ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 149 



and that notwithstanding the severe frosts of such winters as 

 this, orange and lemon trees can be profitably cultivated in 

 nearly every county in the State. By selecting favorable loca- 

 tions, no district, from San Diego to Siskiyou, except it be sit- 

 uated in the high Sierra, need be without these most beautiful 

 and useful fruits. One point is brought out by these reports, 

 namely : the very little difference in the severity of the frosts 

 and in the injury to young trees in the northern as compared 

 with the southern parts of the State. 



The orange is the hardiest member of the citrus family, and 

 will endure a much lower temperature without serious injury 

 than is generally supposed. It will be noticed that not one of 

 these statements mentions any material damage to bearing 

 trees, and very little to trees more than four or five years old. 

 It is evident that none but very young trees require any pro- 

 tection at all, and then only in unusually severe seasons, and 

 when growing on low ground. The general verdict is in favor 

 of the idea that seedling trees are the most vigorous and hardy, 

 while many cultivators believe that such trees, though longer in 

 coming into bearing, are, in the end, more reliable and pro- 

 ductive. The temperature has not been sufficiently low at any 

 point from which we have heard to determine exactly how many 

 degrees below freezing an orange tree will survive. During the 

 great freeze in Florida, in February, 1835, the mercury fell sev- 

 eral degrees below zero at St. Augustine, killing to the ground 

 nearly all the trees in the State, some of which were a hundred 

 years old. The roots of most of these trees sent up sprouts, 

 which were in full bearing in 1842. Orange trees in that State 

 have been known to shed their entire foliage from the effects of 

 frost, and still produce a crop of fruit the ensuing summer. It 

 is therefore quite evident that the cultivator of the orange in 

 this State has little to fear from the frosts of ordinary winters. 



The lemon is much more sensitive to cold than the orange, 

 probably from its tendency to continue growing late in the sea- 

 son. It generally throws out new wood and blossoms through- 

 out the winter months. It will require protection when young 

 in many localities where the orange passed the season un- 

 scathed. Sufficient evidence has been brought out, however, to 



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