Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-16
LETTER FROM !. n. HoAG.
Conclusions as to Valuable Results Aris
ing From the Citrus Frir

Conclusions as to Valuable Results Aris-
ing From the Citrus Frir.
EDS. REcoRD-UNIoN: regret very much
that my business engagements prevented
my attendance at the citrus fair now being
held in Sacramento. When, about year
| ago, i'll letter from Chicago to DIR. Latham
l suggested the holding of such a fair, 1
named December as the month in which it
should be held. By the holding of the
] fair now, you have settled for all time and
beyond all question the fact that the semi
| tropical or citrus fruit belt extends from
San Diego to Siskiyou, instead of being
confined to the five southern counties, as
has been claimed and as was generally be-
lieved. If the fair had been held in De-
| cember it would at the same time have set
TIED another question equally well, but
which see is now disputed-namely, that
| the northern fruit ripens from one month
to month and half earlier than the
i same varieties ripen in the southern coun-
ties. To my mind this question is already
| settled. but | see that my friend Mr.. Holt
who represents, perhaps, better than any
other man in southern California the opin-
! ions and feelings of the people of that part
| OF the State on that subject. raises doubt
as to
| EARLIER RIPENTNG OF THE NORTHERN FRUIT,
And, to support his doubt, says that much
OF the fruit exhibited is not fully ripe
However, he answers himself and his
doubt when he says the fruit on exhibition
| Is mostly Seeding while the grated vari-
cites, like the navel and some others of
fixed characteristics, now generally grown
in southern California, ripen much earlier
than seedlings.
There is a natural and unanswerable
reason why the fruit grown where the I'M
broken coast range mountains shut off the
influence of the ocean breezes and fogs
should ripen earlier than where these
breezes and fogs influence the atmosphere.
The ocean equalizes the temperature
through the whole year. In other words,
| it deducts heat from the temperature of the
| spring, summer and fall. while the fruit
is growing and ripening, and adds it to
the temperature of the winter, thus pro-
longing the growing and ripening season,
| and making the fruit later This fact
should convince Mr.. Holt. or any other
man who reasons, and demonstration
| should not be needed TO convince.
ARRIVING AT THE REAL FACT.
But Mr.. Holt has travelled long ways
on the road towards the truth on citrus
fruit culture in central and northern Cali
fornia since he left home While in Los
! Angeles, in an interview published in the
Herald, in speaking of the proposed citrus
fair at Sacramento Mr.. Holt is reported as
ridiculing the whole idea, by remark that
he did not believe in citrus fruit culture
in a climate where the cultivator had to
share his blankets with his orchard
When Mr.. Holt now says that he would
sooner engage in orange culture in Oroville
| than at Los Angeles, be gives away all the
SALT so to speak, there is in his position. In
| this he acknowledges that the inland citrus
fruit belt produces healthier trees and
brighter. cleaner and better fruit than local
ties exposed to the dampness and fogs of
| the sea.
SUPERIORITY OF CITRUS FRUIT GROWN IN
DRY CLIMATE.
But there is one poiht l wish to call
| especial attention to, that. so far, seems to
have been entirely overlooked in the dis
cusslon of this subject. 1t is this: That
citrus fruits grown and ripened in dry
and warm atmosphere are sweeter and keep
much better than those grown and ripened
| in warm but humid atmosphere. This
| accounts for the fact which have had an
( opportunity of observing while in the
| East, that the California oranges and lem
ons keep much better than the Florida
oranges and lemons. Now, the oranges
and lemons, grown and ripened in the in
terror OF the central and northern section
| OF the State, come TO maturity while
/ the atmosphere is still dry, before the
rainy season fairly sets in, while those in
the southern counties ripen rather in and
at theend of the rainy tason than Before it
begins.
| had an opportunity of observing this
, fact also while in Chicago, as | had fruit
| from the 1,nrll, aud Snit.b IN, - ibitif,r,
ANA tested their keeping qualities. 1t is
II! now settled that the great interior semi
tropica! fruit belt ''uf San Bernardino
county also extends the whole length of
| the San joaquin and Sacramento valleys
| No@ lei the whole State rejoice in the
triumphant establishment OF this fact, and
prepare to psoiit by it, is the sentiment of
!. \. HoAG.
V>aiia, Cal. January Il, 1856.