Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1886-01-16
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LESSONS OF THE FAIR.

The lessons of the Northern California
Citrus Fair in this city are not many, but
forcible. No mature person has visited
the exhibition to whom it has not been
rich in suggestion. The press has been
unanimous in agreement regarding its high
value, and the probable results to flow
from il.
That it has exceeded in variety and
volume of exhibits, and in the area repre-
scented, the most Imaginative anticipations
of its projectors is frankly confessed. This
admission carries with it the concession
that the general business public has been
deficient in information concerning the
adaptability of the soil and climate of the
northern, central and eastern sections of
the State, for the growing of citrus fruits,
and especially lacking in knowledge of the
capacity of the area for such products in
volume.
Citrus fruits have been, with but very few
exceptions, grown in no part of the region
with market in view; they have not en-
tered into the commercial considerations of
our people. 1t will therefore be readily
understood why it is that so little atten-
ton has been devoted to the proper cult
walton of these fruits We have treated
the orange and the lemon tree in northern
California as ornamental merely; the date
palm and the olive have been simply
curiosities, in which only those of consid-
cradle means and leisure have INDUCED
Hence 1t is that the vast majority of the
orange exhibits in the fair are seedlings.
for budded varieties in northern California
have had no attention, save in few ex-
ceptional cases.
1t is not, therefore, proper to consider
these exhibits as in competition with those
from Riverside, San Bernardino county.
which is deemed by the people of southern
California to be the ideal orange-growing
section of the continent. There years of
culture, patient labor, long waiting
and broad experiment have pro-
duced wonderful results, in which
all Californians take commend
able pride. When like care shall
have been bestowed upon the industry in
northern California, and not until then.
will it be justifable to compare the pro-
ducts of the two regions. In short, the
people of northern California are not ex-
hibiting their citrus fruits now as EXPOSE
tory of the capabilities of the section as to
quality, but simply as to its capacity to
grow at all, and to grow under widely
varying conditions, at greatly differing al
titudes in valley, foothill and noun
TAIN in the atmosphere of the vicinity of
Sacramento, and in the more rarified air
of producing sections from one to two
thousand feet higher, and from one to two
hundred miles more northerly This
essential fact we trust the press of San
Francisco will make prominent when the
fruits shall be exposed there, since it is
vitality material to a correct estimate of
the exhibits by the people of that city.
The fair has taught us, then, that there
Is great commercial possibility in the !
growing of citrus fruit in northern Cali
fornia. 1t has read us a lesson, also, upon
the power of united effort by a community
for given end, and the need for greater
intimacy between the people of the north
ern and central counties for the strengthen
ing of that natural community of interest
which topography, commerce, climate and
production create.
We may be encouraged by the result of
the fair, also, in the belief that by due
care We can make northern California as
justly renowned for excellence and variety
of citrus products as is southern Califor-
MIA, and that in more than one direction
we can surpass her most favored localities.
Ii has been demonstrated that our Semi
tropical fruits are much earlier in market
than those of the Los Angeles and San
Bernardino belts, and that by cultivation
we may be able to produce the ripened
fruit in time to supply an Eastern early
and mid-winter demand, and that, without
being thrown into competition with the
producers of the South.
The lessons of the fair also relate to a
renewal of the spirit, so active last year, in
inviting desirable immigration to the