by Paul R. Spitzzeri
Pressing on with this post packed full of information about the development of early San Dimas and its lemon raising industry, featuring a real photo postcard with a message and postmark dated 8-9 July 1909, respectively, of the packing house in that town, we move to the end of the 19th century and a decision made to split the preparing and packing of the fruit from that of oranges, which dominated in the regional citrus industry.
The Los Angeles Times of 22 September 1900 reported, as part of its regular correspondence from the town, that “a well-attended meeting of the lemon growers of this section was held at the packing-house of the San Dimas Citrus Union,” where the lesser-appreciated fruit was handled, “for the purpose of incorporating a lemon association.” The name of the entity was the San Dimas Lemon Association, with a quintet of directors named for the first year. The account continued,
Steps will be at once taken for the erection of a first-class lemon-house at the place for the accommodation of the fruit of its members. The output of lemons from this section has so increased as to make this action necessary on the part of the growers, and is an evidence of the success and popularity of the association movement.
It was concluded that the growth of orange growing in San Dimas also necessitated the decision because the Citrus Union packing house was needed exclusively for that much more popular (and profitable) product of local groves. The Pomona Progress-Bulletin of the 26th added that land was purchased adjacent on the west of the existing house and the cost of the new facility was expected to be up to $2,500. The Los Angeles Express of 5 October remarked that $25,000 of stock was to be issued at $1 per certificate with $560 subscribed by the five men, with one each from Claremont, Lordsburg and Pomona as well as two from San Dimas.
The new year and onset of the 20th century brought the completion of the packing house with the 13 February 1901 edition of the Times briefly noting that “the new lemon-house . . . is rapidly filling with fruit, which is of fine quality.” It was also remarked that “the association has all the fruit picked with a regular association picking gang” and that this was “a new development in lemon picking and is proving very successful in securing desirable sizes.” As to who was doing this labor, this was not mentioned, but one wonders if it was a combination of Latinos and Japanese, given comments made about the latter below.
By April, reported the paper on the 1st, an Association meeting revealed that “the output of lemons has taxed the new packing-house to its utmost capacity” and that some thirty laborers were employed there. Additionally, prospects for the crop were good as there were concerns that the yield would be light for the season. The 10 May issue of the Times stated that the new Association sent out 30 carloads for the season, this compared to 231 of the Citrus Association, which included some lemons, but, of course, were comprised largely of oranges.
The paper’s 5 July edition commented that,
The improved condition of the lemon market has instilled a fresh supply of grit into the lemon growers. The San Dimas Lemon Association, although it has been doing business but little more than six months already holds about third place in the associations of Southern California for record in the markets.
The “resident correspondent” in San Dimas for the Times of 3 November noted that the first annual meeting of the organization was held, with reports revealing “that its affairs were in a flourishing condition” including a doubling of membership and acreage devoted to lemons up nearly 60%. Association members held 235 acres, from which well north of 3 million pounds, or 126 rail car loads, of fruit were shipped.
An election of directors were held with the father and son, James and William Johnstone, who were from Quebec, Canada and then lived in Manitoba before they came to San Dimas in 1891 and who had a large grove, serving as president and secretary, respectively. William had political ambitions and won a seat in the California Assembly in 1902, serving three terms, while his father had many local business ties, including in water and the construction of buildings in downtown.
With the great increase in lemon production, it was quickly decided that more facilities were needed at the packing-house and the Progress-Bulletin of 10 June 1902 briefly observed that “the San Dimas Lemon Association is having a large addition built to its packing house, consisting of a basement and a large modern curing room.” The Los Angeles Express of 3 November noted that the organization “realized about 1 cent a pound for all fruit delivered at the packing house during the last season.”
That day’s Times reported on the second annual Association confab, with it stated that “stockholders were well satisfied with the management,” led by long-time secretary and general manager Frank H. Harwood. This was true despite “the very unsatisfactory marked conditions that prevailed during most of the past season,” though why was left unexplained. The Bulletin three days later added that 250 shares of stock were added, while the new building increased the facility’s value by $1,000, and the one-cent per pound noted above meant a bit of profit to growers.
The Times of the 13th reported that the Association, in the new season, “has been making record sales lately” as “two carloads brought exceptionally good returns, one selling for $1354 and the other $1400.” Better market conditions and a railroad agreement to drop transport prices “will have a tendency to check the general budding over of lemon groves, and put the lemon growers on a better [financial] footing.”
The year 1903 brought some notable and important progress for the Association. The Times of 17 March included a statement that the organization “is arranging to send a carload of fruit to Chicago to go into cold storage as an experiment” as the fruit was unaffected by frost and were in great shape. Observing that the season looked good, it was noted that James Johnstone had nearly 1,600 boxes picked on eight acres, while another 1,200 were expected over the next month.
The 31 July edition of the paper, however, remarked that the Association, in a common complaint in the industry, “has had considerable difficulty with its sweating rooms,” where lemons were kept to cure. It was added that “the plaster would repeatedly fall off the walls and ceilings” and halt progress so “it became necessary to adopt other lining,” specifically, elaterite roofing, which proved to be “a perfect success.”
The 5 September issue of the Covina Argus reported that Glendora’s lemon-growing association voted unanimously to close its packing house and to have its members purchase stock in the San Dimas organization, so that “hereafter the lemon crop of this section will be packed and handled at San Dimas.”
The Progress Bulletin of 25 November commented that “an arrangement has been made” with San Dimas’s association “by which all the lemons of Claremont will be handled through its packing house.” It was stated, though, that more Claremont lemon trees were budded to oranges “as lemons do not do so well here as the sister citrus fruit,” and, each season, 25 carloads of the former were shipped out.
Not surprisingly, shortly before this, it was announced that another addition was being made to the packing house, as the 14 November edition of the Times reported that “the contract has been let to R.J. Noble for the large packing-house . . . The addition will be 70×170 feet, and will give storage capacity for forty carloads of lemons.”
Just before Christmas, the paper observed a major gambling controversy in San Dimas, thanks to its exposé that revealed a poker game taking place very close to a church holding services, with Citrus Union and Lemon Association employees to be fired if they were determined to have taken part. It was reported that this and other actions meant “the end of gambling and similar lawlessness in San Dimas, as citizens generally will tolerate it no longer.”
Early in 1904, another local community decided to send its lemons to San Dimas for packing, as the Times of 16 February reported that “the Covina Lemon Association has been admitted to membership.” Moreover, it was stated that,
The San Dimas lemons have enjoyed such an enviable reputation throughout the Middle West, and the management of the packing-house been so well conducted that the growers have been highly pleased with the results, so that one by one the neighboring growers have closed their packing houses and joined the San Dimas association, thus reducing expenses, concentrating the lemon industry, and insuring the best possible results.
The paper noted that, with a 65-carload capacity, and with the house already handling the products of Claremont, Glendora, La Verne and Pomona, the admission of Covina meant that this would “leave San Dimas the only association packing-house between Azusa and Upland.”
The Progress-Bulletin of 15 March reported on a talk given by Pomona College geology professor Albert J. Cook on the model orchard and he observed that the importance of careful picking and handling of fruit, noting that “at the San Dimas Lemon association’s packing house lemons are not dumped into a box in handling but are turned into a tank of water in order not to bruise them.”
At the end of the month, the paper summarized a San Dimas Heights Horticultural Society gathering concerning “The Handling of the Lemon.” with the facility manager, Harwood, speaking on that topic. Just over a decade prior, lemons were kept in dark spaces lacking adequate ventilation, but modern frame packing houses were open at night and closed during the day. Moreover, at San Dimas, lemons were stored in 10x10x20 tents with enough space for a carload each and this again facilitated airflow and it was added,
San Dimas was mentioned as one of the largest lemon production section[s] in California with a bright outlook for the future in this industry, owing to location, soil, freedom from frost and wind, etc., and to improved marketing conditions.
The 8 April issue of the Times commented that the Association’s directors “will probably decide to enlarge the present packing-house” as the original structure had a 20 carload capacity and this was increased to 50. With the nearby communities all agreeing to send their fruit to San Dimas and, “although ten cars of lemons are shipped weekly,” it was pointed out that “the house is overcrowded and thirty carloads have been placed in nearby packing-houses.” Four days later, this was confirmed to be a 100×100 addition with capacity for 32 more carloads.
Despite the continued growth and profit made by growers, a rare reference to the usually anonymous laborers who did the difficult work came up in the 22 April edition of the paper, with the account remarking, in what is evocative for our time,
The employment of Japanese fruit pickers has given rise to so much dissension that an anti-Japanese society has been formed, with a view of ridding the community of the little brown men. Petitions are being signed by the leading citizens, asking the directors of the San Dimas Lemon Association and the fruit growers generally to discontinue the employment of Japs and to get white men in their place. One prominent citizen was asked today to sign and quietly wrote across the petition: “The Japs are making an honest living; go thou and do likewise.
For much of the 19th century, the canard was that the Chinese were taking white jobs and this led to discrimination and legislation against them, but, in the early 20th century, the targets frequently were the Japanese with similar biases and laws employed. Whether this movement had any effect on the hiring of Japanese fruit pickers, however, is not clear.
The Times of 11 July reported on an Association meeting at which Harwood informed attendees that for the nine months preceding the end of June shipments involved about 7.8 million pounds of fruit, whereas the same period the year before totaled above 3.3 million. Much of this involved the admittance of fruit from those nearby locales, but the problem was “the prices realized were very unsatisfactory, the market being weak with very little demand,” largely due to a cold Eastern winter. The piece closed with “it is hoped that with the heated spell now due in the East there will be more demand for lemonade and less demand for something stronger.”
At the end of October, Harwood returned from a lengthy Eastern trip and the Progress-Bulletin of the 29th mentioned that he felt that the California lemon was more desired than the Sicily variety and imports were in a difficult situation the last few years. Moreover, he observed, “the foreign lemon[s] . . . are poorly packed and of poor quality,” but “the immediate future of the lemon market he considers bright” as freight rate decreases would help materially.
The 8 November edition of the Pomona Review contained a brief note that the San Dimas facility had 35,000 feet of space and thereby was “probably the largest lemon packing house in Southern California, if not the world.” With the annual meeting concluded, the Progress-Bulletin reported good attendance and general satisfaction with operations, while, with the election of directors, it was observed that it was understood that two would be from Glendora, though one was to resign and be replaced by a Claremont man.
In the Times’ coverage, though, it added that there were 480 acres covered by the Association’s membership and that “the experience of the lemon growers of California has proved that lemons can be handled in large quantities or in large volume more profitably than in small quantities,” while the pooling of fruit raised in several communities “into this large organization at San Dimas has produced very gratifying results to the growers” and was the only way to make the trade successful.
Peter J. Dreher, manager of the San Antonio Fruit Exchange, under which the local houses were members and a frequent Association meeting speaker, expressed hope for a better upcoming season and reported that lemons fetched about three cents a pound, though he warned growers to be mindful of better picking practices. In exhorting growers to focus on the 300-size fruit, not the less desirable 360, he continued (and again, resonance is notable here),
A man who picks 360s ought to be put off the ranch. If you cannot get a white man to pick 300s then get Japs, and if they cannot do it properly then get a woman.
The article closed with the comment that Dreher “stated that Japs made the best pickers and urged that organized picking gangs be employed.” With this, we will return to tomorrow with part three, so join us then.