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Ella M. Sexton - Stories of California
almost certain, and there was such demand for fruit and farm products that more and more acres were
cultivated each year.
Our leading industry now is farming and fruit-growing, and California's delicious fresh or cured fruit is
sent all over the world. Large amounts of barley and hops are shipped from here to Europe, and our state
produces almost all the Lima beans used in the country.
The citrus fruits, as oranges, lemons, and pomelos, or "grape-fruit," are called, grow in the seven
southern counties, or in the foothills on the western slope of the Sierras. The trees cannot endure frost
and must be irrigated in the summer. Orange trees are a pretty sight, with their shining green leaves,
white, sweet-smelling flowers, and the green or golden fruit. About Christmas-time, when oranges ripen,
both blossoms and fruit may be picked from the same tree. Los Angeles and Orange County grow most
oranges, but San Diego is first in lemon culture. Half a million trees in that county show the bright
yellow fruit and fragrant blossoms every month in the year. The other southern counties also raise
lemons by the car-load to send east, or for your lemonade and lemon pies at home.
There, too, the olive grows well, that little plum-shaped fruit you usually see as a green, salt pickle on the
table. The Mission Fathers brought this tree first from Spain, where the poor people live upon black
bread and olives. Olives are picked while green and put in a strong brine of salt and water to preserve
them for eating. Dark purple ripe olives are also very good prepared the same way. Did you know that
olive-oil is pressed out of ripe olives? The best oil comes from the first crushing, and the pulp is
afterwards heated, when a second quality of oil is obtained. Olive trees grow very slowly, and do not
fruit for seven years after they are planted. But they live a hundred years, and bear more olives every
season.
The black or purple fig which grew in the old Mission gardens bears fruit everywhere in the state. Either
fresh and ripe, or pressed flat and dried, it is delicious and healthful. White figs like those from abroad
have been raised the last few years, and it is hoped in time to produce Smyrna figs equal to the imported.
While peach orchards blossom and bear fruit six months of the year in the south, most of this pretty
pink-cheeked fruit grows in the great valleys, or along the Sacramento River. Pears also show their
snowy blossoms and yellow fruit in the valleys and farther north. The Bartlett pear is sent to all the
Eastern states in cold storage cars kept cool by ice, and also to Europe.
The finest apricots are those of that wonderful southern country, miles and miles of orchards lying round
Fresno especially. Yet the valleys and foot-hills produce plenty, and in the old mining counties very
choice fruit ripens. Apples like the high mountain valleys, where they get a touch of frost in winter,
though there is a cool section of San Diego County where fine ones are raised. Cherries do well in the
middle and valley regions, the earliest coming from Vacaville, in Solano County.
Grapes grow throughout the state, though the famous raisin vineyards, where thousands of tons are dried
every year, are around Fresno. Most of the raisins are dried in the sun, but in one factory a hundred tons
of grapes may be dried at one time by steam. The raisins are seeded by machinery, and packed in pretty
boxes to send all over the coast, and through the states, where once only foreign raisins were used. Many
vineyards in the southern part and middle of the state grow only wine grapes, California wines,
champagne, and brandy having a wide use.
Great quantities of fresh fruits are used in the state or sent away, while the canneries put up immense
amounts, also. Canned fruit reaches many consumers, but it is expensive. Our cured or dried fruit,
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