196 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



Sacramento district, showing conclusively that this city, the commercial 

 center of northern California, is also the great center of the California 

 fruit trade. 



But then you will say: What has these great and varied productions got 

 to do with citrus fruits? Wheat and hay are not oranges; peaches, plums, 

 and pears are not lemons; grapes are not olives. Very true; but we have 

 said this much to indicate briefly some of the characteristics and possibili- 

 ties of northern California in general. Now, if in addition, we can show 

 that northern and central California is the natural home of the orange, it 

 is to be hoped that we shall not have talked in vain. 



In the first place, while claiming that northern California possesses all the 

 characteristics for the successful production of the orange, let us admit that 

 southern California, in the production of this rich and valuable fruit, is at 

 present far ahead of us. Notwithstanding this, however, I will risk repeat- 

 ing the prediction made in the New Year edition of the Record-Union by 

 Dr. Frey of Newcastle, to the effect, that in the course of time certain sec- 

 tions of northern California will be preferred for the production of the citrus 

 fruits. 



We have shown how, by gradual experiment, and always in the face of 

 popular prejudice, one after another of our resources has been unfolded. 

 How, at first, it was said there was no farming land in California, and 

 how, finally, the alluvial soil of the river bottoms was admitted to be good 

 for farming. How for years the plains land was regarded as worthless for 

 wheat, and how they now constitute the great wheat fields of the greatest 

 wheat State in the Union. How the foothills were despised for their appa- 

 rent barrenness, and how to-day they are giving proofs of becoming the 

 richest and best fruit region of the world. 



Those who have been here for twenty-five or thirty years, and observed 

 these changes, will admit that the proof of our capacity for the production 

 of citrus fruits in northern California is to-day much more positive than 

 was the proof of the capacity of the foothills for the production of such 

 fruits as they are now noted, ten years ago. 



The question will naturally be asked : "Why, if northern California is 

 adapted to the growth of citrus fruits, is the industry so backward com- 

 pared to the same industry in southern California?" The answer is not far 

 to seek. In the first place it must be remembered that emigration projects 

 itself on lines of latitude in the movements of population. You trace 

 nationalities to their resting place generally on the line of latitude from 

 which they start. The .Swedes and Norwegians settle in Minnesota and 

 Wisconsin. The Spaniards, Portuguese, and Italians, in Florida and Lou- 

 isiana. So of our own States. The New England States sent their over- 

 flow of population into New York, and northern Ohio, northern Indiana, 

 Illinois, and Iowa. The old colonies of Virginia and North Carolina set- 

 tled in southern Indiana, southern Illinois, and Missouri. A people carry 

 with them the agriculture with which they are most familiar. An emi- 

 grant from a corn and wheat-raising country tests the value of the country 

 to which he emigrates by its capacity to produce breadstuff's and meats. 

 Northern California was settled largely from the northern States- by men 

 but little versed in fruit culture, and especially the culture of citrus fruits. 

 If the country north of Stockton had been settled by Portuguese, Span- 

 iards, Italians, and emigrants from France, the region to-day would doubt- 

 less be celebrated for the variety, and quality, and excellence of its citrus 

 fruits. Gerke, whose one hundred acres of vineyard constituted the basis 

 of Stanford's vineyard at Vina, the largest vineyard in the world, was a 

 French-Swiss, and from the vine growing region of Switzerland. The first 



