134 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



of San Francisco than in Los Angeles. In some localities in the foot- 

 hills, favored by the warm belts frequently found there, it is believed 

 the fruit on mature trees will ripen two months earlier than in the 

 present orange orchards of the southern counties. While this fact 

 would give to these localities great local advantages over sections 

 where tlie fruit ripened later, the general result to the State w^ould be 

 of immense value, as we would be able to supply oranges for so long a. 

 time each year that the income therefrom would be greatly enhanced, 

 while the profits of the trade would be distributed through nearly 

 all sections of the State. The peculiar adaptability of the foot- 

 hills to successful and profitable orange culture has been so fully 

 demonstrated by actual successes at many different points, that 

 the attention of practical men, as well as capitalists, has been 

 attracted to this industry as a new opening for the enterprise of the 

 former and the investment of the latter. In localities favorably 

 situated for transportation, like Newcastle, Penryn, and other stations 

 on the Central Pacific, and Folsom, and Mud Springs, on the line of 

 the Sacramento Valley Railroad, every acre of available land for 

 orange and small fruit culture is being taken up, brought under cul- 

 tivation and planted into orchards, and land in these localities has, 

 within the past two or three years, enhanced in value from 100 to 200 

 per cent. Now these are not the only localities favorable to this cul- 

 ture. There are hundreds of other places, now without a name, in 

 these foothills all along from Butte to Los Angeles County, Avith 

 equallj'' as good natural locations and with even better soils and more 

 favorable climates, and where land in abundance can be had for the 

 taking up — the only disadvantage being that they are not provided 

 with railroad facilities for transportation. Let these lands be appro- 

 priated and cultivated in the vine and orange, as those in the vicinity 

 of the places named are being planted, and an equal enhancement in 

 value will very soon follow, and railroads Y\dll come also wdien freight 

 is assured for their transportation. 



There being no longer any question as to the natural advantages of 

 very large portions of California for orange culture, it is in order to 

 inquire whether orange culture will pay when the business is greatly 

 increased and the product is proportionately augmented. That the 

 culture is at present verj^ profitable is attested by facts too plain to 

 be overlooked. During the past few years property generally in the 

 southern counties has been at a low hgure and the times extremely 

 dull, but amid this almost universal depression no orange orchards 

 have been placed upon the market, and none could be bought at any 

 price. This kind of property has uniformly remained firm and 

 unchanged. An intelligent cultivator of this fruit in Los Angeles 

 County, speaking of the business last year, remarked: "An orange 

 orchard is a bank, whose deposits are safe beyond a question, and 

 whose dividends are regular, munificent, and we might say, princely."^ 

 In ans\ver to an inquiry of the Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce 

 in 1876, another well known orange cultivator made this statement 

 in regard to the results of his own experience: "By very careful 

 estimates made in 1874, of the crops on an orchard of 436 trees, 309 

 of which were twelve years old from the seed (the balance being too 

 young to bear), I obtained as a net result, over and above cost of 

 transportation to San Francisco, commissions on sales, etc., $20 50 per 

 tree, or an average of $1,435 per acre. I do not claim this amount as- 

 an average crop or result, but I do think that with proper care and 



