The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-04-17


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packed In wet moss an d clay, to the
A grioultural Department. 1t Washington
| for propagation. The trees did not excite
so much attention In the department. -
the enthusiastic Consul had expected.
Two OF the shoots, which were no bigger
than horsewhips. died from lack OF care
In the department. grounds. and the
others were almost forgotten In few
months. In the winter Of 1873 Mrs.
was Waiting the family Of her cousin,
Gen. BENJAMIN ". Butler. then o Cen
gresham from Massachusetts,. Her hus.
ban1 had recently removed fr3m Boston
| to Los Angeles. Cal, and was about 10
San Bsrnardino Valley. The scheme was
an uncertain ons, but anyhow be intend.
"a 10 grow ssmi-tropioal fruits there. He
asked Mrs. Tibbetts 10 Get from Gen.
Butler an Introduction at the Agrioul-
tural Department. She WAS then TO ask
for specimens OF fruits and shrubs suita.
BILE for experimental propagation In
southern CALIFORNIA;. Among other
things Mrs. Tibbetts got from she detart-
ment grounds the four surviving orange
tree shoots from Brasil. The trees
reached Mr.. Tfbbstts safely Mt Riverside.
GAL, a week later and were immediately
planted. That Was in December, 1873.
One Of the shoots died from neglect and
another was broken and chewsd mp by o
COW.
ing trees oame into bearing. In the win
ter Of ls7S-79 they bore sixteen oranges.
North America. The specimens were
carried about southern CALIFORNIA; and
shown 10 all ranohmsn and fruit growers.
There were many who doubted whether
the trees would annually bear such royal
Il Ss.n .ss S1as rn. Ns sss
become COARSE and tough In few years
more. So the second crop was awaited
with curiosity among the neigh pors.
There were about boz Of oranges In the
second yield, and they were even better
than those Of the first crop. The fame
and wide In southern California. People
who were growing the cid fashion, ed
oranges travelled hundreds OF miles In
wagons TO see the trsss. SAN there wer
lsss than half . dozen people who believed
that suoh . freak % seedless orange
fruit could ever Be propagased into an es-
ii rsmsmber the time I saw some of
the second crop Of Tibbstts's ssedlsss
navel oranges, +" said ex-senator j. 4,
Comaa. "Ssveral Of NJ sesdling orange
growers went over TO Riverside purposely
meat that Horatio Tibbstts had trees
that grew oranges without seeds. We
| looked the two trees over and over,
samrl led the fruit and wondered how. II
could be. Larger, juicier and more pun
gent, fruit we had never known. but II
all SEEMED 90 treaky tnat NO one dared
risk fsveral Thousand dollars and six or
seven years In trying to grow navel
oranges for market. Moreover, none Of us
knew how to go about having grove Of
sseditss oranges because there was nc
seed 10 start II"
o fortune In his new variety OF oranges.
| FOR two years he experimented with
Pre- pagating trees from shoots and cutting
from his two sssdless orange trees. But
all bis attempts were failures. Finally
| he mis- upon the scheme OF budding from
| the seedless navel trees upon Seeding
trees. Experiments along that line were
successful. IL was found that bud taken
from one Of Tihbetts's two navel orange
| trees and grated into the bark OF q sead'
ling tree would grow to be limb, " aioh
bora seedless navel oranRes Then Mr.
| Tibbetts grew tiny seedlinR orange trees,
| lost ~ had psen done BY orange gro wers
Tor ages, and buddsd into the trunk of
each little tree severAl navel orange binds.
When the buds had become branches OF
the trees he out away all ths original or
seeding branches, leaving only the navel
grange branches to bear fruit. In this
way he easily created navel orange trees,
oranges was solved.
The planting Of groves of seedless
Grange trees propagated from buda from
/ the two original trees on the Tfbbetts
place bsean In earnest throughout south
ern California, in the winter Of 1882. In
the following year the demand for buds
from the IibLetts trees was SO large that
q dozen buds sold frequently for %, and
| some growers, deairous Of getting navel
orange buds Of genuine quality paid u
each for buds. In 1884 the two Ttbbatts
trees furnished buds that sold for 81 500,
keep people from stealing buds year
or two later the grunge trsss that mad
been propagatsd from the Tibbstts treei
began to bear add they themselves fur
nishsd tens Of Thousands OF navel buds
ss good ~ those from the two original
trees. Then the first navel orange groves
began to bear fruit, and from that tims
the boom In navel orange groves has oon-
tinusd. No one plants ssedling orange
trees nowadays, and tens Of Thousands OF
Seeding trees have been budded into
navel orange trees. The average returns
California during the last ten years have
been not less than 800 an sore, while there
are many nAvel-orange groves in this
region that have yielded net profits OF
| $3.50 and $500 an acre year.
The two trees from which have come
directly and indirectly oil the nave
oranges In the world are still on the old
| Tibbetts ranch In Riverside. Since Mr.
| Tibbetts received the shoots from the
| Agricultural Department and began pro
pagating the first seedless oranges
Riverside has grown from hamlet u
| lees than thirty American residents into
beautiful, prosperous city OF 10 COZ
population, with an assessed valuation OF
IS, 1915, 600. IL is the greatest erapge-pro.
ducing locality in the world. Some i6.0Ol
acres or land IL devoted to orange grow
ing. The average annual shipments o
oranges from riverside are Lou w
boxes valued at 81, 100.0 900. All this hal
come from the introduction Of Tibbetss's
seedless navel oranges. and just now tn
Riverside Press and the leading citizens
OF Riverside are urging shat the tw'
trees should be removed to the public
park and there surrounded by en- iroi
tsnce, 90 that the Interesting history o
the sesdlsss nave 81 orange may be thu
better preserved In another generation.