2 BULLETIN" 624, U. S. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 



an annual crop of about 8,500 carloads. All other varieties of oranges 

 grown in California produce annually about 4,500 carloads of fruit, 

 ripening their crops mostly in the spring and early summer months. 

 At the present time the increase in the plantings of the Valencia 

 orange in California is greater than that of any other orange variety. 

 For this reason studies of the characteristics of the variety and 

 methods of improving and increasing its production through bud 

 selection during propagation are of special interest. 



HISTORY OF THE VALENCIA VARIETY. 



The Valencia orange {Citrus aurantium sinensis L.) was intro- 

 duced into California from at least three sources at about the same 

 time. According to William Wood, 1 horticultural commissioner of 

 Los Angeles County, A. B. Chapman and George H. Smith, of that 

 county, received an unlabeled package of orange trees from Thomas 

 Rivers, of London, England, in 1S76. Mr. Chapman planted these 

 trees in the nursery on his ranch at San Gabriel, Cal. Buds were 

 propagated from all of these trees and grown until they came into 

 bearing. The only variety which proved to be of value was one 

 which Mr. Chapman called Rivers Late. Col. J. H. Dobbins, of San 

 Gabriel, secured buds of this variety, and when the trees propagated 

 from these buds came into bearing a shipment of the fruit was sent 

 to eastern markets. These oranges brought $4 per box. As a result 

 of this experience the variety became very popular and was widely 

 planted by citrus growers. At that time a citrus grower from Va- 

 lencia, Spain, was shown the fruit and identified it as the variety 

 called in Spain "La Naranga Tarde de Valencia." Mr. Chapman 

 adopted this name, and it has since been called the Valencia Late, 

 or, more commonly, the Valencia orange. 



The other sources of trees of this variety were introductions into 

 California from Florida by several southern California nurserymen, 

 particularly Frost and Burgess 2 and Twogood and Cutter, located at 

 Riverside. The variety had been introduced into Florida by two 

 different persons. About 1870 General Sanford, of Palatka, Fla., 

 obtained a variety of orange from the Rivers nurseries. This variety 

 was labeled Brown. 3 Shortly after the Sanford introduction Mr. 

 E. H. Hart, of Federal Point, Fla., introduced the variety into Florida 

 from the Parsons nursery of Flushing, N. Y. 4 The Parsons nurseries 

 had received the trees from the Rivers nurseries. In shipping the 

 trees to Florida the label was lost. When these trees fruited Mr. 

 Hart exhibited samples of the fruit at a meeting of the Florida State 



1 Letter from Mr. William Wood, Los Angeles, Cal., Jan. 5, 1916. 



2 Letter from Mr. George Frost, Riverside, Cal., Jan. 20, 1916. 



3 Statement received from Mr. Daniel Houston, Zellwood, Fla., May 9, 1916. Mr. Houston was formerly 

 manager of General Sanford's properties. 



* Letter of Mr. B. H. Hart to Prof. E. H. Van Deman, U. S. Department of Agriculture, Apr. 25, 1SS8. 



