Santa Cruz County History
HISTORY OF SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, CALIFORNIA.- E. S. Harrison, Pacific Press Publ. Co., San Francisco, 1891
CHAPTER XIV.
GENERAL DESCRIPTION.
AGRICULTURE.
THE word "farming" in California has heretofore conveyed the idea of vast fields of grain. Fences were so far apart that the one on the opposite side of the field would be invisible to the unaided eye. From a half dozen to twenty six and eight-horse teams drawing gang plows were used to break the land. These were followed by the seeder and harrows in sufficient numbers so that a day's work meant a planting of from fifty to one hundred and fifty acres of land. During the winter, when the young grain was growing, men were employed to herd the wild geese off the fields, these pests coming in such numbers, and committing such depredations, as to frequently provoke the ranch owner into poisoning them.
All this has been changed in Santa Cruz County. Small land-holdings are the rule here, and diversified farming follows as a natural result. To show that it is more profitable it is only necessary to point to the evidence of thrift and prosperity to be seen upon every hand, the pretty homes, the neat gardens, the grassy lawns, and many other indications of culture and refinement, and then to contrast these significant and suggestive feature of farm life in this section with the conditions which obtain to a great extent in the valleys of the San Joaquin and Sacramento, where will be seen a vast stretch of slumberous plain covered with billows of bending grain, in the midst of which, unprotected by shrub or tree, an ordinary and often very common board residence gleams and glimmers in the bright heat and sunshine.
In Santa Cruz County considerable grain is raised (in the Pajaro Valley one hundred and twelve bushels have been produced upon one acre), but the industry is not recognized as one that brings adequate returns on the valuation of valley lands. Some fields of buckwheat may be perceived by a person traveling over the country, whilst here and there the pretty green of growing corn attracts the attention of the observer, and excites his curiosity, inasmuch as from the time it is planted until after it matures it does not receive one drop of rain.
Corn with stalks from thirteen to fifteen feet in height can be found in many fields, and the yield of from fifty to sixty bushels an acre represents about the average. The profits of this branch of farming are not conspicuous, as corn planting is generally resorted to by the farmer to clear his land of foul stuff and give the soil that rest obtained by rotation of crops. Potatoes are a wonderfully prolific crop in this county, especially in the Pajaro Valley, and, except in the years when the prices are depressed, are a very profitable product. Beans are a conspicuous production and the source of considerable wealth to the county. Since the establishment of the Western Beet Sugar Factory, at Watsonville, a field of sugar beets is an adjunct of most farms in the Pajaro Valley. Pumpkins are grown for stock feed, and frequently yield thirty tons to the acre. An orchard, a vineyard, a strawberry patch, or a patch of blackberries or raspberries, are a part of most farms in the county, and generally the most profitable. Melons are grown to a limited extent.
Much of the Pajaro Valley will produce a ton of dried hops to the acre, and in 1881, when the price of hops went up to such fabulous figures, from a twenty-acre hop field in this valley $25,000 worth of hops were sold. Particulars of this and other features of agriculture will be found under properly-classified heads in this chapter.
VITICULTURE.
Viticulture in Santa Cruz County, if not the most prominent, is at least the most promising, industry. Here are found the natural advantages which produce the very best quality of table grapes and the very best quality of light dry wines. This is a broad and sweeping statement, but it is not made without authority. The evidence of its truthfulness is to be found in the products of the vineyards of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the testimonials of the most prominent and competent wine connoisseurs of the State. Recently two members of the Viticulture Commission visited this county, and sampled wines from a number of cellars, notably from the cellar of the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Company. They were profuse in their encomiums, loud in their praise, and as an evidence of the sincerity of their utterances, purchased a quantity of new wine in order that they might age it by their own methods to ascertain the result. They stated, unqualifiedly, that the Santa Cruz Mountains were pre-eminently the light dry wine district of California. While our wines of all grades compare favorably with the best wines of the State, they were not backward in criticising the methods of some of our wine makers, but were unstinted in the praise of the natural advantages of our locality, and the superior quality of our vine products.
This much in regard to the facts. I shall now proceed to show the correspondence between the facts and theory, or, in other words, that the superior quality of wine here produced is the result of conditions of climate and soil which are to be found here, and which do not exist in any such degrees in other parts of the State. In the more lofty sections of the county one is comparatively above the fog belt, and the nearness of the ocean and the breeze which blows daily from the water causes a low and comparatively equable temperature. Grapes grown under these conditions, as may be apparent to everyone possessed of a smattering of chemistry, do not contain a large percentage of sugar, and are consequently well adapted to the making of light wines, containing not more than from seven to ten per cent of alcohol. I am informed by practical and successful wine makers that the best grapes for making wine are those that will produce a normal must, twenty-three to twenty-four per cent of sugar and six and one-half to seven mills of acid. If the percentage of sugar is too high or too low, difficulty will be experienced in obtaining wine of just the right quality. In the interior counties, where the summers are conspicuous for their heat, but little or no attempt is made at growing wine grapes, but the growing of raisin grapes has become a profitable industry, owing to the excess of sugar produced by the unusual heat. In Santa Cruz County the low temperature and coast winds contribute to make a grape with a small percentage of sugar, with the wine-making results above noted.
In as comparatively small an area as this county are to be found soils and conditions adapted to the production of nearly all kinds of wine grapes. In the valleys, where there is a greater amount of heat and moisture, can be produced a better quality of heavy wines than in the cooler and more lofty mountain region. As a result of the excess of moisture and heat in the valleys, the yield of grapes is much larger than in the mountains. The more lofty parts of the county are utilized for making high-grade wines. It is a noted fact that the grapes from which the high-grade wines are made are the shyest bearers. The greatest yield from, vineyards is to be found among the varieties of table grapes which grow in the valleys and lower foothills. The fogs and low temperature of the country adjacent to the ocean make it not so fit for vine growing as the foothills and mountains, as an excess of moisture is liable to produce mildew, and the grapes are also liable to possess the characteristics to be found in the fruit of irrigated vines—too much water frequently causes them to burst.
There is in this county now about three thousand acres in vineyard, the leading varieties being as follows: Wine grapes, Chauche Gris or Gray Riesling, Chauche Noir, Franken Riesling, Johannisberg Riesling, Semillon, and Sauvignon Vert, Sauvignon Blanc, Zinfandel, Cabernet, Merlot, and Crabb's Burgundy.
Our grapes come into bearing in the fourth year, producing one-half crop, and get into full bearing in the sixth year. The minimum yield is two tons to the acre, the maximum ten tons, although as much as twenty-two tons of table grapes have been gathered from one acre of vines. A ton of grapes will make one hundred and thirty gallons of wine. The actual cost of the making is from three to four cents a gallon. The price of wines depends much upon conditions, and, like any other article of commerce, is regulated by the demand, and sometimes influenced by corners and the successful efforts of the middlemen to control the market.
The wine maker ought to be able to get fifty cents a gallon for his best wine one year old, and $1.00 a gallon for wine three-years old. While attention has been given to a high grade of light wines, as yet nothing has been attempted toward the making of champagne, although it is well known among the most successful wine makers of the State that this locality is adapted to the growing of champagne grapes. I have been informed that Arpad Haraszthy annually secures grapes from this section for making champagne. Professor Hilgard, of the State University, has also declared that this section of California is the country for the growing of grapes for high-grade wine.
Late table grapes are quite a feature of viticulture in Santa Cruz County, the products of our vines being found in market as late as January. The varieties which are grown for the table are: Verdel, Black Ferrara, Malvoise, Emperor, Black Morocco, Muscat, black and white, Flame Tokay, Cornichon, and Queen Isabella. These grapes are all late except Malvoise and Muscat, getting into market during the months of, November and December, and yielding from five to fifteen tons an acre.
Malvoise and Ferrara are very prolific bearers, generally producing from ten to twelve tons an acre. Prices realized from table grapes are from one and a half to two and one-half cents per pound, from which it is obvious that this branch of the industry is profitable.
SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAIN WINERY.
The Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Company is a corporation organized for the purpose of making, aging, and putting on the market, in the best shape, Santa Cruz wines. It was incorporated in 1887, the following are the directors and principal stockholders: J. W. Jarvis, President; W. H. Galbraith, Secretary; F. McMullen, Mrs. H. P. Gregory, Ed. Fitch, W. G. Klee, and H. M. Hanmore. Mr. Galbraith also fills the office of superintendent and manager.
Property was secured on Branciforte Creek, in the northeastern part of Santa Cruz. A capacious building was constructed, three stories in height, and all modern appliances secured for extracting the juice from the grape and making wine. The building is situated against one of the upper banks of the Branciforte Creek, and the tunnels which have been made, and which now serve as wine vaults, were dug into a soft sandstone where the temperature does not vary more than three degrees during the entire year, and where there is only a slight amount of moisture. These tunnels, three in number, have a total length of three hundred and eighty feet, the largest being twenty-four feet wide and eighteen feet high, and the other eighteen by seventeen feet. They have a storage capacity of two hundred thousand gallons of wine, and the company owns enough land to have one mile of tunneling when they need it.
Unquestionably this is one of the best, if not the best, wine cellar in the State of California. A more fortunate selection could not have been made. The soft sandstone permitted its construction without a great amount of labor, and the absence of seam or crack makes it perfectly free from dripping water. The temperature, varying from sixty to seventy-five degrees, furnishes, without artificial means, a great desideratum in aging wine. This, with the superior quality of grape juice, or normal must, furnished by the vines of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the additional fact that the racking and aging of wines is under the superintendency of a practical man, insures the wine from this cellar as a superior and first-class article.
The stockholders of this company own two hundred acres of wine grapes, and this year the cellar will be filled to its utmost capacity. The company has done much to bring the attention of Santa Cruz wines to the public, and is deserving of much credit for the favorable reception with which they have met. It has only been recently that anything like a combined or concentrated effort has been made to introduce the products of our vines to the consideration of the wine drinkers. Santa Cruz Mountain wine is just beginning to be recognized, and from the encomiums it has received from people competent to judge, and the increased sales, the inference is fairly deduced that by the time all our available vine land is planted, there will be a ready and profitable market for its products.
One of the illustrations which embellish this work is an exterior and an interior view of the Santa Cruz Mountain Winery.
BEN LOMOND WINE COMPANY.
On the summit of Ben Lomond Mountain, heretofore mentioned, is located an extensive vineyard, comprising some ninety acres, owned by Ben Lomond Wine Company, composed of Wilkins & Co., 124 Sansome Street, San Francisco, and J. F. Coope, who is the superintendent and resident manager. Mr. Coope took charge of this property six years ago, at which time it was covered with a dense growth of underbrush and scrub oak, and some large trees. By the exercise of that common sense so useful in all vocations, and the additional use of a natural inventive ability, he rigged up a method of grubbing the land by steam, and cleared, with a greater rapidity and at a less expense, all that part of the plantation that has been set out by him, comprising the greater portion of it.
At this time the vineyard presents many attractive features, some of which may be seen in the accompanying illustration of a part of it. The vines are wonderfully thrifty in appearance, and this year are heavily laden with fruit. The number of varieties here grown are few, the manager perceiving the adaptation of soil and climate to the production of a grape which would make a high-grade wine, and, as a result, two-thirds of the vineyard is planted to Chauche Gris or Grey Riesling, and the balance to Chauche Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon. This year, as the vineyard is not in full bearing, with the grapes of the smaller vineyards in the neighborhood, about fifty thousand gallons of wine will be made. This company pays the highest prices for grapes, having paid last year $17 and $18 per ton, when they were selling elsewhere for a much smaller figure, the object being to encourage the growth of grapes that will make a high-grade wine. The yield of a mountain vineyard is not equal to that of one on the foothills, four tons to the acre being an average production.
Mr. Coope is very careful and particular in the making of his wine, as he aims to manufacture an article of first quality, which will command the highest market prices. In the first place, all over-ripe or under-ripe grapes are excluded. The must is tested by a saccharometer and an acidimeter, and when the desired conditions are secured, a chemical analysis is made by Professor Hilgard, of the State University, and if that analysis should show any sugar held in solution by the alcohol which would not be indicated by the saccharometer, the wine is further treated until it is absolutely dry. Mr. Coope is thus particular about the chemical properties, as he believes that the instruments of the chemist are more accurate than the palate of the professional wine taster. He guarantees his wines absolutely dry, as neither the saccahrometer or chemical analysis will show any trace of sugar.
No particular effort is made toward the manufacture of other than light wines, as the home of heavy wines, such as ports and sherries, is in the valleys. The company simply presses and ferments its wine at the vineyard, and sends it to San Francisco to be racked and prepared for the market.
UNION VINEYARD.
One of the finest pieces of vine property in the county is known by the above significant title. It is located in the Vine Hill section, seven miles northeast of Santa Cruz, and is the property of John W. Jarvis. Asking Mr. Jarvis what induced him to name his vineyard as he did, he replied, "It was suggested by the peculiar topography of the country, the union of the hills that form the Vine Hill section, and my love for the Union represented by the stars and stripes." If anything further is necessary to attest Mr. Jarvis' patriotism, it may be found in the name of a large and singularly beautiful redwood tree which stands alone and conspicuous on his place, measuring twenty-seven feet in circumference, two hundred and thirty-four feet in height, and the foliage growing from the base to the top in such a way as to form a perfect cone. This tree he calls "General Grant," and as long as Mr. Jarvis lives, its shadows will fall across his vines. Some idea of its beautiful proportions may be obtained from the combined views illustrating Mr. Jarvis' place published herewith.
Mr. Jarvis came to this place in 1879, and, with the exception of eleven acres in cultivation, he found it a wilderness of chaparral, chemise, oak, hazel, and madrona, which land has been cleared at the expense of not less than fifty dollars an acre. He owns one hundred and thirty-three acres, of which sixty-three acres are now under cultivation, being, with the exception of a few acres of orchard, planted to the following varieties of vines: Zinfandel, Johannisberg Riesling, Chauche Gris, Chauche Noir, Verdel, Baluzat, Pinot, and the Burgundies.
From his patch of Verdel grapes he has obtained the largest yield ever recorded in this county, twenty-two tons from one acre. The income from this acre of land that year was $825. In 1888 Mr. Jarvis manufactured forty-two thousand six hundred gallons of wine, and sold four thousand three hundred and seventy-six boxes of grapes, at forty cents a box, all from a vineyard of forty-five acres. In 1889 he would have had a much larger quantity, but the early rains ruined several thousand dollars worth of table grapes. This year he expects to make fifty thousand gallons of wine, and sell five thousand boxes of table grapes. He has a winery upon the place of forty thousand gallons capacity, but as he is prominently identified with the Santa Cruz Mountain Wine Co., being one of the chief promoters and organizers of the institution, and occupying the position of president since its organization, much of his wine is in the cellars of the company.
Mr. Jarvis' property is a practical illustration of what can be done in the Santa Cruz Mountains, and of the profits of viticulture. Starting in 1879 with a property worth but a few hundred dollars, and no capital but a brave heart and rugged health, he has made himself a comfortable home; and from the steep hillsides, covered with brush and populated with rabbits, he has developed a property worth sixty or seventy thousand dollars. I offer this as a commentary upon vine culture in Santa Cruz County.
HORTICULTURE.
Horticulture is, or will be, a prominent industry in almost every part of California. Where there is such a great variation in character of soils, temperature, and rainfall, one will find some locality especially adapted to some kind of fruit, whilst other localities will excel in the quantity and quality of other varieties. Thus it has been found that the Santa Clara Valley, of which San Jose is the metropolis and commercial center, is the home of the prune. The Southern counties and the foothills of the Sierras produce the finest citrus fruits, and the Santa Cruz Mountains grow the finest apples to be found on the Pacific Coast.
The visitor from the East notices our large and luscious pears, our choice apricots, our plums and cherries, and many other kinds of fruits which are much superior to similar varieties grown in other parts of the United States; and among all these he is surprised to find that our apples, as a general thing, are not up to the standard of the Eastern crop. But if he were given a sample from the orchards of the Santa Cruz Mountains, his wonder and admiration, provoked by the size and quality of other California fruits, would not be abated one jot or tittle. I reiterate that all of that country on the northern side of the Bay of Monterey is especially adapted to and does produce the finest quality of apple that is grown. The orchards are singularly free from pests, the trees present an unusually clean and healthful appearance, and the fruit is large, smooth, and of prime quality. It does not shrink or shrivel after being picked, like apples from warmer parts of the State, and, when properly handled, keeps as well as the Eastern fruit.
The apples of this region are now noted, a Santa Cruz brand being sufficient to recommend them to the favorable consideration of the buyer. In short, the reputation which Santa Cruz apples have achieved has caused a decided impetus in the industry. Let one drive through the valleys, the foothills, or in the mountains, and he will see many young orchards; particularly is this true in the Pajaro Valley. And I may add, in this connection, that orchards in this county are sure bearers.
From this data the practical horticulturist will deduce an accurate idea in regard to the profits of the industry. For the benefit of the man who has not had experience, I may say that a revenue of from one hundred to five hundred dollars per acre represents the income of an orchard in full bearing; and, as elsewhere noted, but a fact which will bear reiteration, the soils of this county, and particularly of the Pajaro Valley, will permit one to raise nearly all kinds of vegetable and berry products on a land where an orchard is coming into maturity.
As a practical illustration of the results to be obtained from an apple orchard, and of the judgment of apple dealers, Mr. J. S. Menasco, of Watsonville, has sold the fruit of a young apple orchard, just coming into bearing, for the next eight years for eighty-five cents per hundred pounds. He has sold his prunes for $15 a ton. The purchaser is Marco Rabasa, a reliable fruit dealer, of Watsonville. He contracts to take all the sound apples, large and small, grown in the orchard, to pick them, and to prop the trees when they are liable to break from being overladen with fruit. He has also placed $1,000 of forfeit money in the bank, and each has executed a bond of $5,000 for the faithful performance of the contract. Mr. Menasco estimates the yield of his orchard, when, in full bearing, at seven boxes of apples to the tree. He has three thousand trees, or thirty-nine acres, as there are seventy-seven trees to the acre. This orchard will produce twenty-one thousand boxes of apples, which, at forty-two and a half cents a box, will bring $8,925. This estimate is made upon very low figures, as apple trees in full bearing frequently yield one thousand pounds, or twenty boxes, and failures in the fruit crop of the Pajaro Valley are "conspicuous by their absence." I have conversed with a number of Santa Cruz County fruit growers in regard to this matter, and the lowest estimate they have placed upon an apple orchard in full bearing is ten boxes to the tree. Profits are obvious, and further comment superfluous.
Mr. George H. Brewington has sold his fruit upon the same terms, except that he lives nearer Watsonville, which means less expense in hauling. He is to receive forty-five cents a box, or ninety cents a hundred.
In concluding this brief sketch of apple culture in Santa Cruz County, I will add that no industry has ever impressed me more favorably. I believe that here are opportunities for men of limited means to acquire profitable homes. While the valley lands are held at high prices, there is much property in the foothills and mountains which can be bought comparatively cheap, and, if planted to orchard, in a few years will make their owners the possessors of a competence.
But apples are not the only kind of fruit which thrives in Santa Cruz County. Every variety of deciduous fruit does well here. While the Santa Clara Valley is called the prune orchard of the State, that fruit is none the less successfully grown in this county. It is a notable fact that, while the prunes of other parts of the State this year are a partial failure, the trees in this county are well laden with choice fruit.
Of apricots grown in the mountains of Santa Cruz, the adjacent foothills and valleys, there is a delicious and distinctive flavor, and a rich, ruddy color not to be found in fruit from any of the interior counties.
The cherries also are not less conspicuous, both for their size and flavor, their yield and the prices obtained for them. See description of S. B. Wallace's place for further information regarding the culture of cherries.
While peaches do well, they are not grown to any large extent, nor for export. There is sufficient for home consumption of the most satisfactory quality. Peach trees are an adjunct of nearly every orchard, and I have no doubt that the culture of this kind of fruit would yield profitable returns upon the investment and labor expended.
Small fruits, notably strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, constitute a very important feature of horticulture in this county, several hundred acres being devoted to their cultivation. In the Pajaro Valley is where most attention is directed to this part of the industry. The annual shipment of strawberries from Watsonville is about two thousand tons. About one-fourth of that quantity of blackberries and raspberries are also exported every year. The profits derived from the culture of small fruits, when anything like fair prices are obtained, are enormous. The strawberry season lasts about nine months of the year, during which time an acre will yield about three tons of berries. Irrigation is necessary for the culture of small fruits. Further information on this subject can be obtained from a perusal of the article descriptive of Lake Farm.
Other fruits, as pears, persimmons, quinces, walnuts, etc., flourish in this county as well as in any other locality of this State, and the adaptability of many parts of the county to the growth of the olive is deemed of sufficient importance to merit a separate and more extended article.
OLIVES IN SANTA CRUZ COUNTY.
Until six years ago, olive growing in Santa Cruz County was confined to about a dozen trees, growing in entire neglect and without cultivation, yet yielding yearly abundant crops of fruit. Generally olive trees produce crops only on alternate years, yet in Santa Cruz County there have been no "off" years, to the knowledge of the writer, within the last six seasons, the crop every year during that period being an average one and abundant enough to be profitable.
There are about two hundred and two acres of olive frees now growing in this county yet too young to bear fruit, owned by the following persons: J. F. Coope, Ben Lomond, fifty-five acres; Dr. J. A. Stewart, Etha Hill, ten acres; Mrs. C. McKenzie, Etha Hill, twelve acres; T. W. Fairhurst, Etha Hill, sixteen acres; H. B. Pilkington, Santa Cruz, twelve and one-half acres; J. H. Logan, Watsonville, forty acres; Dr. Lilliencrans, Aptos, thirty acres; Davenport & Fuller, six acres; Blake & Hersey, Highland, two and one-half acres; E. F. Adams, Highland, two acres; Professor Chas. H. Allen, Highland, three acres; Mrs. M. G. Norton, Highland, one acre; E. Meyer, Highland, one acre: H. L. Schemmel, Highland, five acres.
The old trees in this county are the Mission variety, some of them apparently of great age, but heretofore no effort seems to have been made by their owners to utilize their products farther, than the making of a few gallons of pickles for home use—apparently ignorant of the fact that they had at their doors the material from which, by the most simple processes, oil could be manufactured as delicate and palatable and far purer than they had all this time been supplying their tables with—ostensibly from the choice growths of Tuscany; but in fact largely made up of adulterations of lard and cotton-seed oil.
The olive was first brought to this county by the Mission Fathers, and planted at the mission when it was founded, about a century ago, and probably cotemporaneously with those of San Diego and Los Angeles. At least one of the trees now growing here gives evidence of its great age.
With the development of the fruit industry of California came an increased interest in the olive. Many years ago Elwood Cooper, of Santa Barbara, saw the profit that might be realized by the intelligent cultivation of the olive. Since then he has planted and brought to maturity a large olive orchard, and, if reports be true, the production of his orchard when made into oil is something fabulous, commanding as ready sale and at higher prices than any brought here from the south of Europe. Since then olive orchards have been planted all over Central and Southern California, notably in San Diego, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz Counties.
Until the efforts were made at olive culture in California the impression was general that this fruit would succeed only under the influences of sea air. In favor of this idea is the fact that from no place where the olive has succeeded is the sea very far distant. The shores of the Mediterranean are fringed with the olive groves of history, where for centuries the tree has grown and flourished, largely supplying the food of millions of people engaged in that industry, and furnishing luxuries for the tables of all counties of the civilized world.
It is also a remarkable fact that no considerable quantity of oil or fruit has ever been raised in an interior climate anywhere. How correctly this theory may apply to California we do not yet know. With the exception of the orchard of General Bidwell, at Chico, one or two in Placer County, and one in Pasadena, the olive in California has been cultivated exclusively, we may say, under the influences of the coast climate.
As to the importance of olive culture in California, few people have any idea. It is said that in the south of Europe the ripe olive pickled is largely used as a substitute for meat and the oil for butter. And I can readily understand how this may be so, as the olive pickled when ripened contains from ten to fifteen per cent of the oil, and that the oil is nourishing can admit of no doubt. The high cost of olive here prevents its use for many culinary purposes. The time will come, and the sooner the better, when preserved olives should be used to some extent in the place of pork, and the oil almost entirely take the place of lard for very many uses in cooking. Olive-oil for cooking purposes can now be had in Italy for $1.00 per gallon, and there is no reason why it cannot be produced much cheaper here than it can now be bought. J. H. LOGAN.
LAKE FARM.
This appropriate name is bestowed upon a strawberry patch of one hundred acres in the Pajaro Valley. It is owned by Ira L. Thurber, of Watsonville, Daniel Brickley, and estate of Thomas Stewart, of San Francisco. Besides one hundred acres of strawberries, there is an equal area of raspberries and blackberries. The farm is located adjacent to Laguna Grande. This lake supplies the water which irrigates the land of the farm, and makes it possible to produce the immense yield of strawberries which is annually taken from this, probably the largest strawberry patch in the State of California.
Without entering here into an elaborate discussion of strawberry culture, reference to which is made elsewhere, a few salient facts in regard to the method of conducting this plantation, the expense of it, and the profit derived from it, will convey an accurate and practical idea in regard to strawberry culture in this county. The variety which is planted upon this farm is known as the "Parry Berry," and it begins to ripen as early as March, and is in the market as late as the following New Year. While these are the extreme limits of the strawberry season, from eight to nine months strawberries bear prolifically. The yield on this farm will average sixty chests of one hundred pounds each, or three tons to the acre, annually. Two hundred chest have been gathered from one acre of land, but this is an exceptional yield. As much as $20 a chest has been obtained, but this is an exceptional price.
Last year Lake Farm produced twelve thousand one-hundred pound chests of strawberries, but the prices during the best of the season were as low as $1.50 cents and $2.00 a chest, which left a very small margin of profit. The average price for berries for the last few years has been from $5.00 to $6.00 per chest, which is equivalent to a revenue of from $300 to $400 per acre. Raspberries yield greater, eighty chests an acre being an average. They generally sell for more than strawberries, but the expense of handling them is so much greater than that of handling strawberries that the results are about the same. Blackberries yield from one hundred to one hundred and fifty chests to an acre, and sell at an average price of from $2.00 to $3.00 a chest.
The method of
conducting this farm is to let it to Chinamen upon shares, the owner furnishing
everything, the Chinamen performing the labor and receiving one-half. On Lake
Farm during the busy season from three to four hundred Chinamen are employed,
while in the winter about sixty are kept busy. These Chinamen
represent a number of companies, and work under bosses. They live by themselves,
mixing with the Caucasians only to the extent necessity compels them in
business relations; and, without referring specially to their idiosyncrasies and
peculiarities, I cannot refrain from noting the difficulty I encountered in
securing the photographs which are used to illustrate this article. The Chinamen
think it is a "hoo-doo" to be photographed, and to point the camera at a company
of them at
work was the signal for a stampede. On one occasion I narrowly escaped being mobbed, and was compelled to hustle from the strawberry patch, followed by a shower of sticks and clods.
The soil of Lake Farm is rich and especially adapted to the culture of small fruits, and has proved a source of unfailing revenue to its energetic and enterprising owners.
Besides this Mr. Thurber and his cousin, Isaac L. Thurber, are the owners of a farm about a mile distant, which is devoted to orchard fruits and nursery. It is known as the Pinto Ranch, and contains one hundred and fifty acres, forty of which are now in nursery.
THE OWEN CHERRY ORCHARD.
This well-known and valuable property, which is situated among the foothills a few miles northeast of Soquel, is owned by Mr. S. B. Wallace. There are twenty-four acres in the place, and, with the exception of two acres, it is all in bearing fruit, consisting of prunes, apples, pears, apricots, and cherries.
His cherry orchard of five hundred trees is the largest bearing orchard of the kind in the county. The Black Tartarian is the principal variety of this orchard, and the most salable and profitable cherry that he has. The place is most favorably situated, being protected by the surrounding mountains, and singularly free from winter frosts.
Mr. Wallace has informed me that this year he has sold more than fifteen hundred dollars worth of cherries from these five hundred trees, or an average of $3.00 per tree. Nor is this an exceptional yield, as the principal feature of this orchard is that a crop failure has never been known. Last year, 1889, as many as two hundred pounds of fruit were picked from some of the Black Tartarian trees, and as many as three hundred pounds were gathered from the variety known as Governor Woods; but this latter is a canning cherry, and less valuable than the other. During Mr. Wallace's ownership of the orchard, the prices of cherries have ranged from three cents to ten cents a pound.
The orchard is sixteen years old, and was planted by a man from whom it derives its name. It is one of the most valuable pieces of property in the county, and in the cherry season is one of the most delightful spots to visit, as the pleasure of beholding an extensive cherry orchard laden with red, ripe fruit is greatly enhanced by the hospitality of Mr. Wallace.
HOPS.
This subject would enable Bill Nye to get his gimlet in. He could say that California has a great variety of hops. Chief of which and most conspicuous in the list is the Pulez irritans. Following this, and members of the same order, though belonging to different families, he would designate the sand flea, the toad, the grasshopper, and social hops. But it is the hop of commerce of which I would write; the hop which contributes largely to furnish Germany with her national beverage; the soporific hop, which, placed under the pillow of nervous people, makes them sleep.
Certain sections of this county, notably in the Pajaro Valley, are especially adapted to the growth of hops, the soil being a sandy sediment, wonderfully fertile and possessing other qualities, in their entirety a rare combination, which grow and mature this plant to a state of comparative perfection. There are about one hundred and fifteen acres of hops in the Pajaro Valley. The principal grower is Mr. O. Tuttle, who has forty-two acres under cultivation. A part of this field is from twenty to twenty-three years old. The yield will average about one ton to the acre, although Mr. Tuttle has gathered fifty-seven tons from these forty-two acres. While it is difficult to estimate the average price of hops, about fifteen cents a pound may be regarded as a fair estimate.
In 1881 hops sold in this State for $1.15 a pound. That year Mr. Tuttle sold his hops for fifty-five cents a pound, and cleared $25,000 from a twenty-acre field.
Without entering into a discussion of the expenses and profits of the industry, it will not be amiss to say that the curing of the hops requires the greatest care, and the work is attended with a great amount of risk and expense. If a man is fortunate and secures the proper soil and other conditions, has sufficient capital to operate upon, exercises the greatest care, and is lucky, he can probably realize from hops the largest profits of anything that can be put in the soil.
D. D. WILDER'S DAIRY.
The largest and best-equipped dairy in the county is owned and conducted by D. D. Wilder, a. pioneer and progressive dairyman, who has been in the business in this State since '59. It is located on a ranch containing two thousand three hundred and thirty acres, beautifully situated on foothills and slopes overlooking the ocean, on the coast road, about four miles northwest of Santa Cruz.
Its slopes and hills are covered with succulent grasses, indigenous to the county, which supply most of the food for the three hundred cows of graded Durham, Ayrshire, and Jersey stock that graze them. The cañons or hollows are slightly wooded, and abound in springs, which are the never-failing supply of numerous streams which flow to the ocean.
To these superior and most desirable natural advantages, Mr. Wilder's enterprise and ingenuity have added features of the greatest importance to the successful dairyman. and of sufficient interest to the general public to receive conspicuous mention in this publication. His numerous buildings, from the eminence of an adjacent hill, look like a village, a barn three hundred and twenty feet in length, arranged in an ingenious manner for stabling two hundred and six cows, being most conspicuous.
The butter house is a small, neat building, painted white, containing the latest improved machinery for butter making. Most prominent among this machinery are two of De Laval's cream separators, obtained from G. G. Wickson & Co., Pacific Coast agents, and dealers in dairymen's supplies, at Nos. 3 and 5 Front Street, San Francisco. These little machines, acting upon the centrifugal principle, and moving at the rate of seven thousand five hundred revolutions a minute, separate the cream from the milk of two hundred and fifty cows as fast as it is milked by eight men. The motor power is water, which also churns the cream daily into about two hundred and seventy-five pounds of butter, the sweetest and best that is manufactured.
The feature of this ranch illustrating the great possibilities of this county elsewhere noted, is the utilization of one of the mountain streams for a motor. By constructing a dam in a cañon at the elevation of two hundred and ten feet above his dairy houses, and conducting the water a distance of four thousand feet through a seven-inch pipe, a pressure of ninety-five pounds is obtained. This generates a power equivalent to twenty horses, and, with the aid of a two-foot Pelton wheel, all the machinery of the ranch is run. This power is used to saw wood, chop hay, crush grain, grind beets and pumpkins, make cider, turn the grindstone, a lathe, and an emery wheel, separate the cream, and run the churn. It is Mr. Wilder's intention, in the near future, to put in a three hundred incandescent light dynamo, to be operated by the same motor.
It is not too much to say that this is one of the best-equipped dairies in the State, and superfluous to add that its products command the highest market prices.
STOCK RAISING.
Stock raising in California is destined to be a very prominent and profitable industry. Indeed, it is now and always has been. But the stock raising of the future, and, to a great extent, the stock raising of the present, is radically different from that of the past. When the old padres left Spain to establish missions in California, they did not permit their religious zeal and enthusiasm to impair their practical judgment about temporal things. According to the records, they brought along a number of horses, sheep, and long-horned cattle. After the establishment of the missions, these multiplied so rapidly that at one period, according to Cotton's "History of the Missions," it was found necessary to destroy whole herds, as otherwise there would have been an insufficiency of feed to preserve them. At a later period the raising of beef cattle was one of the most profitable industries of the State. The number of men in California to-day who have acquired great wealth by stock raising is so large as to be conspicuously noticeable. Of the stock raising of the future such farms as those of "Lucky" Baldwin, Senators Stanford and Hearst, Haggin, and others are types.
In Santa Cruz County stock raising in the valleys has been superseded by more profitable industries, and as much of the mountains is covered with redwood forests, where grasses do not grow to any great extent, the industry does not possess the feature of prominence noticeable in many other parts of the State. Still there are favorable conditions here for the industry, and those engaged in it have found it profitable.
Dr. C. L. Anderson, of Santa Cruz, has prepared a list of the native grasses of the county. He has found seventy-six different varieties, and mentions the fact that many of them are perennial and especially adapted to our soil and climate. He says:
"A matter of extreme importance to our county (as well as other counties in California), is the cultivation of native and introduced grasses, more particularly of the perennial kinds, such as have roots to withstand our long dry seasons. It has been said by superficial observers that most of the grasses of California are annuals. This may be true of those that have been introduced in various ways, but not true of the native grasses —they are nearly all perennials, having roots that remain, although the stalks in many become dry and dead.
"With water, climate, and soil of the best quality, I see thousands of acres where a suitable combination of such grasses as orchard grass and rye grass would succeed admirably, now yielding scarcely enough to pay taxes, because the owners depend on a few almost worthless annuals and weeds for pasturage. In fact, the worthless often survive and run out the useful.
"We have parks, basins, slopes, table-lands, forests, valleys, lakes, marshes, sea-beaches, lagoons, and all varieties imaginable, where one kind or another, or a combination of kinds of grasses would grow in profusion, and where cattle might revel in perennial pastures."
An extensive stock ranch is owned by Claus Spreckels at Aptos, The mountains east of Watsonville are devoted almost exclusively to stock raising and dairying, whilst the plateaus along the coast above Santa Cruz are utilized almost exclusively for the pasture of dairy stock. Ex-Supervisor Kinsley is also largely interested in the breeding of blooded stock, and there is no doubt that a better locality to pursue this industry cannot be found in this State.
THE THOMPSON STOCK RANCH.
An excellent description of this property is to be found in a recent publication descriptive of Pajaro Valley, from which I clip:---
"The Thompson ranch is located about three miles from the city of Watsonville, in a northeasterly direction, and, beginning in the center of the fertile plain at the base of the foothills, extends to, into, and over the low spurs of the Santa Cruz Mountains, embracing in its broad area of three thousand three hundred acres a portion of the adjoining county of Santa Clara. There are thus more than five square miles, or full sections, of land, of which five hundred and seventy-one acres are rich bottom or valley land, without a superior in California, for grain or fruit growing, to which latter purpose it will no doubt be eventually entirely devoted. This portion of the property is at present sub-let to tenants.
"The remaining two thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine acres or thereabouts are hill and beach lands, which afford the best of pasturage for cattle, and, though now entirely devoted to stock raising, the larger portion is arable, and well adapted to the successful cultivation of grain. Of the seven hundred head of cattle at present ranging over the verdure-covered hills, some five hundred are "stock" animals of various breeds and different ages, and about two hundred are in course of fattening for the market. There are also some fifty horses on the premises, the raising of which, for draught and other purposes, is an important feature of the business of the Thompson ranch.
"The management and control of the extended stock interests here represented devolve upon Mr. P. J. Thompson, who has been connected with the business all his life, and is intimately acquainted with its every detail. In addition to being an expert horseman and judge of stock, this gentleman is also an active, shrewd, and capable man of business in every way, and, since he assumed charge of the ranch three years ago, has materially improved the quality of the stock, by careful handling, judiciously weeding out objectionable wild stock of inferior breeds, and by introducing choicer strains of blooded cattle. A number of magnificent bulls are here to be found, of various breeds, in which the imported Durham and Holstein varieties predominate.
"The handling of these herds of horned stock is done in the most perfect and systematic manner, ample facilities being at-hand in the way of barns, sheds, corrals, and all necessary conveniences for feeding and watering. Two skilled vaqueros are employed steadily the year round, while additional help is on occasion called in. The extensive range, large corrals, and other exceptional facilities for feeding cattle on this ranch, enable Mr. Thompson to buy and profitably handle large 'bunches' of stock when a favorable opportunity offers, as it frequently does, from the fact that he is the only one in the county engaged so extensively in this line.
"The family residence is one of the finest in the Pajaro Valley. A number of evergreens, beautifully trimmed in various designs, are especially noticeable. The residence, as are the several outbuildings in the background, is nicely painted in white. In its interior furnishings and adornment the elegant structure is in full keeping with its external appearance, and readily betrays the taste and refinement of its fair mistress. From one of its several elevated points on the Thompson ranch a view is obtained of exceeding grandeur and beauty, and embracing in its scope a vast range of the surrounding country. On one side lies the charming valley of Pajaro, dotted with orchards, farms, and vineyards, with Watsonville and Pajaro near at hand, with Monterey and Santa Cruz, and the water of the broad Pacific in the distance; and with the double line of willows which fringe 'the river' winding through the scene. In other directions are spread out the adjoining counties of Monterey, Santa Clara, and San Benito, where the unaided eye of the observer may easily see the flourishing towns of Salinas, Gilroy, and Hollister set like jewels in this masterpiece of dame Nature's handiwork. This is indeed a scene of grandeur and beauty fit for the poetic pen of a Longfellow or for the brush of a Van Dyke."
MANUFACTURING.
The manufacturing interests of this county represent an investment of several millions of dollars, and comprise lumber mills, powder mills, paper mills, a beet-sugar factory, tanneries, soap and glue factory, a number of limekilns, cheese and butter factories, and other manufacturing institutions of lesser note.
There are opportunities here for manufacturing not to be found in other parts of the State. Rail and water transportation facilities, an abundance of cheap fuel furnished by our forests, in many instances adequate water motor supplied by our mountain streams, and a cool, equable climate, especially adapted for the preservation of certain kinds of perishable manufactured products,—all these combine to furnish advantages that must be apparent to the practical man.
In the succeeding description of the most prominent manufacturing institutions, some idea may be obtained of the distinctive advantages of this locality, and the magnitude of our factories.
THE LUMBER BUSINESS.
The largest and most conspicuous interest of this county is that which is devoted to the conversion of the extensive forests into various kinds of lumber and building materials. In the early history of this county, this was the only industry that received marked attention. For the past twenty years the sound of the woodman's ax, and the inimitable voice of the bull whacker, have echoed in many cañons of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The traveler will find numerous hillsides bristling with decayed stumps, from whose roots are springing a new growth of redwood to supply the trees which years ago were made into lumber. He will find other localities partially denuded of trees, and somewhere in the cañon he will see the smoke from the furnace of an engine, and hear the buzz and whir of the saws. He will witness the interesting process of felling great trees, some of them ten and fifteen feet in diameter; of drawing them down skid roads with ox teams; of the methods of putting them onto the carriers, which take them to the rapidly-revolving saws; of their conversion into the various kinds of lumber; of the making of shingles, shakes, ties, telegraph poles, and bridge timbers, and perhaps in the planing mill connected therewith, the surfacing of lumber, making mouldings, brackets, etc., and all kinds of similar work. And yet further on in his travels he will find forests where, in the language of the Hibernian, "the hand of man has never set foot," dense forests where the stillness is so profound as to awaken a sense of fear and awe.
At the present rate of conversion of timber into lumber, half a century will elapse before the redwood lumber interest of Santa Cruz County will lose the prestige of its prominence.
From an approximate estimate made by practical millmen during the past twenty years, Santa Cruz County has produced four hundred million feet of lumber, exclusive of railroad ties and various kinds of split stuff. From the same source I have as an approximate estimate of the quantity of timber yet remaining, thirty-seven thousand five hundred acres, which, when converted into lumber, will make not less than one billion one hundred million feet.
LOMA PRIETA LUMBER COMPANY.
This company, whose extensive interests are the subject of pictorial illustrations on the adjoining pages of this work, owns about seven thousand acres of timber land on Aptos Creek, a few miles above the town of Aptos.
The officers of the company are Timothy Hopkins, President; A. C. Bassett, Vice President; N. T. Smith, Treasurer; and W. R. Porter, Secretary. Board of Directors: T. B. Bishop, J. T. Porter, W. P. Dougherty, James S. Severance, James Dougherty, and the officers above mentioned.
The capital stock of the company is half a million dollars, and while their mill possesses all the advantages of modern machinery, having a daily capacity equal to any mill in the county, the main and conspicuous point of advantage possessed by this company over its competitors is the branch railway to the mill and beyond it into the timber land, connecting with the main line of the Southern Pacific Company at Aptos, and furnishing the very best facilities for shipping their manufactured products. They have eight and a half miles of railroad, built with the co-operation of the Southern Pacific Company, over whose line all their building materials, etc., are necessarily shipped.
This road is one of the most picturesque in the State, winding through a tortuous cañon from Aptos to Monte Vista, a station three and a half miles above the present site of Loma Prieta Lumber Mill. The company this year is extending this line about one-half mile further up the cañon, in order to tap the timber which it is necessary to obtain from that locality. I have said that this is a wonderfully pretty route, and I will add that its completion is the consummation of a very difficult feat of engineering. One who had seen these forests in their virgin condition, unacquainted with the possibilities of railroading, would never have dreamed that the whistle of the locomotive would some day break the deep stillness of these wild and rugged mountains.
Not only are the products of the mill carried away by rail, but the giant logs are drawn down skid roads by ox teams to the most convenient and accessible part of the railroad, and are loaded on cars made especially for the purpose, and hauled to the mill. Here they are dumped into the immense pond formed by the damming of Aptos Creek, from which they are conducted to the immense double circular saws without further trouble.
The company manufactures all kinds of redwood lumber, making a specialty of telegraph poles, bridge timbers, railroad ties, shingles, posts, pickets, and grape stakes. Their annual output for the past seven years has been about ten million feet. Extensive business is also done in cord wood and tanbark, most of which is packed out of the precipitous cañons to the railroad on the backs of mules, each mule carrying about one-quarter of a cord at a load. Some fifty mules are regularly employed at this labor; except during such times in the rainy season as it is impossible to work.
The town of Loma Prieta comprises not less than two hundred and fifty people. It is provided with stores, hotels, post office, express office, telephone office, and the usual accompaniments of an average village of this size. The mercantile institutions of the place are owned and conducted by the company. They average one hundred and fifty men on their pay roll, and the company's disbursements for labor alone amount to a considerable sum during the year.
THE APTOS MILL.
Among the most prominent sawmills and lumber interests in Santa Cruz County are the possessions of the Hihn Company. Their Aptos mill is one of the best equipped in the country. It is located three miles from Aptos, and has a daily capacity of seventy thousand feet. Connection is made with the Southern Pacific at Aptos by means of a horse railway, which will soon be converted into a steam motor road.
The Aptos mill manufactures everything in the line of building material, making a specialty of nothing in particular, unless it be fancy pickets, boxes, and mouldings. They have a fine yard at Aptos, a small engraving of which is published over the title of "Industrial Features of the County." This firm has very extensive possessions of timber land in this county. It is estimated that at the present rate of output their timber will last for thirty years or more.
WHITE & DE HART'S LUMBER MILL.
In the mountains seven miles northwest of Watsonville is one of the most complete and economically operated sawmills I have ever inspected. It is owned, and operated by Messrs. White & De Hart, and has a daily capacity of twenty thousand feet of lumber. They manufacture everything in the line of building material. A feature of the mill which attracted my attention was the method in which they utilized the slabs in making fruit boxes, special machinery for this being run by the same engine which furnishes the motor for the large saw. They supply a large percentage of the fruit boxes used in the Pajaro Valley. A shingle mill is also operated in connection with the sawmill, and sawed shakes may be said to be a specialty of this mill.
Messrs. White & De Hart are old residents of the valley, and have an enviable reputation for honesty and square dealing. Their timber supply will not enable them to run more than a few years longer in the locality where they are now operating. Herewith is presented an engraving of the mill and immediate surroundings.
GROVER & COMPANY.
This is one of the oldest lumber firms in the county. It is composed of S. F. Grover, President; D. W. Grover, Secretary and Treasurer; and Mrs. J. L. Grover, Mrs. S. H. Brown, and Mrs. May L. Halstead, in conjunction with the officers, constitute the Board of Directors. They own two sawmills and two thousand two hundred acres of splendid timber land. Their Enterprise Mill is located near Soquel, and has a capacity of thirty thousand feet. Their El Dorado Mill is in Scotts Valley, and has a daily capacity of forty thousand feet. They own and operate a planing mill in the city of Santa Cruz, and manufacture all kinds of building material, rough and surfaced lumber, telegraph and telephone poles, etc.
Their shingle mill, with a daily capacity of forty thousand shingles, was destroyed by fire recently, but will be immediately rebuilt. This firm does an extensive local business, and is fitted up with the finest office of any lumber firm in Santa Cruz. They are also engaged in the mercantile business, having, in connection with Mr. F. D. Scott, one of the largest stocks of groceries, etc., in Santa Cruz. Engravings of the handsome residences of Mrs. J. L. Grover and D. W. Grover will be found in one of the preceding pages.
CUNNINGHAM & COMPANY.
This firm, mill men and merchants, is located at Boulder Creek, with a planing mill and lumber yard at Santa Cruz. It is composed of J. F. Cunningham, J. W. Cunningham, James Dougherty, and Henry Middleton. They own two thousand acres of timber land, and own and operate a sawmill on the San Lorenzo River, about two miles above the town of Boulder. This mill has a capacity of forty thousand feet, and is now cutting thirty thousand feet daily. They also own two shingle mills, one in Boulder Creek, and another on Kings Creek, four miles above. They turn out annually twelve million shingles. At the planing mill, in connection with an extensive yard in Santa Cruz, all kinds of surface lumber is manufactured, doors, sashes, blinds, and other materials for house building, turning, carving, etc., receiving special attention.
At the town of Boulder Creek they have one of the most extensive mercantile institutions in the county. This department of the business is under the immediate supervision of Mr. Henry Middleton. Mr. J. F. Cunningham, the active manager of the firm, is an old resident of Santa Cruz, and a prominent citizen of the county, having been conspicuously identified with its interests in many ways, politically and otherwise.
SANTA CRUZ LUMBER COMPANY.
This company is composed of W. F. March, President and Manager; George Olive, Vice President; A. A. Davis, Secretary; and F. L. French and F. S. March and the aforesaid gentlemen as Directors.
Their mill is located on Liddell Creek, several miles up the coast, and has a capacity of forty thousand feet of lumber daily. They manufacture and deal in all kinds of sawed and split lumber, mouldings, brackets, window and door frames, etc.
The loading of lumber upon schooners is done by means of a cable. Shipments are made from the mill to Santa Cruz, and to branch yards at Cambria and Morro, San Luis Obispo County. A cut of their mill is herewith presented.
Other sawmills in this county are owned and operated by the Santa Clara Valley Mill and Lumber Company, who have an extensive lumber yard in San Jose, by Brad Morrell, by Steve Chase, by Edgar Chase, by J. P. Pierce, by Mr. Perry, and by the Union Mill and Lumber Company.
WESTERN BEET SUGAR FACTORY.
Beet sugar has passed the experimental stage in California, and proved a brilliant . success. The largest beet-sugar factory in the State and the one containing the latest and best machinery, is located at Watsonville. It belongs to the Western Sugar Beet Company, of which Claus Spreckels, the sugar king, is the most active representative and largest stockholder. In fact, to him may be given all the credit for the success which has attended beet culture and the manufacture of beet sugar in this county. In the first place, .the location could not be excelled, and I doubt if it could be equaled in any other part of the State. The rich alluvial soil of the Pajaro Valley produces the largest crops of beets, and these beets contain the highest percentage of sugar; and are superior both in quantity and quality to similar products in Germany, the native home of the beet-sugar industry.
The factory at Watsonville represents an investment of more than half a million dollars. It has an average capacity of three hundred and fifty tons of beets each day, or forty-five tons of sugar. It runs from three to five months during the year, or from the time beets ripen until they are all harvested. When the factory is running, one hundred and fifty men are employed, $12,000 is expended monthly in wages, $40,000 per month paid to farmers for beets, and one thousand three hundred tons of limerock imported annually from Santa Cruz for the making of lime used in the process of making the sugar. This will give some idea of the immensity of the youngest but by no means least of Santa Cruz manufacturing institutions.
The culture of sugar beets has proved a profitable industry to farmers of Pajaro Valley, and one of the surest crops that can be planted. The farmer knows just what he is going to receive for the products of his land, as the company pays a standard uniform price of $4.00 per ton for beets showing fourteen per cent of sugar, and fifty cents additional per ton for each percentage or degree of polarization above fourteen. As some of the beets run as high as twenty-two per cent, resulting from being planted upon the right kind of soil and properly cultivated, the intelligent farmer is more likely to receive from $6.00 to $8.00 than $4.00 a ton for his beets. As a yield of fifteen tons to an acre is considered only an average, the gross revenue of a beet field is, at $5.00 per ton, $75 per acre. In a little pamphlet on beet culture, supplied by the company, I find the total cost of an acre of beets delivered at the factory, including rent of land, $12.50, to be $50. This leaves a net revenue of $25 per acre; but if the farmer does his own work, and does not include rental, the net revenue will be figured at $40 or $50 per acre. Instances might be given showing profits up to $70 per acre, and, indeed, if figures are wanted for a record, thirty-five tons of sugar beets have been raised upon one acre of land. But I submit that an industry which will show an average net profit of $25 per acre where there is an absolute guarantee that there will be no fluctuation in the price of the product, is one that should recommend itself to every farmer in the immediate vicinity of the beet-sugar factory, who has land adapted to the culture of sugar beets.
Heretofore the factory has run annually about three months of the year, owing to the insufficient supply of beets. This year, to obviate a short run and consequent curtailment of profits, besides two thousand acres of beets planted by the farmers of the valley, the company has rented a part of the Moro Cojo Rancho, near Castroville, and planted thereon twelve hundred acres of beets. They have constructed a standard narrow-gauge railroad, at a cost of $100,000, from the factory to the plantation, a distance of thirteen miles. This road will be in operation September 1 of this year, and doubtless will stimulate the industry of beet culture in the vicinity of its terminus, as there are not less than ten thousand acres here of the finest beet land the sun ever shone upon. The Moro Cojo Sugar Beet Plantation is under the immediate supervision of Mr. W. V. Gaffey, one of Watsonville's prominent and enterprising citizens. The general management of the factory and its large contingent interests is intrusted to Mr. W. C. Waters, a gentleman whose experience and ability pre-eminently qualify him for the responsible position which he so successfully fills.
Another feature of the factory worthy of more than passing note is an artesian well sixteen feet in diameter, which is now boring. At this writing, at a depth of seventy feet, a flow of one hundred gallons per minute has been obtained. It is intended to sink the well until the flow is seven hundred gallons per minute. This, with another well on the premises, will furnish a daily supply of two million gallons of water, the quantity used by the factory when in active operation.
SOUTH COAST PAPER MILLS.
These mills, owned and operated by Edward and Frank O'Neill and William Callaghan, are located in Soquel, on Soquel Creek, the water of which supplies the motor which runs the mill. They were established in 1880 by O'Neill Brothers, and at the present have a daily capacity of three and a half tons of straw wrapping paper. The mill is supplied with a one hundred horse-power engine, which is used at such times as the water supply is insufficient. In the process of paper manufacture all the latest and best machinery is used. A flume eight thousand feet in length, running six inches of water, conducts all waste to the ocean.
The importance of this industry and its advantage to the county may be best estimated from the following facts: The number of employés is twenty-five, and the amount expended annually for labor is $15,000. Nine thousand dollars are expended for straw, $7,000 for wood, $1,200 for chemicals, and $3,000 for lime. They pay $3.00 a ton for loose straw and $5.50 for bailed straw, furnishing a market for all the straw that is grown in the vicinity. The products of the mill are shipped by steamer to San Francisco and other distributing points, and their best recommendation is the ready and profitable market which they have always found.
THE CORRALITOS PAPER MILLS.
The Corralitos Valley is, properly speaking, a part of the Pajaro Valley, and in the description of this section of the county heretofore given is so included. It is about seven or eight miles northerly from the city of Watsonville, and one of its most conspicuous features is the Corralitos Paper Mills, owned by Messrs. Peter C. and James Brown, and under the immediate supervision of the former gentleman, Mr. James Brown having charge of the San Francisco part of the business. They manufacture straw wrapping paper, straw board, and binders' board, The manufactured products of the mills amount to five and one-half tons per day. The working force comprises thirty-five employés, and the machinery, of the latest patterns, is kept busy day and night. The power for operating the machinery is furnished by a steam engine of one hundred and twenty horse-power, the fuel amounting to sixteen cords of wood daily. The water used is supplied by the Corralitos Water Company, the daily supply amounting to twenty-five miner's inches.
The specialty of the Corralitos Mills is straw board, all of which is sun dried, an advantage well known to manufacturers, consumers, and dealers in paper. For this purpose a drying yard of three acres is used, and at times entirely covered with the damp sheets' from the mill.
The straw which forms the raw material for this mill is supplied largely from the Pajaro Valley, although the contiguous country is frequently drawn from to supply shortages. Their San Francisco office is at 104 Market Street.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler