ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. IO$ 



utter abandonment of the extension of orange orchards so 

 much so that the demand for orange trees the present season 

 (1879-80) has fallen off to an alarming extent, the demand being 

 insufficient to enable semi-tropical nurserymen to make ex- 

 penses, and the business of raising orange trees is languishing. 

 (See Chapter XX.) The consequence is that large tracts of land 

 eminently adapted to successful orange culture are being planted, 

 or reserved for planting, to vineyards. 



The subject of overproduction appears most shadowy, indeed, 

 when carefully examined. 



If it ever happen that our citrus products crowd the markets 

 and reduce the prices, the consumption will rapidly increase, 

 soon relieving the markets of their surplus and establishing an 

 equilibrium. Oranges are now a luxury, and even here, where 

 they are produced, poor people cannot afford to buy them. 

 Only the rich can enjoy their health-giving properties. The 

 middle classes, that constitute the mass of our population, can- 

 not touch them at ruling rates. 



Our population is rapidly increasing perhaps in a greater 

 ratio than our orange orchards and their productions a fact 

 that must not be overlooked by the investigator of this subject. 



The question of transportation enters largely into this subject. 

 It requires no prophet to predict that the increase of railroads 

 and other means of transportation will continuously transcend 

 the volume of our productions. When competitive railroads 

 that will span the continent below the snow-belt shall have been 

 completed, a new era will dawn upon us ; our luscious fruit will 

 then find its way to all portions of our country. The day is not 

 far distant when orders for whole cargoes of oranges will be re- 

 ceived from across the Atlantic. We enjoy, also, a decided ad- 

 vantage for the marketing of our oranges, not enjoyed by other 

 citrus-producing countries in the extraordinary keeping qual- 

 ities of our fruit, and in the great length of time from the com- 

 mencement of its ripening to its full maturity. They begin to 

 ripen and are marketable in December, continuing to grow more 

 delicious till July, allowing fully eight months in which to mar- 

 ket them. This is, I believe, a peculiarity and advantage not 

 enjoyed by any other known orange-growing country. They 



