94 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



missions on sales, etc., twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per 

 tree, or an average of fourteen hundred and thirty-five dollars 

 per acre. 



"I do not claim this as an average crop or result, but I do 

 think that with proper care and attention the average can be 

 made to equal one thousand dollars per acre, on trees twelve 

 years of age. I have seen on our property trees yielding more 

 than three thousand oranges per tree, which, sold at twenty dollars 

 per thousand, would give per acre a result of four thousand 

 one hundred and forty dollars. The average price throughout 

 the county for the past rive years has been between twenty and 

 twenty-five dollars per thousand to those who "have shipped their 

 fruit. They will be likely to exceed this sum the present year. 

 I see no reason to doubt that the market will remain the same 

 for many years to come." 



This statement shows what oranges brought in 1874. Mr. 

 Shorb's prediction that the market would remain the same for 

 many years to come has thus far been fully realized. I find, 

 from a careful examination of San Francisco prices current for 

 the season of 1877-8, that the average price of Los Angeles 

 oranges was twenty-two dollars and fifty cents per thousand. 

 In the interim between 1874 and 1880, the price for any season 

 has not averaged less than the above figures, except for the 

 season of 1878-9, when prices ruled lower, owing mainly to the 

 smallness of the oranges, caused principally by over-bearing. 



At the Citrus Fair held in February, 1880, at the thriving set- 

 tlement of Riverside, in San Bernardino county, California, Mr. 

 Shorb said his profits for the season of 1877-8 exceeded one 

 thousand dollars per acre. The present season, 1879-80, prices 

 have ranged from ten to sixty dollars per thousand for oranges 

 delivered in San Francisco, the prices being governed by the 

 quality of the fruit. These prices bring the average higher than 

 that received in 1874. 



The Riverside Press says Mr. H. M. Beers, of Riverside, has 

 on his block a tree that bore sixty oranges two years ago, the 

 tree then being nine years old. Last year it bore five hundred ; 

 this year two thousand oranges were by actual count sold from 

 that tree, at an average price of thirty-seven dollars per thou- 



