Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1900-03-22
A BIG ORANGE CROP
BREAK HER RECORD.

Rapid Increase of the Industry In
Southern CaIifornia--Cost and Prof
its of an Orange Grove-The Fear
of Jack Frost.
These are the liveliest days of the
year in the southern California val
leyS where oranges are grown. Inc
orange groves are noisy with hun
dreds of men and boys picking the
golden fruit. the packing houses are
rs busy as the proverbial 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 14,3OO
carloads, or between 100000 and a.
100000 boxes. There has never before
been such yield of oranges in Cali
fornia. Last year the crop was about
5000 carloads, and the year before 1t
was 5000 carloads. The prices, TOO,
are the best in ten years.
In general way the present orange
crop is worth to the growers about
$4,G0O,0O0. The railroad companies
will get about S2,GO0.oDO 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
full figures when one considers that
ten or twelve years ago. orange grow
ing in California was i'll It's infancy.
The increase in the duty on foreign
oranges has helped the Caiforninns
amazingly, and the ruin of the Florl-
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 $50 an
acre this season are common Here
and there are older groves bearing SUI
perior fruit, which will yield their
owners $500 and 1915 an acre clear
profit But the growers have had their
share of hard times and discourage
ments. In the winter of lS92-93, 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
$1,200,0OO, brought less than half the
expense of transporting it to the East
ern markets. Many growers became
inSolvent through their losses that
year, and as many more put mortgage
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,UOO.O0O worth OF
oranges We're made unstable.
The magnitude of the orange indus
try surprises most Fasteners in Cali
fornia for the first time. The Los An
gclcS Express recently estimated the
total capital invested in orange grow
ing in this State at Sli DOC, 600. The
industry is almost wholly confined to
the seven Southrrn-moSt counties or
the State, Los Angeles. Riverside, San
RcrnartlinO, Orange, San Diego Santa
Barbara and Ventura and in these the
orange groves comprise an area of As,
900 acres The number OF orange
trees now in bearing in southern Cal,
ifornia is put at 2,012.4OO. and the
number of non-hearing trees is placed
at ,227 300. With the same produc-
tivcnesS, when the latter come to
bearing the annual crop will be up
ward of 27, 600 carloads, and at prices
like those Of this season, the Califor-
mans will sell their products forsome-
thing like $1O00O,000.
The orange harvesting season be-
gins in early December 1t reaches its
high water mark about the middle of
February, and continues until June. A
few weeks previous to the picking
time the wholesale shippers go the
rounds of the groves Experts some
times guess within 100 boxes of what
a ten-acrc grove will yield. Some buy
ers have arrangements from year 10
year with the growers while most of
the producers prefer to make new
contracts each season. The agent in.
spects the groves and offers so much
a box or so much for the fruit on
trees and here the responsibility of
the owner ceases. The shipper puts
his pickcrs and packers at work. The
grower receives his check, and anoth-
er year is begun.
At the orange picking time the coun-
try is marvel to the Fastener.
While standing among the oranges
the picker looks away over grove af-
ter grove, fields of flowers, acres of
golden cscholtzias, patches of wild
daisies, bluchells and yellow violets;
and finally the eye rests on the Sierra
Madrcs, twenty or thirty miles away
the garden wall of this Hesperides.
His nostrils inhalc the odor of the
orange blossom while his eyes see the
snowbankS of winter on the great
peaks. The orchard picker, however,
has no time to spend on the aesthetics
of the subject he is picking against
time and an East is waiting,
Almost the only danger the orange
grower has to fear Is a visit by Jack
Frost. True the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS records
of southern California for thirty seven
years show no time when the temper
allure has gone below % above zero,
and it is only once OF twice In eleven
years that the mercury in orange
groves has reached that point. The
ticklish period OF the winter, so far as
frost is concerned, is during the latter
part of December and the early part
of January But so far this season
the mercury has not been below 80,
and that once was for halfhO just
at daybreak last month The orange
will bear five or six degrees of frost,
if for very short duration; but If
such temperature continues for sever
al hours, or occurs several nights in
succession, the fruit will be injured,
and young nursery stock affected,
though the trees may not suffer.
There Is no absolutely frostless locali-
ty, as the two past seasons have dem
onstrated.-N. Y. Sun.