Los Angeles daily herald., 1889-05-14

There are two reasons for this attraction |
surrounding the enterprise. One is the
poetic fascination naturally attaching to
this sort of horticulture. Few can stand
beneath the shadows of an orange grove
and see the glossy smoothness OF the
waxy foliage, smell the perfume exhaled
from the snow-white flowers, gaze
on the golden spheres of the
ripe fruit, and then glance upon the
snow-capped heights of San Antonio,
San Bernardino and San Jacinto noun
tains, and not feel some emotion at the
prospect. To many such sensation is a
thing to carry in their minds for life
time.
The other so URGE of attraction, and
perhaps stronger than this sentimental
one, is the profits accruing to the sue
cessful orange grower. In setting forth
these p rofits it is not necessary, neither
is it desirable, to- resort TO any fabu-
lous or even exceptional figures. In
the past $1,000 worth of oranges
have been sold from the trees on single
acre. In the present there are cases re-
ported where the crop from hundred
trees, the number usually planted to the
acre, sell for $3.50, or even 1000. But
these figures are confessedly exceptional.
1t is result that no amount of intelligent
culture can assure, as a rule. But $500
or 5000 an acre is profit proper enough
to insist upon as attainable, where
all the conditions are carefully observed.
Such figures may be insisted upon as
possible to reach on proper soil, with
plenty of water judiciously used, with
the best sort of trees and with thorough
care ana cultivation. Under these cir
cumstances, the producer of oranges
may expect to harvest as high rewards
for his efforts as $500 or 5000 for each
acre of trees.
The fboom" and the scale-bug during
the past four or five years have seriously
mensced the success of the culture
of the citrus fruits in this region. The
"boom" has gone to the limbo of things
lost from earth, and the bug is on the
high road to the same happy hunting
ground. The efforts and intelligence OF
the orchardists, reinforced by the new
lady-bug, will in a short time get the
whip hand of the pest. Nature always
finds remedy for such abnormal devel-
opments, and the scale, in his present
decaying state, indicates that natures
remedy is being applied. The result is
new departure in this profitable
and fascin ating industry. More orange
trees have been planted this year in this
section than have been in the past three
years. The growers see their way clear
to a successful revival of their industry
and when the local nurseries failed to
furnish enough young trees. far of
Florida was called upon for hundreds Of
thousands Of them.
Here, then, is good place to cast uE
a counts and take an inventory of stock
While oranges have been cultivated with
great success in this region for 100 years
it is only within the past twenty years
that the industry has been attempted on
a large, or, at all general, scale. 1t is
only the history of this twenty years that
is valuable. The efforts of this score of
years has been, for the most part,
tent alive. Mistakes of all sorts have
been made. and in this costly but
thorough school of hard experience valu-
able lessons have been mastered, and
now we fairly we'll know just what are
the conditions under which this enter.
prise may be carried on. For one thing
we know that all the lands of this section
are not suitable for orange-growing. The
tree is robust grower, full of the vigor
of life, yet it is most fastidious as to the
conditions under which it will reach per-
feet development. 1t will not do well
on damp lands. 1t likes free
soil easily worked, with plenty of
natural drainage, warm, and free from
clay, which would hold the moisture
near the roots. Then we know Just
how much water the tree must have
during the dry season, in order to insure
good results. In the old days we used
to irrigate In floods twice month, and
plow twice year. This order has been
just about reversed by the best informed
orange-growers. Then we used to
trim the tree high, and pillow
close up to the bole, thus tearing out
all the small roots near the surface
| by which the trees do all their feeding.
Now the trees are allowed to retain their
branches close to the ground, thus secur-
ing shade and keeping the sun away
from the bole, and the chill OF the nights
from the roots. No blowing is ever done
| close to the tree, but the fbrous roots are
| allowed to remain. So also the intelli-
gent grower no longer plants Seeding
trees, the quality of whose fruit
is matter of pure specula-
ton; but now budded trees are
always set, and the varieties best
suited to conditions here are we'll under
stood. There are many more branches
of valuable knowledge that have been
cleaned from the history of the past, and
we know with quite reasonable certainty
all those points. The situation is a
most hopeful one, fully fustifying the
great energy now being displayed in the
planting of new orchards. 1t is
also pleasant thing to know that such
men as Hon. j. De Barth Shorb.