*** Source: History and Business Directory of Humboldt County, Lillie E. Hamm, November 1890, Eureka, Cal. *** ---page 083--- [ad] Books and Stationery 10,000 Songs and Song Books Curiosities of All Kinds J. E. Mathews [ad] HISTORY OF HUMBOLDT COUNTY 83 could possibly make a better showing in this direction. Small fruits are most successfully grown and are cultivated to a limited extent. They have been proved to be most profitable. The sections lying ten miles inland from the coast produce the finest fruit that goes into market. The Klamath and Trinity river sections, and the upper Eel river in particular, have the character of being among the finest fruit sections in the world. The climate, quality of soil, and lay of the land on Trinity and Klamath rivers are thought, by experts, to make that section unexcelled as a grape and wine producing country, though that interest is at present wholly undeveloped. IS FRUIT GROWING PROFITABLE? Those who are wondering whether the fruit business will pay may find it worth while to study the figures given here. The bugaboo of overproduction should not frighten any one out, when it is considered that prices may drop one-half and still leave a big profit on fruit culture. There are many prune orchards already in bearing in Humboldt county, but the average farmer or land owner does not realize the possibilities that such an orchard would open up to him. The old complaint, "No market!" has no foundation. It is simply a question whether the man will plant and care for his orchard and wait for the trees to bear. The matter of marketing will take care of itself, for prunes are in demand at good prices the world over, and there will be no lack of means for placing them within reach of the consumer. What is there in it? is the question which most readers will ask. It is truthfully claimed that a fortune can be made in ten years from a fruit ranch of eighty acres or even forty acres, by any one blessed with that amount of good land. We will demonstrate how any enterprising man with a limited capital can also make himself and family very comfortable and even rich with ten acres of bottom land if planted in French prunes or Petite prunes d’Orgen, which is the same thing. The trees must be grafted or budded on plum stock and be one or two years old—-we prefer one-year-old trees. They must be planted twenty feet apart, so it will take 100 trees per acre. Good trees ought to be had for 20 cents apiece, or by the thousand for 15 cents. The holes must be dug from two to three feet square, according to the quality of the soil. The fourth season after planting and even the third, if your trees have been well taken care of, you will obtain about ten pounds of prunes to each tree, enough to initiate yourself into the drying business. The fifth year you will get about 60 pounds to each tree; the sixth year, 120 pounds or more to the tree. After that your trees are in full bearing, producing according to location and care, 150 to 300 pounds to the tree. Now let us consider the cost and the profits. COST. 10 acres of land at $150 per acre...$1,500 1,000 trees at 20 cents each...200 Plowing the land...25 Digging the holes...50 Planting the trees...25 Cultivating...25 Second, third and fourth years $50 each, plowing and cultivating...150 Taxes for four years...75 Four years’ interest, compounded, 10 per cent...850 Total...$2900 [ad] Gibbard & Lever, Funeral Directors and Embalmers Undertaking Parlors 3d & H Sts., Pioneer Bdg., Eureka [ad] ---end---