Omaha daily bee., 1906-03-10
FACTS ABOUT ORANGE HARVEST
Extent and value of the Golden Crop
Now Being Gathered tut
California.


This is the harvest month in the great
orange groves of Southern California the
time when all the available men, women
and children are busy gathering the golden
fruit. Statistics collected by the Depart
ment Of Agriculture show that I'm the
season of 19O4-1905 about 200 carloads of
oranges were shipped from California, and
this season the number OF carloads will
bly, reach 5000 or enough to make
a thousand trains. each of thirty-hve cars.
Three thousand cars will probably be re-
quired to haul the Florida crop and other
orange regions will contribute to swell the
! total Yet the industry which provides the
fruit to MI these thousands OF cars is of
comparatively recent origin.
But the orange itself is no parvenu. In
classical literature it is mentioned far
back as 400 B. c., and in the ancient He
brew writings it was called hadar or ''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 as Adams apple"
or Paradise APPLE" because It was sup
posed to have been the fruit of the for
hidden tree in Paradise. II this myth be
credible the oldest families of Europe are
mere upstairs compared with The humble
orange of commerce
So far as history automatically 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 I'm Italian this
became softened to "arancia," And in
Provencal "orange"-the name which per-
sists in our language 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 fiocked 20 the gold
| fields only to find that the glittering for
tunes they had been seeking were impos-
sible OF achievement. Hundreds persisted
in the attempt TO drag forth the boards
hidden in the heart of the hills, and many
persisted 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 mountain streams, where all the fruits
of the earth appeared to flourish. These
pioneers found gold, indeed, for they
| tablished the great orange orchards O
California.
At first the orchardists realized exorbit-
ant prices for their fruit, and they grew
rich rapidly. And even after the sale price
of oranges fell to a more normal level, the
gradually increasing transportation facili-
ties constantly enlarged the markets and
brought I'm splendid returns for the in
creasing crops. The pioneer orchardists
in the San Bernardino and San Gabriel
valleys were followed by swarms Of imi-
tators A colony went out from Indiana
to grow the golden fruit. From Riverside
the orange culture spread to Pasadena
Sheep grazing lands were transformed
into orchards; new cities sprang up-not
mere mushroom mining towns, but substan-
tial cities that flourish today; and finally
old towns like Los Angeles and San
Diego, woke from a sleep of three-quarters
of century and started on e career of
progress as marvellous as that OF any city
in America.
The Washington navel orange, which is
now the standard orange of California and
famous throughout the world, was brought
to the United States from Brazil thirty
TIVE years ago. Two plants were obtained
by the Department of Agriculture at
washington; two more, born of these,
were first planted in California by Luther
C. Tibbits 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 orange, IL is one OF the
grim humors of life that Tibbits, the pio-
J neer, subsequently was forced to go to the
poorhouse.
The California orange is practically a
perennial fruit. BY far the greater portion
, of the commercial crop is grown in the
southern part of the state. but the fruit
can be safely and probably raised along
the foothills OF the Sierra Madre mountains
from San Diego 20 Tehama counties. a dis
J lance OF over 700 miles. How rapid has
been the growth Of the orange industry
l In Northern California is shown by the
, fact that in 1898 four cars OF oranges were
shipped from the Sacramento valley
j eighty-one cars were shipped in 1896, and
, In 1901 the shipments had grown to 2sI
cars.
c In the state generally, the months of May
June. July, August and September are de-
, voted to the cultivation and general over
/ sight of the orchards In November the
r fruit begins 20 mature and the harvest il
2 on. Every man, woman and child in the
orange district then gets out in the fields
I and helps with the crops The oranges
continue to ripen through a good part Of
e the year, and some OF the Valencia va
8 riety viii still be shipped during October
! OF the following year.
y Five years after budding or six after
! planting the seeding trees begin to bear
> The trees live so long that an orchard
C Is practically permanent investment
J. There is a tree at Versailles the seed o.
which is said 20 have been planted b,
u Lsonora, wife Of Charles III. king o
i France from 500 TO s2s.-san Francisc,
= Chronicle