ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 14! 



to grow before fruit buds will start. This orchard is situated on 

 the bank of the San Buenaventura river, two miles north of San 

 Buenaventura. The soil is clay, sandy loam, without gravel ; 

 elevation about eighty feet above the ocean's level. The lowest 

 record of the thermometer in this vicinity is twenty-nine degrees 

 above zero. The orange and lemon trees from five to seven 

 years old, at the rancho Jose Arnez, and at the Stevenson place, 

 six miles farther up the river, have the appearance df being dead, 

 while Henry Shaw's nursery, containing twelve thousand orange 

 trees from three to five years old, and several lemon and lime 

 trees from two to five years old, is uninjured. This nursery is 

 situated in Ventura avenue, a half a mile north of San Buena- 

 ventura, at an altitude of about sixty feet, on the same stream 

 that Sparks' lime orchard is on, and in the same valley, but it is 

 better protected from the cold north wind. In this orchard 

 only an occasional tender shoot is nipped. There is no ther- 

 mometer record of the degree of cold. S. Bristol informed me 

 that the frost did not injure his trees. His place is in Santa 

 Clara Valley, about four miles from the coast. The orange and 

 lemon trees of Messrs. Canon, Finney and Day are in this 

 vicinity. I have not visited their places, but I hear that their 

 trees have sustained no injury from frost. 



The most extensive orange orchard in Ventura county is that 

 of Messrs. Blanchard and Branley, situated at the mouth of San 

 Pablo canon, on the west side of Santa Clara Valley, seventeen 

 miles from San Buenaventura. Mr. Blanchard informed me 

 yesterday that his trees had not been injured. They have only 

 occasionally been nipped, and some of them are now growing. 

 This orchard contains one hundred acres set to orange trees 

 that will be seven years old this coming spring. The soil is 

 a gravelly loam. The altitude is about two hundred and fifty 

 feet. The degree of temperature is unknown. All the orange 

 and lemon trees in the vicinity of Nordhoff are killed. The 

 lowest degree of temperature there is reported to be twenty-six 

 degrees. The soil is clay and gravel oak timber where not 

 cleared. Altitude, about eight hundred feet. My Cliff Glen 

 orchard is situated about seven miles from Nordhoff, in the 

 Metalaja canon. The soil is a sandy, gravelly loam. Altitude, 



