The Rapp Family

Adolphus Rapp began farming in the Summit area in 1904. Here’s a glimpse at 12 months at the Rapp orchards on Skyland and Adams roads. Winter work. In September, a cover crop of vetch was spread throughout the orchard. Vetch produces nitrogen that feeds the soil, protects it from erosion, and controls weeds.

We used a single-disc blade plow to make drainage ditches to divert water out of the orchard. During storms, Adolphus went out with his hip boots on to make sure the water was draining properly in the orchard and that the reservoir was not overflowing.

In the middle of November, when most of the leaves had fallen off the pear trees, Adoulphus started pruning. He usually had pruned all the fruit trees by January 1. Adolphus’ pruning crew was composed of six men plus our neighbor Floyd Freed.

Floyd ran the crew when Adolphus had to step away to take care of some business. A model A orchard truck transported the crew back and forth between the Skyland Road and Adams Road ranches. After pruning, the next step was to push the tree limbs on the ground away in a two- foot circle from the trunk of the tree. When they disced the orchard in the spring, the disc would cut up all the tree branches and turn them back into the soil. Each worker was provided with a three point 12-foot orchard ladder, a hand clipper, one long- handled lopper, and a saw for the limbs that were too big for the loppers.

The pruning and picking crews stayed in the bunkhouse. Every year, the state inspected the structure to make sure it was in good condition to house the workers. It was the original house Colonel Slaughter built in 1876. Later, in 1885, the colonel built another house that is still standing today next to the original bunkhouse.

In January or February, when the ground was dry enough for the tractor, Adolphus planted new two-year old, grafted trees. First, Adophus planted pear seedlings in a nursery between one row of trees. He took sign wood (cuttings) from selected pear trees in the orchard and grafted them onto the seedlings. The next year, he dug up the nursery row and replaced trees that were not producing well.

WWII Fuel Rationing. During WWII, ranchers were given gas ration tickets by the War Price and Rationing Board. The ranchers went to town only when necessary, to save gas for the farm. Sugar was rationed, which ranchers needed for canning fruit and vegetables.

Pest Control. The Santa Cruz County game warden gave the ranchers deer-hunting permits because of the damage deer did to the fruit trees. The ranchers could not keep the meat and had to take the dressed-out deer to the local fire station on Highland Road.

Adolphus kept the gophers in check by baiting the gopher holes with carrots laced with strychnine. When ground squirrels started burrowing in the orchard, the county came in to eliminate them. Adolphus purchased a John Bean spray rig for $5,000 in 1958. It held 500 gallons on a full tank, which equates to 5,000 pounds pushing behind the tractor in the steep part of the orchard.

Ranchers in the Santa Cruz Mountains used crawler tractors because wheel tractors were too dangerous. There were places on the ranch where you could only go downhill due to the weight of the spray rig and the slope. One year, when the ground was not completely dry yet, I started to make a turn at the bottom of a steep row. The weight of the sprayer pushed the tractor toward the edge of the drop off. Luckily, I was able to maneuver the tractor to keep from being pushed over the edge of the bank. I stopped for a minute to slow my racing heart after the close call.

In the spring, around the first of March, Adolphus went to the Watsonville farm supply store to purchase the pesticides he needed for the spring and summer. He always asked for advice on what to spray to target certain insects. Most of these synthetic pesticides were developed in the 1940s.

Some of the insecticides were DDT, Deildren, Seven, Malathion, Parathion, and Stop Drop. The first spray in the spring was applied when the pear trees were blooming. This killed mites and kept fungus from forming scabs on the skin of the fruit. We applied codling moth and pear psylla spray in May, when daytime temperatures reached 50 degrees. The moth doesn’t damage the fruit, but when their eggs hatch into the worm stage, they can tunnel into the fruit. At the end of June, we sprayed the apples trees for codling moths, and the walnuts for aphids.

Two weeks before it was time to start picking, we applied Stop Drop spray to the joints where the pears were connected to the trees. This kept the pears from falling off the trees before it was time to harvest. Today, we understand how toxic these chemicals are and what precautions to take.

At age 13, I started driving the tractor to spray the orchard. I remember making turns with the tractor and spray rig on a hot summer day. I felt the spraying mist and enjoyed how refreshingly cool it felt. The pesticide manufacturers and chemical companies never warned ranchers and farmers about the dangers of these pesticides, or to wear protective clothing.

Each morning and again after lunch, we greased and gassed up the spray rig and tractor. It took about 80 gallons of gas per day to run both. We ran the tractor at full speed in low gear in order to adequately apply the spray the trees. It took two and half days to spray the 100-acre orchard.

After we finished spraying, it took another half a day to clean the spray rig and tractor. My exposure to chemicals growing up is probably one of the reasons that I, and many other famers my age, have developed Parkinson’s. Be mindful, as you can still purchase these same insecticides at your local nursery or hardware store.

Dryland Ranching. In the Santa Cruz Mountains, the practice of dryland farming, with no irrigation to the orchards, was common. Dryland farming results in fruit with a higher sugar level. In the early 1900s, when my grandfather took the train from Wrights Station to the fruit wholesale produce market in San Francisco, he could tell which fruit came from the Santa Cruz Mountains. It always tasted sweeter.

The ranchers in the mountains managed

the soil to preserve moisture for the trees in the summer. In May, it was time to disc the orchard. The tractor chopped the grass and branches from the winter pruning back into In June, it was time to roll the orchard. We pulled an eight-foot wide roller compactor, with a series of four-inch wide rollers connected across an eight-foot span. A drag frame levelled the orchard, compacted the soil to retain moisture, and got rid of By this time the ground was very dry and dusty. If the wind was going your direction, you could find yourself in a dust cloud. You could barely make out the pear tree in front of the tractor you were driving.

In July, we looked for signs of pear fire blight. Fire blight is caused by the bacterium Erwinia amylovora. If we found it, we used a pair of pruning shears or a saw to cut the branch off about three inches below the last damaged cancer on the bark of the branch. The pruning shears or saws had to be disinfected with a bleach solution between cuts, so the bacteria didn’t spread around the orchard. If we didn’t act swiftly, fire blight could kill off half the trees. Every infected Also in mid July, we installed one-inch- thick wooden boards to prop up branches that had so many pears on them they might Fruit Harvest. Royal Land cherries were the first summer fruit that we picked. How we picked them depended on which cannery the cherries were being taken to.

They were picked stem-on for maraschino cherries, or stem-off for canning. Everyone in the family helped pick cherries. We did not get weekly allowances, but we did earn money per box of summer fruit we picked. After the cherries were harvested, around the end of June, there was a lull of activity at the ranch. We often took a camping At the end of July, we applied Stop Drop to the pears. A few weeks before picking started, ladders and buckets were inspected to make sure they were in good condition.

We numbered these to track how much to pay each worker. When they dumped their full buckets in the bins, their card was punched to keep a tally of how many buckets they picked each day. A good worker could pick 100 buckets in eight hours. The ladder supports were tightened One year, a member of the crew suggested that Adolphus paint the ladders green so that if immigration flew over, the ladders would blend in with the pear trees. After that, all the ladders were painted green.

A representative from the cannery came to the ranch and tested a random sample of pears from the orchard for sugar levels. When the sugar levels were high enough, the rancher was given the OK to start picking In August, picking would begin. Ranchers had to anticipate the number of boxes that would be needed in an area of the orchard, and spread out enough boxes to keep ahead of the picking crew. Our foreman Floyd watched the pickers to make sure they picked quality fruit. The workers were given a ring about two and a half inches in diameter. They were not to pick a pear smaller than that because it was too small for the cannery to process. The cannery would not accept a load that had too many small pears, or pears with worms or scabs.

Adolphus took two to three 12-ton loads a day to the cannery, leaving the ranch with the first load by 6 a.m. In his best year, Adolphus hauled 350 tons of pears to the cannery from both ranches. It was a 40- mile, three- to four-hour round trip from the ranch to Wools Cannery at Tully and Center roads in San Jose and back.

It took two weeks for the first picking of the hundred acres. Then the picking crews would start over again. By this time, the small pears that were left behind from the first picking had grown big enough to be Pears were the one crop that had to be picked green. If they were left to ripen on the tree, the center of the pear would be too ripe to be processed at the cannery. After the load was accepted by the cannery, the pears were placed in a cold-storage building for two weeks. Then they were taken out of cold storage and allowed to ripen in the boxes outside for a time. After being in cold storage, all the pears in the boxes ripened at the same time and were ready for processing.

In 1960, Wools Cannery converted to using bins for the pears instead of boxes. The boxes held 40 pounds of pears, while After converting to bins, the workers were paid by the bucket rather than by the box. A worker was given a new punch card every morning, and every time they dumped a bucket of pears, their card was punched.

Everyone’s cards were collected at the end of the day. If the workers stayed for the whole picking season, they got a bonus per bucket. If the rancher didn’t offer the bonus, some pickers would leave before all the pears were picked, which left the ranchers in a bind.

My mom Lorene cooked meals for the pickers and kept track of all the workers’ payroll daily from the punch cards. The pear harvest was a very busy time for our family. In September, the apple crop was ready to pick. We grew five acres of several varieties of apples including Crab Apple, Yellow Delicious, Red Relicious, New Town Pippens, Rosey Cheeks, Jonathon, and Rome Beauty. There was also an old German variety called Bietemhiemer. It was a very large cooking apple about 6 inches in diameter. Adolphus won the apple contest at the Santa Cruz County Fair every year with them. The county fair was the end of the