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Because of the configuration of the bay coast of San Mateo County,
this area offers exceptional opportunities and advantages for the
establishment of manufacturing enterprises. Deep water is available
at several points along this stretch of bay shore particularly at
South San Francisco and Redwood City. Many factories are established
at these locations some of them the largest of their kind upon the
Pacific Coast. The following industrial sketches describe some of
the most important of these manufacturing enterprises. Although San
Mateo County is primarily a residential county, with the various
home sections clustering, for the most part, upon the first slopes
of the foothills rising to the San Morona Mountains to the west, the
lower lands along the bay shore are peculiarly adapted to
manufacturing purposes. This coordination of industrial districts
and suburban areas, isolated from one another is peculiarly
advantageous to the county, giving it a most substantial foundation
for future development.
The MacRorie-McLaren
Company
The MacRorie-McLaren Company was incorporated in the month of
September 1910.
At that time they took a parcel of land a short
distance below San Mateo and constructed thereon greenhouses of the
most modern type, being steel frame structures, balloon type,
constructed with no posts or interior supports of any kind.
In laying out this range of glass a potting shed was
provided for, which is approximately thirty feet high and forty feet
wide. Radiating from this main shed are houses which are reserved
for the culture of special plants. The building is so constructed
that as the Company grows it is possible to continue the potting
sheds and also add side wings. When the structure is finally
completed it will beyond a doubt be the most modern building of its
kind west of Chicago.
Another feature of the MacRorie-McLaren Company's
nursery is a lath house. This building is about three hundred feet
long and one hundred feet wide. Instead of following the stereotyped
lines of flat roofed lath houses this Company has a very unique and
ornate structure which is undoubtedly the finest lath house of its
kind.
In this house may be seen plants from all portions of
the earth, Rhododendrons, Kalmias, Andromedas, the rarest Kentias,
Arecas, Phormiums, Lapagerias, and Tree Ferns, etc.
Another feature of this nursery is the quantity and
variety of outdoor shrubs that are grown on a total area of
twenty-five acres. There are an unlimited variety of native and
exotic ornamental outdoor shrubs. Australian and New Zealand
introductions are to be seen in quantity, among them a great many
standard and recently introduced varieties of Veronicas, Melaleucas,
Hakeas, Cestrums and Acacias.
It is the practice of this Company to lift and ball all
their stock every year, so that there is no possibility for their
patrons to obtain root bound or defective plants.
The system of cultivation in this nursery is also the
most modern type. Throughout the summer months the ground is
pulverized by an automatic disk motor cultivator. This instrument is
operated between the nursery rows. It stirs and pulverizes the
ground, leaving it in perfect condition for plant life. After the
cultivation has been carried on the plants are irrigated by
irrigating ditches.
It is estimated that this nursery turns out between two
and three hundred thousand plants per year, and imports between ten
and fifteen carloads from different parts of the world. The
collection of Orchids including Cattleyas, Phalaenopsis, Dendrobiums,
Laelias, Cypripediums, etc., seen at the Conservatories of the
MacRorie-McLaren Company are probably unexcelled anywhere on the
Continent. Plants in these conservatories have been shipped to every
part of Europe and some of them even graced the Royal Conservatory
of the King of England, also the Conservatories of wealthy families
in India and France.
In addition to the nurseries at San Mateo this Company
has an office, in San Francisco where they carry on an extensive
landscape business. Mr. ,Donald McLaren, assistant Chief of
Horticulture at the P. P. I. E. is at the head of this Department
and his great ability has been displayed in the many estates and
private gardens which have been laid out under his supervision.
At the P. P. I. E. this Company exhibited the finest
collection of Orchids and Phalaenopsis that were ever exhibited in
the history of the world. There were more than 20,000 blooms of
Phalaenopsis in variety and over 5000 rare Cattleyas. The plants
were dexterously hung from branches of gnarled oak trees, showing
the plants growing under conditions similar to those in their native
surroundings.
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