CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 



EARLY HISTORY. 



In that excellent volume, by the late Mr. B. M. Lelong, ''Culture 

 of the Citrus in California," will be found an interesting account of 

 the early development of this industry in our State. It was more than 

 a century and a half ago that the Mission Fathers introduced the 

 orange, the fig, the foreign grapes, and the olive. These padres came 

 to help men to a more abundant life. They did more; they demon- 

 strated that our genial climate made our much prized citrus fruits 

 entirely at home. 



California gained its great renown from the discovery of gold. 

 Little did the early miners dream of the riches in the soil while in 

 quest of nuggets in the placers and river gravels or the locked-up 

 gold of the quartz mines. Yet to-day our orchards fairly eclipse the 

 mines in the wealth they pour into the pocketbook of the State. Except 

 for oil, no single product of California begins to compare in impor- 

 tance, measured by the net cash returns, with that of the citrus groves. 

 G. Harold Powell, general manager of the California Fruit Growers* 

 Exchange, than whom no one is more able to give an authentic opinion, 

 states that the ''citrus industry represents two hundred million dollars 

 capital invested, ten thousand growers are interested, one hundred 

 thousand people depend upon it for a livelihood, while fifty thousand 

 carloads are expected to be shipped from the State the present season. ' ' 

 We see that the citrus product of to-day is a very leading factor in the 

 business interests of the State. There is apparent the urgency of push- 

 ing with vigor all that helps to advance this important interest and of 

 working to stay with all possible energy whatever tends to handicap it. 



To quote again from the work of the late Mr. B. M. Lelong: 

 "While orange trees were among the first introduced into the State, 

 having been brought by the Mission Fathers, it may be said that orange 

 culture is of very modern origin, and the industry has assumed com- 

 mercial importance only since 1880." At first it was supposed that 

 only the south was sufficiently balmy to make citrus culture possible. 

 Now we know that in the elevated mesas and the foothill valleys of 

 both the northern coast and Sierra ranges there are favored localities 

 where citrus culture is successfully practiced, as far north as Placer, 

 Glenn and Butte counties. In fact, the fruit in these northern coun- 

 ties is of excellent quality and ripens earlier than in the south. This 

 promises only good to the State, as we shall be able to maintain a 

 market of superior oranges, as we do now of lemons, throughout the 

 entire year, from January to January. This guarantee, that the best 



