The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1891-05-21
HESPERIDES APPLES.
SWEET GOLDEN FRUIT OF A
F. FIJI SUNNY CLINE.
Fifteen Years Ago the Industry Was a
Stranger in Southern California,
To- Day Her Oranges Flood
-... Every Market. #f#g

Stranger in Southern California;,
Day Her Oranges Flood
| Every Market. #f#f
Five or six years ago the oranges of
the eastern market came from Florida,
Cuba, Messina and other European
countries. The southern California
production was not a prominent feat
ure and hardly factor in trade. To-
day the reverse is the case, says a very
entertaining correspondent of the Chi
cago Herald. .."a s.....
The first picking is made about the
middle of December in the San Gabriel
Valley, and from the first of january
for a month or so, the gathering con-
tinues unabated. A few weeks previ-
Gus the wholesale shippers go the
rounds of the groves. Many of them
| have arrangements from year to year
with the owners, while many producers
prefer to make new contracts each sea-
son. The agent inspects the grove
and offers so much per box or so much
for the fruit on the tree, and here the
responsibility of the owner ceases.
The shipper puts on his pickers, the
grower receives his check, and anoth-
er year is begun.
The picking of the orange in large
orange centers, such as the San Ca
briel Valley, is announced by an ad-
dition to the floating population.
Gangs of pickers-Mexicans, Chinese
Americans, men and boys-gather
from far and near, and the groves are
filled with gay laughter and song.
Everybody is at work, and if the crop
is large, every one feels cheerful and
confident. The orange grove of the
imagination is a stretch of trees filled
with golden fruit, where one can lie in
the soft grass and luxuriate in the
sight. The actual grove, while beau
tiful to the eye is not place for
lounging, as the ground is or should
be kept plowed continually and irri-
gated often by floods of water. But
the trees are attractive; ever green,
often showing ripe and green fruit and
white blossoms at the same time, they
are an enigma.
At Pasadena and all through the
southern country a gang of men under
the head of leader or overseer takes
possession of a grove bright and early
in the morning, two or three men be-
ing appointed to tree, and the pick
ing begins. Tall stepladders enable
the pickers to reach the top branches,
and each orange is carefully cut from
the tree, as If it is pulled and the skin
broken it will soon decay. The picker
wears a bag into which the fruit is
dropped, which, when filled, is handed
to the washer or scrubber. The latter,
generally a Chinaman, washes the
black stain or rust from the fruit,
polishing it with cloth, after whic
it is passed to the assorter. Some
times a simple machine is used, run
way, so that the oranges of the same
size will all collect together. - This
accomplished, each orange is wrapped
in varicusly colored paper and placed
in the box ready for shipment A
counter keeps tally of the boxes, as
sometimes the owner is paid by the
box as we'll as the picker.
The orange pickers are usually a
jolly lot there being something about
the business apparently that enlivens
the spirits and imparts an air of jollity
to the party. The Mexicans and
Americans labor in harmony, but an
orange-plcking team composed of
Cinnamon and Americans appears to
work the reverse.
At the orange picking time the coun-
try is a marvel to the easterner. While
standing among the oranges the picker
looks away over grove after grove,
helds OF flowers-acres of golden esch-
scholtzias, patches of wild daisies,
bluebells and yellow violets - and
finally his eye rests upon the Sierra
Madres, or mother mountains, rising
but four or five miles distant the gar
den wall of this modern Hesperi5es.
His nostrils inhale the odor of the
orange blossoms, while his eyes greet
the snow banks of a vigorous winter.
The great peaks are capped with snow,
and the upland blizzard is raging with
unabated fury. From the vantage
ground OF the orange grove the wind
, can be seen on Mount San Antonio
whirling the snow in gigantic wraiths,
tossing it upward in huge clouds that
rise hundreds of feet, to be borne away
over the lowland and dissipated. With
eyes on this arctic scene the observer
can scarce believe the facts, scarce real
ize that he can by a single glance encom-
pass winter and summer. The orange
picker, however, has no time to spend
on the aesthetics of the subject; he is
picking against time, and an eager East
is waiting. a..
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