20 



THE OEANGE; 



of irngatioii, cultivation, temperature, 

 etc. The dormant periods of the orange 

 tree may be generally defined as follows : 



The middle of March to the middle of 

 April. 



The mouth of June. 



The month of September. 



The middle of November to the middle 

 of December. 



The orange tree blossoms early in Feb- 

 ruary, and continues in flower until the 

 last of March. The blossom is a pure 

 white, of the most exquisite texture, and 

 its fragrance is so great as to be almost 

 surfeiting. As a typical flower, twined 

 into a wreath to surmount the head of a 

 bride, nothing could be more delicately 

 suggestive of beautj'', purity and sweet- 

 ness. But those who haye observed the 

 orange flower only in the conventional 

 bridal wreath have seen but a poor coun- 

 terfeit presentment of the real blossom. 



The fruit sets in February or March and 

 attains its maturity one year thereafter, 

 when the tree blossoms again. At the time 

 of blooming one may see it loaded with its 

 jrolden fruitage and dazzling with bloom. 

 The contrast of these colors with the dark 

 green of the foliage forms a most enchant- 

 ing picture. The tree is itself a bride, 

 clothed in satin emerald, crowned with a 

 snowy wreath and decked with precious 

 jewels. 



The orange clings to its stem with great 

 tenacity, and it is not unusual to find fruit 

 of a forn^er year's growth still on the tree 

 when a second crop is attaining maturity*. 

 The quality deteriorates however if it is 

 allowed to remain long after maturity. In 

 time the juice is absorbed entirely, leaving 

 the pulp a dry, spongy mass. 



Concerning the capacity of production, 

 there is great variance. ^Nfr. H. M. Beers 

 has the largest tree in Kiverside. It is 

 seventeen years old, and the trunic meas- 

 ures three feet in circumference, ornearly 

 twelve inches in diameter. At the age of 

 nine years it bore about half a dozen or- 

 anges; at eleven years it bore two thou- 

 sand; at thirteen years it bore two thou- 

 sand two hundred and fifty; at fifteen 

 years it bore four thousand; at seventeen 



years, which brings it to the present sea* 

 son, it contains, according to estimate, 

 four thousand. Not every orange tree 

 l^resents such a record as this, however. 



The orange tree revels in a high temper- 

 ature. In fact, very warm weather is es- 

 sential to the raising of good fruit. It is 

 not sufiicient that the warm w'eather occur 

 in summer,, but a high average must be 

 maintained in winter as well, and the ex- 

 treme should never fall below a certain, 

 point. This point may be placed at 23 de- 

 grees above zero F.— 9 degrees below the 

 freezing temperature. A cold spell that 

 reaches this extreme will destroy young 

 orange trees in nursery and nip the ten- 

 der growth of older trees. In the latter 

 part of January, 1883, the thermometer 

 reached 17 degrees above zero in many 

 places in Southern California. That was 

 an unprecedentedly cold wave. Oranges^ 

 were frozen on the trees, and their juices 

 utterly destroyed. The trees themselves 

 were frosted at the extremities of their 

 branches, but suffered no serious check. 

 Younger trees were considerably injured^ 

 and nursery stock was frozen to the 

 ground. The lemon trees suffered more 

 than the orange,^ and many lime orchards 

 were utterly destroyed. 



While the full-grown orange tree wili 

 survive a good deal of cold weather, aad 

 is not destroyed by the extreme above 

 named, it may still be set down as a safe 

 proposition that the less frequently the 

 thermometer goes below the freezing 

 point (32 degrees above zero) the better it 

 is for both tree and fruit. 



The orange is long-lived. An instance 

 is on record of a tree in Italy living to the 

 age of four hundred years. But that vva» 

 with the most careful treatment, through, 

 successive generations, with repeated re- 

 newals of the soil. As we grow the or- 

 ange tree in the open air, with a minimum 

 of attention, a century would probably be 

 its full span. But a hundred years is a 

 long time to exist on this earth, and after 

 such a life of usefulness, if there is any 

 better vegetable kingdom elsewhere, the 

 orange tree ought to be allowed to go 

 there. 



