Tulare County
History
History of Tulare and Kings Counties, California - History by Eugene L. Menefee and Fred A. Dodge - Historic Record Company - Los Angeles, California, 1913
CHAPTER V.
TULARE COUNTY'S CITRUS FRUIT
The eastern slope of Tulare county is covered today with almost one continuous orange grove. In the amount of capital invested, the culture of citrus fruits is by far the most important industry in the county. In yearly revenue it equals or exceeds any other.
Roughly speaking, there are about twenty-seven thousand acres set to oranges and lemons, one-third of which is in bearing. The production last year was four thousand carloads, having a value of $2,500,000. A conservative valuation of these orchards with their equipment would be $13,500,000, and a fair estimate of the income when the present acreage reaches bearing would be $7,500,000. This wonderful development has been wholly accomplished within the past twenty years, but a few words relative to the very earliest efforts in this direction may prove of interest.
The first orange tree planted in Tulare county was in 1860, when Mrs. H. M. White, in Frazier valley, planted the seed from an orange brought from the South Sea islands. As one passes now through miles of groves heavy with golden fruit or laden with odorous blossoms, the symbolism of this act appeals to the imagination It seems as if, endowed with the supernatural powers of one of the fates, she performed the ceremony of transferring to this inland vale some of the spicy fragrance and some of the easy opulence of those languorous isles.
Returning to facts, Deming Gibben, in 1863, also planted a few orange trees in his yard at Plano. At dates not exactly known, Peter Goodhue set out a tree in Visalia and J. W. C. Pogue at Lemon Cove planted a few. To trace the extraordinary growth of the industry from those days until the present, when trainloads are shipped daily throughout the season, would fill a volume. And yet progress in the beginning was hampered in many ways. Few of Tulare county residents believed in it. It was expensive, the cost even in the beginning reaching $300 per acre for bringing an orchard into bearing. The area of adaptable land was thought to be confined only to certain foothill slopes, or coves with certain kinds of exposure. Hog-wallow land was deemed unfit. Failure to obtain water on the first trial in some districts was considered evidence that none was there. But when numerous crops came into bearing and the fruit was being harvested some six weeks earlier than that from Southern California, when this fruit reached the eastern markets in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas markets and sold for exceedingly high prices, there came visitors from the southern orange districts who perceived at a glance the great possibilities of the section.
In 1870 W. J. Ellis, county assessor, in his statistical report submitted to the surveyor general, listed one hundred orange trees in the county. In making up his large total, however, he had recourse to including about ninety young trees still in the nursery. At this period there was no thought in the minds of anyone that orange growing would develop as a commercial industry. This did not occur until 1890. In that year George Frost, a prominent orange grower and nurseryman of Riverside, took a look at the county. In Southern California there existed a firm conviction that orange growing north of Tehachapi was impossible. While Mr. Frost looked at the country with doubtful eyes, he was more unprejudiced than the majority. Besides this, he was anxious to find a market for nursery trees. At the time he had on hand a large stock, which he was unable to sell. In the San Joaquin valley for Mr. Frost's inspection there were at the time the following groves only: at Porterville, five acres; at the ranch of H. M. White, a few trees; at Piano, one acre; at Lemon Cove, one and one-half acres; at Centerville, six acres; and at the old General Beale's place, south of Bakersfield, a five-acre tract planted to a general assortment of citrus fruits.
The prospects for a new district appealed so strongly to Mr. Frost that he engaged in a deal with the Pioneer Land company of Porterville whereby, on land owned by the corporation, he was to set out one hundred acres of orange trees and care for them for two years. Then he was either to buy the property for $100 per acre or the land company were to repay him for the trees and labor expended.
Immediately following the expression of opinion of Mr. Frost that the district was adapted to oranges, numbers prepared to engage in it, and the next year witnessed a planting that would prove a commercial factor. Albert and Oliver Henry of Porterville, who already had a few trees in bearing, became the pioneer enterprising growers and boosters for the Porterville district.
In 1891 Capt. A. J. Hutchinson, together with Messrs. Patten and Glassell, purchased the Jacobs' place at Lindsay and in the following year set out three acres at Lindsay, which became known as the home place. In 1893 planting became general. So well pleased was Mr. Frost with his original venture at Porterville that he purchased and proceeded to set out an additional tract of seventy-five acres.
Captain Hutchinson organized the Lindsay Land company, and proceeded to subdivide his tract into small holdings, agreeing to care for the groves of non-residents. No ditch water for irrigating was available at Lindsay. Wells were therefore sunk and steam pumping plants installed, the first in the county. Water in abundance was found at a depth of about seventy feet, which rose to within twenty feet of the surface. The experiment generally disbelieved in proved an unqualified success. A high water level in the wells maintained itself in spite of the drain of constant pumping and the supply appeared then as inexhaustible.
Thomas Johnson, Joe Curtis and other influential men of San Jose, became prominent in promoting the Lindsay district. About four hundred acres, mostly in ten acre tracts, were planted. Between two hundred and fifty and three hundred acres, also in small blocks, were planted near Porterville.
Exeter entered the field in 1904 through the operations of George Frost. This gentleman, with Messrs. Merryman, Carney, Hamilton, Davis and others, set out about four hundred acres east of Exeter, naming it the Bonnie Brae orchard. In passing, it may be noted that Mr. Merryman later absorbed the interests of his associates and greatly increased his holdings by the purchasing of adjoining property. In addition to several hundred acres of undeveloped land and a considerable acreage devoted to olives and deciduous fruits, there are seven hundred and fifty acres devoted to oranges. It is the largest grove in the county and this, together with the elegant residence, large, beautiful gardens and grounds, make it one of the "show places" of the district.
Development at Lemon Cove did not lag behind this movement, promotion work there being first accomplished by Messrs. Hammond, Berry, Levis, Overall and Jordan of Visalia, who organized the Kaweah Lemon Company and set some two hundred acres to trees. The Ohio Lemon Company shortly thereafter set another similar tract to this fruit.
By 1904 development had been thoroughly launched in the Porterville, Lindsay, Exeter and Lemon Cove districts. We turn now to the commercial disposition of the product.
In 1892 there were boosters aplenty for the new industry. It was deemed desirable to show the world that a new citrus district, producing fruit unequaled, had been discovered. The World's Fair at St. Louis was to open January 1, 1904. Above all things it behooved growers here to make a big showing. P. M. Baier was selected to prepare such an exhibit. The first full carload to leave the county was the fruit for this display and it required practically all grown in the county to fill it. The exhibit was first shown in the Mechanics Pavilion in San Francisco, and then forwarded to St. Louis, and received creditable mention at both places.
In 1893 there were four carloads at the Frost orchard, and in the next season both the Exchange and the Earl Fruit Companies entered the field, getting out a pack of sixteen cars. This fruit reached the eastern market in time for the Thanksgiving and Christmas markets and sold for extra high prices. As this period of ripening is several weeks in advance of Southern California a great deal of attention was attracted to this locality and many southern growers came, saw the results accomplished, and invested.
Old residents of Tulare county, however, generally held aloof from venturing into this field. In fact, the whole business of the promotion of the sale of orange lands and their planting appeared to them as a rank swindle. The selling of foothill land at $25 to $50 per acre, or with water developed at $75 to $100, seemed to them as merely a scheme to catch suckers. Only within the last few years, in fact, have numbers of our own citizens taken an active part in the enterprise, these now freely paying for lands treble the price that they formerly believed extravagant.
During the first years of the rapid extension of acreage devoted to citrus fruits investors were very chary of straying far from the original bearing orchards. Objections innumerable were in fact advanced toward all other lands.
The Hutchinson tract at Lindsay was held to mark the extreme westerly boundary of the thermal belt; only slopes and coves in the hills with certain exposures were suitable; south of Plano there was no water; hog-wallow land was unfit; failure to obtain water in the first trial in a new district was considered evidence that none was there; and so on, endlessly, with able reasons why the only true citrus lands had been planted by the first growers. Largely in consequence of this attitude, the bearing orchards today generally lie in the districts tributary to Porterville, Lindsay, Exeter and Lemon Cove.
Commencing some seven or eight years ago, however, there has been a bold exploitation of new districts, led by promoters with capital, energy and optimism. These have by actual demonstration shown conclusively that the citrus belt is not bounded by such narrow limits. Water in quantities has been developed almost everywhere. Dinuba, Orosi, Stokes valley, Yettem, Orange Heights, Klink, Venice Cove, Redbanks, Woodlake, Naranjo, Frazier valley, Strathmore, Zante, Terra Bella and the entire district from Plano south to the county line, including Terra Bella, Ducor and Richgrove, are each now capable of demonstrating by showing hundreds of acres of thriving orchards that they are adapted to this culture.
With the exception of Dinuba, Orosi, Yettem and Redbanks, which have other sources of income, all of these new districts are solely dependent upon citrus fruit culture for support. In this connection the solid improvements at Woodlake, Strathmore and Terra Bella, particularly in the way of substantial business structures,
hotels, banks, newspapers, municipal water supply, cement sidewalks, etc., indicate the confidence of moneyed men in the potential productive capacity of the community.
All of this expenditure in the way of permanent municipal improvements, together with the outlay of capital incident to the installation and maintenance throughout the entire district of electric power systems, necessarily forms a portion of the entire sum today invested in the citrus fruit industry of the county. The estimate of $13,500,000, given at the commencement of this sketch, is shown, therefore, to be far too low. Twenty million would perhaps come nearer. Likewise, with reference to the present income. The estimate of $2,500,000 of present return was based on a production of four thousand carloads, four hundred boxes to the car, value $1.50 per box. The cost of labor for handling and packing and the salaries and profits of the men engaged in this business were not included. Thus a fairer estimate of the present revenue from this source would be $3,000,000.
The first plantings were seedlings, but practically all have since been replaced by Washington navels. The present pack of four thousand carloads consists of about two hundred and fifty cars of lemons, four hundred and fifty cars of Valencias and the remainder navels. There are thirty-five packing houses in the district, and double that number will be needed as soon as the present new acreage comes into bearing.
Tulare county now ranks fifth in the state in the production of citrus fruits, but it appears certain that within four years it will take first place.
TULARE COUNTY'S DIMINISHED AREA
The present area of Tulare county is 4,863 square miles.
It is still a large county and its diversified topography and productions cause it to seem a veritable empire. How vast the area once included in its bounds can be seen by the following slices that have been taken from its territory: In 1856, Fresno county, with 6,035 square miles; in 1866, Inyo county, with 10,224 square miles; in 1866, Kern county, with 1,852 square miles; and in 1893, Kings county, with 1,375 square miles.
Transcribed by Kathy Sedler.