County histories of the 1880s describe settlers finding that the reddish foothill soil, poor for grain, was ideal for orchards, and land prices soared. By 1907 the Board of Trade counted five drying plants and Hunt Bros. Cannery, which employed about five hundred people in season.
By 1922 the Glen Una prune ranch on the hills had produced prunes worth $750,000. The orchards gave way to houses after the 1950s, as Los Gatos became a suburb of San Jose.