01 being more than 10,000,000 lb. The product of sugar beets increased
between 1888 and 1902 from 1910 to 73,761 tons (according to the state
board of trade), and in 1909 (according to the department of
agriculture) it was 882,084 tons, from which 254,544,000 lb of sugar was
manufactured. In this industry California in 1909 ranked second to
Colorado. Truck gardening for export is an assured industry, especially
in the north. Great quantities of vegetables, fresh and canned, are
shipped yearly, and the same is true on a far larger scale of fruit.
Vegetable exports more than doubled between 1894 and 1903. In 1899 hay
and grain represented slightly more than a third of the farm acreage and
capital and also of the value of all farm products; live-stock and dairy
farms represented slightly more than half the acreage, and slightly
under 30% of the capital and produce; fruit farms absorbed 6.2% of the
acreage and 27% of the capital, and returned 22.5% of the value of
farm produce.

_Fruit-growing._--Horticulture is now the principal industry, and in
this field California has no rival in the United States, although
ranking after Florida in the growth of some tropical or semi-tropical
fruits,--pineapples, guava, limes, pomeloes or grape-fruit and Japanese
persimmons. In 1899 California's output of fruit was more than a fifth
of that of the whole Union. The supremacy of the state is established in
the growth of oranges, lemons, citrons, olives, figs, almonds, Persian
(or English) walnuts, plums and prunes, grapes and raisins, nectarines,
apricots and pomegranates; it also leads in pears, and peaches, but here
its primacy is not so assured. Southern California by no means
monopolizes the warm-zone fruits. Oranges, lemons and walnuts come
chiefly from that section, but citrus fruits grow splendidly in the
Sierra foothills of the Sacramento Valley, and indeed ripen earlier
there than in the southern district. Almonds, as well as peaches, pears,
plums, cherries and apricots, come mainly from the north. Over half of
the prune crop comes from Santa Clara county, and the bulk of the raisin
output from Fresno county. Olives thrive as far north as the head of the
Great Valley, growing in all the valleys and foothills up to 1500 or
2000 ft. They were introduced by the Franciscans (as were various other
subtropical fruits, pears and grapes), but their scientific betterment
and commercial importance date from about 1885. They grow very
abund