378 CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



VARIETIES OF THE ORANGE 



Though many varieties of the orange have been introduced in Cali- 

 fornia, but few are largely grown. During the last fifteen years there 

 has been a pervading disposition to concentrate upon the Washington 

 Navel, and, except to get other varieties either earlier or later to extend 

 the season, there seems little reason to go beyond the Navel for com- 

 mercial purposes. Not only have recent plantings been predominantly 

 of this variety, but old trees of other kinds have been very largely 

 budded over to it, and this work is still going on at a rapid rate. 



As already claimed in the opening pages of this chapter, the Wash- 

 ington Navel is the greatest commercial orange in the world. As it 

 goes from California into the world's commerce it is a combined 

 product of grower's skill and climatic conditions operating upon its own 

 natural qualities and characters. Neither of these factors alone could 

 achieve its present position. The navel mark is neither peculiar to it 

 nor determinative of it, for there are other navels which are inferior 

 here and our navel is inferior elsewhere ; and even in Bahia, whence it 

 came, it has no such quality and standing, because in coming to Cali- 

 fornia it passed from humid, tropical to arid, semi-tropical environ- 

 ment. As already suggested, the tropical orange is not in the same 

 class with the semi-tropical from the point of view of commerce. Trade 

 in tropical oranges is local or limited ; trade in semi-tropical oranges 

 is world-reaching. The orange produced in an arid, semi-tropical 

 climate is dense and compact, firm and better in keeping and carrying 

 characters. It is also of more sprightly flavor and richer composition, 

 as shown earlier in this chapter. Such an orange, enclosed in a thin 

 skin of silky texture and beautiful finish, comes very close to an ideal 

 upon which to found an industry. 



Although California has apparently no need for changes of type in 

 oranges and has worked diligently and long for the attainment of the 

 types which are at present supreme in her industry, there is still oppor- 

 tunity for improvement within the types. Such improvement is prob- 

 ably to be attained not by hybridizing, but by selection. The Washing- 

 ton Navel, like other members of the citrus family, is keenly disposed 

 to variation and some of its variations have been named and propa- 

 gated as the lists below will show, but variations appear as degradations 

 as well as improvements. The pursuit of such and other improvements, 

 and their opposites also, is now being systematically taken up at the 

 Citrus Experiment Station at Riverside which is a branch of the Uni- 

 versity of California Experiment Station at Berkeley, and by the 

 Bureau of Plant Industry of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture. Preliminary publications by Mr. A. D. Shamel in the Reports 

 of the California Fruit Growers' Convention for 1911 and 1912, are of 

 deep interest and can be had from the California State Commissioner 

 of Horticulture, Sacramento. 



Relative Importance of Orange Varieties. The relative import- 

 ance of the orange varieties grown in California, and the shipping sea- 

 son of each, are indicated by the Citrus Protective League as follows: 

 Washington Navels, 27,000 carloads in November and December from 



