1 6 COOPERATIVE MARKETING 



California, throughout the period of her settlement and 

 development by European stocks, has been a land pic- 

 turesque and romantic. From the voyage of Drake and the 

 days of the Franciscan fathers under Junipero Serra down 

 to the "Forty-niners," her history has been tinged with 

 more than ordinary fascination and romance. As formerly 

 she was known as the land of gold, so now is California 

 almost as broadly known as the land of the golden orange. 

 And the story of the yellow fruit is little less dramatic than 

 that of the yellow metal. 



Oranges were first introduced into California by the 

 padres in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Even 

 yet some of the trees from these early plantings can be seen 

 around the ruins of the old missions. Of course, all of 

 the oranges of this early period were of seedling varieties, 

 the seeds having come from Spain by way of Mexico and 

 Lower California. 



By 1850, by reason of seeds and trees obtained from the 

 missions, the orange came to be a relatively common garden 

 tree, and besides there had been planted the first commer- 

 cial orchard, the famous Wolfskill grove, situated on what 

 is now the commercial centre of Los Angeles. By 1875 

 numerous small plantings at Los Angeles, Pasadena, San 

 Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego had shown that the 

 soil and climate of California were peculiarly suitable for 

 the production of citrus fruits. But these early experi- 

 ments only showed possibilities. Orange growing on an 

 extensive scale was out of the question for want of a mar- 

 ket. For it must be recalled that southern California had 

 no railroad connections until 1876, when the Southern 

 Pacific extended its line from San Francisco to Los Angeles. 

 Thus the industrial era of producing citrus fruits may not 

 unreasonably be dated at 1877, when the first carload of 

 oranges left the Wolfskill grove for the East.^ 

 1 Coit : "Citrus Fruits," pp. 1-5. 



