ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 25 



With the light of experience gained in the past few years I 

 am convinced that I was then right, and that my opinion was 

 founded on sound principles. 



We have on our own property nearly all the varieties of soils, 

 except the alkaline, that are found in the San Gabriel Valley. 

 Orange and lemon orchards have been established upon the 

 different kinds of soil. Some of the trees have stood twenty 

 years, and a few are more than forty years old. Here, then, a 

 good opportunity is afforded to study the adaptability of the 

 soils to the wants and requirements of the citrus family. An 

 orchard planted more than eighteen years ago is now standing 

 on soils of a gravelly loam character. With no superiority of 

 cultivation, these trees are healthy not one diseased tree among 

 four hundred and fifty and produce an orange that I have 

 readily sold three years in succession for twenty-two and one- 

 half, twenty-two and twenty-one dollars per thousand, delivered 

 at our depot (San Gabriel). I refer to this financial matter 

 merely to prove one fact, viz. : that the oranges must have been 

 superior to other oranges or I could not possibly have sold 

 them at an advanced price. The soil here has given this su- 

 periority to the orange produced. 



On the other great prevailing character of soil, the argil- 

 laceous, of moderate depth to the hard-pan, we have an orchard 

 of six hundred trees of the same age as those of the one already 

 described. Some of these trees are not so healthy, and do not 

 produce a fruit to be compared in quality with that of the fruit 

 grown on the other soil, although they have received more care 

 and more thorough cultivation. On a gradually sloping hill- 

 side, where the naturally unfavorable conditions of this soil have 

 been aggravated by the washing away of the top soil by irri- 

 gation, the trees are not half so large and are already showing 

 unmistakable signs of decay ; I am sure they will die in a few 

 years. The highest price offered by the same merchant for the 

 oranges produced by this orchard has never exceeded seventeen 

 dollars and fifty cents per thousand. 



We also have trees planted on the loamy soils that carry a 

 large proportion of humus as well as clay. They are much 

 younger trees, but they have now been bearing for two years ; 



