454 SECOND ANNUAL CITRUS EXHIBITION 



found in the hall below, and the munificent financial results that 

 each succeeding year makes more certain and tangible. 



Nor is this question of profitable remuneration in orange growing 

 any longer a matter of uncertainty to them. The history of the 

 growth of this industry in this country, as well as in Europe and 

 Asia, shows that while the increase of production has been rapid, the 

 demand for the fruit and the profits of the business have more than 

 kept pace with it. 



In Sicily there was but 11,000 acres planted to orange trees in 1854, 

 and the income was recorded at $300 per acre. In 1874 the area 

 planted to orange trees in that island had increased to 55,000 acres, 

 while the income still kept pace with it at $350 per acre. In South 

 Australia the orange was.first introduced in 1837. Over forty years have 

 passed, and now the demand for the fruit is far in excess of the pro- 

 duction, while the income is rated at some $1,200 per acre. In Florida, 

 ten years ago, the average price of oranges was but $10 per thousand. 

 The quantity produced there has more than doubled since that time, 

 and the average price has advanced to $20 per thousand. Even here 

 in California the supply of fruit has also more than doubled in the 

 last ten years, and yet it is a notable fact that for good merchantable 

 fruit the price has largely increased, if not doubled. Yet with all this 

 data before us, gathered from the experience of other lands and almost 

 two generations of men, the question is always asked by the new- 

 comer: "Are you not overdoing this business in the extensive orange 

 plantations made in southern California and Florida, and will not a 

 few years more see the markets of the United States overstocked and 

 the fruit comparatively worthless? " 



A few facts upon these points will give a sufficient answer. 



The area for successful orange culture in the United States is 

 limited to a comparatively small section of southern California, a 

 narrow belt of country along the Gulf Coast from Texas to Florida, 

 and probably one-third of the arable territorj^ of Florida, but these 

 two last named places can never be extensively cultivated on account 

 of the unhealthfulness of the localities. On the other hand, the area 

 over which this fruit can be marketed has increased steadily, extend- 

 ing over the United States, Canada, and the British Possessions in the 

 northwest, containing a large and rapidly increasing population, with 

 constantly increasing facilities for rapid and cheap transportation 

 unequaled in the world. 



The entire crop of oranges of the United States for the year 1879, 

 as estimated then, would seem to be but 6,000 acres of bearing trees 

 in the United States. From a careful estimate of trees planted and 

 not bearing, it is found that at the present time there are not to 

 exceed 25,000 acres planted to orange trees in the United States, 

 including those already in bearing. 



Ten years from this date, a period within which the seed can be 

 planted, tlie trees grown, and fair crops of fruit raised, the popula- 

 tion of the territory above named will require the crop of 300,000 

 acres, producing 100,000 oranges to the acre, to give them but one 

 orange per da3^ 



Is it not, therefore, fair to assume that under favorable conditions 

 of business and the superior quality of the fruit that will be pro- 

 duced, the consumption of oranges will in the future increase in a 

 much greater ratio than the production; also, that it will be neces- 

 sary to increase the acreage annually planted much more rapidly 



