Excerpts from "The Foundations of Placer County
Horticulture"
by Sam Gittings including Hectors Cherry Farm and first
apples and peaches raised in California
Dr. L. E. Miller’s orchard , one of Placer’s earliest, was purchased by Robert Hector. Dr. Miller’s cherry trees, which were imported from France. In 1854, became famous throughout the State for their unusual size and productiveness.
(From an article by Mr. Hector)
"Early in the "fifties" the rich suriferous gravel deposits of that portion of the American River Canyon about Manhatten, Rattlesnake, and Horseshoe Bar had attracted a large population of miners. Among others drawn by the common loadstone was Dr. L. E Miller, a German of education and culture, who in the ‘fatherland" had acquired a love of gardening and tree growing, that here in a sheltered nook on an alluvial bench near the river’s edge, he found means to indulge in and carry into practice. . . . he found his favorite pastime a remunerative market. His garden and orchard increased in size, and in the Spring of 1854 he imported from France . . .the cherry trees which form the older portion of the orchard, I now own. . . .from him I learned that they were originally planted in squares, twenty feet apart. The gradual growth during the thirty-five years has rendered necessary a gradual thinning out in the rows. . .the largest tree is sixty-five feet in height and the branches cover a space of sixty feet in diameter. The trunk branches about six feet above the ground, and there is a girth of over ten feet. . . . Prices have varied somewhat during these years. The tree matures its fruit early for its variety, and the prices received for it, for some seasons brought as high as four dollars per box. . . .the crop of this tree for the past five years has sold for a gross total of $1800.00.
The crop of 1886 amounted to 200 boxes of ten lbs each. . .
The crop of 1890 amounted to 300 boxes of ten lbs each
These results are exceptional. . .
. . .in the year 1852 or 1853, a test pit was dug to ascertain the possibility of reaching the gold-bearing gravel that might be beneath it. The shaft was sunk to a depth of sixty feet through sandy loam without reaching the desired material and was abandoned.
. . .The picking is the most laborious as well as most carefully prosecuted work in connection wit the tree. Ladders of extra length, made portable by being attached in erect position to a stout pair of wheels, are generally used, They are held in place and kept steady by a system of guy ropes. (Appendix A - page 112)
Appendix B page 115. . .First apples and peaches grown and marketed in California, so far as known , were raised by A. P. Smith on the American River and sold by W. R. Strong then a fruit dealer in Sacramento for one dollar and fifty-cents and two dollars each (each apple and each peach). The first apples found in California were imported from Chili in 1852 and sold at seventy-five cents per pound. The first apples grown in the State were raised by Mr. Smith, of Sacramento; Briggs Bros., of Marysville and Mr. Lewelling of San Lorenzo, Alameda Co.