by Paul R. Spitzzeri
In its first several years, the San Dimas Lemon Association packing house experienced a dramatic increase in business, not just from output from groves in that town, but from growers in neighboring communities, including Claremont, Covina, Glendora, La Verne and Pomona, who joined the organization and had their fruit packed and shipped from the facility. Beneath the smooth veneer conveyed in press reports concerning the seemingly seamless operation of the Association, however, there were some issues.
One, as noted in part two, was discontent among many in the area about the use of Japanese fruit pickers, with a movement afoot to remove “the little brown men” from work in local orchards, though one unidentified person asked to sign a petition forcefully demurred by stating that these workers were engaged in making “an honest living” and suggested the petitioners do likewise.
The Los Angeles Times of New Year’s Day 1905, in a section that briefly described communities in the region, provided its short review of San Dimas by recording,
From San Dimas, which is a center of the orange and lemon industry, last season 328 cars of oranges and 267 cars of lemons were shipped. This season about the same quantity will be shipped, but the fruit will be of even better quality than before. A large addition has been made to the packing house of the San Dimas Lemon Association, making it now what is said to be the largest lemon packing-house of the world.
Observing that the facility had an 80 rail-carload capacity, the paper went on to note that lemons from there were in demand in Australia as well as in this country. Moreover, the paper commented that “San Dimas has a population of over 700 happy, contented and prosperous people,” while it welcomed a recently established Bank of San Dimas in a new building, with two other commercial structures of note finished or nearly so. There was also a healthy increase of more than 20% in the assessed valuation in town “largely due to the number of fine homes which have been built.”
The 15 September edition of the Times remarked that “there is no talk of budding lemon orchards over to oranges this year, and many of those who did bud over a few years ago are now regretting having done so.” This was because the Association “just paid out $30,000 to the growers for their July lemons” and “the returns to the producers . . . have been the best in the history of the association.” An unidentified grower with 12 acres received $2,150 for that month and garnered $12,000 for the year and the article concluded, “naturally the owners of lemon groves are feeling elated, especially after all the hard knocks they have had to endure for several years.”
That lemon-raiser may have been James A. Johnstone, who was the first president of the Association and who came to San Dimas from Manitoba, Canada in 1891. At the end of 1904, Johnstone (whose son, William, was in the California Assembly) raised some eyebrows when, at 66 and a recent widower, he wedded a 28-year old he got to know when visiting Eagle Rock, the northeast Los Angeles community where he had a grove. San Dimas residents were apparently shocked when, just five months after Johnstone’s first wife died, he was seen riding with the young woman in his horseless carriage (automobile) “to view the prospect o’er.”
Who knows what connection this May-December nuptial may have had, but not quite a year later, reported the Times of 23 November 1905, from a San Dimas correspondent the prior day that,
Quite a sensation was caused here today when James A. Johnstone, for many years president of the San Dimas Lemon Association and more recently vice-president, resigned in order to become manager of the San Dimas packing-house for the California Citrus Union.
For some time there has been friction on the board of directors of the lemon association, but the climax was reached three weeks ago when E.W. Hart was elected president, Johnstone being made vice-president. Hart was also made representative on the San Antonio Fruit Exchange in place of Johnstone.
A year-and-a-half later, Johnstone sold his 10-acre lemon grove west of town for $13,500, so one wonders if, given his age and the controversies that were behind his bitter and sour exit from the Association, he decided to cash out rather than continue operations amid challenging circumstances.
Meanwhile, at the annual fall meeting, reported the Pomona Progress-Bulletin of 6 November, Secretary Frank H. Harwood noted that 345 cars of lemons were packed and sent out and growers netted 1 3/4 cents a pound and added that stock shares grew to over 7,700, “a marked increase over last year.” Notably, while the election of officers was stated, nothing was mentioned about any issues involving Johnstone specific to the canvass.
The one controversy alluded to was the unwanted presence of a Los Angeles reporter critical of the orange-growing association in town, so “several growers promptly invited him to leave,” it being assumed that there was threat to kick him out, so, while he manifested an intention to remain, he “soon took the advice given him and retired.”
As in past confabs, Peter J. Dreher of the San Antonio exchange spoke on marketing and, when discussion of the pros and cons of fumigation as opposed to spraying trees for pests came up, almost everyone promoted the former. This included Johnstone, who remarked “that if spraying were continued five years longer the orchards would be destroyed” because this treatment allegedly was “responsible for brown rot and the premature dropping of fruit.” Harwood added that most of the poor lemons brought to the house were from “orchards of non-residents,” presumably meaning those outside San Dimas.
In May 1906, Harwood tendered his resignation so that he could manage his father’s citrus grove in Upland, but was so well regarded by Association members that he was prevailed upon to remain at his post. The next month, the Progress-Bulletin quoted him as remarking,
There never was a time since [we] have been managers of the San Dimas Lemon Association that there was such a splendid outlook for lemon growers of Southern California as there is for the coming season. Everything seems favorable to a good demand for lemons in the East at big prices. The crop is a good one and should yield the growers fine returns.
As warmer weather arrived, the prognostication was that prices would be from $2 to $2.50 per box or even more for the best fruit. Looking ahead to Independence Day and hot Eastern weather calling for more lemonade, the hope was that more lemons were wanted and there were fewer old stock left. Shipments to San Diego amounted to about 18 cars weekly “and all orchards are bearing just enough fruit to insure good prices and not flood the market,” while rumors of winter frost damage were unfounded, dealers observed.
In its coverage of the early November annual meeting, the Pomona paper remarked that a quorum was a challenge, but chalked this up to the belief that “this is one of the signs of a prosperous year for when returns have been unsatisfactory every stockholder is on hand to register a complaint.” That year, however, only 50 growers attended and the same slate of officers was returned to management of the house. Among developments was the search for a field officer “to look after the picking and getting the lemons for the packing house,” the decision to promote fumigation over spraying and an experiment with a box-making machine.
The Times added that Harwood reported “that the past year had been the most successful one since the organization of the exchange, the returns having netted the growers an average of $2.47 cents per 100 pounds for all fruit received” through the 31 August end of the fiscal year. It was noted that “the September pool netted the growers over 6 cents per pound.”
The field officer was hired in early April, with the Progress-Bulletin of the 6th commenting that D.J. Jones, a three-year employee of the state’s agricultural experimental program including at a Whittier station working on plant pathology, “has made a specialty of diseases of lemons, namely, brown rot and gum disease.” In a publication from Harwood distributed to its members, the Association remarked that it didn’t want to dictate the work of growers, but to help them by improving packing methods, as well as to have “picking gangs” to look for diseases. It continued,
We have 130 different growers delive[r]ing fruit. If any one is careless, all are hurt to some extent. Also, there are many changes each year and the purchaser often knows nothing about the lemon business. We found one man standing on top of a ladder and dropping the lemons in a pail on the ground. Very few of the pickers bend over to empty a sack into a box. Probably there are not any of us in the packing house or out that fully realize the importance of careful handling of the lemons.
Presumably, the grueling conditions of fruit picking were not taken into account when Harwood critiqued the two pickers mentioned here and it was obviously hoped that Jones would ensure that such actions were curtailed. Moreover, Harwood observed that “if we can deliver fruit to the house free from mechanical injury and also pack without any mechanical injury,” though one wonders how this was possible, the icing of some 125 cars annually at a cost of $10,000 would not be needed.
He continued that 1% decay in the output of the house was a $2,000 loss and “the past two seasons we have lost $7000 in labor on dirty fruit, to say nothing of the loss in grade and keeping qualities.” Cleaner trees meant thousands more dollars in profit “and our brand would stand far better today.” In concluding the circular’s commentary, Harwood noted “we are just starting on the possibilities of the lemon business” and “the future is bright and this present year will be the best year we have ever had even better than last.” Jones’ hiring was justified, but “it rests with the grower whether the innovation is a success.”
Two weeks later, the Times reported, the same day that the Pomona paper noted Johnstone’s sale of his grove, that the Association acquired 2 1/2 acres to the west of the Santa Fe railroad station and that, while “no building will be erected thereon for the present, the purchase has been made with a view to securing a suitable site whereon to erect a packing-house at a later date.” Even though the existing house was “said to be the largest in the world,” growth was such that “it will soon be necessary to enlarge the present buildings or erect others.”
The 1907 annual meeting had “an unusually large attendance, there being over 120 growers present,” which, judging by the Progress-Bulletin‘s reasoning, would have meant a subpar year, yet the Times of the 3rd reported that “the year just closed has been the most successful since the organization of the association.” Harwood told the assemblage that “325 carloads of lemons have been shipped this past year, and these have netted the growers $3.11 1/2 per hundred pounds, thus making this the record-breaking year for lemons here.”
Two weeks later, the paper ran a lengthy feature by Elthea Embody, “The Lemons of San Dimas,” including photos of the curing and washing of the fruit, with the three types being the Villa Franca, Lisbon and the most popular, Eureka, because it was thornless and seedless, with more acid and a better flavor, and was a heavier producer, at the packing house. The piece began with the comment that,
Los Angeles county has the distinction of possessing the largest lemon-growers’ association in the world. San Dimas, the shipping center, where the packing-house is located . . . is beautifully situated at the head of the San Gabriel Valley . . . the favored section below [the Sierra Madre, or San Gabriel, mountains] is amply protected from the hot breath of the desert, as well as from the devastating north wind and the killing frost. These climatic conditions, together with an inexhaustible supply of water and the naturally fertile land, render the place especially suited to the growing of lemons.
Delving back into a bit of history, the article observed that “through the tedious evolution of hard work and much expense the sage and cactus-covered country was transformed into grain land, and the grain fields into lemon groves, until the industry has become so profitable that the San Dimas Lemon Association was established.” Cited was the report for the San Antonio Fruit Exchange, of which the Association was a member, that the last season included the packing of more than 722,000 boxes yielding not far under $1.4 million.
Details were given concerning the costs of loading the cars per box, how much each of these containers cost, including 140 million wrappers for the fruit, labor and management expenses, marketing and selling amounts. Returning to San Dimas and its lemons, it was observed that the fruit came from “nearly a dozen different localities” including the “holy city” of Lordsburg and others not previously mentioned like Azusa, Charter Oak and North Pomona.
The Association then had 225 member growers, working some 600 acres and production from 1 September 1906 to 31 August 1907 was close to 92,000 boxes or about 300 rail cars, yielding $300,000. Though the average was $500 per acre, it was added that “some of the best orchards net $1000 and over. Notably, it was explained that,
The organization of these growers into a union was a result of individual losses, uncertainties and discouragements connected with their efforts at shipping their product along with oranges and in other ways. By this system, the handling of the fruit after being hauled to the packing-house, is wholly in the hands of skilled workmen, who give it the most careful treatment possible. The best markets are reached through the Fruit Exchange, thus relieving the growers of the responsibility of preparing their fruit for shipment, and of its final disposition.
The Times went on to comment that “the great packing-house covers nearly an acre of floor space” with the original structure of 100×110 feet supplemented by the two additions of 80×160 and 88×160 and there was a capacity of 160 carloads and shipping of up to four cars daily. There were 25 cars at the house at the time, it not being prime season, and lemons were sent to most states and many countries, including a September shipment to several Asian nations. From 288 to 336 standard sized boxes, measuring 10 1/2 x 14x 27, were loaded on to refrigerator cars of 38, 40 or 42 foot lengths.
It was mentioned, as well, that San Dimas lemons “stand up” during shipment to far-flung locales “and have won a reputation, that is gradually extending the trade in foreign markets.” As for picking this was done so that “the fruit is always picked to size and not to color,” excepting some that were left accidentally to ripen on trees. There were also discards that were sold to Los Angeles “cull” dealers and, aside from the 300 and 360 sizes mentioned in part two, there were larger ones in the 200s range and smaller ones in the 400s.
A card system was employed to determined those grades and lemons were sold and marketed in four of these, with the names of Harmony (the choicest), Pet (second highest), Greyhound (third level) and Duck (the lowest, but called the standard.) Mentioned was foreman E.A. Wood, in his position since the second year of operation and who managed the system that sought to ice cars as infrequently as possible with ventilated cars used otherwise, though this was sometimes done in the heat of summer, something modeled after the prominent Charles C. Teague of the Limoneira grove at Santa Paula (his great uncle was Union Oil founder Wallace Hardison).
Wood explained that the fruit was washed, with green ones separated from those that were yellow, and the Stibler machine, invented by a Riverside man, was so thorough that the fertilizer smell that was usual in the past was eliminated and lemons were “now brought to the consumer smooth and handsome as could be desire, and possessing only the delicious aromatic lemon scent always so pleasing.”
Those fruit that were “sweated” were done so at 90 degrees in one of three rooms to speed up curing and color change over about eight days. If the market was soft, curing was done more slowly in tents and this was done also because “the market demands a lemon that is firm; that is why we use tents.” A photo showed these tents, with most of the several workers shown appearing to be Japanese.
With respect to labor, the foreman stated that there were from 60 to 150 men and women, and, as typical in packing houses generally, “the packing is done exclusively by women who live in the vicinity.” The more skilled of these “can pack sixty boxes in the ten working hours of the day; they are paid 5 cents a box,” this piecemeal method of payment also being common. Moreover, “there are from forty to sixty men and women engaged in grading the fruit, the former getting $2 per day—they carry their own boxes—while the latter are paid $1.50.” Nothing was said, however, about why the pay disparity existed.
San Dimas’ own Robert M. Teague (no relation to the Limoneira grower) was the originator of most of the trees in the area thanks to his stellar nursery and it was related that “it is a satisfaction to Mr. Teague to know that he has individualized Southern California, and that literally thousands of the lemon trees now yielding heavily are the product of his nurseries.”
Embody ended by proclaiming,
In viewing the great orchards, or while consuming their product as found in a delicious “lemon-meringue pie” one has no conception of the endless work to which the grower has been put in planting out and caring for the trees; or of the labor of cultivating, fertilizing, and of fighting insect pests. It is only after a study of the subject that one can comprehend why our orchards are the foremost and the greatest producers of the best lemons in the world, and why the fruit, whenever placed in competition with that of other sectionsa [sic], always wins.
Tomorrow, we return with the concluding fourth part of this post, so please join us then.