Trucks, each of which holds exactly half a carload, follow the picking machine and as the pallets on each truck are piled to the proper height with cartons of lettuce, that truck departs for a cooling plant where, under intense vacuum, the lettuce is cooled from the temperature of the hot field to a point just above freezing in a matter of only 18 to 20 minutes. Then it goes into pre-iced refrigerator cars, with the cartons still on the original pallets, and presently is on its way to market.
The old methods, by which lettuce was hauled to packing sheds for trimming, packing and icing, are now all but superseded and firms with tremendous investments in ice plants are wondering what to do with them, for when it was necessary to ice each crate of lettuce Salinas produced more ice than New York City.
Besides the lettuce which has given it the name “Salad Bowl of the World,” the Salinas Valley also produces more than $6,000,000 worth of dry beans, $12,000,000 worth of carrots, $5,500,000 worth of celery and quantities of truck crops every year. The sugar beet crop runs to almost $7,000,000 a year.
In spite of its agricultural importance, however, Salinas still thinks of itself in terms of the old stock-raising days. The annual Salinas California Rodeo was started in 1911 to perpetuate the sports and traditions of the Old West. Membership on the 50-man board which controls this four-day event is a coveted honor. In this fast, dramatic, colorful spectacle, competition is of world championship caliber, prizes amount to approximately $50,000 and every effort is made to see that the stock is capable of bringing out the best in each competitor. “Salinas,” said one rodeo rider, “is where they separate the men from the boys.”
Yet, while agriculture and stock raising overshadow them, this region, too, has its recreation features. Paraiso Hot Springs and Tassajara Hot Springs are well known resorts. The padres and, before them, the Indians, made much use of the Paraiso Springs.
Mission San Carlos de Borromeo, at Carmel, is often called the most beautiful of all the missions. Its Saracenic tower is distinctive.
Like all the other sections traversed by the route of the padres, the Salinas Valley had its missions—Mission de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad, near the town of Soledad, and Mission San Antonio de Padua, near Jolon. Both fell completely into ruins but now are being restored. Only a beginning has been made at Soledad, but San Antonio has been largely rebuilt by the Franciscan Fathers and is in use as a training school for young brothers. It is a “working” mission—that is, not only a place for worship but a place where industry is carried on, as it used to be at the original mission, shoemaking, carpentry, book binding, the making of adobe brick and tile for the rebuilding of the two wings which are still to be reconstructed, and all the maintenance work.
In addition to agriculture, food processing, and the activities dependent upon the sight-seers and pleasure-seekers, the economy of this region also derives considerable support from industry. It digs and processes sand for making glass and for other purposes. Salt and refractories are manufactured. Lumbering continues on privately-owned lands in the Santa Cruz mountains, with processing at Santa Cruz. Near Santa Cruz is one of the largest cement production plants in America, if not the world.
There are small-scale textile operations and a saddle leather plant in Santa Cruz, which city is also intensely proud of its new chewing gum plant. There are several seed farms producing flower seeds—a pretty sight in summer—and more producing field crop seed. There are busy commercial fishing fleets.