The Newtown bee., 1895-06-28

I NoVELTY.-THE FLOODS ARE FREAKS.
 Prominent as southern California has
 become because of it's temperate win- ters and fruitful acres where irrigation has furnished the opportunity, she is to attain fresh pre-eminence during the next few years as the leading orange section of the Union. Florida has pre- viously held first rank in orange pro- duction and expected to have shipped this season about 5,00O,C00 boxes. The freeze which destroyed these oranges ruined trees as we'll as fruit, and it prob-
 ably be from three to five years before Florida can again take her commanding position in the orange market.
 California will ship this year some 6,000 cars or 1,S00, ,000 boxes of oranges to eastern markets, of which 9S per cent are raised south of the Sierra Madre mountains, or in southern California. ful authorities and successful horticul- turists says: "From Santa Barbara and the Ojai on the west the great district reaches away eastward to the passes of the San Bernardino mountains, and by the sea to the Mexican line. The San Gabriel yields an increasing wealth of fruit, but the upper Santa Ana valley has gained pre- eminence and Riverside, with her 2,500 carloads, is the incontest- able. hub. From it radiate such gilt edged spokes as Pomona, Ontar O, Cucamonga, Etiwanda, Rialto, Colton, Highlands, Redlands, South Riverside and newer towns" The press of this city estimates that between $l,500, ,000 and $2 100000 will flow into Riverside this year, from the sale of her fruit pro- ducts, but how much larger this product will soon become may be gathered from the report of County Assessor Morse to the state comptroller for 1894. He re. turns 376, ,452 orange trees in bearing in the Riverside district and 639 ,035 young orange trees not yet in bearing, so that the Riverside district will soon treble it's orange output. The orange area is rap- idly increasing throughout southern California. The thriving settlement of Ontario, which led all other localities in San Barnardino county in tree planting for 1894, set l 400 acres to oranges last year, not to mention 500 acres of lem ons and 3, 100 acres of deciduous fruits.
 Before, however, considering the orange industry here, it may be inter- esting to trace the history of the intro duction of the orange into civilized countries, and especially into Southern California. In the first place, the or ange is not indigenous to the United States, nor, indeed, to Europe. The Romans, wide as were their conquests
 and numerous and expensive their lux
 uries, dc. not seem to have been acquain
 ted with the orange. It was not unti
 the Arabs, fired by the fanaticism o1 Mohammed, swept like a burning sim
 oon from the Straits of Gibraltar to the banks of the Ganges, that The orange was brought from India to Palestine anC Egypt. An Arabian writer gives the year 922 as the date of its introduction tt the countries of the Mediterranean, and adds: "One knew it not before, but it lost much of it's sweet odor and fine eolol which it had in India, because it had moi the same climate, soil and all that whicf is peculiar to that country" Fhe Cru
 saders found the orange in the Holy Land when they attempted to wrest it from the inffdel. They took 1t home with them along with the apricot and other fruits, and scattered orange trees throughout Europe, where they were largely plant. ed by the monks in the courts of thei1 monasteries. The priest who accom-
 panied the Spanish conquerors of Mexi- co, when they established their missions, which were also scattered along the Cali fornia coasts, sought to make them as much like the European monasteries they had left, as possible. The San Gabriel mission, whose adobe building is still in la good state of preservation, as also are It's ancient bells, boasts the first orange trees known to have been planted in southern California. They are said to fhave been raised from seed brought from San Rafael in Lower California. Father Tomas Sanchez, who introduced the orange here, probably had no other mo- tive than to furnish a pleasing variety to the fruit supply of his mission. He had some 400 trees enclosed by high adobe wall, and 30 years later Don Luis Vignes removed 35 of the trees to Los Angeles, a short distance west, where he was planting an exotic garden. But it was not until 1S41 that the first California orange grove was planted for profit by William Wolfskill, also of Los Angeles. He was a German settler, with pluck enough to stick to his orange trees, though his neighbors scoffed at the idea of their being profitable; and while he was waiting for his trees to mature vine
 yards of three or four years growth were paying handsomely, with no more labor. Wolfskill, however, added to his orange trees by buying nursery planted with seed from Central America and the Sand wich Islands, and sold the last crop of oranges before he died, from about 2S acres, for $25, ,000. Insect pests checked the growth of oranges from 1857 to 1862, when the pests became less destructive, but it is recorded that there were only 25 ,00o orange trees in California in 1862. two-thirds of which were on the Wolf skill property. The marvellous growth of Los Angeles has now swallowed up the Wolfskill estate, on which the South ern Pacific has it's city station and resi- dence lots are fast obliterating the rest of