8 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



they thank the Great Author of the grand, useful and beautiful 

 in nature for so sublime a manifestation of His works, and His 

 good gifts to mortals. There is inspiration, as well as beauty 

 and princely profits, in an orange orchard. When tourists are 

 examining our prolific fields of grain, our orchards of superior 

 temperate-climate fruits, and our varied general productions, 

 they are filled with wonder and admiration by our extraordinary 

 possibilities, and our success in all the multifarious departments 

 of agriculture and horticulture. But our orange groves only can 

 call forth the full exclamations of wondrous excitement from 

 our brothers and sisters from the frozen regions beyond the 

 mountains, and these groves dilated upon, and their praises 

 sung, are long remembered after all other scenes have been 

 forgotten. Then let us magnify our great opportunities by 

 planting more orange trees ; let us increase this soul-inspiring, 

 profitable industry, thereby leaving to our children a legacy that 

 will cause us to be remembered with honor, and that will be a 

 blessing to future generations. In order to do this, let us en- 

 deavor to start right, lest we be disappointed. I now purpose, 

 as a warning voice, to consider the responsibilities usual in 

 orange culture, that success may crown our efforts with a 

 golden and substantial reward. 



The founding of an orange orchard is not all poetry and ro- 

 mance; the stern, cold facts and responsibilities of the industry 

 soon become apparent. The investment of money, time, labor, 

 patience and perseverance required to plant an orange orchard 

 and conduct it to a bearing and self-sustaining condition, is of 

 more magnitude, notwithstanding all our advantages, than be- 

 ginners generally imagine it to be. Many who are not apprised 

 at the start of what they have to contend with, get into debt 

 and become discouraged, and the only apparent avenue of es- 

 cape is a mortgage on their orchard. This is generally the first 

 step to ruin, and it often results in the loss of the entire invest- 

 ment. Few succeed in redeeming their property from an en- 

 cumbrance of this kind. The orchard begins to fruit in a few 

 years, but, alas ! too late for the over-sanguine owner, and the 

 end is usually reached in a summary manner through the courts? 

 assisted by the sheriff. 



