Evening journal., 1900-03-14
A BIG ORANGE CROP
CALIFORNIA WILL THIS YEAR
BREAK HER RECORD.

Southern California-Cost and Prof.
its Of an Orange crOve-The Fear
Of Jack Frost.
These are the liveliest days Of the
year in the southern California val
leys where oranges are grown. The
orange groves are noisy with hun
dreds Of men and boys picking the
golden fruit, the packing houses are
as busy as the proyerbial beehive
with thousands of men, women, boys
and girls packing the fruit in boxes.
and the shippers are full Of business
all day long. The yield of oranges this
season is between $4,000 and l4,5O0
carloads. or between 100000 and A.
100000 boxes. There has never before
been such a yield Of oranges IN Cali
fornia. Last year the crop was about
1000 carloads and the year before It
was 5000 carloads The prices, too.
are the hest in ten years.
In a general way the present orange
crop Is worth to the growers about
"a. 100000. The railroad companies
viii get about $1,000. 900 for hauling
the product to market and the ship
pers, who are practically spectators
In oranges, may make tens of thou
sands Of dollars more from the out
put of the season. These are wonder
ful figures when one considers that
ten or twelve years ago. orange grow
ing in California was In its infancy.
The increase in the duty on foreign
oranges has helped the Californians
amazingly. and the ruin of the Flori-
do groves by freezing in December
four years ago has left the California
growers with little competition in the
United States. Groves that will yield
their owners a net profit Of $3.50 an
acre this season are common. Here
and there are older groves bearing SUI
perior fruit. which will yield their
/ owners $3.50 and 1915 an acre clear
profit But the growers have had their
share of hard times and discourage
ments In the winter of 1928. when
the yield was unusually heavy and
the fruit in fine condition. there were
no buyers or shippers and crop.
which ordinarily would have sold for
81 100000, brought less than half the
expense Of Transporting it TO the East
ern markets. Many growers became
nsOlvont through their losses that
year. and as many more put mOrtgag-
es on their property and hoped for
better days. In 1895 the crop was Wis
tied by frosts. and in few hours one
January night S2,000,000 worth Of
oranges were made unstable.
The magnitude of the orange indus
! try surprises most Fasteners in Cali
fornia for the first time. The Los An
geles Express recently estimated the
total capital invested in orange grow
ing In this State at S440OO.OO0. The
/ Industry Is almost wholly confined to
tho seven sOuthern-most counties OF
|, the State Los Angeles, Riverside. San
BernardinO. Orange, San Diego Santa
Barbara and Ventura and in these the
orange groves comprise an area of 4S
900 acres The number of orange
J, trees now in bearing in southern Cal
5 ifornia is put at 2.O72. AGO, and tn,
l. number Of non-bearing trees is PLACED
:, nj I .22T 300. With the same produc
y tiveness, when the latter come t
q bearing the annual crop will be up
e ward of 2T,O0O carloads. and at prices
e like those Of this season, the CalifOr
e mans viii sell their products for some
u thing like S10000.O00.
l. The orange harvesting season be
5 gins In early December. 1t reaches itl
T high water mark about the middle o.
February and continues until June.
|. few weeks previous TO the pickini
d time the wholesale shippers 90 thl
rounds of the groves. Experts some
times guess within 100 boxes Of wha
n a ten-acre grove win yield. Some buy
Il ers have arrangements from year 4
r year with the growers. while most o
e the producers prefer to make new
r contracts each season. The agent in
3. spects the groves and offers so mucl
i box or so much for the fruit ol
u trees and here the responsibility o
e the owner ceases The shipper put
n his pickers and packers at work. Tn
e grower receives his check. and anOtl
u er year is begun.
l. At the orange picking time the coun
try is marvel to the Easternel
While standing among the orange
the picker looks away over grove al
Ter grove, fields of flowers, acres O
n golden escholtzias. patches of vii
r daisies. bluebells and yellow violets
D. and finally the eye rests on the Sierr
D. Madres twenty or thirty miles ava
Of the garden wall of this Hesperidei
D. His nOstrlls inhale the Odor of tn
A orarge blossom. while his eyes see tn
ID snowbanks of winter on the grea
s. peaks The orchard picker, howeve
le has no time to spend on the aesthetic
re of the subject. he is picking agains
Id time and an East is waiting.
S. Almost the only danger the oranq
ID grower has to fear is a visit by Jac
r. Frost. True, the emeteorologicalrec
ht of southern California for thirty-seve
le years show no time when the tempe
W ature has gone below % above zer
X and it is only once or twice in eleve
re years that the mercury in oranG
&C. groves has reached that point III
ne ticklish period Of the winter so far q
r. frost is concerned. is during the latt,
tn part of December and the early pa
al of January But so far this seaso
e. the mercury has not been below 3
Is and that once was for half-hour ju
of at daybreak last month. The oranl
p will bear five or six degrees of fros
he If for very short duration; but
On such temperature continues for seve
al hours. or occurs several nights
succession. the fruit will be injure
and young nursery stock affecte
though the trees may not suffe
up There is no absolutely frostless lOcal
H., ty. as the two past seasons have der
onstrated.-N. Y. Sun.