The Holly chieftain., 1900-05-11
MONEY IN TWO TREES
DISCOVERY IN BRAZIL OF THE
SEEDLESS ORANGE
And Its Important Results to CALI
fornIs and the worId-Orange Crow
Ing EeyolutIonized by the New
Fruit.


but the bulk of the supply in America
came from the Mediterranean ports,
and the fruit was expensive. The
total annual yield Of California or
anges was less than five carloads. Now
the annual orange yield in California
IS upward Of 1900 carloads, and next
year It may exceed 10000 carloads.
The total amount invested in orange
properties in California twenty-five
years ago was about S23, 900. Now
something like S43 900 600 is invested
in the orange industry in this state,
and the amount is increasing by about
s20O00 900 every year. The introduc-
ton Of the seedless naval orange has
caused these changes. 1t has revo-
lutionized the orange industry Of the
United States. II has drawn 1900
men out OF other pursuits. 1t has
transformed vast areas Of sun-baked
land in California into the most beau
uful orange groves that ever grew.
It has been the prime factor in the
growth from nothing of a dozen towns
OF 5000, 5000 and 10000 people in
southern California, and it has added
directly more than Si3 .0OO,0 900 and in
directly s6O,OOO,0OO more to the taxa
bic wealth Of the state.
The first seedless orange trees were
apparently freaks OF nature In the
summer Of 1872 william f. Judson,
United States consul at Bahia Brazil,
heard an account from natives of
few trees in the swamps on the north
bank Of the Amazon some sixty miles
inland that bore oranges without
seeds. He was Of scientific bent and
a consul that knew his business. He
had heard Of the starting Of orange
groves in Florida, and he believed
that seedless orange trees were well
worth experimenting with there. So
he sent a native up the river to cut
some shoots OFF the trees and get some
OF the fruit. When the native re-
turned the consul was delighted with
the specimens. Forthwith he sent six
of the orange tree shoots, carefully
packed in wet moss and clay, 10 the
agricultural department at Washing
ton for propagation. The trees did not
excite as much attention as the enthu-
siastic consul had expected. Two OF
the shoots, which were no bigger than
horsewhips, died from lack of care in
the department grounds and the 9TH
ers were almost forgotten in few
months.
In 1873 a man named Tibbetts, who
was establishing an orange orchard in
California, secured the four shoots
from the government and planted
them on his property at Riverside.
One of the shoots died and COW
Chewed up another.
Five years passed and the two sur
vIving trees came into bearing. In
the winter of 1S7S-79 they bore six
teen oranges, the first seedless oranges
ever grown in North America. The
specimens were carried about southern
California and shown to all ranchmen
and fruit growers. Nearly every one
believed that the fruit would become
coarse and tough in n few years more.
So the second crop was awaited with
curiosity among the nelghbors. There
were about a box Of oranges in the
second yield and they were even bet
ter than those of the first crop.
Mr.. Tibbetts was sure that there
was a fortune in his new variety Of
oranges. For two years he expert
mented win propagating 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 naval trees upon Seeding
trees. Experiments along that line
were successful. 1t was found that a
bud taken from one of Tibbett's two
naval orange trees and grated into
the bark of a Seeding tree would
grow to be a limb which bore seedless
naval oranges.
Then Mr.. Tibbetts grew tiny seed
ling orange trees, just as had been
done by orange growers for ages, and
budded into the trunk OF each little
tree several naval orange buds. When
the buds had become branches of the
trees he cut away all the original or
Seeding branches, leaving only the
naval organge branches to bear fruit.
In this way he easily created naval
orange trees, and the problem Of
growing seedless oranges was solved.
The planting of groves of seedless
orange trees propagated from buds
from the two original trees on the
Tibbetts place began in earnest
throughout southern California in the
winter of 1882. In the following year
the demand for buds from the Tib-
belts trees was so large that dozen
buds sold frequently for S., and some