CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



the Mississippi Valley and, if they have sufficient impetus, extend 

 to the Gulf and carry destruction to semi-tropical growths even in 

 Northern Florida. The ocean then bringing warmth and the high 

 mountains defending against cold, combine their influences to give 

 nearly the whole length of California semi-tropical winter tempera- 

 tures. 



Second: Although this striking similarity does exist, in citrus 

 districts north and south, there is another even more startling 

 proposition involved and that is the influence exerted by the pres- 

 ence of the Coast Range as the western boundary of the great 

 interior valley of the State, and intervening between that great 

 valley and the ocean. The several ridges of the Coast Range with 

 their enclosed small valleys serve as a colossal wind-break against 

 northwest winds, which might otherwise, now and again, bring a 

 temperature too low for citrus fruits, where now they are safe 

 from injury. The chief effect of these mountains is to protect the 

 northern interior valleys and foothills from the raw winds of early 

 springtime, and to allow the sun as he crosses each day higher in 

 his course, to expend the increasing heat directly in promoting 

 vernal verdure. The result is a protected interior region in Central 

 and Northern California, of quick growth in all lines early pas- 

 turage, early grain harvest and early fruit ripening. The valleys 

 of Southern California, which have thus far been largely developed, 

 have no high range between them and the ocean. They are open 

 on the west because the Coast Range of mountains takes a sharp 

 turn eastward in the southern part of the State and afterward 

 curves southward, passing along the eastern side of the chief pro- 

 ductive region. The influence of this opening of the valleys of 

 Southern California is not so unfavorable as such opening would 

 be at the north, because ocean winds are gentler and warmer there, 

 and there is winter service rendered by this eastward trend of the 

 Southern California mountains, as has been said, but the fact 

 remains that the absence of high barriers against ocean influences 

 retards the springtime and causes a slow development of summer 

 conditions and late ripening of fruits, while the presence of high 

 barriers at the north so hastens springtime and summer heat, that 

 early summer fruits in California are shipped from the north to the 

 south a thing which does not occur anywhere else in the northern 

 hemisphere. It is due to this same early start which the local topog- 

 raphy gives to the orange, followed by the high summer heat which 

 is essential to the development of a good orange, that the orange 

 reaches an acceptable commercial condition at an earlier date in 

 suitable interior places at the north and is at present being almost 

 wholly shipped to eastern markets before free movement begins at 

 the south. This early marketing also relieves the growers of much 

 anxiety and costly frost righting, because the fruit, which is always 

 more susceptible to injury than the tree, is out of the way before 

 the frost period, which usually begins about Christmas, is reached. 



There is in Southern California, east of the mountains, a district 

 which has thus far been but scantily developed where protection 

 from ocean influences tends to early ripening of fruits. The same 



