ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 143 



affords me the fullest assurances that oranges and lemons will 

 prove to be a complete success. Our thermometer never shows 

 so low a temperature as at Los Angeles. We do not regard a 

 wind-break essential to success. 



Los Angeles County Ex-Gov. John G. Downey, Los Angeles : 



I visited the counties of San Diego, San Bernardino and Los 

 Angeles during the cold weather, and had a fair opportunity to 

 observe the effect of the frost upon all classes of unprotected 

 trees of the citrus family. The lowest reading of Fahrenheit's 

 thermometer (the only one in common use) was twenty-eight 

 degrees. Bearing trees of the orange and lemon family were 

 not affected, save in a few instances, in which the young and 

 tender shoots were nipped; but this, you might say, is a yearly 

 occurrence. Trees of this class, from three to seven years old, 

 were equally uninjured. Young trees one and two years old, in 

 nursery, were badly bitten, yet but few were killed. These suf- 

 fered most in low, damp situations. Those that were not killed 

 were set back nearly a year's growth. The lime trees seemed 

 most sensitive to the cold, and, in many instances, they were 

 badly, bitten. They will have to be pruned back extensively. 

 The very young ones in the nursery are seriously injured. It 

 seems unaccountable how the frost acted, running in streaks in 

 the same orchard. High table land with good drainage seemed 

 to defy the cold. The nearer the Sierra the better, although the 

 snow was close by. High fences and good hedges seemed to 

 have a happy effect to prevent damage. 



Judging from close observation and more than ordinary at- 

 tention to the subject for twenty-eight years, there is nothing to 

 indicate any apprehension touching the successful cultivation of 

 the orange, lemon and lime in the counties above mentioned, 

 and without protection. 



Gen. Stoneman, San Gabriel Valley : 



First The thermometer at my place, Los Robles, on the 

 rim of the San Gabriel Valley, went one night to twenty-nine 

 degrees, and ice formed one-eighth of an inch thick. Nothing 

 was injured on my place, except some young bananas in an ex- 

 posed situation. 



Secon4 My orange, lemon and lime, also citron and pome- 



