Natural Wonders and the Works of Man Combine to Create a Region of Tremendous Beauty and Wide Appeal to Students, Vacationers, and the Motorist Seeking Something New
Wildflowers in vast profusion and a galaxy of colors line the cliffs along the bayshore at picturesque old Pacific Grove.
High rocky spines, spare gnarled trees, an ever-pounding surf and blue water are typical of shoreline at Point Lobos State Park.
This is Pebble Beach, asserted by many to be the finest of all golf courses. Finals of the Bing Crosby Open are played here.
It is inland, however, in the great valley of the Salinas, that agriculture really hits its stride and while production in Watsonville’s Pajaro Valley is tremendous, that which centers in the Salinas area is even greater.
In the beginning Salinas was a center for livestock raising. Then overtones of agriculture were added as potatoes began to be raised thereabout. Later, sugar beets came in and the largest beet sugar refinery in the United States was built a few miles west of the city. Today, lettuce is the big item—two to three crops a year, worth more than $40,000,000.
Production on most of the larger ranches is on virtually an assembly line basis. Long machines, drawn by tractors, span 18 rows of the ripe lettuce. On a platform ride the packers, usually eight. Ahead of the machine walk cutters, one for each row, who cut the crisp green heads. Behind the machines are other workers who place the heads on a table before the packers. These packers place the heads in cartons which pass on to a worker who closes them, and another who staples the closure tight. The whole work proceeds so rapidly that a special worker is required merely to unfold cartons.