889, p. 6}
Vedolia and Icerya.
Los Angeles, June 28.--[To the Editor of The Times.] In
an article in The Times this morning--with some portions of
which I cordially agree and some I do not--you say, "it is
remarkable to learn that the County Horticultural
Commissioners recommend, or are about to recommend, the
Supervisors to order the cutting back or spraying of trees
throughout the county." You say, "it is difficult to
understand why the board should make such a recommendation,
inasmuch as that would destroy or starve to death the
ladybug, leaving the county to look like a wilderness,
setting the fruit crop back a couple of years and leaving the
bushes, the grass and the ground infested when we should soon
be in a worse condition than ever."
Speaking for myself as a member of the commission, and
not by authority, permit me to say that we have never dreamed
of endeavoring to force upon or recommend to any one the use
of any particular wash or emulsion, in the interest of any
patentee or manufacturer. Let the owner of an infected
orchard use cold water if he so desires, as some are doing,
provided he is keeping down the scale and preventing it from
spreading to his neighbors. What we do want, in my opinion,
is to prevent the pest from spreading to the districts in the
county not already infected, and where but slightly so, to
stamp it out at once, by washes or emulsions or even the
total destruction of infected trees. Regarding the argument
you make in favor of leaving all our old poisoned trees,
sapped of all vitality and vigor, in their present state,
just to breed more scale in order to raise a few more
ladybugs, permit me to say it is a curious one at least,
inasmuch as the vedolia would perish any way a few years
hence, having completed her mission, and leaving our groves of
half-dead, ghostly orange trees, that will then have to be
dug up or cut back before we can ever hope to receive any
benefit from them or the land. Why not cut back these
diseased trees at once, reserving a few upon which to
cultivate colonies of the vedolia, then with good cultivation
they will start forth vigorously--as will also the scale, but
we shall have the ladybug on hand to follow them, and in two
or three years we shall have thrifty, healthy trees, bearing
first-class fruit, one crop of which will be worth more than
the trees would ever produce in 50 years (should they survive
so long) without cutting back. The object of cutting back is
two-fold, to help the ladybug conquer the enemy and restore
the impaired vitality of the tree as quickly as possible.
Giving the vedolia due credit for vigor and energy in
procreative qualities, as well as hostility to the scale bug,
it will yet be two or three years before we can say "the
victory is ours," or hers, rather. There is plenty of the
icerya along the zanjas, streets and waysides, on all the
grass and weeds, for legions of them to feed upon for a long
time to come, and I most respectfully submit it is to our
interest to help her along with her task as quickly as
possible by cutting back all trees that, if today freed from
the scale and left standing with all the old top, would
forever remain unproductive to the owner and an offensive
nuisance in the sight of the public.
A. F. KERCHEVAL.
Kercheval, too, succumbed to the lure of the developer, selling his home
and orchard at Santa Fe and Ninth. In July, 1887, the Times carried an
advertisement: "The Magnificent Kercheval Tract now being subdivided," claiming
it to be the "best soil, finest groves and trees ever offered for sale in the
city of Los Angeles." The same issue announced the subdivision of the McGarry
orchard at Ninth and Alameda and the Mairs Tract between Seventh and Eighth.
In the 1890s the Wolfskill grove would also disappear. Part of it had
become the site of Southern Pacific's Arcade depot in 1888 while the remainder
of the property was broken into commercial and residential lots, some only 25
feet wide, the last of which was disposed of in 1893. What the cottony-cushion
scale had not eaten, the real estate agent gobbled up.
B) THE MOVE TOWARD COOPERATIVE MARKETING
After the introduction of navel and valencia oranges there was no longer
any question about a market for California citrus. Local growers were
impressed by the display of navels at the Riverside citrus fair in 1879 and
either gradually replaced their seedling trees or grafted navels onto them.
Though groves were uprooted in Los Angeles during the 'eighties, planting
increased outside the city. By the time Lyman H. Washburn wrote to the Times
there were over 500,000 bearing trees in the county. Exhibits of California
citrus in the Midwest and East, and especially at the New Orleans Exposition,
1884-85, brought to the attention of the nation the marvel of the state's
agricultural potential, both increasing the market and encouraging more farmers
to leave Iowa for the West Coast. Washburn, an Iowa resident who conducted
tours to California for prospective settlers in the early 1880s, reported on
the fruit exhibit he took back to Muscatine, Iowa in October, 1883, and the
future it foretold for not only citrus but other western fruit. Like many of
his tourist clients, he soon settled in California - and became a real estate
agent.
{Times, Oct. 4, 1883, p. 3}
WINNING THEIR WAY.
California Fruits in Eastern Markets--A Favorable Report.
To the Editor of the Daily Times--Sir: You are aware
the undersigned brought an assortment of California fruit,
for exhibition here in Iowa, the fore part of this month. It
was among the chief attractions at the County Fair held here
following our return, and was a source of wonder and
amazement to those who had never seen such a display.
Our experience in bringing these fruits through, taught
us a lesson that has made us think more of California fruits
and the future demand for them than ever before. Most of
them were bought in Los Angeles with no other selection than
to get as good as were to be had the day we left.
Several of the samples were inferior to those we had
seen during the previous week. They were packed in the usual
manner for shipment, and were five days on the road to Iowa,
and kept here for the fair five days longer. Still, not more
than five per cent. of the grapes spoiled. We had mostly
Muscat grapes, but some Rose of Peru, Black Hamburgs, White
Corinth, and Flaming Tokay.
We brought several fine clusters in a large basket
packed in cork dust, which, aside from shrinking some and
some slight bruises, came through very nicely and kept very
well till the last day of the fair, when offered for
sale--and thus they went like frost before a summer sun, at
20 cents per pound.
We brought a box of oranges, however, that we think
illustrate the superior keeping quality of this class of
California fruits very favorably. These were also bought in
the market there, and it should be remembered were of the
crop which ripened in March last, yet have remained on the
trees till Sept. 1st, and were now transported to Iowa
through a hot climate and disposed of ten days after leaving
Los Angeles, with only the loss of three, from any sign of
decay. We brought quinces, apples, pomegranates and other
fruits without the loss of any by decay.
These facts convince us that the time may not be distant
when cheaper freights may make it possible for Southern
California fruits to find a market over here in the
Mississippi valley that will make them worth more than anyone
can afford to pay for wine purposes. We were much surprised
even now, as we spent a few days in Chicago, last week, to
find that California grapes and pears had possession of the
market. Every fruit stand we saw in the great metropolis had
almost exclusively California grapes, retailing at twenty
cents per pound. They ought to be furnished there for ten
cents, and then your vineyards may do their best, and the
surplus will all be taken east of the mountains. Your
readers do not need telling that in no place on the American
Continent do they grow either the kind or quality of grapes
we do in California; and who don't like grapes? Place our
luscious grapes of Los Angeles at ten cents per pound in
Chicago, St. Louis, Cincinnati and Kansas City, and you will
want a whole train load daily at each place to supply the
market. We doubt if the most sanguine has yet approached a
proper estimate of the possibilities of a well regulated
fruit farm in Los Angeles valley.
Our association are doing all in their power to make
known the great attractions and possibilities of Southern
California, with a clear conviction that we do a person a
kindness in helping him to reliable information about the
country.
Our next excursion will leave Chicago for Los Angeles
and San Francisco the 17th of October, and the prospect is
good for a large company.
L. H. WASHBURN.
Muscatine, Iowa. Sept. 28, 1883.
Rumors of almost unbelievable profits to be made from oranges circulated in
the early 1880s. The Wolfskill orchard reportedly returned $1000 per acre,
$3000 an acre was credited to one grower, and claims of $800-$1000 were
commonplace. But newcomers found that the price of orchard land advanced to
meet these profits. Even with the rising cost of land, acreage increased and
inevitably the market was glutted with an oversupply despite the superior
quality of California fruit.
In the 1870s, as the industry developed, middlemen had purchased the crop
on the tree and were responsible for picking, packing and shipping. This
system had virtually assured the grower a profit and, coupled with the limited
supply in the early years, accounted for the exceptional profits claimed by
Wolfskill and others.
As the 'eighties advanced and the number of growers increased, speculators
drove a harder bargain. Furthermore, shippers flooded some markets with
oranges while shortages existed elsewhere. By the early 'nineties middlemen
would ship fruit only on consignment, with the orchardist assuming nearly all
costs and risks. What had seemed like the ultimate in farming - a good living
on ten or twenty acres - was replaced with worry over unpaid bills and
mortgages on the brink of default.
Long before that occurred the thoughts of citrus growers turned to
organization and cooperative action to better control market shipments and to
earn a fair profit. In late October, 1885, growers gathered in Los Angeles to
consider what course of action to take. The meeting lasted several days, and
in the midst of the conference Pomona grower J. W. Sallee used the letters
column to state both the problem and to urge support for the organization that
was about to emerge.
{Times, Oct. 28, 1885, p. 2}
The Fruit-Growers' Organization.
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: The work of
organization and co-operation of fruit growers goes on with
great satisfaction. Never has there been a move of such
importance commenced in this county, where there was such
unanimity of feeling and concert of action. If fruit raising
fails to be remunerative to the producer in Southern
California, then this country is a failure and our labors in
vain. The question of producing in quantity and quality is
no longer an experiment, neither is it a question of being
able to put this fruit on the Eastern market in good
shape--these all have been settled. But to sell the fruit so
as to pay the producer a reasonable profit is what we are at
work for now. And in this matter the interest of the
producer is the one we work for. While all others connected
with the business should be--and will be--allowed a good
compensation for services rendered (for these receive first
money from the business), yet if the producer is not
compensated for his labors the whole thing is a failure and
this country a fraud. Then why should commission men--or
middle men of any class--object to this movement because it
is intended to curtail the expense of selling, and retain the
profits with the producer, where it so justly belongs? Fruit
cannot be put on the Eastern market in a manner free from
competition by any other method than the one proposed. We
want no competition amongst ourselves. We want no market
glutted. If fruit is to be dumped, dump it at this end of
the line. We must have no competition, save that from the
Mediterranean. If commission men want to take the advantage
of this, they are welcome to it. The orange-growers of
Southern California are a unit. It is true many growers are
not yet made fully acquainted with the plan, but they will
soon be, and then they will see that it is a movement of the
grower, by the grower, and for the grower. There is nothing
obscure or dark about it. It is plain, prudent and
practical. And the growers in every locality will hail with
joy the committee on organization, as they visit each
locality. All other issues are buried, and we move in one
solid phalanx.
J. W. SALLEE
Pomona, Oct. 25, 1885.
From the Los Angeles meeting came The Orange Growers Protective Union of
Southern California, the first attempt to organize an industry-wide association
of citrus orchardists. The union came none to soon, for carload shipments of
citrus fruit from Southern California in the 1885-86 season were double the
previous year. Despite short term gains, the union proved less than the
success Sallee and others expected as middlemen preferred to deal with
individual growers, many of whom remained outside the organization, rather than
with the union. Ezra F. Kysor {the Times apparently misspelled the name as
"Kyser"} recognized that problem as he shared a communication from a
distributor who worked with the union in San Francisco. The city's first
prominent architect and the man who designed St. Vibiana's Cathedral, Kysor
also dabbled in citrus and other businesses, as did many professional men.
"Porter Bros. & Co." was a major commission house.
{Times, Feb. 7, 1886, p. 5}
Will the Orange-Growers Unite in a Solid Union?
To the Editor of the Times--Sir: The inclosed letter
will explain itself, and in connection with it, I would
propound this question to the growers who are not in the
Union: Will you not come in and make the Union solid, and
let us, the men who grow the fruit, get a good, fair price
for our work in growing oranges?
E. F. KYSER.
"San Francisco, Jan. 28, 1886.
"E. F. Kyser--Dear Sir: Your oranges to hand and sold,
but would say they were beginning to rot already, and it
would not do to keep them much longer. In regard to holding
them for higher prices, would say that if we were to hold on
to them they would all spoil, and we would not realize half
as much for them. If there was nothing but Union men
shipping here, the price would be raised to $2 or $2.50, and
oranges that now sell for $1.50 could be sold just as easily
for $2 and $2.50; but, as you are aware, Porter Bros. & Co.
here, and two or three others are receiving oranges, and, as
they do not belong to the Union, they cannot be compelled to
sell for any specified amount; and, in fact, they are selling
to-day oranges for $1.25 just as good as yours, and, as we
said before, if there was nothing but Union men shipping here
we could then set a price on the fruit.
"Hoping this will prove satisfactory, we remain, yours
truly,
"L. G. Sresovich & Co."
Poor returns continued to plague the industry, creating discord among
growers in different sections of Southern California. The quarantine that San
Bernardino placed on importation of trees from Santa Ana was echoed in the
sniping engaged in by orchardists in Riverside and Los Angeles. Historian
Esther Klotz wrote that in 1886 at least 50 carloads of Los Angeles oranges
were shipped to Riverside, relabeled as Riverside fruit, and sent east. She
called this a "swindle on eastern customers." Riverside grower Elmer W.
Holmes, who would edit the Riverside Press, serve as county supervisor and hold
a seat in the state assembly, had obtained good prices for his fruit in earlier
years and resented what he considered to be unfair practices by Los Angeles
growers and shippers. While he may have been overly optimistic in terms of
prices received for Riverside oranges, he clearly indicated a nagging hostility
toward growers in Los Angeles. Germain & Co., cited by Holmes, was the Los
Angeles seed company established in 1871 by Eugene Germain. In the 'eighties
Germain also operated a packinghouse in the city.
{Times, Dec. 22, 1886, p. 6}
A CORRECTION ASKED.
Los Angeles, Dec. 21, 1886.--[To the Editor of The
Times.] Upon the strength of the assertion so often made in
your columns that you desire to treat all sections justly and
fairly, I ask for space to correct a statement which appears
in your local columns this morning. It was as follows:
"Riverside navel oranges which were frozen during the
late cold spell are being peddled around the streets at 10
cents a dozen."
It is quite possible that Los Angeles has at last
developed a "poor critter" so wicked as to hawk his cheap
oranges as Riverside grown, and your reporter, not being an
expert, has innocently attributed this marvelous fall in
price to the wrong reason. I should like to believe that
this and not a malicious desire to injure an important
industry was his motive. I unhesitatingly deny the truth of
the statement. The statements as to the injury from frost
have been grossly exaggerated. After a careful examination
of the fruit stands and inquiring of the two leading
packing-houses of the city, I am prepared to assert that no
Riverside fruit has been sold in this city this fall, except
that which Germain & Co. and Porter Bros. have shipped, and
that the lowest price at which any of the windfall oranges of
the variety named, from that locality, have sold was $4 per
box. They sell at Germain's today at $4.50, and when I am
convinced that retailers will buy oranges at 40 cents a dozen
and sell them at 10 cents, I shall be prepared to believe
there is ground for such an item.
Several statements have appeared referring to the damage
done, and the best answer I can make is to reply that the Los
Angeles and San Gabrial buyers are pushing the Riverside
packers hard for control of the Riverside fruit, and that the
prices being received from men who fully understand the
situation, and who certainly are not disposed to boom prices
for fruit, are higher than those received during the last
very successful season.
Trusting you will feel disposed to give this room, I am
yours truly,
E. W. HOLMES.
As the decade ended the Orange Growers Protective Union failed, unable to
overcome increasing resistance from middlemen and the lack of unity among
orchardists. Economic conditions within the industry deteriorated further, and
"croakers" began to doubt that there was a future for citrus in Southern
California. Faced with a costly fight against white scale on the one hand and
worry over profit and loss on the other, growers looked for the cause of their
dilemma, or for a scapegoat. Fred A. Binney offered his candidate, a popular
one in the 1880s not only in California but elsewhere in the nation. While
this letter was directed to the editor of the Mirror, which was the weekly
edition of the Times, it was printed in the Times letters column. Linda Rosa
was located between Murrieta and Temecula.
{Times, Nov. 20, 1889, p. 5}
Does Fruit-growing Pay?
Linda Rosa, San Diego county, Cal., Nov. 11.--[To the
Editor of the Mirror.] Upon the answer to this question the
future prosperity of Southern California depends, because if
this country is not to pay as fruit farms, it must revert to
cattle and wheat, which means a sparse population as compared
with a dense population.
I am sorry to say the word has gone forth, in England,
at least, that it is no use for settlers to come here, as
fruit-growing doesn't pay.
I have been trying for six months past to get people
from England to come and settle on a ranch near here, but my
efforts have been marred by letters written from here to the
English papers warning people against coming here. "H. H.
C.," writing from San Francisco to the Manchester Guardian,
says: "Although many have risen here, I strongly advise any
one who has work at home not to emigrate to this city or this
State.... Hundreds of Englishmen have lost fortunes by
buying fruit ranches in Southern California. Grapes are now
selling in this city 6 pounds for 15 cents; so you can
imagine if it pays to grow them."
Another writer, Mr. L. H. Lewis, writes to the Worcester
Herald as follows: "I can, at a moment's thought, name a
dozen Englishmen whose experience would coincide with mine;
almost all who go to California are disappointed."
A correspondent writes that his broker, who was to come
here, now declines, because he had heard of so many who have
tried fruit-growing here and found "there was nothing in it."
Now, sir, however much it may suit the purposes of
interested persons in this country to pooh pooh all this,
there cannot be the least doubt that there is a great deal of
truth in these statements, and whether true or not, people
are deterred from coming here. I have lost at least 8 or 10
possible settlers solely through the bad name fruit-growing
has got in England.
It would be much more to the purpose if the various
chambers of commerce would invite fruit-growers to state
their experience and grievances and find out where the fault
lies.
As long as raisins sell retail for 20 to 30 cents per
pound in the East it is absurd to say that there is not money
in raisin-growing; and, I presume, the same remark and
similar facts apply to figs, canned and dried fruits of all
kinds, and possibly fresh fruits also. The prices paid in
the East show a very handsome profit, but the trouble is that
the producer does not get it. This is the key to the whole
question. The profits are grabbed by middle men and railway
companies, who, in their greed for gain, are rapidly killing
the goose that lays the golden eggs. Railway companies are
crying out for freight and passengers, discharging hands and
reducing their train service, and all the time their and the
middlemen's greed for gain is ruining or discouraging the
grower to such an extent that hundreds are obliged to give
the business up in disgust. These curse the country and
spread the report that there is no profit in fruit-ranching,
and that settlers should not come here. At least half a
dozen of my correspondents who were keen to come here have
now changed their minds and gone to Canada, Australia or New
Zealand.
It seems to me that the greed for money is the curse of
the country, and is doing more to keep back property than
anything else. No sooner is there an influx of new-comers
than there is a general conspiracy to fleece them--by raising
prices. Land goes up, rents go up, lumber goes up, sugar and
coal and railway freights--in fact, all that a settler wants
is raised against him and he is fairly driven away. This was
the history of the last "boom," and there is little guarantee
it will not be repeated on the first occasion.
As to the railway companies, they tell us their lines
don't pay; they can't carry for less. When more people come
in, says Senator Stanford, freights and rates will be
reduced. In my humble opinion it would be infinitely
preferable for the railways to be owned and worked by the
State or Government. The State can at least afford to run
them at a loss if necessary, and so they ought to be, while
the country is young. To begin charging high rates where
population is sparse and little capital is in the country on
the plea that the railways must "pay" is like expecting an
orange orchard to pay on the second or third year and
abandoning it in disgust if it doesn't.
I met a farmer here recently who had traveled 70 miles
by road to attend a funeral. When asked why he did not use
the railway, he replied that the fares were too high. This
surely is a commentary on the railway management of this
country. When people take to traveling by road because of
the exorbitant railway charges, one wonders for what purpose
railways exist. If railway traveling is not cheaper than
going by road, the railways had better cease to exist. As
another example of railroad management and their incapacity
to march with the times, I ordered a $30 incubator from the
East, but had to cancel the order because the companies
wanted $8.50 for bringing it here. As there were hundreds on
order, the firm has now decided to manufacture them here.
Thus the railways will lose that particular traffic entirely.
FRED A. BINNEY.
Orchardists struggled through what were referred to as the "red ink years"
in the early 1890s. With the stability of citrus production in question,
growers met again. Aware that their survival depended upon successful
cooperative marketing they formed, in 1893, The Southern California Fruit
Exchange, superseded in 1905 by the California Fruit Growers Exchange, the
organization later identified by the Sunkist label.
C) HARD TIMES IN THE VINEYARDS
Growers in other fields faced similar problems. Grapes for some time had
been the principal market crop shipped out of Southern California. Great
vineyards were scattered across the southland, originating with cuttings from
the vineyards at San Gabriel and producing what were referred to as Mission
grapes. In the 1850s a million pounds of table grapes a year had been shipped
north to the miners, though that trade declined greatly once grape culture
developed in the northern part of the state.
L. J. Rose of Sunny Slope, as important a vineyardist as he was a leading
orange grower, imported cuttings from Europe to replace the less desirable
mission grapes. Wine production replaced table grapes, with the German colony
at Anaheim a center of the industry. By the early 1880s Southern California
grape growers were concerned about their inability to compete with the
developing vineyards in the north. "San Gabriel" urged grape growers to share
their thoughts on the problems they faced.
{Times, Oct. 25, 1882, p. 4}
A Meeting of Grape-Growers Proposed.
To the Editor:
I believe much good would be likely to grow out of a
meeting of the wine-grape growers of this county to compare
notes on the different varieties of grapes that are best
adapted to this locality and the different modes of planting
them. Probably, if invited, some of the State viticultural
officers would meet with us and give us the benefit of their
experience. We certainly are not getting any such price for
our grapes as they get in Napa and Sonoma counties. Perhaps
we have too many Mission grapes, and too few varieties of
other grapes, so that a wine cannot be made of them that will
compete with the wine made elsewhere. I notice that Mission
wine is quoted about fifteen cents per gallon less than other
varieties. This is destined to be a great industry, and much
will depend upon the variety of grapes planted, and much may
be learned by comparing notes and getting the best
information we can.
SAN GABRIEL.
October, 1882.
Throughout the mid-'eighties the vineyards were decimated by blight in much
the same way that citrus suffered. The vast grape acreages of the Anaheim
colony were so devastated that the land was converted to oranges. Elsewhere,
after much trial and error, the vines were saved by the same parasite that had
rescued the citrus industry - the ladybug. By 1889, with the stock no longer
in danger of extinction by pests, the growers turned their attention again to
the low prices they received for their crops. Not surprisingly "P. W." found
that the culprit was the same one that Fred Binney denounced.
{Times, July 29, 1889, p. 5}
"Wo Barthel Den Most Holt."
Los Angeles, July 26.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Replying to your article in today's issue, headed "A
Depressed California Industry," I wish to say that the real
causes of the deplorable condition rests mostly at the
threshold of our divers railroad companies, who charge such
an exorbitant high rate to the local and eastern markets that
it is almost double the amount of its real value. By having
adopted such a rate, however, the railroad companies may not
be aware that they cut their own throats thereby at the same
time. For instance, dry wines can be bought after
fermentation in September, October and November from 10c to
15c a gallon, at a fair profit to the producer, and shipped
without risk, being thence the proper season to the eastern
market. Such young wines can be handled with more care at
destination than they generally experience in the hands of
our vineyardists, as the wine and liquor-dealers East are
generally provided with better cellars. Our cellar
facilities are as a rule, with a few exceptions, very
inferior and don't answer the purpose to give age to wine,
and the natural consequence will be that the wine so held
during the hot spell will gradually suffer and eventually
turn sour and no more fit to take the place as a healthy
wine. The result is that all such wines are offered to the
distillers at a loss to the vineyardist at about 3-7 cents
per gallon, and are converted into brandy. It takes from 7
to 12 gallons of this stuff to make one gallon of brandy.
Now, does not the railroad company lose by this
transportation at an average, say, of 10 gallons to one?
I am no railroad man, but it seems clear to me in sight
of such facts that they are hurting themselves, as well as
the public good, the great wine industry of this country,
which will afford the richest resources if properly
developed, and the future destiny of this glorious country.
Let the railroad companies affix their rate ad valorem, or
say down to eight-tenths of a cent per gallon, and the wine
industry will feel the stimulant, which will soon tell as a
German proverb says: "Wo Barthel den Most holt."
P. W.
D) BUREAUCRACY RUN AMOK
The criticism of government efforts to eliminate citrus scale was repeated
to a lesser degree by others, demonstrating again that not all farmers were as
keenly interested in bureaucratic intervention in agricultural matters as
Horticultural Commissioner Kercheval. His claim that the commission
"never dreamed of endeavoring to force upon or recommend to anyone the use of
any particular wash or emulsion in the interest of any patentee or
manufacturer" contrasts sharply with C. H. Robert's account below regarding
"Ongerth's Powder" and the Viticultural Commission. Like Roberts, "Victor"
{see above} had suggested that recommending washes was part of the corrupt
behavior of the "bug inspectors."
"J. G. D.," initials sometimes used by former Democratic Governor John G.
Downey as a signature on letters, reflected the disdain "practical men"
expressed toward scholarly bureaucrats whose work seemingly had no relevance to
the problems facing farmers. Charles Teague, for fifty years a prominent
Ventura County citrus grower, would later express a similar view regarding a
University of California scientist who seemed more concerned about the life
cycle of a particular pest than developing a practical way to eliminate it.
{Times, May 19, 1889, p. 11}
Concerning a Patent Bug Poison.
Monrovia, May 13.--[To the Editor of The Times.]-- With
your kindly permission I would like to ask of the gentleman
who holds the position of Viticultural Commissioner for this
region, how it comes about that in his exhaustive report of
the investigation officially made by him recently, into the
cause and cure of the vine disease, that the only remedy
suggested for the fungus is a formula which is {illegible}.
The said formula is as follows: Sulphate of copper, 10 per
cent.; lime, 60 per cent.; sulphur, 15 per cent.; "Base of
Ongerth's Powder," 15 per cent.
All plain sailing till we come to the last ingredient,
and I have searched in vain through the United States
Dispensatory, the National ditto, British Pharmacopoeia and
the French Codex for a record of this delusive pharmaceutical
product. No where can I find a trace of either Mr. "Orgerth"
or his highly essential powder, and was on the point of
writing to our estimable Commissioner for light on the
subject, when I chanced to observe this morning in The Times
an artistic wood-cut of what appeared at first sight to be a
representation of B. Franklin doing the bottled-lightning
act. On closer observation, however, I discovered it to be
nothing else in fact than an advertisement of the "missing
link" in our worthy Commissioner's highly-recommended fungus
annihilator, giving the corporate name and place of business
of the lucky possessor of Mr. "Ongerth's" very valuable and
highly essential pulverulent substance. Comment seems
superfluous, taken in connection with the fact these deadly
fungi, in such quantity as to threaten the very existence of
all the vines in South California, are developed
spontaneously, and that a commission was specially delegated
and empowered to investigate the disease and devise a remedy
at the expense of the State. The peculiar connection between
the company advertising "Ongerth's" powder, and the
designation of that powder (instead of its chemical
constituents) as one of the ingredients in the remedy
recommended by the Commissioner, seems to point pretty
clearly to something peculiar.
C. H. ROBERTS
{Times, Sept. 19, 1882, p. 4}
Technicality Gone Wild.
To the Editor of The Times:
I have before me under scrutiny the special report of
the Agricultural Department, No. 31, entitled "Contagious
Diseases of Domestic Animals."
Of course it is designed for general instruction to the
great people of this Republic, and is exceedingly interesting
as a contribution to science; but really it might as well be
written in Hebrew, Greek or Coptic as far as general readers
are concerned.
It is intensely technical, and would take all the
encyclopaedias ever published, and all modern dictionaries as
well as classical, to explain one single chapter of it.
Therefore it will be consigned to the waste basket. Whereas,
if it were written in our own beautiful English, such as
Goldsmith, Longfellow and Irving used, it would be of
infinite use. As it is, the cost of its publication is money
thrown completely away - a display of words, or "Vox et
patretoria nihil."
J. G. D.
SAMPLE EXTRACT.
Results of microscopic examination of a Guilford pig:
"Tube No. 1, pleural effusion, containing many very small
spherical granules (monococci;) a few chains of three to ten
elements, similar in appearance to the single granules
(streptococci;) a few chains and couples of oval elements one
four-thousandth of an inch in short diameter by one twenty-
five thousandth of an inch in long diameter. A few Beilli
were present, mostly as single rods, though one chain of
these made up of six rods was seen, each of which was one
two-thousandth of an inch in length, but not more than three
or four of these filaments could be found in a preparation,
and the majority of the fields contained none, though
swarming with the mono and diplococci. Finally, many
gliacoccus masses were to be seen made up of the spherical
granules, the size of these clusters being sometimes twice
the diameter of the red globules. Tube No. 2, pleural
effusion: This tube did not fill entirely, and had commenced
to decompose. It contained many monococci and piplococci; a
few Bacterium termo and some oval granules having the
appearance of spores, but no rods."
[We are sorry for that pig.--Ed.]
E) THE VEGETABLE BUSINESS
Vegetable production in California rose dramatically during the 1880s. The
amount exported from the state in 1889 was ten times what it had been a decade
earlier. Yet, the Times noted in an editorial comment entitled "The Vegetable
Business," most of the state's vegetables were produced by "Chinamen," who
seemed always to thrive in that occupation. "Americans" {the Times pointedly
omitted Italians from inclusion as "Americans"} were not good gardeners because
they lacked "that patient toil and faithful attention to detail, so necessary
to success." Furthermore, the editor argued, Americans treated vegetable
gardening as a "small" business, comparing it to washing clothes or selling
peanuts. That was a mistake according to the Times, pointing out that
gardening was light, easy work requiring little capital and was carried out on
a cash basis - great advantages at a time when capital was scarce and credit
hard to obtain.
"Inquirer" defended "American" farmers and, citing a bit of anecdotal
evidence involving two Pasadena ladies who went into crops, suggested the
problem lay elsewhere.
{Times, Nov. 20, 1889, p. 5}
The Vegetable Business--A Reply.
Pasadena, Nov. 16.--[To the Editor of The Times.]
Seeing an article in the Mirror of November 16th, on "The
Vegetable Business," it seems to be some one's duty to
respond; for to my certain knowledge there are a few
"Americans" in our vicinity who have made honest and earnest
effort in this "vegetable business." I know of two ladies
who bought lots at a high price during the boom, and who at
the opening of the present season said: "Let us put our lots
into onions; they are a profitable crop, and surely should
pay for their 'seed and raising,' and leave us sufficient
margin to pay the interest on the money invested in the lot
and our taxes." The crop was a fine one when harvested. The
market reports were watched with interest. November 14th a
man and team with a load of onions was sent to Los Angeles to
make the first sale. The entire day was spent in the effort.
Commission men, hotel men, grocery men, etc., etc., were
faithfully interviewed. "Onions? No! We don't want onions;
the market is flat, overstocked, no sales; don't bring
nothing." At last one man was pursuaded to take a few,
paying 30 cents per 100 pounds.
At night the man returned with his report of the sale.
Just $1.25 it amounted to! If you will undertake to subtract
from this amount the hire of the man and team for one day you
will see one reason why "Americans" prefer that dirty
Chinamen, who board themselves and live on next to nothing,
should be left an open field for this kind of profits.
It is unfair and unjust to say that Americans "look
down" on honest industry. In these hard times certainly
there are very few that are not anxious to till the soil if
there is one cent of profit in it. The papers are filled
with daily exhortations for farmers to come to our goodly
land. Residents are importuned to do more gardening, and
fruit raising. But what use? Where is the market? Where is
the encouragement? Are crops to be raised with care and
patience to find no market, and then left to rot or be dumped
in the ditch?
Oh, well, this is an awful year on onions!
Is it? Well, then, it is an off-year on beets, carrots
and figs, as well.
There is something wrong. Will some wise one come to
the front and explain? What can be done? How is an
"American" to find a market at any price?
INQUIRER.
"Inquirer" had, by that brief reference to "dirty Chinamen," raised the
still smoldering issue of competition with Chinese agricultural labor. {For a
more thorough exploration of the "anti-Chinese" question see the chapter on
that topic.} "Plowshare's" rebuttal made the Chinese issue paramount, with a
surprising twist. "Corner lots," referred to by "Plowshare," were a symbol of
the speculative real estate fever that raged in the 'eighties. "G. D. L.," one
of the Cahuenga farmers "Plowshare" referred to, offered some advice to the
lady gardeners of Pasadena.
{Times, Nov. 29, 1889, p. 5}
The Garden.
Pasadena, Nov. 23.--[To the Editor of The Times.] A
recent issue contains an article by "Inquirer" on "The
Vegetable Business." Since coming to Southern California I
have made the Chinamen and their mode of farming quite a
study, and I find that their motto is "strictly business."
"John's" crops are well tended and his tools well taken care
of. And he has adopted the best mode of placing his wares
before the people. He calls at our doors in the morning of
certain days each week, and the housewife can rely upon his
coming. And if my American brother wishes to compete with
John for a share of the trade he must adopt the same tactics
and make his daily or tri-weekly rounds with his wagon.
There is not a family in Southern California who will not
give an American gardener the preference in buying their
vegetables if they are equal in quality, and brought to their
doors, the same as John does. To a great many the idea of
peddling from a wagon is distasteful. Why should it be? How
many merchants are there today who do not secure their trade
and introduce their goods by the personal solicitation of
their agents, and that agent very often one of the firm? As
to prices and profits, John don't give his goods away, and
the weekly returns from his business would keep a good-sized
family well fed and clothed, and leave a balance for a rainy
day. He is obliged to pay higher prices for his implements
and the land he rents than an American would, and still he
makes money. And there is another field of profit for the
vegetable-grower--and as to the success of it I will refer my
brother to two ladies who also invested their savings in
corner lots, but did not plant onions as their only crop--and
that is raising vegetables for the early winter and spring
market of the East. There is a colony of gardeners at
Cahuenga, composed of people who own or rent places of five
acres and upward. They not only supply the hotels of Los
Angeles, but also ship in car lots to Chicago, and realize a
nice profit. In order to handle their products in a
business-like way, and get the best returns, they have formed
among themselves a shippers' association, and elected a
manager, who reviews the produce and attends to loading the
car and shipping. Among the members are the Bristol sisters,
to whom I would refer all Americans who want to know how to
raise garden truck profitably. Such a colony would prosper
on the lands adjoining Pasadena or any other part of our
glorious country. And to our grocerymen I would suggest that
they adopt the ways of their eastern brethren and have an
attractive display of fresh vegetables every morning, and in
that way patronize those who deal with them. So now, instead
of standing around the corners with your hands in your
pockets up to your elbows calling the Chinamen dirty and
wishing you had never left "cyclone" Kansas or "dry" Iowa, go
to work and tackle "John" at his own game; your fellow-
citizens will all give you the preference. Never lay claim
to being an American if you cannot successfully compete with
a Chinaman in any and every branch of business. Yours
respectfully,
PLOWSHARE.
{Times, Dec, 13, 1889, p. 5}
LETTERS FROM FARMERS.
Colegrove (Cahuenga Valley), Dec. 6, 1889.--[To the
Editor of the Mirror.] I have noticed with a certain amount
of interest the communications in your journal alluding to
the occupation of gardening, and if you will allow me space
to insert a few ideas I shall feel that I am highly rewarded.
I think the idea that "Plowshare" advanced was a good
one, and instead of our sitting down and depicting out a sad
fate for this "Chinese-infested" country, I, for one, will
make a rival for John and his garden. Are we beneath these
heathens in practical knowledge and style of workmanship, and
are we to stand aside with this idea in our heads, that he
knows of better plans for raising vegetables and will have
better success at the business than we can? No. If with
their crude mode of working they annually send thousands of
dollars out of the country, the proceeds of a few acres of
market garden, why cannot a white man with a fair degree of
intelligence make a comfortable living and also have
something to spare for the improvement of a home that will
benefit himself, his neighbors and his country?
I am pleased to see, Mr. Editor, that your paper has an
interest in the development of the garden and the home, and I
hope that as a reward it will see many of our American
neighbors convinced that a white man can produce an article
as good and as cheap as any begrimed Chinaman that peddles at
their door; and, also, that it will convince the people of
the American nationality that gardening is not a small or
mean business, but, on the contrary, is the most healthful
and mind-absorbing employment that any country affords,
especially in this delightful climate of Southern California.
Trusting that our American friends at Pasadena will not plant
all onions next year, and overstock the market, I am your
faithful subscriber,
G. D. L.
F) THE HIRED HAND
Not all who engaged in farming owned land, though owners were the ones who
normally wrote letters to the Times. While workingmen in the city -
carpenters, painters and printers, for example - were frequent contributors,
only two letters from farmhands found their way into print in the 1880s. David
Fisher, otherwise unknown, represented the "permanent" class of farmworkers as
opposed to harvest hands who labored only temporarily at one place and then
moved on. In fact, the David Fishers were not likely to remain at one place
very long either, though their employment was not dependent upon the harvest or
planting seasons.
In the years following the Civil War California farmers expressed a sincere
interest in encouraging young farm families to migrate west where they could
take up employment on established farms until they were able to till their own
land. They held the Jeffersonian concept of a classless agrarian society, in
which the hired hand was considered a member of the family who ate at the table
with the owner and who someday would possess his own farm.
But California agriculture, influenced by unusually large landholdings and
by the ability to produce crops that benefited from large numbers of cheap,
temporary workers, turned elsewhere for that source. Before the Civil War some
farmers had looked to slavery as the best means to meet their needs, but the
hostility of the state's voters to servitude would not permit that. After
miners drove the Chinese from the Mother Lode, growers found a labor supply
that provided the benefits of slave labor within a free society. In 1870
Chinese workers provided one-tenth of the state's agricultural labor force. By
1880 that had increased to one-third. While those statistics would change
abruptly with passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the end of Chinese
immigration in the early 1880s, the condition of farm workers did not improve
noticeably. In a touching call for fairness, David Fisher lamented upon the
loneliness and hard life of the permanent hired hand in 1882. There was no
reply.
{Times, Aug. 8, 1882, p. 4}
Grievances of Farm Hands.
To the Editor of The Times:
You have kindly placed a column of your newspaper at the
service of the people--a kindness that is appreciated by the
working men of this county.
Yesterday at Santa Monica I could not but admire, and to
a certain extent participate in, the enjoyments of the day.
I saw carpenters, stone-masons, painters, firemen, etc., with
their wives and sweethearts, giving themselves up to a day of
pleasure and recreation, having no thought of to-morrow. I
mingled amongst them on the beach, saw them sporting in the
surf, patronized the candy man, had a wine dinner at
Eugene's, danced in the Pavilion, lost my return ticket, and
had to put up four bits; and still I was not happy. Here, in
one of the most glorious climates of the world, surrounded by
everything that is beautiful, your readers will ask: Why was
I not happy? Because I belong to that unfortunate class of
men known as farm hands. To those of your readers who have
never worked on a ranch in Los Angeles or Ventura counties, I
will give an idea of what it is. I hired out to a man not
six miles from town, at $30 per month. He was a Dutchman
with a wife and two grown daughters. Routine: First day
rise at 4 a. m.; feed stock, milk cows, clean out stable,
groom buggy horses; at 6 a. m., breakfast, (Chinese cook,)
beans, bacon, syrup, and heavy bread; at 6:30 out in the
field hoeing corn in a hot sun till 12 n. Dinner, beans,
bacon and syrup. At 1 p. m. hoeing corn, continuing till
sunset; then back to ranch house, feed and water stock and
milk eleven cows. At 9 p. m. supper, beans, bacon and syrup.
No bed--sleep on the lee side of a haystack. No papers, no
friendship, nothing but hard, dreary toil, from sunrise to
sunset. Why should not a farm hand have regular hours for
labor, the same as others have? It is only through the press
that we can make our grievances known. In his own country
the above Dutchman probably eked out his own existence in the
same way that he treats a willing American. Circumstances
compel men to work on a ranch, but why not treat them as men
and Christians--not worse than slaves?
DAVID FISHER.
Near the end of the decade the Times rejected a call for repeal of the
Chinese Exclusion Act that came from "a few wealthy fruit growers" who claimed
their industry would be ruined without Chinese labor. Otis editorialized that
any shortage of white labor was the result of failure "to provide decent
accommodations for their help, or to treat them like human beings." In support
of his position, Otis ran in his editorial column this letter, "from a ranch-
hand, whose plain, unadorned statement carries with it a conviction which no
amount of literary style could increase." The letter carried no title,
dateline, salutation or name.
{Times, Jan. 10, 1889, p. 4}
In looking over The Times I saw where the editor had
taken up the labor question concerning the fruit growers and
ranchers of Southern California.
I am a laboring man and have worked on several different
ranches in the State, both here and in Fresno county. The
editor of The Times in that able article has expressed the
sentiments of every white man who ever did work on the
ranches in this State, and I am glad to know that he was bold
enough to tell the exact reason why these fruit growers
prefer the Mongolian to white men.
I was born and raised on a farm in the good old State of
Illinois. I like the farm and it is a pleasure to me to
follow the occupation of farming or fruit growing, but it is
a sad and most deplorable fact that one loses his taste for
farm work when he works on these California ranches awhile.
I have nothing to say against the work to be done on
these ranches, but as to the treatment of the men while
wor