- OA CALIFORNIA FRUITS: HOW TO GROW THEM 



JCVT 



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 commercial purposes. The Valencia, which 

 stands next to the Navel but afar below it, is grown because its 

 late ripening makes it profitable after the Navel crop is marketed. 

 Not only have recent plantings been largely of this variety, but old 

 trees of other kinds have been budded over to it. 



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

 Washington Navel is the greatest commercial orange in the world. 

 As it goes from California into the world's commerce it is a com- 

 bined 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 California it passed from humid, 

 tropical to arid, semi-tropical environment, as already suggested. 



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 opportunity for improvement within the types. Such improve- 

 ment is probably to be attained not by hybridizing, but by selection. 

 The Washington Navel, like other members of the citrus family, is 

 keenly disposed to variation, and some of its variations have been 

 named and propagated 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 River- 

 side, which is a branch of the University of California Experiment 

 Station at Berkeley, and by the Bureau of Plant Industry of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture, by Mr. A. D. Shamel, as 

 already indicated in connection with the discussion of budding the 

 orange. 



The shipping season of each of the orange varieties grown in 

 California is as follows: Washington Navels, in November and 

 December from Northern and Central California and from Decem- 

 ber to June in Southern California ; Valencias, from June to Octo- 

 ber inclusive; Seedlings, from March to July inclusive; Mediter- 

 ranean Sweets, from March to July inclusive. 



DESCRIPTIONS OF VARIETIES 



Washington Navel (Bahia, Riverside Navel). Fruit large, solid, and 

 eavy; skin smooth and of a very fine texture; very juicy; highly flavored, 

 h melting pulp; is practically seedless, only in exceptional cases are seed 

 id; tree is a good and prolific bearer, medium thorny, a rapid grower, 

 though it does not attain a very large size; bears when very young, corn- 

 ring to bear as early as one year old from the bud; ripens early This 

 variety was imported from Bahia, Brazil, in 1870, by Mr. W. Sanders, of the 

 irtment of Agriculture at Washington, and in 1874 two trees were re- 

 from Washington by Mrs. Tibbetts, of Riverside, Cal. Trees were 



