CALIFORNIA CITRUS CONDITIONS 43} 



and east of her citrus region. Northern blizzards are, therefore, 

 held back from entrance to California and are forced to confine 

 themselves to southerly and easterly directions over the interior 

 parts of the Pacific slope, while the great blizzards of the north- 

 west traverse the Mississippi valley and, if they have sufficient 

 impetus, extend to the gulf and carry destruction to semi-tropical 

 growths even in northern Florida. The ocean then bringing 

 warmth and the high mountains defending against cold, combine 

 their influences to give nearly the whole length of California semi- 

 tropical winter temperatures. 



Second : Although this striking similarity does exist, in citrus 

 (districts north and south, there is another even more startling 

 proposition involved and that is the influence exerted by the 

 presence of the coast range as the western boundary of the great 

 interior valley of the State, and intervening between that great 

 valley and the ocean. The several ridges of the coast range with 

 their enclosed small valleys serve as a colossal wind-break against 

 northwest winds, which might otherwise, now and again, bring 

 a temperature too low for citrus fruits, where now they are safe 

 from injury. The chief effect of these mountains is to protect the 

 northern interior valleys and foot-hills from the raw winds of early 

 springtime and to allow the sun as he crosses each day higher 

 in his course, to expend the increasing heat directly in promot- 

 ing vernal verdure. The result is a protected interior region in 

 central and northern California, of quick growth in all lines early 

 pasturage, early grain harvest and early fruit ripening. The valleys 

 of southern California, which have thus far been largely developed, 

 have no high range between them and the ocean. They are open 

 on the west because the coast range of mountains takes a sharp 

 turn eastward in the southern part of the State and afterward 

 curves southward, passing along the eastern side of the chief 

 productive region. The influence of this opening of the valleys of 

 southern California is not so unfavorable as such opening would 

 be at the north, because ocean winds are gentler and warmer there, 

 and there is winter service rendered by this eastward trend of the 

 southern California mountains, as has been said, but the fact 

 remains that the absence of high barriers against ocean influences 

 retards the springtime and causes a slow development of summer 

 conditions and late ripening of fruits, while the presence of high 

 barriers at the north so hastens springtime and summer heat, that 

 early summer fruits in California are shipped from the north to the 

 south a thing which does not occur anywhere else in the northern 

 hemisphere. It is due to this same early start which the local 

 topography gives to the orange, followed by the high summer 

 heat which is essential to the development of a good orange, that 

 the orange reaches an acceptable commercial condition at an earlier 



