The Coolidge examiner., 1936-07-17


their own timber lands and saw
mills, where millions of crates are
made for packing fruit. By-prod-
ucts, like orange and lemon oils,
citric acid and citrus pectin, are
made and sold by this organiza-
ton.
Ships that carry its fruit abroad
are vast floating refrigerators, for
they must pass through the Pana-
ma canal and other tropic waters.
Frost is fought with oil-burning
orchard heaters, while millions are
spent on sprays and fumigation.
Value of Cooperation.
Individual growers, competing,
could not have obtained such me-
thodical, worldwide distribution of
oranges now graded, inspected,
and sold by the Exchange. 1t is
conspicuous among all mans CO.
operative efforts. Common inter-
ests unite its members, both in
business and social affairs.
One visit to an annual orange
festival, with all it's music, drama,
pageantry, and carnival spirit,
shows what a role this fruit plays
in California life.
More than any other one force,
it was the lure of life in sunny
California orange grove which
started easternerS migrating here
in the 188O's-and it still brings
them.
From its trees, since the Ex-
change started its records in 1894,
have been picked and sold nearly
$4,000, ,OO0,O worth of citrus fruit
or more than the value Of all
gold mined since its discovery in
1849!
The Bible story of the miraculous
gourd vine that grew in one day
to make shade for Jonah is hardly
more astonishing than the rise OF
the western vegetable trade. 1t is
an exciting page in the annals OF
our national farm life. New food
habits, the call for more green
things, is one cause. Advent OF
the iced car, overcoming Califor-
MAS former disadvantage of re-
moteness from eastern markets,
is another.
Due to geographic barriers, as
late as 1900 this trade was a mere
trickle. Now, with refrigeration,
standard packing, and advertising,
more than 100000 carloads of gar
den truck, largely grown in Cal
ifornia, ride east every year.
Busy Imperial Valley.
Imperial valley, that beloW-the-
sea "Hothouse of America" once
called the Salton Sink, grows more
cantaloupes, honeydews, and casa
bas than any area its size in the
world. It's large-scale operations
are indeed 'industrialized farm
ing"
Only Mexicans and Japanese
seem able to work in the sun
scorched fields; some say that only
they can tell just when a melon
should be picked, or when a mule
will surely drop from being over
heated if driven another rod. Yet
10000 residents endure this eli
mate!
Frost-free regions along the San
Diego coast send their share of to-
matoes, celery, and other green
foods. Los Angeles county was the
pioneer garden spot; there first
grew that lettuce now called ''ice-
berg head" an Italian strain intro
duced through Vilmorfn, famous
scotsman of Paris.
Electricity for Everything.
You marvel at miles of power
lines carried on steel towers. Hard
ly a country home is without cleo
trlcity. Farmers throw a switch
and machines cook food, heat wa
ter, milk cows, sterilize milk, and
separate the cream. Electric pow
er matches eggs and warns the
coops. Long, dry summers call for
much pumping, and electric irriga-
tion pumps run almost continuous
ly from April to September.
Walnuts, formerly dried in the
sun, are dehydrated now by cleo
tricity. To make seeds germi-
nate faster, cables laid in the soil
are heated by this power.
With electricity oranges are col
ored and preceded for shipment.
Motors hum in myriad indus
tries. In busy oil fields, shops, and
harbor sheds. bright lights turn
night into day. With electricity
men drill for oil, pump it when
natural flow subsidies, and refine it.
The same source heats enormous
furnaces and annealing ovens.
In California electricity spurred
imagination long before the rest of
the world appreciated its versatil-
ity. The reason is that Califor-
MIA, when most of the present
electric systems started in the
1905, had no native fuel except
wood. Coal, transported from far
places, was costly; but in the
mountains was abundant water
power. The market for electric
light was small in pioneer times
and few industries had then start
ed; but the farmer was there, and
1 49,