Year: 1874

EDITOR HERALD: Some three or
four years ago l was requested by
gentleman resident of this city, to
answer a letter which he had received
from a native of Los Angeles county,
then q student at the Santa Clara Col
lege, to whom application had been
made for information respecting the
| culture of the orange in this county.
The letter contained number of in
terrogatories which will in some re-
spects account for the form and char
acter of the answer. A copy of the
answer was at the time furnished the
editor of the Star and published in
that paper, but as there are at this
time many persons engaging in the
cultivation of the orange who were
not residents of this county at that
time, and who may not have read it,
and as it has been suggested to me
that its republication might be ascept-
able to many of your readers, l have
revised and rewritten it, and it is at
your service if you think it worth
printing in the HERALD.


]. J. WARNER.


The orange tree in respect to the
food which it obtains from the earth is
coarse feeder. 1t thrives well in a
soil of vegetable mold, in micaceous
and granite sands containing alkali
(natron) and but little clay or vegeta-
BILE mold in gravelly clay and volcan-
ic soils. In respect to soil its chief
requisites are warmth, friability and
moistness. 1t does not flourish in q
wet cold soil, but in a dry soil it cam
not be irrigated to excess if the soil is
kept loose and friable.


While not readily affected by the
constituents of the soil traversed by
its roots, the orange tree is extremely
sensitive respecting the state and con-
dition of the atmosphere which sur
rounds its limbs and foliage. A warm
and serene atmosphere is it's delight.
1t is propagated from seed. The
orange trees of this county are mostly
seedlings They are long lived tree.
They commence bearing when eight
or ten years old. The oldest orchard
in California is at San Gabriel. 1t has
been in bearing more than fifty years,
and the trees are still vigorous and
fruitful, although they have not re-
ceived the best of treatment. From
where the trees or seeds of that orch
ard came / am ignorant, although, as
the orchard was planted by Spanish
| Roman Catholic Missionaries, who
came from. Mexico through Peninsular
California, which has been occupied
by Jesuit Missionaries for MANY
years previously, it is probable that
the seeds were brought from Lower
California. They might, however,
have been brought from some one of
the Mexican ports on the main. A
large proportion of the orange trees of
this county have been propagated
from seeds from the San Gabriel
orchard.


There has been some importation Of
trees from the coasts of Mexico and
Central America, and of seeds from
the Society and other Islands Of the
Pacific, but | am not aware of any no.
table difference in the product of these
trees from such variety and wide
apart sources. Within the past few
years some few trees have been intro
duced from China and Japan of diff
ferent variety.


The seed is sown and the trees culti-
waited in nurseries until they are from
two to four years old, when they are
transplanted into the orchard. They
can be removed from the nursery and
planted out at all seasons of the year,
but the early part of Summer, after
the ground has acquired a coed degree
of warmth, is, whether correctly or
not, most generally considered by those
who have had the most experience the
preferable season. Thirty feet apart
is common distance for planting the
trees. 1t is the opinion of some per-
sons that the trees should be forty feet
apart in order to permit the rays of
the sun to have free and direct access
to the ground, which they can have
only in limited degree after the trees
are grown, if planted only thirty feet