BREADTH OF CITRUS CONDITIONS IN CALIFORNIA 355 



citrus fruit interest and only recently has there been any disposition to 

 resume production on a commercial scale. In Texas there is a rising 

 orange industry on the basis of hardy Japanese varieties, largely. Its 

 future is a matter of conjecture. In the southwestern corner of Ari- 

 zona there is a small orange industry which is successfully shipping 

 navel oranges to distant markets. Conditions favor early ripening and 

 an advantage is secured by sale in advance of the main California 

 product. From California the shipments of oranges beyond State lines 

 in 1911 were about 16,000,000 boxes. The orange industry of the 

 United States is now largely supplying the home demand for the fruit. 

 Imports of oranges reached their highest value in 1883 at $3,010,662, 

 and have since then declined. The value in 1913 was $227,827.50 

 much less than one-tenth of the imports of thirty years ago. 



The orange industry of the United States is unique in the high 

 social and financial standing of those who have engaged in it, and in 

 the striking features of its development. Both in Florida and in Cali- 

 fornia large scale production was first undertaken by northern men 

 who had gained wealth and had lost health in the pursuit of it. They 

 brought capital and commercial ability to the ventures which they 

 exploited. The professional classes of the north also participated 

 largely in the work, bringing scholarship, insight and experience in 

 organization. There were a few also who possessed horticultural ex- 

 perience, but the other classes largey predominated. The result has 

 been the development of an industry characteristically American in 

 spirit and new in methods. It has borrowed very little from the prac- 

 tices of old world orange growers. Free from tradition and prejudice 

 it proceeded rapidly upon the results of original investigation and ex- 

 periment, establishing a system of culture and of commercial handling 

 of the product which are without precedent in the older orange regions 

 of the world. 



THE ORANGE A STATE AFFAIR IN CALIFORNIA 



Thus far the discussion has been based upon the achievements of 

 Southern California and the efforts made to assign them due credit for 

 greatness and uniqueness. The relation of Southern California to other 

 parts of the State in orange growing is not less' important and signifi- 

 cant. 



Citrus fruit trees have been successfully grown in suitable situations 

 in northern California for nearly half a century. There is a famous 

 orange tree at Bidwells Bar, in Butte County, which was started from 

 an Acapulco seed in Sacramento in 1855, and planted out in Butte 

 County in 1859, which has been generally made to stand sponsor for 

 the demonstration of citrus conditions north of the Tehachapi Moun- 

 tains, but it is not entitled to all the distinction which has been heaped 

 upon it. In the fifties there were other orange and lemon trees growing 

 in widely separated northern localities in the valleys of the San Fran- 

 cisco Bay region, also near the rivers and among the low foothills on 

 both sides of the Sacramento Valley. It was, even in early days, the 

 proper thing to include citrus trees among ornamental dooryard plant- 



