692 
THE CALIFORNIA CITRUS INDUSTRY 
Growing of citrus fruits in California 
is rapidly advancing in acreage and in 
product, each year receiving greater in- 
vestment and effort, and each year reach- 
ing a greater aggregate gross return for 
the product marketed. There has also 
peen gratifying progress made in meet- 
ing the problems and difficulties which 
are bound to arise in the development 
of an industry, involving so many novel 
situations and affecting so many inter- 
ests—individual, corporate, and political. 
In the following brief statement I shall 
endeavor to indicate what seem to me 
the most salient features of the Cali- 
fornia citrus industry, chiefly from the 
commercial point of view. 
California Citras Census 
The report of the California State 
Board of Equalization, which presents 
the figures gathered by the assessors in 
all the counties of the state, shows that 
there were growing in the spring of 1912 
the following totals of citrus trees in 
California, viz.: 
No. of trees No. of trees 
Bearing Non-Bearing 
LeEMon 2... cece nae 952,290 743,352 
Lime ..... cee ee eae 1,3 450 
Orange .......-00ee 6,013,272 633,366 
Pomelo ......00000- 1,3 6,280 
Totals .....0.a0. 6,978,254 1,388,448 
These figures show the leadership of 
the orange, the rather remote second of 
the lemon, and the fact that the two 
show about the same rate of increase 
through recent plantings. They also in- 
dicate a greater rate of increase in the 
pomelo, though the total is still insig- 
nificant, and that the lime is only a 
curiosity. Other citrus fruits are too 
small in number for enumeration. 
Taking the orange and lemon as a 
measure of the citrus geography of Cali- 
fornia, and choosing counties having 
more than 100,000 trees, bearing and 
non-bearing, according to the 1912 re- 
port of the California State Horticul- 
tural Commissioner, the following state- 
ment results: 
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF PRACTICAL HORTICULTURE 
Number Number 
Counties of Orange of Lemon 
trees trees 
San Bernardino..... 3,720,320 385,490 
Los Angeles........ 2,431,000 852,500 
Riverside .......... 1,934,790 392,676 
Jave wo. eee ae 8,412,000"  ...... 
Orange ...eeeeecces 29,480 237,405 
Ventura .......0055 204,961 298,176 
Butte .......eeeeee 192,168 3,032 
Fresno . .....-..-. 170,000 5,200 
San Diego ......... 01 295,957 
Santa Barbara...... 599 297,386 
These counties are distributed 
through a north and south distance of 
about 550 miles, and the interest is con- 
centrated toward the south and widely 
scattered toward the north, with much 
intervening land as good for citrus 
fruits as that already planted. Citrus 
fruits are equally safe throughout the 
whole distance, and it is clear that Cali- 
fornia has a capacity for citrus produc- 
tion far beyond present attainment, if 
greater amounts of fruit can be pro- 
fitably sold, as it certainly promises to 
be, if current protection is maintained. 
Mr. G. Harold Powell, Secretary of the 
Citrus Protective League of California, 
estimates that California citrus plant- 
ings now occupy about 150,000 acres of 
land and represent in lands, trees, build- 
ings and operating property of all kinds 
a value of $200,000,000. He also esti- 
mates the fruit produced at almost $40,- 
000,000, valued at selling points. The 
annual shipments for several years have 
been as follows: 1908-9, 40,516 carloads; 
1909-10, 33,099 carloads; 1910-11, 46,394 
carloads and 1911-12, 40,290 carloads. 
California Citrus Problems 
Cultural problems connected with 
growing citrus fruits are many. Some 
of them have evidently reached a basis 
of settlement. For instance, nearly all 
insects are controlled by fumigation, 
and the remaining requirements are to 
do the work more effectively and eco- 
nomically. The problems of the develop- 
ment of irrigation water from streams 
or from underground sources and the 
distribution thereof have been well work- 
ed out, but the ministration of water to 
the tree so that its greatest vigor and 
producing efficiency shall be maintained 
is not yet satisfactorily mastered. The 
* Orange and lemon trees together. 
