ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 2OJ 



command double the value by this time, as the orange wine 

 cannot be surpassed by any other wine for medicinal purposes. 



"There are a great number of orange groves in Southern 

 California ; the yield of all the trees of the citrus family is very 

 great. The demand for oranges along the Pacific coast is far 

 below the production, and the exportation of oranges to the 

 East will never be a lucrative business for California, on account 

 of the great distance by rail, as all the Eastern States can pro- 

 cure their oranges at a lesser cost from Florida and Louisiana. 

 But we have to utilize our surplus oranges, and can do so only 

 by making wine from them ; this would diminish the bulk and 

 greatly reduce the cost of transportation to any part of the 

 country. 



"I will give to our orange growers a few directions, founded 

 upon my own personal experience, how to make wine from 

 oranges : 



"The oranges must be perfectly ripe, else the saccharine 

 matter they contain will not be entirely developed. The oranges 

 are peeled first, then cut into halves, across and not lengthwise 

 of the cells. The cutting must be done over a tub, so as not to 

 lose any juice; both halves are pressed hard by the cutter. A 

 good workman can peel and squeeze one hundred and twenty 

 oranges in one minute. When the tub is full of juice and or- 

 anges, the whole mass is carried to a press, which must be so 

 close that none of the seeds can escape into the must, as the 

 seeds would give the wine a bitter taste. I added two pounds 

 of the best white sugar to each gallon of juice of sour oranges, 

 one and one-half pounds to the juice of bitter-sweets, and one 

 pound to the juice of sweet oranges; and to each gallon of the 

 mixed juice one quart of pure water. The whole is put into a 

 barrel, and a space of about five gallons capacity is left for the 

 expansion of the wine during fermentation. 



"Orange wine has to undergo the lower fermentation, as by 

 the upper fermentation all the volatile matter and the aroma 

 would escape. The barrel must be closed air-tight, and a fer- 

 menting tube adjusted. The fermentation is very vigorous for 

 the first few days, and the barrels must be closely watched to 

 prevent their bursting. The fermentation subsides gradually 



