The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1900-04-21
MILLIONS FROM TWO TREES.
Discovery of fSeedless Navel Oranges
and It's Results.

Pomona, CAL, March -. twenty-five
wears ago there were nu seedldeSS or navel
oranges grown. \ few oranges were
raised in Florida. but the bulk Of the sup
ply in America came from the Mediter
rancan ports and the fruit was expensive.
The total annual yield Of California oranges
was less than FIVE carloads. Now the an
uual orange yield in California is upward
Of Is. 600 carloads, and next year il may
exceed "a. 600 carloads The total amount
invested in orange properties IN California
twenty five years ago was about s23, 900.
Now something ike S43. 600 900 l. in
vested in the orange industry in this State,
aud the amount Is increasing by about
s., GOO, 600 every year The introduction
Of the seedless navel orange has caused
I these changes. Ii has reyolutionized the
orange industry of the United States. 1t
I has drawn l3 O0o men out Of other pur
I suits Il has transformed vast areas Of
sunbaked land in California into the most
beautiful orange groves that ever grew.
D
( from nothing of dozen towns Of ; 900,
! ;. 000 and 10 600 people 10 southern Cali
/ fornia. aud it has added directly more
/ than s42 Geo, 0O0 and indirectly 500. e
I 900 600 more to the taxable wealth Of
I this State
The hrst >ecdless orange trees were ap-
7 parentIy freaks Of nature Their counter
PARTS have never been found In the sum
mcr Of 1872 William + Juison, United
/ States Consul At Bahia, Brazil, heard an
account from natives of few trees in the
SEamp- on the north bank 81 the Amazon
some sixty miles inland that bore oranges
withou, seeds He was Of scientific bent
aud a Consul that knew his business He
/ had heard oi the starting Of orange groves
/ in Florida aud he believed that seedless
/ orange trccs were well worth experiment
l in. With there - he seut = native up
I the river 10 cut some shoots Of the trees
/ and set some of the frs.is When the
native returned the Consul was delighted
7 with the specimens Forthwith he sent
/ lx Of the orange tree shoots. carefully
/ pack,,d IN wcl ,noes and clay. to the Az
/ rculiural Department al Washington for
/ pr0paga;iou The trey- aIi nor excite as
much attention ia the Department as the
I enthusiastic C1usal had expected Two OF
/ the shoots, which were no bigger than
{ horscwhips. died from lack Of care IN the
( Department grounds. and the others were
almost forgotten in a few months In the
winter Of 1873 Mrs IIora,io Tibbetts, a
/ native Of Maine, was visiting the family Of
her COUSIN, Gen Benjamin + Butler, then
a Congressman from Massachusetts. Her
husband had rccently removed from Bos-
ton 10 I.1s Angeles. Cal and was about
/ 10 pro empt tract OF Government land IN
/ the San Bcnariino Valley The scheme
was an uncertain ore, but anyhow be in
/ tended 70 grow semi tropical fraits there.
| He asked Mrs. Tibbetts To get from Gen
1 Butler an introduction at the Agricultural
Department She was then TO ask tul
specimens Of fruits and shrubs suitable tol
experimental propagation in southern Cali
foruia Among other things Mrs. Tib.
belts got from the Department grounds the
foar surviving orange tree shoots from
Brazil The trees reached Mr. Tibbetts
safely at Riverside. Cal. week later anJ
we're Immediately planted. That was ii
December. 1873. One of the shoots dies
from neglect and another was broken and
ehewed up by COW.
Five years passed and the two surviving
trcss came into bearing In the winter ot
1873 they bore sixteen oranges, tn,
first >eedleSs oranges ever grown in North
America. The specimens were carried
about southern California aud shown to al
ranehmen and fruit growers There wer,
many who doubted whether the trees would
annually bear such royal specimens o.
orange culture Nearly every one believ
ed that the fruit would become coarse ant
tough in a tew years more. So the seconC
crop was awaited with curiosity among the
neighbors. There were about = box o
oranges in the second yield, aud they We're
even better than those of the first crop.
The fame Of the Tibbetts seedless oranges
went far and wide in southern California.
I L t7Atftt " no NtlN -lthAA= NaAt 'tt AsaHAiAthNS
oranges travelled hundreds of miles in
wagons to see the trees. Still there wer,
less than half dozen people who believed
that such freak rs seedeSs fruit coulC
ever be propagated into an established in
dustry.
Il remember the time | saw some of the
second crop of Tibbet,s seedless naval
oranges, said ex-senator J. f. McCOmas
Several of us seeding orange grower:
went over to Riverside purposaly to SEE
what truth there was in the statement
that Horatio Tibbetts had trees that grew
oranges without seeds We looked the
two trees over and over, sampled the fruit
and wondered how it could be- Larger,
juicier and more pungent fruit we had
never known. But it all seemed SO freaky
that no Que dared risk several thousand
dollars and six or seven years in trying to
grow navel oranges for market More
over, none of us knew how 10 60 about
having grove of seedless oranges because
there was no seed to start it,
Mr. Tbbetts was sure that there was a
fortune in his new variety OF oranges For
two years he experimental with propagat-
ing trees from shoots and cuttings from his
two seedless orange trees. But all his at
tempts were failures. Finally he hit upon
the scheme of budding from the seedless
navel trees upon seeding trees. Expert
ments along that line were successful. 1t
was found that bud taken from one OF
Tibbetts' two navel orange trees and
grated into the bark of seeding tree
would grow to be limb, which bore seed
less navel oranges. Then Mr.. Tibhetts
grew tiny seeding orange trees, just as had
been done by orange growers for ages, and
budded into the trunk of each little tree
several navel orange buds. When the
buds had become branches of the trees, he