49^ 



Garden and Forest. 



[Number 512. 



County, a distance of over 700 miles, and varies in width from 

 three or four miles to twenty-five or thirty. It is estimated 

 that there are in this belt about a million and a half acres of 

 land adapted to the safe cultivation of citrus fruits on a com- 

 mercial basis, but whether all of this land is susceptible of irri- 

 gation is still undetermined. 



The altitude ranges from 300 to 1.S00 feet above sea-level. 

 The mean summer temperature of this belt is somewhat 

 higher in the northern portion than in the southern ; but the 

 mean winter temperature is higher in the southern than in the 

 northern portion. The mean temperature for the year does 

 not vary more than four degrees throughout the whole belt. 

 The warmer temperature in the northern section during the 

 growing season favors the earlier ripening of the fruit, while 

 the warmer winter temperature in the southern section favors 

 a safer and more general development of the industry. 



All along this belt of country are especially protected or 

 favored localities and also localities where it would be unsafe 

 to attempt Citrus-fruit culture as a commercial enterprise. 

 This is caused by the local topography of the country and does 

 not depend much on the altitude. Wherever cold currents of 

 air from high altitudes flow to the valley without interruption it 



further north, where this range is practically unbroken and the 

 Citrus belt is farther inland. These disadvantages of the north- 

 ern section are, however, somewhat counteracted by the fact 

 that the drier and warmer summer atmosphere is a greater 

 guarantee against the spread and damages of insect pests. 

 The more elevated inland localities in the south have this same 

 advantage over localities nearer the coast. 



From the best information obtainable some Oranges were 

 planted in the Mission San Gabriel, Los Angeles County, in the 

 year 1804. The nucleus of Orange culture in California was 

 formed in this place and at about the above date by Padre, or 

 Father, Sanches. The second trees were planted in Los Angeles 

 by Don Louis Vignes in 1834. Several other small plantings 

 followed about that date, but no orchards were planted with a 

 view to selling the fruit till the coming of American people to 

 California. The historic orchard of William Woltskill, at Los 

 Angeles, was the first planted with an idea of profit and he 

 was the subject of ridicule when it was learned by his neigh- 

 bors that he entertained this idea. When he died he had a 

 bearing orchard of twenty-eight acres and that year the fruit 

 was sold on the trees for $25,000. A few trees were planted at 

 Old San Bernardino by L. Van Leuven, in 1857, from seed grown 



A fruiting branch, natural size. 



Fig. 62. — Tsuga Araragi. — See page 490. 

 2. A cone-scale, with its seeds, natural size. 3. A leaf", natural size. 



Portion of a branchlet, natural size. 



would not be safe to attempt Citrus culture at any elevation 

 within the sweep of these currents. On the other hand, where- 

 ever these descending currents are cut off or turned aside by 

 spurs of the mountains, leaving the warm atmosphere of the 

 day undisturbed during the night, there Orange and Lemon 

 culture may be engaged in without danger from frost. In 

 other words, the eddies of air currents must be selected and 

 the main flow of these currents must be avoided. 



Every one who has traveled along these Sierra foot-hills 

 parallel with the valleys, particularly in the winter season and 

 at night, will recall his surprise at the sudden changes in the 

 temperature of the atmosphere within short distances. He 

 may also remember to have noticed tender plants and shrubs 

 seared and frost-bitten, although just over a ridge or cone the 

 same plants or shrubs were in full leaf and growing luxuriantly. 

 Want of attention to these facts has caused many disastrous 

 failures in the cultivation of Citrus fruits in California. 



It may be here observed that these peculiar natural phe- 

 nomena are more striking and their lessons are more impera- 

 tive north than south of the Tehachapi pass — for the reason 

 that south of that point the coast range of mountains is broken 

 up into fragments and the tempering influences of the waters 

 and breezes of the ocean are more direct and powerful than 



by him. He also planted the same year forty-five trees ob- 

 tained from Los Angeles. About two hundred were planted 

 at Crafton by Myron H. Crafts about 1S65. The first seeds 

 were planted at Riverside in 1870, and the first trees in orchard 

 grown from these seeds, in 1S72 and 1873. In '869 Frank A. 

 Kimball planted some Orange and Lemon trees at National 

 City, San Diego County. At that time there were two old 

 Orange-trees growing in El Cajon valley. In 1862 H. M. 

 White planted two Orange-trees in Frazier Valley, east of 

 Porterville, Tulare County. The first orchard was planted 

 in Porterville in 1883 by A. R. Henry. About the same 

 date a small planting was made at Centerville, Fresno 

 County. Some time in the sixties the noted tree at Bid- 

 well's Bar, on the Feather River, in Butte County, was 

 planted. The seed from which this tree was grown was planted 

 by Jesse Morrill in his garden in Sacramento. A few trees 

 were planted in his garden by the agent of the Marvsville and 

 Oroville Railroad as early as 1868 at Oroville, Butte County. 

 Thus we find that as early as 1870 small Orange groves had 

 been planted all along the foot-hills from San Diego to Butte 

 Countv. Plantings in many of the valley counties had also 

 been made up to this date, but these latter have served to prove 

 the inadaptability of the valleys to the growth of the industry, 



