CITRUS CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 11 



It was not thought possible in those early days that the vast 

 plains of California would ever be available for other than 

 grazing purposes. To the civilized world this State, together 

 with the whole Pacific Coast, was known as the "great 

 American desert." It was known that there were fertile spots, 

 but these were regarded, like the oases in the Sahara, as but 

 accentuating the aridity of the surrounding waste. 



Jose del Galvez, "visitor-general" and secular head, with 

 Father Serra, made arrangements for the establishment of 

 settlements. Twenty-one missions were established, all but 

 three of which had gardens and orchards. The mission 

 orchards were very small, and some consisted of but few trees, 

 but those trees played an important part in the horticultural 

 advancement of the State, for they showed the possibilities in 

 fruit culture, and furnished seeds, stocks, and scions for many 

 orchards. 



After the occupation of the southern part of the State by the 

 Franciscans, the Russians, actuated by entirely diflerent 

 motives, penetrated from the north. The Mission Fathers 

 were bent upon the spiritual conquest of the new land; the 

 Russian traders, upon its commercial conquest; yet the efforts 

 of both, diverse at first, converged in the conquest of the wild 

 Pacific tribes to modern civilization, and both brought with 

 them civilizing influences. The Russians who obtained a foot- 

 hold here early in the nineteenth centurj' planted an orchard of 

 mixed deciduous fruits at Fort Ross, as early as 1812. The 

 Russian orchards, like those of the Mission Fathers, were not 

 planted from a commercial consideration, but to supply their 

 respective owners with fruit for home consumption. However, 

 like the corresponding industry in the south, it served to prove 

 that fruit would grow in California, and thus became the pioneer 

 of the present great wealth-producing industry of the State. 



The fruits introduced into the two sections of the State were 

 characteristic of the countries from which they were brought. 

 The chief fruits brought by the Fathers were oranges, figs, grapes, 

 and olives — all fruits of a genial southern clime. They met on 

 common ground in California with those of the more rugged 

 climate of the north — apples, pears, and cherries, introduced 

 by the Russian pioneers. It speaks highly for the diversity of 

 products to which this State is adapted that both once having 

 obtained a foothold maintained it, and to-day we find the apple 



