BULLETINS OF THE ELEVENTH CENSUS. 481 



all semitropic fruit and nut growers furnished by the census enumerators, 

 every producer in the United States has been reached through special 

 schedules of inquiry; and while many have failed to respond to the 

 requests, even though ofttimes repeated, a great number have furnished 

 the information sought to be brought out by the 66 questions asked on 

 these schedules regarding almonds, bananas, citrons, cocoanuts, dates, figs, 

 guavas, kaki, lemons, limes, madeira nuts, olives, oranges, pineapples, 

 pomelos, pomegranates, and pecans. Supplementing this information with 

 that obtained by personal visits to leading centers of production and 

 special information received from well-informed cultivators of the various 

 products under investigation, the information has been obtained which 

 furnishes the basis for this bulletin and a more complete report for the 

 final publication. 



The total acreage was gathered by the regular census enumerators under 

 the head of " Other orchard fruits," while the special classification has been 

 made on the basis of figures furnished upon the special schedules and from 

 personal knowledge of the special agent. 



The production of the fruits and nuts under consideration is confined 

 largely to the states of California and Florida, but figs, oranges, kaki, and 

 pecans were found growing to a considerable extent in all states bordering 

 on the gulf of Mexico. While Louisiana and Arizona have each a con- 

 siderable acreage in oranges, the trees of Arizona are nearly all young and 

 of recent planting. 



In all these investigations it has been found that the great march of 

 progress moving in other lines of industry has not left these behind; in 

 fact, so rapid is now the increase in citrus fruit planting, and so favorable 

 are the conditions, especially in California, that there are many well 

 informed in the business who believe that within another decade the 

 United States will not only produce its full supply of citrus fruits, but 

 also export them quite largely. 



The acreage of oranges, as a matter of course, exceeds that of all the 

 other products, yet the possibilities of pineapple culture on the southeast 

 coast of Florida and for 100 miles north of Key West, on the gulf 

 coast, are such as to give promise of a very great and profitable extension 

 of the culture of this delicious fruit. 



Pecan culture in northwest Florida and all the gulf states has 

 apparently just begun to develop some of its wonderful possibilities as a 

 reliable and profitable crop, while there is every reason to believe that 

 within a few years the figs, olives, madeira nuts, and lemons of California 

 will rival in value her wondrous crops of oranges; and yet a comparison of 

 the tables of bearing and nonbearing trees will show three times as many 

 nonbearing as bearing orange trees in the census year, and as planting has 

 been going on more rapidly than ever since the census was taken, the 

 number of orange trees now growing in California must be nearly double 

 that of 18 months ago, all of which means an output of at least 10,000,000' 

 boxes of oranges from California before the end of the present century. 



The Florida figures, which show a still greater proportion of nonbearing- 

 to bearing trees than do those of California, are somewhat misleading, if 

 from them is made the deduction that there is a greater increase of plant- 

 ing in Florida than in California, for, as a matter of fact, it is just the 

 reverse. For a few years previous to the hard freeze of 1886, which did 

 such great injury to the orange groves of Florida, there was an enormous 

 planting of young orange trees, while since that time there has been very 

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