BTATE AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY. 199 



ature of 60 Fahrenheit covers the finest citrus regions of the earth. It 



takes in the fruit belt of Spain, Italy, Asia Minor, the countries of* the date 

 palm in the valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris, Egypt, the foothills of 

 India, the great valleys of China, and the citrus region of Japan; thence 



from Japan across to middle and northern California as far north as Kid- 

 ding. This ('><)' belt includes the oldest and largest citrus fruit regions of 

 the world. The regions in this isothermal belt in Asia have produced citrus 

 fruit in great quantities from a time long anterior to their written history. 

 When tin- valleys of the Tigris, the Euphrates, and the Nile, were most 

 thickly populated, the people mainly subsisted on the date. In Japan, 

 where the citrus fruit business has been so long established, the mean aver- 

 age temperature for the Winter months, as I learn from Dr. Latham, who 

 has resided there seven years, is 42.9°. Here the average for the Winter 

 months is 48.3°. There tiny have snow and ice; here we have none to 

 speak of. All the countries having the temperature of northern California 

 are the richest fruit regions of the world. A close investigation will demon- 

 strate that no part of vineclad France, Italy, or Spain, can compare with 

 us in our advantages for the production of superior fruits. 



This much by way of demonstrating that northern California is the natu- 

 ral home of the orange. Now a moment to show why I believe with Dr. 

 Frey that it will in time be preferred by those designing to embark in their 

 production. As Dr. Frey says, we have no chilly fogs in Summer to mar 

 the bloom or to sour the fruit; black scale, so common in southern Califor- 

 nia, is to us unknown; our fruit, therefore, is handsomer and better, and 

 consequently brings more in the market. The average price realized by 

 the producer of oranges in northern California this Winter is between two 

 and three cents apiece. Again, owing to the absence of the chilly Summer 

 fogs, such as prevail in the southern counties, our fruit ripens from a month 

 to five weeks earlier than in southern California. This is another condition 

 favorable to better prices. The first oranges were shipped this season from 

 Vacaville as early as the first of November, and from the foothills as early 

 as the twenty-first of the same month. It is a fortunate condition for the 

 orange grower of northern California that his fruit ripens in time to get it 

 into the eastern market, if needs be, for the holiday trade; and what is 

 more inviting for a Christmas decoration than a fine golden orange? 



Our people all complain that this Fair is held too late ; that their best 

 fruit was gone before they knew there was to be a Fair, and that of several 

 kinds of semi-tropic fruits, notably the pomegranate and the Japanese per- 

 simmon, they were out entirely. But this doubtless is true of all northern 

 California, and while the circumstance will detract much from this our first 

 Citrus Fair, it is to be hoped that it will work no injustice as between indi- 

 vidual exhibitors. • A few weeks earlier, C. M. Silva & Son, of Newcastle, 

 could have shown twenty varieties of oranges; at this date they are able to 

 exhibit but twelve. 



Touching the question of the quality of northern California oranges, I am 

 permitted to quote from one or two private and business letters: 



Mrs. J. B. Finch, wife of the great temperance lecturer, acknowledging the 

 receipt of a box of oranges sent to her at Evansville, Illinois, by Geo. D. 

 Kellogg, of Newcastle, says, under date of December 26, 1885: "We all 

 pronounce it the freshest, most delicious California fruit we have ever 

 tasted." 



Perry & Co., of Denver, Colorado, acknowledging receipt of a sample box 

 of oranges sent by the Cooperative Fruit Company at Newcastle, write, 

 under date of December 20, 1885, as follows: " Sample box of oranges 



