CALIFORNIA CITRUS CULTURE. 



We can not but marvel at the growth of the citrus industry, especially 

 the orange and the lemon, in California during the past two decades. 

 In the early nineties it was a mere infant. We now have nearly two 

 hundred thousand acres, and ship well nigh fifty thousand cars annually, 

 for which almost forty million dollars are received, of which nearly 

 one third is paid to transport the fruit to the markets. The following 

 statistics show graphically this rapidity of growth : In 1891, 4,056 cars 

 were shipped ; in 1901, 24,097 ; in 1911, 46,399. The number of boxes 

 per car is now 396. 



The reason for this rapid growth is not far to seek. "A thing of 

 beauty if a joy forever." What can excel in -beauty an orange grove 

 loaded with ripened fruit (Fig. 1), or a lemon tree at any time or 

 season? We all love and are ennobled by our environment where 

 loveliness is dominant; and so it follows that citrus fruit growers will 

 be generally marked by refinement and culture. Indeed, the success- 

 ful citrus orchardist must be a student and must possess rare intelli- 

 gence. Even the so-called learned professions at their best call for no 

 better thought or deeper study than that required by the highest suc- 

 cess in growing and marketing the orange, the lemon and the grape- 

 iruit or pomelo. The grower must be a close student of details. The 

 people of highest type enjoy most that which causes them to think 

 and study most, and so our best folk are flocking to citrus culture as 

 affording keenest mental enjoyment and the finest ethical stimilus. 



The profits in citrus production are equal to those in any line of 

 agriculture. It is brainy work and nowhere do brains count for more. 

 I have been a close student and observer of citrus orchards and citrus 

 fruit production for nearly twenty years, and have known orchards 

 for all that time that have never missed a crop. Where every detail 

 of care is observed by the orchardist, the trees rarely fail to respond 

 with a good and often a colossal production. 



A small orange grove can be cared for by its owner with very slight 

 aid from others, and thus the greatest handicap in agriculture- 

 inability to secure labor is solved. I have known one man single- 

 handed to care thoroughly well for a ten-acre orange grove, and such a 

 grove will give generous support to its owner. I have known a man to 

 care for forty acres, with no other aid except at time of irrigation and 

 picking. In case pruning is extensive, it would require extra service. 

 One can hardly picture a nearer approach to Utopia than a community 



