12 RURAL CALIFORNIA 



surpluses of standard food commodities. Such a 

 conclusion would be incorrect, for at least two rea- 

 sons: first, California is so large that many subdi- 

 visions may still include considerable areas; second, 

 owing to peculiar topography, and conditions largely 

 dependent on it, corresponding conditions are mul- 

 tiplied through hundreds of miles of distance and 

 ensure to hundreds of thousands of acres similar pro- 

 ducing capacities, though they may be geographically 

 far apart. This fact is demonstrated by the wide dis- 

 tribution of the numerous large products that are 

 now creating the wealth of the State and is made in- 

 telligible by a review of environment and topography 

 in their relation to local climatic conditions. 



Concrete illustration of agencies determining the 

 climate of California will be secured by reference to 

 the requirements of the orange, which is not only a 

 world token of salubrity but is (next to hay) the 

 greatest single crop produced in California, the "farm 

 value" in 1920 being fixed by the United States 

 Bureau of Crop Estimates at $51,425,000. 



Natural conditions befitting the growth of the 

 orange exist in suitable situations in the interior 

 valleys at the north, and in coast valleys at the south 

 all the way from Shasta County to San Diego County. 

 It is surprising that similar climate should be found 

 through a distance of between seven and eight de- 

 grees of latitude. If the north and south distance 

 of over 500 miles that separates Shasta and San 

 Diego counties be laid off in corresponding latitudes 

 on the Atlantic Coast, Georgia would be at one end 



