STATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 133 



•groves and forests it still has a stronger hold upon the atl'ections of 

 man than any other fruit or ornamental tree. But it is not of the 

 beauty of the tree or of the fruit we propose to speak in this article; 

 we rather intend to call the attention of the people of our State to the 

 value of orange culture as a matter of profit, as a product of commer- 

 cial importance to California. First, then, we will consider where 

 the orange can be cultivated with proht in California. The fact that 

 the original European settlers on this coast had never planted the 

 orange to any extent in any but the extreme southern portion of the 

 State, now embraced in the Counties of San Diego, Los Angeles, and 

 San Bernardino, would indicate that they held to the opinion that 

 this was the only locality where it would prove successful. The fact 

 that the Americans for a term of twenty years or more after the State 

 was settled by them did not plant orange orchards in any other por- 

 tions, is an indication that they also entertained the same opinions 

 as to the circumscribed area in which orange culture could be suc- 

 cessfully prosecuted. This opinion, so long held and acted on, has, 

 like many other erroneous opinions of the capabilities of our State, 

 been dispelled more by chance than design. A few persons in nearly 

 every section of the State, after the fact had been demonstrated that 

 our climate was generally favorable to fruit culture, had the curiosity 

 while eating oranges to plant the seeds, not thinking to do anything 

 more than grow the trees as a novelty or as a garden ornament. 

 Among those so planted and that hrst came into bearing, was a single 

 tree grown on Bidwell's Bar, in Butte County, almost at the foot of 

 mountains covered with perpetual snow. The traveler may pluck 

 and eat fruit from this tree in the morning, and on the evening of 

 the same day may retire to his bed surrounded by snow banks, and 

 with the thermometer 10° to 20° beloAV the freezing point. The fruit 

 from this tree is of more than medium size, of a good deep orange 

 color, the skin is thin and the flesh fine grained, sweet, and of a most 

 excellent flavor. Indeed, it is one of the best oranges ever raised in 

 the State, and, though a seedling, the scions from the tree are much 

 sought for for propagation. Marysville, Sacramento, and many other 

 cities and towns, from San Diego to Red Bluff, have large numbers of 

 orange trees now in bearing, and at this time of year the golden fruit 

 shines out from the dark green foliage in thousands of front yards all 

 over the State. 



Though most of the bearing trees are now of natural fruit or seed- 

 lings, the fruit as a general thing bears a favorable comparison with 

 the best imported oranges, and in many respects is superior to the 

 same. Of course the trees grow and bear better in protected localities 

 than in the open plains, where the prevailing winds either from the 

 north or south have an uninterrupted sweep at them. A good bor- 

 der of evergreens, of pine, or spruce, and any good sized building, fur- 

 nishes sufficient protection to insure success to the orange after three 

 or four years old. Outside of the cities, where the buildings and 

 shrubbery favor the orange both in summer and winter, the foothills 

 of the Sierra Nevada and Coast Range mountains have been found 

 more favorable for orange culture than any other sections of tlie State. 

 Like the grape, the orange seems perfectly at home on the eastern 

 slope of the Coast Range and the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, 

 from Tehama County on the north to the extreme south end of the 

 State. Contrary to general expectation, the orange ripens from two 

 weeks to one and a half months earlier in nearly every locality north 



