Los Angeles herald., 1905-10-15
How the Lady Bugs
Came to California
Written for The Herald by Col. Joseph D. lynch

come down here and run as Demo.
cratic candidate for congress, after
making his residence good. I replied
that he would better stay where he
was unless he was anxious to face
about the worst Republican district in
the United States. in which recollec-
tion of the vedalia cardinals might
assure him a score of so of votes. Mr.
Reel B. Terry of Fresno had carried
the Democratic banner the year Frank
wrote me, and was seven thousand
majority to the bad
While writing on citrus matters. the
opportunity is afforded me of indulg-
ing in some general reflections upon
what has now become a gigantic inter
est OF southern California. The press
OF the northern and central counties
alomost uniformly talk as if they could
be as successful in the growing Of the
citrus fruits as the people of the south
ern counties if they desired to enter
the field. This is the merest pretense,
and is unworthy of our northern neigh
bors Outside of a few limited spots.
which are the scant exceptions that
prove the rule, they do not grow or
anges and lemons because they cannot
grow them as staple crops-that is to
say, grow them on a commercial scale
Dave Waldron was at one time a
noted nurseryman of Los Angeles He
had twenty-acre orange orchard at
the corner of Main and Washington
streets. AS much as thirty years ago
Waldron would be employed to set out
orchards in the northern portion of the
state and in the Sacramento valley.
They would do very we'll for time.
and then severe winter would come
along and kill the trees. Hon. Charles
n. FELTON, once showed me some very
slightly orange trees on his San Mateo |
~
Pretty but no profit in them"
The reason why no sensible man in |
the northern portion of the state re-
terred to makes any attempt at grow |
ing the citrus fruits in a commercial |
sense is that about the time they were |
ola enough to bear fruit to any appre- |
Ciable extent one of the hard winters |
would come along and kill the tree !
Itself making it necessary to abandon |
the experiment or do the work all over |
again Years and years ago a great |
many oranges were grown in Louis |
lana. Their culture was given UP on |
the ground that there was no money |
in it, the trees being killed outright. |
as is the case now in portions of Flor |
ida. where both fruit and trees alike |
yield to the occasional severe frost It |
is rare indeed that even tender nurs-
ling stock is damaged in Southern Cal
ifornia.
GREAT Money Made Here
That orange and lemon growing are !
highly profitable in Los Angeles and |
adjoining counties, notwithstanding
the high rates of transportation and |
occasional misadventures of weather
and markets is indisputable. A good |
orange or lemon grove is probably the
most remunerative horticultural propo-
sition in the world. Those Valencia
nrph1 r1icte bo1 u
to reckon up their profits with their
fruit selling in the New York market
for SIS and SO a box. OF course, such ex-
ceptional prices are no standard
There have been some extraordinary
figures realized by California; orange
orchardists in the past, when everything
jibed. Mr.. Dalton sold the oranges from
a quarter acre of matured seedlings
for $500. MIR. Bettner of Riverside re-
ceived many years ago $4,000 for the
oranges of a single acre in navels. Mr..
Garcelon of the same place once told
me he had declined to tell correspond
ent Of the New York Herald how much
he had made from an acre Of lemons,
cured by his thin skinned process, be-
cause it would be thought he was living.
He failed to take me into his confidence
for the same reason 1 suppose.
The profits in lemons then and now
mount high. Old Don Mateo Keller used
to say that there was more money in
lemons than in oranges. Considering
how easy it is to grow other staples
between the orange and lemon rows
while the trees are coming into bearing
and the satisfactory prices generally
received for the fruit in an ordinary
good year, it is hardly possible to think
OF more fascinating and remunerative
pursuit. If there is such a thing as
poetry in horticulture it is in the citrus
lines, recalling the sweet song which
Goethe puts into the mouth of Mignon,
'KnoWest thou the land where the
lemon tree blows?' and pelf, pleasure
and poetry combine in the prospect.
Ten Acres Enough" was the title OF
a book a New York business man
wrote who had turned farmer Ten
acres in Southern California, planted
in either oranges or lemons. comprises
more of rest to the spirit and help to
the bank account than any hundred