Los Angeles herald., 1892-11-09


the export alton of that staple alone
from the 'shree principal ports of Italy
amount ed for the preceding ten years to
2O,0VJ,OO0 annually. The ports were,
we think, Messina, Naples and Palermo.
TtAe fact of the magnitude of the ex-
portations is just as we have stated it.
A very usual thing has been to hear
some pessimist talk about the certainty
of overcrowding the orange market, and
thus lowering the price below the point
OF profit. A fact such as that quoted
above from the experience OF Italy does
not harmonize with this atrabilious view
of the future. In truth, it would be i'm
possible to overdo the orange market.
The demand is increasing steadily. Day
by day the American people are becom-
ing more luxurious in their tastes. The
orange, with the grape and the olive, is
admittedly the healthiest fruit in the
world. 1t is impossible to set limit to
| its consumption by a prosperous people
of near seventy millions, who will soon
be eighty millions, and who spend dol
lar where the masses of other nations
spend dime.
Another factor to be taken into the
count in estimating the possibility Of
the orange being overdone is the re-
markably limited section OF country
which is adapted to produce the orange
in perfection, at least within the limits
of the United States. This is restricted
to small portion of Florida and to GER
tain areas in Southern California. We
ought to remember, when we are
tempted to repine at an occasional visit
alton of the weather clerk, such as that
which curtailed our crop for a single
year, that in the very year OF the New
Orleans exposition Florida was visited
by a frost 30 severe that it not only de-
stroyed the crop for the current year,
but killed the trees themselves. Here
was the labor of years destroyed at a
blow, while in the late unpleasant ex-
perience in Southern California not a
single mature orange tree was injured,
the only drawback in that line being
the destruction of limited amount of
young nursery stock. Louisiana has
practically Withdrawn from the cultiva-
tion of the orange as a commercial prop
osition.
1t is not whit strained to say that
there is an imminent probability that,
in ten years from today, Southern Cali
fornia, that is to say Los Angeles and
San Bernardino counties mainly, will be
selling ten million dollars worth of
oranges yearly, and that, in another
decade, this sum will have swollen to
twenty million dollars worth. There
are twenty times as many potatoes
raised in the United States now as there
were fifty years ago, and yet spuds
bring five times as much bushel now
as they did then. The ability Of the peo-
Pile to consume has been enormously
increased of late years. Luxuries have
become necessities. That oranges will
be sold at less price than has prevailed
during the last four or five years may
be admitted, but they will still be inn
mensely lucrative. As matter Of plain
statement of fact mature trees, Of fne
varieties, especially the Washington
navel, yield from $500 to $500 an acre
In some instances even the latter figure
has been advanced upon. A drop IL
this extravagant scale of profit can be
readily borne by horticultu1ists who dc
not want the earth.
From whatsoever point of view we re
gard the future of our citrus industry
the prospect is most roseate. The great
things we have outlined as sure to come
are only carrying out the achievements
of our orchardists. AS to the immedi
ate market for our oranges, it is per
fectly safe thing to predict that Chicago
with its Columbian Worlds Fair, viii
take our whole surplus during the com
ing year.