WHY CALIFORNIA ORANGES LEAD 353 



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 before. The 

 value of imported oranges in 1919 was $52,790. 



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 California large scale production was first undertaken by North- 

 ern 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 experience, but the other classes largely predominated. 

 The result has been the development of an industry characteris- 

 tically American in spirit and new in methods. It has borrowed 

 very little from the practices of old-world orange growers. Free 

 from tradition and prejudice it proceeded rapidly upon the results 

 of original investigation and experiment, establishing a system of 

 culture and of commercial handling of the product which are with- 

 out precedent in the older orange regions of the world.* 



DISTRIBUTION OF CITRUS CONDITIONS IN 

 CALIFORNIA 



Citrus culture conditions exist in suitable situations from Shasta 

 to San Diego county an air-line distance of more than six hundred 

 miles. It is so surprising that practically the same climate should 

 be found through a distance of between seven and eight degrees of 

 latitude that many, even of those who have lived in California, do 

 not appreciate the fact, nor know the explanation of it. An effort 

 is made toward such explanation in Chapter I of this work. Even 

 at the risk of repetition the subject will be reviewed with special 

 reference to the occurrence of conditions affecting the growth of 

 citrus fruits. 



First: California is not only blessed with benign ocean influ- 

 ences, but Northern California is additionally protected from low 

 winter temperatures by the mountain barrier of the Sierra Nevada, 

 extending southward from the multiplied masses of protecting 

 elevations in the Shasta regi9n, while Southern California enjoys 

 the protection of the Sierra Madre and other uplifts on the north and 

 east of her citrus region. Northern blizzards are, therefore, held 

 back from entrance to California and are forced to confine them- 

 selves to southerly and easterly directions over the interior parts of 

 the Pacific slope, while the great blizzards of the Northwest traverse 



*The literature of citrus fruits in California is large. In addition to continuous ex- 

 position in local horticultural journals, there are frequent articles in the popular maga- 

 zines. The Bureau of Plant Industry of the U. S. Dept. of Agr., at Washington, has pub- 

 lished several important reports and bulletins; as, also has the California Experiment Sta- 

 tion of which there is a branch at Riverside. The industry has also developed a special 

 treatise, entitled "Citrus Fruits: an account of the Citrus Fruit Industry with special ref- 

 erence to California requirements and practices and similar conditions," by Dr. J. E. Coit, 

 of the University of California. It is a very satisfactory exposition of things the citrus 

 grower needs to know. Published by Macmillan Co., N. Y.; 522 pages; fully illustrated. 



