Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1900-04-07
A BIG ORANGE CROP
CALIFORNIA WILL THIS YEAR
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 liyeliest 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 1900 and 1850
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
/ 5000 carloads, and the year before it
was 5000 carloads. The prices, too,
are the best in ten years
In a general way the present orange
| crop is worth to the growers about
! $4,000 900. The railroad companies
will get about 50 100000 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 in its infancy.
! The increase in the duty on foreign
oranges has helped the Californians
! amazingly, and the ruin of the blori-
| 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 net profit of $3.50 an
acre this season are common. Here
| and fbpra rn oldar Orovac hauripu on
| perior fruit, which will yield their
owners $3.50 and 1875 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 a crop,
| which ordinarily would have sold for
/ $1,200,000, 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 a few hours one
| January night, 100000 worth of
oranges were made unstable.
| The magnitude of the orange indus
fornia for the first time. The Los An
geles Express recently estimated the
total capital invested in orange grow
ing in this State at S44000,000. The
industry is almost wholly confined to,
the 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 49,
900 acres The number of orange.
trees now in bearing in southern Cal
ifornia is put at 2,072, 400, and the
number of non-bearing trees is placed
at 1927, 800. With the same produc-
tiyeness, when the latter come to.
bearing the annual crop will be up
ward of $1,000 carloads, and at prices
like those of this season. the Califor-
mans will sell their products for some
thing like $10,000,0O0.
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-acre grove will yield Some buy
ers have arrangements from year to
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 pickers and packers at work. The
grower receives his check, and anoth-
er year is begun.
= Al oh fr,rv tI,N
try is a marvel to the Fastener
While standing among the oranges
the picker looks away over grove af-
ter grove, fields of flowers, acres of
golden escholtzias. patches of wild
daisies, bluebells and yellow violets;
and finally the eye rests on the Sierra
Madres, twenty or thirty miles away
the garden wall of this Hesperides.
His nostrils inhale 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 visit by Jack
Frost True. the meteorologicalrec records
of southern California for thirty-seyen
years SNOW no lllue wien the temper
ature has gone below % above zero,
and it is only once or 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 50.
and that once was for a half hour just
at daybreak last month. The orange
will bear five or six degrees of frost,
! If for a 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.