354 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



full effect will be. The product of the West Indies is a direct menace 

 to the Florida product, which meets it in point of market season, and 

 the American product, which is undergoing expansion at the hands of 

 American capitalists, is constantly feared by the California growers 

 because the Mexican railway will give it quick entrance to the great 

 central states and constant advantage in distribution to the East and 

 the Northwest. The orange from the West Indies and South Florida 

 is different from the California orange in main ripening season and 

 in character of the fruit, but the differences do not give full relief. 

 With the late ripening varieties, the California grower extends his 

 shipments into the autumn and thus laps upon the early fruit from 

 Florida and Jamaica, while the parts of California which bring earliest 

 maturity to the fruit are shipping before the southern fruit is cleared 

 away. In fact, California can keep the markets supplied with oranges 

 fresh from the trees and in prime condition the year round. 



As to the difference in oranges grown under humid and arid con- 

 ditions, the moisture being supplied by rainfall in one case and by 

 irrigation in the other, there has been shown in the arid region orange 

 a superior density, thinness and texture of rind, higher sugar and 

 higher acid percentages and a more sprightly or vinous flavor. The 

 popular conception of the superior sweetness of the orange grown in 

 humid countries is due not to a greater amount of sugar in the juice, 

 but to less amount of acid. The following are the determinations of 

 sugar and acid of fully ripe Southern California and Florida navel 



oranges : _ ' 



Total sugar, Citric acid, 



per cent. per cent. 



California Navel 9.99 1.45 



Florida Navel 7.46 0.95 



Of course, the quality of an orange is largely inherent in the variety, 

 but all varieties are similarly changed by growth under humid or arid 

 conditions of climate and soil, and this modification becomes a factor 

 of much industrial importance. This fact is strikingly illustrated by 

 the standing of the navel orange in California. This variety has been 

 grown for a century or more as the chief orange in Bahia, Brazil, 

 whence it was taken to California. In Brazil it demonstrated no ship- 

 ping qualities, and according to Burke (U. S. Special Consular Re- 

 ports, Vol. 1, page 411) would need to be picked before maturity if to 

 be shipped, while as grown in California and Arizona it is picked at full 

 maturity and is successfully shipped all over the United States and to 

 Europe. An examination of the Bahia district in 1913, by A. D. 

 Shamel and associates, showed that the orange which is the foundation 

 of the export industry of California is, in its home, only an article of 

 local trade. 



Orange growing in Florida is recovering from serious reverses. 

 The product of 1894 was about 4,000,000 boxes. Then came the dis- 

 astrous freezing in December of 1894 and February, 1895, with a tem- 

 perature of 14 degrees Fahrenheit at Jacksonville, and in the latter 

 year only 75,000 boxes were shipped. In 1912-13 the product was 

 about 8,000,000 boxes, produced in the central and southern parts of 

 the State. In Louisiana the freezing of 1895 nearly annihilated the 



