The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-11-12
FORTUNES MADE BY ORANGE GROWING Il is One of the Worlds Oldest
 Fruits HAS ROMANTIC HISTORY Was First Brought to This Country From Spain and Its Cultivation Has Reached Enormous
 Proportions.


 orange groves of Southern California, the time when all the available men, women | and children are busy gathering the gol- den fruit Statistics collected by the de- | partment of agriculture show that in the | season of 19o4-O5 about 91,0OO car loads of oranges were shipped from California. and this season the number of ear loads will probably reach 5000, or enough to ! make a thousand trains, each of thirty five cars. Three thousand cars will prob ably be required to haul the Florida crop, and other orange regions will contribute to swell the total. Yet the industry which provides the fruit to fill these thousands of cars is of comparatively re- cent origin
 But the orange itself is no parvenu. In classical literature it is mentioned as far 1 back as 42o B. C., and in the ancient Hebrew writings it was called hadar or s.the beautiful" According to the old pagan legend, Venus planted the first orange tree on the island of Cyprus. In Rome the fruit was later known 1 Adams apple" or Paradise apple l because it was supposed to have been the fruit of the forbidden tree in Paradise. If this myth be credible. the oldest fam flies of Europe are mere upstarts com pared with the humble orange of com merce.
 Originated in India.
 l So far history authentically knows, the orange originated in India and China, and was spread by the Arabs to Syria Africa and Spain. In Sanscrit it has been called 'nagrungo' in Arabic "narang," in Spanish ''naranja.' while in Italian this became softened to ''arancia'' and in Provencal, "orange'-the name which persists in our language today.
 i From Spain the orange came to Amer ica. It was about $50 years ago that Bernal Diaz del Castillo a soldier of Cortez first planted oranges in Mexico. The fruit was brought to California by the Spanish padres, who planted orange trees near the missions in Southern Cali fornia. These form the basis of the great orchards of today.
 The cultivation of orange groves for commercial purposes began in California about half century ago. During the gold excitement that succeeded the year 1S49, thousands of prospectors Hooked to the gold fields only to find that the gilt tering fortunes they had been seeking were impossible of achievement. Hun dreds persisted in the attempt to drag forth the hoards hidden in the heart of the hills, and many perished on the scorching deserts or the bleak. wintry heights. But some of the wiser ones pushed beyond the mountains of ice and snow. and came to a valley of perpetual summer, watered by hundreds of noun tain streams, where all the fruits of the earth appeared to flourish. These pioneers found gold, indeed for they es- tabllshed the great orange orchards of California.
 Grew Rich Rapidly.
 At first the orchardsts realized exor- bitant prices for their fruit, and they grew rich rapidly. And even after the sale price of oranges fell to a more nor i mal level, the gradually increasing trans portaton facilities constantly enlarged i markets, and brought in splendid returns for the increasing crops. The pioneer l orchardists In the San Bernadino and San | Gabriel valleys were followed by swarms of imitators A colony went out from Indiana to grow the golden fruit. From 1 Riverside the orange culture spread to Pasadena. Sheep grazing lands were transformed into orchards; new cities 1 sprang up-not mere mushroom mining | towns, but substantial cities that flour ish today; and finally old towns, like i Los Angeles and San Diego. woke from i a sleep of three-quarters of a century | and started on career of progress as l marvellous as that of any city in Amer ica.
 As an example of how the orange in- dustry has grown, the Riverside district i alone shipped oranges and lemons during 1 the season of 1903-04, netting S,615,O00 Of l this crop there were 1,S25,o0O boxes of 1 oranges and 145000 of lemons. Last year 1 the total crop was about 2950O car loads i or 10, ,5OO, ,O00 boxes and the total value of the shipments was approximately s25,- 0O0,0O0.
 A Famous Orange.
 The Washington navel orange. which l Is now the standard orange of California | and famous throughout the world, was l brought to the United States from Brazil | thirty-two years ago. Two plants were obtained by the department of agr!cul- 1 ture at Washington; two more, born or these. were first planted in California by l Luther C. Tibbts in 1874 From these | two plants have come the most profitable | orange groves of California today And, | while millions of dollars have been made | from this transplanted oronge 1t IS one | of the grim humors of life that Tfbbits, | the pioneer, subsequently, was forced 10 | go to the poorhouse.
 The California orange is practically a | perennial fruit By far the greater DOT | tion of the commercial crop Is grown in | the southern part of the state. but the | fruit can be safely and proftably raised | along the foothills of the Sierra Madre i mountains lIoii odh Dicbo to tiioiiiu counties a distance of over TOO miles. | How rapid has been the growth of the | orange industry in northern California is | shown by the fact that in 1893 four cars | of oranges were shipped from the Sacra- mento valley; S1 cars were shipped in | 1896, and in 1901 the shipments had grown to 23A cars.
 Tn the state generally the months of | May June July. August and September l are devoted to the cultivation and gen eral oversight of the orchards. In No | vember the fruit begins to mature and l the harvest is on. Every man, woman i and child in the orange district then gets 1 out in the fields and helps with the crops. | The oranges continue to ripen through q l good part of the year, and some of the Valencia variety will still be shipped during October of the following year.
 Five years after budding or six after planting the seeding trees begin to bear. The trees live so long that an orchard Is practically a permanent investment. There is tree at Versailles the seed of which is said to have been planted by Leonora, wife of Charles III, King Of France from S93 to 923 Several trees at Nice are said to be 600 years old One of the largest factors in the won derful success of the orange culture was the coming of the Atchson Topeka and Santa Fe railroad to California. The or ange district of Southern California Is now tapped by the Southern Pacific,