ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. II 



plants that can be raised from a barrel of rotten oranges \ 

 from 3,000 to 8,000, depending in part on the size of the barrel 

 and the quality of the seed. The seed of the Tahiti orange is 

 much better than the seed of the Los Angeles. Rotten Tahiti 

 oranges can be had in San Francisco for several months, com- 

 mencing with April, at from two to five dollars per barrel, 

 according to the demand. A sieve with quarter-inch mesh, a 

 coarse, stiff brush, and plenty of water, are the necessary requi- 

 sites for washing out large quantities of seed. 



Having sown the seed, roll with a light hand-roller, which 

 will press the seed into the mellow soil level with the surface, 

 and leave the bed quite smooth. A spade or a piece of board 

 may be used instead of a roller. Cover lightly with good soil. 

 If the soil in which the seeds have been imbedded be not nat- 

 urally mellow, a top dressing of some sandy loam, from one- 

 fourth to one-half of an inch in thickness, will answer. The 

 ground must be moist and in good order at the time of sowing 

 the seed. Never sow or plant in a dry soil, or when it is wot 

 and mucky. The seed-bed must be watered with care after the 

 seed shall have been planted; the ground must be kept moist, 

 but not wet ; the surface must not be allowed to become dry. 



Preparations must now be made for protecting the young 

 plants from the direct rays of the sun. This can be done best 

 by driving stakes one by two inches in size and three feet long, 

 about six feet apart, in the borders of the beds, driving them 

 from one foot to eighteen inches into the ground. Nail length 

 wise to the tops of the stakes, one by one and a half or two inch 

 stuff. Good bailing rope can be used instead of the strips. 

 Cover the beds by stretching over them and fastening to the 

 strips or rope what is known as house-lining a thin, gauzy 

 cotton cloth, one yard wide. If the beds be more than tin re- 

 fect wide, stakes about three and a half feet long, and the same 

 size as the above, may be driven in the center of the bed and 

 strips nailed to their tops, lengthwise of the beds, or bailing 

 rope may be fastened to the stakes. If the cover be level, it 

 should be from sixteen to twenty-four inches above the U-d -, 

 the height depending on the temperature of the locality in winch 

 the beds are made; if raised in the ccnlci about a loot on the 



