ITS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



15 



reason of 1881-2, twenty millions of 

 oranges. San Francisco, which is our 

 principal market, uses about twelve mill- 

 ions annually, of whichever half are sup- 

 plied by Southern California. In 1879 

 fifteen car loads of oranges were sent from 

 Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, Utah, and 

 from that time a good market has there 

 been found. The rapid influx of people 

 to Arizona during the past three or four 

 years greatly increased the demand from 

 that quarter. Arizona, by reason of the 

 inadaptability of her soil to agriculture, 

 the principal occupations of her people 

 being mining and stock raising, and the 

 excessive heat of her summers, is certain 

 to continue a large consumer. Our market 

 has also been extended within the past 

 few years so that it includes Denver, Kan- 

 sas City, St. Louis, Chicago, Cincinnati, 

 Louisville, and all of the principal cities 

 of the West and Southwest. Some fruit 

 has found its way to the Atlantic States 

 and some has been shipped to European 

 countries, but not to the extent of forming 

 regular channels of trade. 



The number of oranges shipped by the 

 Southern Pacific railroad from Southern 

 California to Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, 

 Colorado, and through points on the Mis- 

 souri river and east thereof, from January 

 1st to July 1st, 1883, amounted to 131,450 

 boxes. By Wells, Fargo <fe Co., during 

 the same time, estimated 20,000 more, 

 making in all 151,450 boxes containing 

 30,200,000 oranges. To this amount we 

 may add at least 10,000,000 more, shipped 

 from July 1st to Dec. 31st, and at least 

 5,000,000 used up in local markets or de- 

 stroyed in orchards, making for the crop, 

 without counting those shipped to San 

 Francisco 45,000,000 oranges. With the 

 fruit raised in San Diego, San Buenaven- 

 tura and Santa Barbara, there wore prob- 

 ably 50,000,000 grown in the year 1882 and 

 1883. It is estimated that the annual in- 

 crease from this time forward will bo 10,- 

 000,000 a year. The crop, of 1883-4, if all 

 put in boxes, would have required 250,000 

 boxes, and would have filled 700 freight 

 cars at the rate of 350 boxes per car. 



The remarkable keeping qualities of our 

 oranges due in a measure, no doubt, to 

 their thick rind renders their shipment 

 long distances quite feasible. 



The reason at which our fruit ripens 

 (December to March) and the length of 

 time it may be allowed to remain on tne 

 trees without detriment (December to 

 July) gives us great choice of market. 

 Florida and Louisiana oranges are sold 

 from November 1st to March 1st, and at 

 the latter date the entire crop is gone. 

 There i.s no necessity for marketing our 

 fruit before February or March and in 

 fact it hardly attains its full size and 

 sweetness until then when we have the 

 entire field to ourselves. Even the im- 

 ported Tahitis are then out of the way. 



As the lines of trade become better es- 

 tablished, and the excellencies of our fruit 

 more appreciated throughout the United 

 States, the demand will, of course, greatly 

 increase. It is fair to assume that, not- 

 withstanding the prodigious increase of 

 plantations, the market will never be 

 overstocked with good fruit. Taking the 

 season of 1883-4 for an example, I may 

 state that as early as December 1st, when 

 the fruit was only beginning to turn color, 

 four-fifths of the crop of Los Angeles 

 county had been engaged by jobbers. 

 One cultivator sold his crop on the trees 

 for the lump sum of $12,000. The usual 

 price paid was $2 per box (average 150 

 oranges) and fancy lots went up to $2.50, 

 $3.00, and ever $5.00 per box. That year's 

 crop was accounted short from half to 

 two-thirds the normal yield and the nn- 

 usual promptness of purchasers was, of 

 course, largely attributable to this fact. 

 But, considering the increased number of 

 bearing trees, and the increased capacity 

 of some of the older ones, the yield was 

 still very large. There is yet no substan- 

 tial indication that the market is being 

 over-supplied. 



As the reader has already discovered by 

 the perusal of the Surveyor General's 

 table above given, the cultivation of the 

 orange and lemon is confined to a few 

 counties of California. Los Angeles coun- 

 ty alone makes a showing in the above 

 table of over forty-five forty-eighths of all 

 the bearing trees in the State. I shall at- 

 tempt to show, before concluding this 

 treatise, that only a limited portion of Los 

 Angeles and of the other orange-growing 

 counties is adapted to the production of 

 the better class of oranges. The area of 



