262" RESOURCES OF CALIFORNIA, 



plant olives, is the difficulty in getting fine varieties, most of 

 the old stock at the Missions being small and bitter, and not 

 the best either for oil or pickles. 



189. Orange. The orange thrives and bears in the Sac- 

 ramento Valley, as far north as latitude 39 3p' ; but along the 

 coast south of 34 30' it is one of the most profitable trees, 

 besides being highly ornamental, with its dense, glossy ever- 

 green foliage and fragrant blossoms, and its bright, golden 

 fruit, which covers the trees for a large part of the year. A 

 good tree, ten years old, will bear a thousand oranges annually ^ 

 and the average price of these, delivered at the orchard, varies 

 from $10 to $30, or $500 to $1,500 per acre. Some trees at 

 Sacramento, Auburn, Oroville, Putah Valley, Sonoma, San- 

 Lorenzo, and Martinez, have borne well, bjjt the cultivation 

 has not been extensive enough to satisfy farmers that large 

 orange orchards there would be profitable. More trees, how- 

 ever, are being set out, 



We have no exact information as to the time when the or- 

 ange was introduced into California, nor from what stock the 

 old orange-trees came. Probably the first missionaries 

 brought orange-seeds with them from Lower California, that 

 stock having come from the indigenous trees along the west- 

 ern coast of Mexico. The seeds were planted at various old 

 Missions, such as San Diego, San Fernando, San Juan Capis- 

 trano, and so forth. The trees grew, were planted out, bore 

 well, received little attention or cultivation, and some of them 

 are still standing as monuments to the industry and enterprise 

 of the old friars. The orange is at a disadvantage, in being 

 unfit for drying, as grapes and figs are, or for pickling, like 

 olives; and its cultivation is exposed to serious drawbacks, 

 among which are injury by gophers, ground squirrels, and 

 scale bugs, and by dependence on an abundant supply of 

 water. No orange orchard thrives without irrigation, and 

 several orchards in the vicinity of Santa Barbara do not 

 bear, for unknown reasons. Mr. Evans, in the Overland 



