TWENTY-NINTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



215 



year-old walnut trees from the nursery, they come into profitable bear- 

 ing in six years. During those six years you can raise any quantity of 

 squashes, beans, etc., in your orchard, so that you do not lose the use 

 of your land. 



VICE-PRESIDENT McINTOSH. We will now listen to the paper 

 by Major Berry, of Yolo County, on " Citrus Fruits in the Northern 

 Counties." (Paper read by the Sectretary.) It is a great pleasure to 

 have Mr. Isaac read some of these papers, as he is so distinct and clear 

 in his enunciation. 



CITRUS FRUITS IN THE NORTHERN COUNTIES. 



By major C. J. BERRY, of Woodland. 



It is now nine years since the San Diego "Union" published an 

 editorial about citrus culture in the counties of Tulare and Fresno. 

 "Ye editor" took occasion to say at that time, "Advertising of the 

 counties mentioned as possessing the climate and soil adapted to the 

 growing of oranges and lemons was a misleading statement, and it 

 would do great harm to the home-seeker" coming to California. He 

 said, "It was well known that oranges and lemons could only be grown 

 in Tulare and Fresno counties by putting blankets over the trees in 

 winter." 



The wheel of time has not ceased to revolve between that time, nine 

 years ago, and the present, and in so far as the growing of citrus fruits 

 is concerned in the counties north of the Tehachapi, one need Init look 

 over the advertisements of any of them and he will find that even up 

 to Shasta the golden fruit of the Hesperides is by no means forgotten 

 to be enumerated as one of the attractive features of their soil produc- 

 tions, and as a matter of fact, oranges are grown in a more or less 

 commercial way throughout all of our northern counties. 



As for soils Avhich are adapted to the culture of the orange, there is 

 throughout the "big" Sacramento Valley any kind and all kinds of 

 soils, and if one desires to grow oranges, and knows how, he need not 

 feel at all worried on the subject of soils. There is an abundance of 

 land adapted to this industry which he can procure at one tenth the 

 price for which it can be procured in southern California. Moreover, 

 water is abundant and procurable at a minimum cost in comparison 

 with what the orange-grower of Riverside County must pay for his 

 irrigation. 



Let us look at the present development of orange-growing in our 

 northern counties and consider if it is possible to select varieties which 

 may become distinctly adapted to our northern counties, as the Navel 

 orange seems to be to the Redlands district. A careful study of the 

 liability to or the exemption of different varieties from various diseases. 



