Evening journal., 1900-03-07
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 erove--The Fear
Of Jack Frost.
These are the llyeliest 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 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 14,5OO
carloads, or between 100000 and a.
100000 boxes. There has never before
been such yield Of oranges in Cali
iornia. Last year the crop was about
1900 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
/ s4,6OO0O0. The railroad companies
will get about $2,800.00O 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 1929. when
the yield was unusually heavy and
the fruit In fine condition. there We're
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
lnsolvent 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 vis-
tied by frosts, and In a few hours one
January night. S2.o00.000 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 S44.OOO.OOO. 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 AS
900 acres. The number of orange
trees now in bearing in southern Cal
lfornia is put at 2.072, 400. and the
number Of non-bearing trees is placed
Mt l ,227 300. With the same produc.
tiveness, when the latter come to
bearing the annual crop will be Hp.
ward Of 27,OO0 carloads. and at prices
like those Of this season. the Califor.
mans will sell their products fOrsome.
thing like $10.000.OO0.
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
n ten-acre grove VIII 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
Bpects the groves and offers so much
= 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
+ ur year Is begun.
At the orange picking time the coun
!. try is n marvel to the Easterner
while standing among the orange,
the picker looks away over grove AZ
: ter grove. fields Of flowers. acres O
, golden escholtzias patches Of vii,
2 daisies, bluebells and yellow viOlets
: and finally the eye rests on the Sierr;
/ Madres. twenty or thirty miles awal
/ the garden wall of this Hesperides
, His nostrils inhale the odor of thi
orarge blossom, while his eyes see tn
snowbanks of winter on the grea
: peaks. The orchard picker. however
= has no time to spend on the aesthetic
r Of the subject. he is picking agains
/. time and an East Is waiting.
s Almost the only danger the Orang
4 grower has to fear is a visit by Jacl
> Frost True, the emeteorolOgicalreco
! of southern California for thirty-sevei
: years show no time when the temper
y ature has gone below % above zero
Z and it is only once or twice in elevel
e years that the mercury IN Orang
groves has reached that point Tn
tickllsh period of the winter so far n
frost Is concerned. Is during the latte
lpart of December and the early par
Of January. But so far this seaso
the mercury has not been below 3,
II and that once was for a half-hOur jus
e at daybreak last month. The orang
d will bear five or six degrees of frosi
e II for a very short duration; but