February 5, 1896.] 



Garden and Forest. 



57 



the warmer currents linger longest on the higher slopes, and 

 also because the lower lands do not receive the rays of the 

 morning sun as quickly as the higher altitudes. This item of 

 the sunrise is an important one where the frost is a constantly 

 increasing factor for destruction through the night, and where 

 the amount of damage is largely dependent upon the length 

 of time that the cold endures. Trees and fruit which would 

 perhaps withstand cold for three hours would be ruined 

 should the same degree of cold continue for six or eight 

 hours. 



These facts were fully illustrated in the recent freeze. 

 This season has been very dry. Only a slender thread of 

 snow rests on the highest mountains, where usually their 

 slopes are covered halfway to their bases. The total rainfall 

 up to the night of the frost had been less than two inches. 

 The air was dry and heavily charged with electricity, and the 

 frost occurred at a time when the days had been for weeks 

 unseasonably warm. The frost was preceded by a high, dry 

 wind, which swept the air of every particle of moisture. This 

 wind died away before night. The cold set in soon after night- 

 fall, and continued until sunrise. The lowest point reached by 

 the thermometer, at Riverside, was 17 degrees ; the lowest at 

 Redlands, fourteen miles distant, but on higher ground, was 

 26 degrees. This difference of eight or nine degrees made the 

 difference between the destruction of the crop at Riverside 

 and its escape uninjured at Redlands. Most of the other sec- 

 tions of San Bernardino County which grow oranges are, like 

 Redlands, on high ground, being the warn), sunny slopes of 

 the foothills. They escaped, except in a very few of the low- 

 est and most exposed localities, in which there was damage, 

 so slight, however, as to be practically of no importance what- 

 ever. In Los Angeles and Orange Counties there was frost, 

 but not enough to injure the oranges to any great extent. 

 These sections are nearer the coast, and the air is not so dry 

 as in the interior. The location of Pomona is in the middle 

 of a wide plain, and is therefore more like that of Riverside 

 than some of the other localities, and the district suffered 

 accordingly. The United States weather observer at Los 

 Angeles had the following to say about the frost at Pomona in 

 his report for January 7th : " The temperature, December 30th 

 last, at sunrise, ranged from 23 to 27 degrees, which was no 

 doubt correct, as the flowers and vegetation showed the fact. 

 There were but few oranges or lemons injured by the frost ; 

 many orchards suffered none at all, and the tender growth of 

 lemon trees and lemon blossoms were untouched. Very 

 young citrus trees were damaged in some places, but old trees 

 none worthy of note." This report was, perhaps, as accurate as 

 could be made at the time, but later observations have shown 

 that the damage was greater than at first estimated. It will be 

 noted that the temperature was lower than at Redlands, though 

 higher than at Riverside. 



Admitting that the crop of Riverside County is practically 

 destroyed, we still have nearly all the crop of Los Angeles 

 County, or, approximately, 3.000 car-loads. The crops of 

 Orange and San Diego Counties, originally about 1. 000 car- 

 loads, have not been hurt by the frost ; but the bulk of 

 these are grown near the coast, and are not as fine as those 

 grown in the interior. They are frequently infested with scale, 

 and have to be washed. They are much more acid than the 

 interior orange, and lack the rich, burnished color which the 

 hot winds from the desert give the latter. They are also much 

 slower in ripening, and for this reason most of the crop is still 

 upon the trees in these localities. In San Diego County some 

 oranges are grown in the sheltered valleys back from the 

 coast, and are of excellent quality, but the coast -grown 

 product is a sour fruit, of a light, almost lemon, color, and 

 full of "rag." However, the whole product of this county, 

 180 carloads, is too small to be of much importance at pres- 

 ent. In San Bernardino County there are about 1,000 carloads 

 left, nearly all of which are the very choicest fruit that Califor- 

 nia produces. The original estimate of the best portion of this 

 county was : Highlands, 200 carloads ; Redlands and Crafton, 

 700, and Colton Terrace, 100. Of these about 350 cars have 

 gone forward, most of it as early fruit, at a high price. There 

 was no damage whatever in these districts by frost. This 

 makes about 5,000 carloads of fruit left unharmed. Much of 

 the fruit still upon the trees at Riverside will be sold, and the 

 amount will be anywhere from 300 to 1,000 carloads. 



The early shipments of oranges were, in the opinion of 

 many, a blunder. The best of the fruit was immature, and 

 could not possibly give the consumer a favorable notion of 

 the California orange. The action of growers and shippers 

 after the freeze was still more injudicious, if not actually dis- 

 honest. A demand was made upon all the outside districts 

 for packers, and frozen oranges were rushed out of Riverside 



at the rate of fifty carloads a day. A few shipments were also 

 made from Pomona. False and contradictory reports were 

 sent out through the associated press and other agencies, 

 which confused the eastern buyer. It is also alleged that 

 frozen oranges were packed under the brands of localities 

 where no damage had been done. The Southern California 

 Fruit Exchange, which was organized ostensibly to protect the 

 growers, did its share toward demoralizing the market bv 

 injudicious shipments. This hasty and ill-advised action is to 

 be regretted, as it has caused a loss of reputation greater, per- 

 haps, in the end, than the million dollars or more actually lost 

 in the value of frozen fruit. 



The fruit most badly frozen is now upon the ground, aban- 

 doned as worthless. One packer at Riverside threw away, last 

 Thursday, twelve carloads, for which he had paid $7,000. The 

 loss will come heavily upon some of the packers who had 

 bought early, and took their chances of a frost. Badly frozen 

 oranges rot and fall to the ground after a few days, especially 

 if there is rain. Fruit that is frost-bitten, but not frozen, will 

 remain upon the tree. The juices evaporate through the skin, 

 and the pulp becomes dry and tasteless. Sometimes the flavor 

 is injured, although there is no apparent change in the appear- 

 ance of the orange. The remainder of the fruit forwarded 

 from Riverside this year will doubtless be open to suspicions 

 of these undesirable changes, but this will be only a small pro- 

 portion of the total still remaining for shipment. 



It is absurd to compare this partial disaster with the destruc- 

 tion of the Florida orange groves a year ago. Riverside has 

 about 7,000 acres of bearing groves, and if all of them had 

 been destroyed, instead of the possible five or ten per cent, 

 that have been destroyed and the twenty or thirty per cent, 

 that have been injured, the loss would have been balanced by 

 the new groves coming into bearing in other localities. 



There has been heavy loss at Riverside three years during 

 the past six, and the frost of this year seems to indicate that 

 the location has not justified the heavy plantings made there. 

 Experience now shows that the higher lands are best adapted 

 to citrus culture. It also shows that California is only upon 

 the northern edge of the true citrus belt. The sheltered, 

 sunny, foothill lands have never lost a crop through frost, but 

 to come within six or eight degrees of loss every year is not a 

 pleasant experience for the grower who anticipates a return of 

 from $300 to $600 an acre from his orchard. If the market 

 recovers, as it should, from the demoralizing effects of the 

 frost, the best groves will pay very handsomely this year, and 

 will be as good a hard-times investment as anv one could wish. 

 Redlands. Calif. Will. M. Tisdale. 



Notes from Southern California. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — Mr. Watson's remarks upon the Cherimoyer (page 14) 

 lead me to sav that this fruit is successfully grown here in some 

 localities. Along the foothills on the northern side of the 

 beautiful Cahuenga valley, near Los Angeles, quite a number 

 of trees have been planted. From the garden of Mr. Jacob 

 Miller I have had specimens quite four inches in diameter. A 

 moredelicious fruit I have never tasted. In flavorl would com- 

 pare it to a combination of the pineapple and the strawberry. 

 The flesh of those produced here is creamy white. It ripens 

 here during March, April and May, and good specimens retail 

 at twenty cents each. In this same garden (Mr. Miller's) are 

 growing a number of uncommon trees and plants. A Coffee- 

 bush, some eight feet high, produces annually a profusion of 

 fragrant flowers and ripe berries. A good-sized Carobtree 

 bears pods regularly. There is also a grand specimen of 

 Plumieria alba (Frangipani), fourorfive feet high and as 1 

 in diameter, which blooms abundantly during late summerand 

 autumn, filling the garden with fragrance. 



The belated rains have at last arrived, and the landscape is 

 fast assuming the greenness of spring-time. The farmers are 

 now shipping from this favored locality green peas, s 

 beans, tomatoes and ripe strawberries, and in the water garden 

 Aponogeton distachyon is flowering frei 



Los Amreles, Calif. > '■'"'' J >■ Slltrte: 



Irrigation in Horticulture. 



To the Editor of Garden and Forest : 



Sir, — In your report of the meeting of our Horticultural 

 Association at West Chester, Pennsylvania, on irrigation, 

 reported as saying that we paid eighteen cents F01 .1 hun 

 gallons of water ; the figures should have been fifteen 1 

 for a thousand gallons. When 1 said that a one-inch pipe with 

 eighty pounds pressure will irrigate a quarter of an .1 



