The Fulton County news. [volume] (McConnellsburg, Pa.) 1899-current, 1900-04-26
THE SEEDLESS ORANGE
A FORTUNATE SERIES OF ACCIDENTS
GAVE IT TO CALIFORNIA.

Twenty-Five years ago there were no
seedless or navel oranges grown. A
few oranges were raised in Florida,
but the bulk of the supply in America
came from the Mediterranean ports
and the fruit was expensive. The to-
tai annual yield of California oranges
was less than five carloads. Now the
annual orange yield in California is
upward of $1,000 carloads, aud next
year it may exceed 10000 carloads,
writes q correspondent of the New York
Sun from Pomona. The total amount
invested in orange properties in Cali
fornia twenty-five years ago was
about S23, 1000. Now something like
B43, 600, 600 is invested in the orange
industry in this State, and the amount
is increasing by about $4,000, 600
every year. Tho introduction of the
seedless navel orange has caused
these changes. 1t has revolutionized
the orange industry of the United
States. 1t has drawn 13, 900 men out
of other pursuits. 1t has transformed
vast areas of sunbaked land in Cali
'ornia into the most beautiful orange
groves that ever grew. Ii has been
inc prime factor in the growth from
lothing of n dozen towns of 5000,
5000 aud 10000 people in southern
California, and it has added directly
more than S43, 600, 600 and indirectly
500 600, 600 more 10 the taxable wealth
of this State.
The first seedless orange trees were
apparently freaks OF nature. Their
,ounterparts have never been found.
In the summer Of 1872 William Il.
hudson, United States Consul at
Bahia, Brazil, heard an account from
aatives 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 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 native up
the river to cut some shoots of the
trees and get some of the fruit. When
the native returned the Consul was
delighted with the specimens. Forth
with he sent six of the orange tree
shoots, carefully packed in wet moss
and clay, to tho Agricultural Depart
ment at Washington for propagation.
The trees did not excite as much at
tention in the Department as 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. Horatio Tibbetts,
native of Maine, was visiting the
family of her cousin, General Ben
iamin f. Butler, then a Congressman
from Massachusetts. Her husband
bad recently removed from Boston TO
Los Angeles, CAL, and was about to
pre-empt tract of Government land
in the San Bernardino Valley. The
scheme was an uncertain one, but
anyhow he intended to grow semi
tropical fruits there. He asked Mrs.
Tibbetts to get from General Butler
an introduction at the Agricultural
Department. She was then to ask for
specimens of fruits and shrubs suit
able for experimental propagation in
southern California Among other
things Mrs. Tibbetts got from the De-
partment grounds the four surviving
orange tree shoots from Brazil. The
trees reached Mr.. Tibbetts safely at
Riverside, CAL, n week later and were
Immediately planted. That was in
December, 1873. One of the shoots
died from neglect and another was
broken and chewed up by COW.
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 south
ern California and shown to all ranch
men and fruit growers. There were
many who doubted whether the trees
would annually bear such royal speci-
mems of orange culture. Nearly every
one believed that the fruit would be-
come coarse and tough in few years
more. So the second crop was awaited
with curiosity among the neighbors.
There were about box of oranges in
the second yield, and they were even
better than those of the first crop.
The fame of the Tibbetts seedless
oranges went far and wide in south
ern California. People who were grow
ing the old-fashioned oranges travelled
hundreds of miles in wagons to see
the trees. Still there were less than
half dozen people who believed that
such a freak as n seedless fruit could
ever be propagated into an estab
lished industry.
''I remember the time / saw some
of the second crop of Tibbetts's seed
less naval oranges" said ex-senator
j. Il. McComas. ''Several of us seed
ling orange growers went over to
Riverside purposely 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, iuicier and more pungent
fruit we had never known. But it all
seemed so freAky that no one dared
risk several thousand dollars and six
or seven years in trying to grow naval
oranges for market. Moreover, none
of us knew how to go about having n
grove of seedless oranges because
.,,,,, 80 ,oaI 30 aAn,t -