CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



air can be dammed and held back ; consequently the low land of a 

 small valley may be worse than lower land in the main valley, 

 because in the latter there are air currents which prevent accumula- 

 tion of cold air in particular places. These air movements make 

 some plantings on the upper plains of the main valley safe, though 

 the whole region may seem to the eye rather flat and low, but, of 

 course, broad sinks of the main valley may also be dangerous. Too 

 great elevations are to be guarded against. Where one approaches 

 the reach-down of mountain temperatures and loses the warming 

 influences of the valley mesas, the danger line is at hand. 



An ample water supply is essential. Small waterings which may 

 bring satisfactory growth to a young tree are no measure of the 

 needs of a bearing tree. The orange is using water all the year, 

 as discussed in Chapter XV. Its crop requires nearly a year to reach 

 maturity. Both in leaf growth and fruit growth it nearly doubles 

 the activity of the deciduous tree, and all the time it is pumping 

 water with its roots and pouring forth water into the air through its 

 exposed surfaces. No investment in orange planting can be profit- 

 able without assurance of adequate water supply. 



PROPAGATION OF THE ORANGE 



The orange is grown from cuttings, layers and seeds. Growth 

 from the seeds is the method almost exclusively followed, and by 

 far the best, but the others will be mentioned briefly. 



Growth from Cuttings. The method of propagation is described 

 in Chapter VIII. 



Growth from Layers. The orange roots readily by layering, the 

 drooping branches being partly cut through, buried in the soil with 

 the terminal shoots above the ground. Layers must be kept moist. 

 Layering may be employed to obtain a few plants easily, but, other- 

 wise, it cuts no figure in propagation. Layers and cuttings, of 

 course, reproduce the original variety without recourse to budding. 



Growth from Seed. The orange is grown upon seedlings of the 

 bitter orange or orange of Seville, generally called "Florida sour 

 stock" ; of the common or sweet orange and of the pomelo or Grape 

 Fruit. Good plump seed should be selected in growing orange 

 seedlings either for their own fruitage or to use as stocks for bud- 

 ding. 



When seedlings for fruiting are grown, select seed from a choice 

 variety in a situation where other citrus species are not grown ; but 

 the orange can not be trusted to come true from seed, and, more 

 than this, the seedling class for fruiting purposes has been prac- 

 tically abandoned as unprofitable to plant, though fruit from old 

 seedling trees is occasionally sold at a profit. 



In securing seed the fruit is allowed to rot and when thoroughly 

 decayed, it is pulped by mashing in a barrel, and the mass is washed, 

 a little at a time, on a coarse sieve, the pulp passing through, and the 

 seed being caught on the wires, and pieces of skin thrown out. The 



