Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1884-01-03
Concerning California Oranges.

Orange trees were first planted in
California about 1920, by Franciscan
friars, at the old San Gabriel Mission
in Los Angeles county. Many of these
old trees still bear excellent fruit. San
Gabriel is now the chief orange center
of California, having probably half the
bearing trees in the state. In this To-
cality the orchards have often Melted
five hundred dollars per acre, an
nually.
From 1857 to 1862 orange growing
was greatly checked by the insects,
which caused an almost total failure
But in 1862 this pest abated and there
was good crop. There were then
in the whole state about two thousand
five hundred trees, over two-thirds of
which were in the Wolfskill orchard.
In 1879 fifteen carloads were sent
from Los Angeles to Utah, and from
that date Salt Lake City has continued
to be a good market for California or
anges. Since 1862 their culture has
been much extended. The surveyor
general reported two hundred and fifty
thousand bearing trees in 1890; and
there are probably three or four times
as many not yielding fruit-the total
number of trees being estimated at one
million. San Francisco uses almost
twelve million oranges annually, of
which over half are from home or
chards, five million being imported
from Tahiti and Mexico. The entire
crop of this state for the season of
1882 was twenty millions. A great
annual increase is generally anticipat-
ed during the next decade
AS California oranges come in mark
ct after those from Florida, there is no
competition in the western states, and
little danger of over production. The
various railroads have of late favored
the growers by reducing freights to
certain points, especially to Arizona,
in whose hot dry climate this fruit is
most welcome. Though mainly grown
in the irrigable district of the southern
ed and flourish throughout the Sacra-
mento Valley, and even at m elevation
of a thousand feet on the Sierra Nevada
foothills the fruit ripens earlier than
in southern California
Sixty to one hundred trees occupy an
acre; when full grown they are twenty
to twenty-five feet high, and shade a
circle fifteen to twenty feet in diameter.
The orchards are generally irrigated
every six weeks, and plowed after each
watering to prevent baking. Bearing
begins from the fifth to the eighth year
after planting; in ten years about one
thousand oranges per tree are picked,
and in fifteen years about two thousand.
The fruit is often sold on the trees, the
buyers doing the picking, packing and
shipping. Ripening continues from
December to April, but the harvest
lasts nearly all the year, since many
leave the ripe fruit on the trees several
months, thinking the flavor is thus i'm
proved. California oranges having
drier skins than those grown in other
climates, are we'll adapted for export.
Eight boxes sent from Los Angeles to
London in 1875, arrived in the most
perfect condition, not one being lost by
decay.
In planting orchards in southern
California, seedlings and buildings are
used. The former are now in disfavor
as the product is small every alternate
year; and the thick thorns often iniure
the fruit when swayed by winds Bud
ded trees grow less tall, have very few
thorns, and their more open branches
facilitate gathering the crop.-M E.
Banford IN american AgrIcuLturiSt for
December.