Apricots lay in the field drying in this picture from the first issue of California Magazine. Author E. J. Wickson claimed in that issue that California had monopolized trade in the Western Hemisphere in this versatile fruit. A. P. Smith listed 11 varieties in his catalog for 1856 and apricots have been raised and sold in the Sacramento Valley ever since. By the end of the 1920s California produced 125,000 tons annually, with the majority (over 90,000 tons) dried for local and export sales.
