CHAPTER I. 



PROPAGATION. 



When it came to planting my orange 

 orchard, I found the buying of young 

 trees at 75 cents apiece a severe strain up- 

 on my resources. To grow my own stock 

 from the seed was not to be thought of, 

 since that would involve a delay of three 

 or four years. Time is money in fruit 

 growing. So I hit upon the plan of buy- 

 ing trees for my own orchard and plant- 

 ing seeds for some other man's orchard; 

 paying tribute myself and taking letters 

 of marque and reprisal against the next 

 generation of orange planters. The idea 

 was by no means original, for I found an 

 old gentleman in Pasadena who had car- 

 ried out the scheme before me. He had 

 reared his nursery in the open spaces be- 

 tween his rows of orange trees, and he 

 told me that from less than an acre thus de- 

 voted he had realized $600. His success as 

 an amateur propagator was marked, for I 

 found in his nursery the finest and health- 

 iest trees in the market. His example, 

 no doubt, had much to do with confirm- 

 ing my purpose to plant seeds. 



After reading all the available authori- 

 ties on propagation, and consulting all of 

 the nurserymen of my acquaintance, I 

 did as most people do who take advice- 

 followed a plan of my own. As my 

 method proved quite successful I venture 

 a description of it. Perhaps it will be of 

 service to some reader in forming a plan 

 of his own better than mine. I do not 

 laim to have originated anything in the 

 matter of propagation, but merely to 

 have studied the delicate requirements of 

 the orange seed and plant, applying there- 

 to the most suitable and, at the same 

 time, the most labor-saving methods 

 which I could devise. 



TIME. I planted in June. 



BOXES. From a fruit jobbing firm I 

 obtained a quantity of boxing material in 

 Ihe "shook." Size of boxes: Eighteen 

 vnches square and five inches deep. They 



were a kind known as "peach boxes," 

 and being of a size out of use I got them 

 for nine cents apiece about one-half mar- 

 ket rates. The making of 160 of these 

 boxes required two days. They were 

 fastened staunchly with four and six 

 penny nails, the lids, of course, not 

 placed. I followed the precaution of 

 leaving cracks of a quarter of an inch 

 between the bottom boards to facilitate 

 drainage. 



SOIL. While the boxes were making* 

 the Chinaman was engaged hauling and 

 preparing the soil to fill them. In the 

 bottom of a ravine, among the oak trees, 

 I found a sediment deposited by the win- 

 ter flood, which seemed to be the lighter 

 and finer particles washed from the soil 

 above. It formed a compact, grayish- 

 black mass, which cracked open as the 

 moisture dried out of it, and one could 

 pull it up in cakes. Its weight was only 

 about two-thirds that of average soil. Ife 

 crumbled readily between the fingers, 

 leaving a powder almost as fine and soft 

 as flour. "This," I said to myself, "i 

 humus, and as near the pure article as 

 Nature ever prepares it." So I had Ah 

 Ngoon haul a quantity of the sediment. 

 I prepared it for use by pulverizing and 

 then passing through a screen, and at the 

 same time adding a third part of sifted 

 sand. This mixture made a warm, mel- 

 low, rich soil, free from gravel and all 

 other obstructions, and one also which 

 would not pack under the repeated appli- 

 cation of water. It proved to be remark- 

 ably free from wild seeds, thus obviating 

 a deal of laborious weeding. In fact it 

 was the very ne plus ultra of a propagat- 

 ing soil, according to my notion. I would 

 not know how to improve it in a single 

 particular were I planting again. 



FILLING THB BOXES. From the pile of 

 prepared soil we filled each box about 

 two-thirds full, striking eff the top to a 



