Bisbee daily review., 1907-05-02
CALIFORNIA FRUIT
 WORTH s35,O00,OOO
State Secures An Annual h. come of Gigantic Propor-
 tionS From Crop,

state of California secures an annual income form it's orchards of more than s35, 100000. It produces more than one-half of the cocntry's peach crop, a third of the pear crop and seven eights of what are termed subtropical fruits.
 It supplies practically all of the prunes, apricots, lemons, figs and the bulk of the oranges grown in America. Put into figures, this means f75, 900 tons of prunes alone, 1000, 900 boxes of lemons, nearly 5000 tons of olives, 5000 tons of figs, 2. 500,000 bushels of peaches and 10000 tons of waInuts and almonds.
 As S5 per cent of the oranges and lemons raised in the state are dis tributed through the fruit associations of Los Angeles. the business done at this center will give an idea of the industry in southern California. s4.ce0, ,ooo for Raisins.
 In Fresno county, where 80 per cent of the raisins cured in California are produced. fully 50OOO tons will be the record for 1906. the revenue from this fruit aggregating fully s4,000,00 Thirty years ago not more than 25,900 orange trees were in bearing in the 500 miles of fruit belt stretching from the foothills of Mount Shasta to San Diego.
 The orchards at the present time cover more than 75,000 acres, nearly all of them being the seedless variety, raised from two little shoots which were planted at Riverside in 1873. The area containing the great or chards of California consists principal 1 ly of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys, with what is locally termed l the Los Angeles country, comprising five counties of southern California. ! While irrigation Is needed for a large proportion of the orchards in southern California, the yield in an average year is So large and the f. naneial returns so great that many of the companies who control the larger orchards could sell them at a price averaging $2500 an acre, although this land prior to irrigation was not worth s5 an acre.
 Big investments.
 An investment ranging from $100,- 900 to s500, 900 in a single fruit ranch is not uncommon. although there are many small individual growers who are prospering. since through their membership in one of the associations they are enabled to sell their haryests to as great advantage as their larger competitors.
 Although the oranges will ripeu in California nearly every month in the year, the harvest season Is usually from November 1 to June l. As fast as a vagonload is picked 1t Is sent to the packinghouse. There the box es are credited to the grower, then prepared for market.
 Here the oranges are dumped into a long, narrow tank, filled with water, at one end of which is big wheel with a tire of soft bristles. As the wheel revolyes the brush works in connec- tion with another set of brushes in a smaller tank underneath, and the oranges. after bobbing about in the big tank, pass between the wet brush es and come out bright and clean.
 At some of the packinghouses the old method of hand-washing is still in use, and groups of women, each with a brush and tub of water, stand un- der an awning and scrub busily. After the bath, the oranges are spread upon long, slaR: ling racks, to dry in the sun, and from the lower end they roll into the boxes and are carried into the shade of the warehouse to cure.
 Graded by Machine.
 After the hours of curing, they are fed into a hopper which drops them single file into a belt that runs be- tween revolving cylindrical brushes. They come out sleek and shiny, and are carried in a belt elevator to the sorting table, where they are graded into fancy, choice and standard. The grades are determined by size and ap. pearance. Any blemish places the fruit among the culls.
 This sorting table inclines slightly, and the dividing stream passes in two files upon two narrow tracks of moving ropes. which diverge gradual ly. The smallest oranges fall through first. the larger sizes further on, grad ing themselves and falling into their proper bins.
 There are a dozen sizes, from the small ones that run 360 to a box to fruit that cannot be spanned with both hands and which pack forty-eight to the box. Both extremes are subject to discount from the market price as off-sized
 Oranges are very tender and must be handled with great care Finger 1au 1I-A