Los Angeles daily herald., 1890-01-19
The "DaiIy Herald"
SUNDAY, JANUA.Y 10, 1880.
ssstep Into My Parior.n


The complacent assurance OF the
Chronicle in advising the people of this
section to hold their Citrus Fair in San
Francisco is only equalled by the per-
eistence of the Northern Belt people in
claiming that their section is a successful
rival to these Southern counties in orange
culture. Because they raise few or
anges in sheltered hooks in the foothills,
they must, forsooth, puff themselves up
with the idea that they can make the
industry of commercial value. But this
is not the worst of it. Under this delu-
sion, or rather false pretense, they in
vite Eastern settlers to buy their lands
with q view to making money out of
orange culture. This is the cruel and
criminal part of the imposition. Oranges
are raised in England in hot-houses; in
deed, all kinds of tropical fruits and
plants can be raised anywhere by artifi
cial means. But as it is climate that de
termines the adaptsbility of places for
particular growths, until the Northern
part of California has changed in this re.
spect, all efforts to raise oranges as q
commercial proposition in that section
will be ruinous to those who put their
capital in it. The natural home in this
State of citrus fruits is this section. Here
is where they reach their finest growth
and greatest excellence. Here is where
the attention of the world must be called
to our special productions, and where all
exhibitions of the citrus growth of this
section, and hence of the State, must be
held. II the Chronicle is serious in its
suggestions, it betrays less than its usual
acumen in supposing that these counties
would accept proposition the carrying
out of which would play into the hands
of the Northern Citrus Belt boomers and
help to impose upon the credulity
of Eastern people contemplating settle
ment in this State. They would use their
amateur exhibit as comparison with our
commercial exhibit to make strangers be-
lieve that bearing orange orchard can
be raised as successfully in the Northern
as in the Southern counties. 1t is an
other case OF "step into my parlor," as
the spider said to the fly.
The effort to establish orange culture
in the Northern counties as successful
commercial proposition is not new one.
It has been tried thoroughly and
failed completely. In 1873 9 there was
a craze for orange tree planting
in Sacramento and other counties at that
end of the State. Young trees, brought
from this section, were planted out by
the hundred thousand. One gentleman
who had made great deal of money in
working Comstock tailings in Nevada,
planted oui an orchard of $4,000 trees
near place in the foothills, east of Sac
ramento, now called Loomis. He had
the most experienced men he could find
to superintend the work. But the enter
prise came to naught, and there is not q
single tree now fourishing on his place.
This was only one of the many attempts
to naturalize the orange in that unconge-
nial region. What is he.result? A dec
ade has passed, and with the exception
of q few bearing trees, in few seques-
tered and protected spots, there is not All
orchard in the whole of Northern Cali
fornia that pays one mill on the hundred
dollars invested in this hopeless kind OF
speculation nor has there ever been a
shipment Of oranges to the E st from
that section that has been publicly and
distinctively reported. We would re-
mind our neighbors up there of the Latin
apothegm, and advise them to stick to
the crops which time has shown that
they can proftably produce, and leave
citrus fruits alone.