S

OME sixty years ago a group of thrifty Germans living in San Francisco bought a tract of about twelve hundred acres twenty-seven miles south of the city of Los Angeles, between the New River and the Santa Ana River, paying two dollars an acre for it. They provided for planting the acreage to mission grapes, putting in an irrigation system. from the Santa Ana River, and for superintending the vineyards for four years.

They had each farm surrounded by a hedge, in order to give an old-country aspect; wide thoroughfares were laid out bisecting the settlement; large gates, that were closed at night and opened each morning, were placed at the end of these streets. When the project was developed, they named the tract Anaheim and settled upon it.

Anaheim became one great vineyard devoted to the growing of wine grapes. In the year 1886 one million one hundred thousand gallons of wine was pressed in Anaheim. Land was worth about one hundred dollars an acre. Then in 1887 the "grape sickness" came and nearly all of the growers were obliged to tear up

their vineyards and turn their attention to something else; and it seemed that all the previous work had gone for nothing.

But what was considered a devastating misfortune was in fact the best thing that ever happened to Anaheim. The colonists simply rooted up their vineyards, pocketed their losses, and started in on something else. They figured that chili was in demand; and they knew that but little of it was grown in this country. So they started to grow chili, and other crops suited to this main product.

Now, more than two hundred and fifty tons of scorching chilis are shipped out of Anaheim every year. If the prosperous and thrifty Teutons who grow this odd agricultural specialty on Anaheim soil, should suddenly suspend their tillage and retire, a wail of distress would go up from scores of mining and "contract" camps and thousands of chicken houses for miners, Mexicans and chickens cannot exist and do business on an efficiency basis without a liberal ration of the stimulating chili-and Anaheim has become the fountain-head of chili culture in this country.

The Teutons of Anaheim succeeded

because they had the courage to meet disaster, and the wisdom to make a new start, so long as they had to make it, upon sound scientific principles. Much of their success is due to their shrewdness in taking advantage of the shrewdest and most important principle on which any line of intensive agriculture may be operated: that of selecting a specialty in which there is comparatively small competition, and consequently a fat margin of profit, and pushing it hard until the pressure of imitators crowds down the prices and the profits.

And further, like true Germans, when they set about doing the job, they did it well. They made chili their "get-richquick" crop; and they took care to provide a long-time permanent line, against the time when chili no longer would yield big profits. They chose for the purpose English walnuts and oranges; and they are making fortunes from these

crops.

This dual production is, of course, carried on at the same time on the same ground. The quick crop is an interplanted one. Much of the work and ex

or walnut trees contributes almost as directly to the growth of the trees as to that of the plants.

This thrifty practice of interplanting is. a commonplace art with the sturdy Teutons of Anaheim. They allow hardly a square yard of soil to escape tillage. It means intensive cultivation-but when a German goes into the field and defines that term with his cultivator, his hoe and his hands, the definition is a thorough

one.

One of these planters affords a good example of Anaheim methods. This planter knew that his crop would be more valuable if he could market it when no other chili was available; so he set out to grow a crop that would mature early and late and any time except when the other crops matured. It cost him two years of work and two thousand dollars in money; but now he can time his crop so that it will come about when he wants it.

The first element he considered in working out his problem was that of seeds. First he bought the best seed anywhere obtainable without regard to

pense that goes into the production of the transitory crops contributes to the upbuilding of the permanent one. For example, the cultivation and fertilization given to a swath of chili-pepper plants stretching between rows of young orange

price. He planted this seed and cared for it with almost as much watchfulness as a good mother gives her child. The plants raised from this seed performed just about as he expected they would; some of them matured their crop of pods

noticeably early, while others were hardly better than the average plants of his neighbors in that respect.

The early-maturing plants were marked and the pods saved for seed. The plants grown from this seed came into fruitage still earlier. Again the earliest of these were selected to perpetuate the line and fix the characteristic that he was seeking to develop. The next generation brought forth a large number of plants so much earlier in fruitage that the problem was solved. The characteristic of early development and fruiting had been thoroughly fixed.

But it was almost as important to have a plant that would fruit late and yield a heavy crop at the end of the season, as to have one that would get into the market before the others. This characteristic was developed in the same way. The final result of all this has been the development of a chili plant that begins fruiting very early and continues to fruit extremely late-in other words, a plant with a notably long bearing season.

Along with his painstaking experiments in seed breeding and selection, this grower demonstrated his Teutonic thoroughness by studying apparently every other means by which he could stimulate his peppers into early bearing. Realizing the important part that an early and vigorous start of the young plants would naturally play in their early development, he gave studious attention to his seed bed. His final achievement in this direc

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DRYING CHILI

tion is a seed bed heated by hot water and roughly roofed with glass to take care of the moisture. A comparatively small bed is sufficient to start thousands of chili plants.

The pipes which warm the earth of this "nursery" are buried about a foot under the surface of the ground and are supplied with a low pressure of hot waterjust sufficient to give the earth a light warming glow. They are so placed that they do not run too near the roots of the tiny plants. The cost of supplying this heat is so small as to be inconsequential, and even the equipment is nominal in cost. As a result of using this method, this grower's plants are usually ready for transplanting to the open field in May, from two to three weeks earlier than those of his neighbors who have not benefited by his experience and adopted the same forcing methods.

Having gained this much, the planter determined when he wanted his crop. He studies the market as analytically as he does his plants. The total acreage, the visible and invisible supply of the total chili crop, receive as much attention from him as the Board of Trade speculator gives the crop forecasts of the government crop statistician. He has, however, less expert data on which to determine his course, at the beginning of a season, than has the wheat or cotton speculator. He must rely more upon his individual judgment and less upon carefully formulated estimates.

If he reaches a conclusion that the general crop is to be a large one, he sets his own crop for the earliest possible harvest hour; on the other hand if his judgment of the situation inclines him to feel that there will be a marked shortin the crop as age whole, he takes measures to put the emphasis of his production on the latter end of the season.

a

KEEPING OFF THE SUN

The tombstone effect is produced by shingles, which are placed in such a position that they protect the young chili plants from excessive light and heat.

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This shrewd manipulation of his crop has given him a premium in a single season of $2,000.00.

There is abundant evidence on all sides, however, that many of the chili growers of Anaheim are quick to adopt the methods of a leader. They are imitating this particular planter generously in the application of his advanced methods-and perhaps this form of flattery has given him one of the greatest satisfactions that he has derived from his work-for the members of this odd colony are much like a large family, and anything that promotes the interest of the community as a whole seems to be a matter of pleasure to all.

Probably the most extensive example of interplanting in Anaheim is that of Witt Brothers. A few years ago, these far-sighted Teutons bought land at one hundred twenty-five dollars an acre, and began to build for the future by planting it to oranges and English walnuts, ten acres of each. Their crops of chilis between the orchard rows have brought them yields as high as nineteen tons, when dried. One season, when this yield was obtained, they received twelve and one-half cents a pound, net, for their product-or four thousand, seven hundred fifty dollars for their crop. This return ought to satisfy even an ambitious German, in view of the fact that the

These thrifty husbandmen, however, declared that a thousand dollars an acre would not tempt them to part with their land. But they were far more anxious to impress their caller with the fact that they had raised about as large a crop of chilis as even their good neighbor than they were to talk about the value of their holdings.

"You see", declared the elder of the brothers, "that the actual ground occupied by the chilis was only twelve acres. And nineteen tons of dried chilis from twelve acres is a crop not to be ashamed of."

Mr. W. S. Romick occupies much the same position in the Anaheim colony, as to orange culture, that Mr. Mauerhan holds as an authority in the production of chilis. His methods and opinions in this specialty are respected by all his neighbors. Before he came to the colony, Mr. Romick had been a farmer in Kansas, in the days when drought and grasshoppers did their worst; and the calamities that these brought him made it particularly easy for him to hear the call of the Pacific Coast. He naturally gravitated to Anaheim because of its German population. For five acres of land he paid what he thought an outrageous

lars an acre. But he studied his new line of agriculture with true German intensity; and here are his results in his own words:

"Starting with my trees at five years of age, I sold the first nine crops of fruit for nine thousand five hundred ten dollars and fifty cents. The smallest return was eighty dollars for the first crop. The largest return for a season was two thousand one hundred sixty dollars and ninety cents. However, I feel that now the orchard has only fairly begun to produce. I have learned how to care for my trees at a smaller cost and how to get a higher quality of fruit from them. The market today gives a premium almost undreamed of at the time when my trees began to bear."

One of the shrewdest and also one of the truest remarks ever made in regard to Anaheim was the observation made by one of her solid citizens that: "Anaheim

is prosperous because we always have something to sell that the people wantoranges, walnuts, chilis, potatoes, sweet potatoes, peas, beans, peanuts, strawberries, raspberries, and every kind of garden truck; and we buy less than we sell. The balance of trade is in our favor, and it is won by service. That comes from German thrift."