CHAPTER XXXII 

 THE ORANGE 



The orange leads all the fruits of California. Near the close 

 of Chapter VI will be found the numbers of trees and value 

 of product shipped out of the State, upon the latter of which the 

 supremacy of the orange rests. In view of this leadership it 

 seems fitting to take a little wider range in the discussion of the 

 significance of the orange in the development of California than 

 has been indulged in the consideration of other fruits, and this 

 is justified by the fact that the orange is the exponent of the horti- 

 cultural resources of the State and its attributes in this direction 

 are shared in varying degrees by the other fruits. The great- 

 ness of orange growing in California becomes, then, in various 

 ways the token of our advancement in one of the highest of the 

 agricultural arts, and in the mastery of long-distance commercial 

 distribution of fresh fruits. These achievements are also a demon- 

 stration of the quality of our agricultural citizenship.* 



THE ORANGE INDUSTRY OF THE WORLD 



From the beginning the orange has reigned as king in the inter- 

 national fruit trade of the world. The grape has always been and 

 is still, greater in the value of its contribution to commerce and 

 in the distance it safely traverses, but the grape rules not as fruit, 

 but through its manufactured products, while the orange carries 

 its natural beauty, fragrance and flavor unchanged around the 

 world. From the earliest times the orange has not only been 

 accepted in northern climes as a symbol of tropical and sub-tropical 

 salubrity and sumptuousness, but by its own distinctive charac- 

 teristics as a fruit it has won recognition as "befitting the highest 

 uses of mankind. By its nature too the orange ministers to its 

 own commercial popularity. It endures long shipment; it ripens 

 slowly and through a season of several months which constitute 

 the winter in northern latitudes when local fruits are scant or 

 absent and the refreshment in the citric juices most welcome. 

 The production of such a commercial commodity has from the 

 earliest times constituted an important industry. 



* The Orange Industry "Encyclopedia Americana," Scientific American, New 

 York, 1904. "The Orange in Northern and Central California," California State 

 Board of Trade, San Francisco, 1903, etc., by the author. 



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