The Farmer's Gold Mine

Once the farmers started growing a single variety of marketable crop in the East, there was widespread innovation in growing fruits and vegetables.  The peach industry, for example, had started in Georgia and South Carolina between 1850 and 1870.  The industry suffered until the coming of the refrigerator rail car and the hardy Elberta peach was introduced.

New types of oranges were brought to the United States - the naval orange from Brazil, the Valencia from Europe.  They made they way to Florida and California where they flourished from the 1870s.  Lemons improved as well as Eurekas from Sicily,and Lisbons from Australia were brought to America.  Marsh grapefruit was introduced in California. 

Potatoes began to be grown commercially in six different types in the late 1800s.  Cabbage was improved and introduced from Holland and Denmark.  The tomato, which had been thought to be poisonous, was now grown to sell to a commercial market.

In 1873, Luther Burbank, a friend of Thomas Edison ("the farmer's Edison"), started applying his genius to developing more and more marketable varieties of fruits and vegetables.  Americans were now seeking soils and climates to grow crops the same way they sought out gold from the rivers only a few decades before.  A "farming frenzy" was on.

Before World War 1, pioneer fruit and vegetable growers had began orchard and farms all over the country.  Irrigation now allowed cantaloupe, watermelons, lettuce, asparagus and tomatoes to be grown in California and Texas for the commercial market.  Land that just a few years ago had been thought of as desert, was now growing produce for Boston, Chicago and New York markets.

The refrigerator rail car carried these perishables fruits and vegetables to market across the country.
In 1915, the US Department of Agriculture began to publish  information and pricing of produce shipments all over the country, creating a growing national market. 

Next time...Fruit and Vegetable Become Common
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Today in Pioneer History: "On November 4, 1922, British archaeologist, Howard Carter discovers the tomb of King Tut, the childhood king of Egypt.  The four-room tomb had been preserved for 3,000 years when Carter uncovered it.  Most of the treasures contained inside are now housed in the Cairo Museum.