362 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



The development of the orange industry in California to utilize the 

 splendid natural adaptations which have been discussed, to make good 

 the large investments which have been made, and to afford a field for 

 the profitable employment of the high quality of American citizenship 

 which has entered the list of producers, several things are essential. 

 First, the advancement of horticulture art and science. Second, the 

 maintenance for a time at least, of a sufficient protective tariff, as has 

 already been suggested. Third, the extension of co-operative handling 

 and distribution of the product as now embodied in the successful 

 operation of the California Fruit Growers' Exchange and its auxiliaries 

 in all the producing districts. Fourth, the pursuit of systematic and 

 intelligent inquiry and experiments into the durability of the fruit in 

 transit as affected by cultural and commercial practices, and the 

 reformation of ponies and methods in accordance with the results of 

 such investigation as conducted by Mr. G. Harold Powell, formerly of 

 the United States Department of Agriculture and his associates. Every 

 grower of oranges should familiarize himself with this work.* 



SOILS AND SITUATIONS FOR THE ORANGE 



While citrus conditions do exist through large areas of California, 

 there is still danger of loss and disappointment through unwary indi- 

 vidual investments and unwise locations of citrus colony enterprises. 

 The tracts of land for orange planting even in a favorable citrus climate 

 are limited in area and every citrus climate has numerous places where 

 local meteorological conditions will prove destructive to the profit of 

 the enterprise, if not to the life of the trees. The orange is a "hardy 

 tree, judged within its temperature limits, but there is no money in a 

 tree which is subjected to any kind of hardship. For this reason the 

 selection of a good depth of strong, free loam should be made, for such 

 is essential not only to good growth of the young tree, but to its 

 support through the long productive life which the orange enjoys. 

 Depth of good soil is not only a storehouse of plant food, which will 

 postpone the use of purchased fertilizers, but it is a reservoir of water 

 so that irrigation can be applied* in larger amounts at longer intervals. 

 While it is quite possible to grow an orange tree and to secure good 

 fruit on shallower soils, if conditions are kept just right by frequent 

 use of water and fertilizers in just the right amounts, such conditions 

 impose heavy burdens in their constant requirements of extra care 

 and expenditure, and these are handicaps of no small economic import- 

 ance. The tree can not live upon climate as a man may, because a 

 tree can not speculate ; it must have a good foundation in the earth as 

 well as a good outlook in the sky. 



Growing orange trees on defective soils has brought disappointment 

 and loss in all parts of California. Ample supplies of irrigation water 

 available have encouraged over-irrigation where trees have been planted 

 above hardpan, and drainage is absent. Dying-back and yellow leaf 



*"The Decay of Oranges While in Transit from California," by G. Harold Powell, 

 Pomologist in charge of Fruit Transportation and Storage. Bulletin 123, Bureau of Plant 

 Industry, U. S. Dept .of Agr., Washington, D. C., 1908. 



