The Northern Citrus Belt 



San Lh'mas, California 



varieties have been discarded! How many " Systems" of pruning, 

 irrigating, cultivating are now only the lore of books! How 

 many dissapointed hopes and ambitions have been blasted by 

 ne'er do well orchards planted in uncongenial situations! What 

 feasts of reason and unreason, what flows of soul and other 

 things have we not heard at meeting of orange growers during 

 the period of development! How many citrus fairs once cap- 

 tivated the public and centered the best thought, practice and 

 product of the growing industry! What learned discussions, 

 both oral and printed, the insect enemies of the tree and fruit 

 have called forth! All these things, elements and conditions 

 about which even the most advanced in the industry were more 

 or less in doubt, have all been satisfactorily solved. It is quite 

 safe to say that the people who make the orange and lemon 

 orchard pay, do so because they possess the "Know How." 

 Take the one question of profitable varieties, how the law of evo- 

 lution has simmered the question down to a very few sorts. "The 

 survival of the fittest" was never more forcibly illustrated than 

 in the supremacy of the California orange and lemon. 



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THOMPSON NAVELS FRUITING IN THE NURSERY ROW 



Broadly speaking, California at present is producing about *" 

 31,000 carloads of citrus fruits, divided as follows: 



Southern California .. 28,000 carloads 



Central California ... 2,000 carloads 



Northern California .. 1,000 carloads 



This output represents something like 67,750 acres in bearing 

 trees, valued at about $200,000,000. The annual value of product 

 is estimated at $19,500,000, varying more or less with the seasons. 

 The acreage in Florida in bearing is said to be 26,000 acres. 

 There is a small acreage in Louisiana which in no way disturbs 

 our markets. Thus it will be seen that we grow fully 70 per cent 

 of all the citrus fruits in the United States. But beyond this, the 

 significance of California Citrus culture is only to be fully ap- 

 preciated when we allow for the fact that commercially consid- 

 ered, we are the foremost and greatest producers of the best 

 oranges and lemons in the world. Wherever the California 

 fruit has come in competition with that from other sections 

 it has won its spurs in the exhibition hall and in the market 

 place. 



