18 



THE OEANGE: 



The Uvea were planted, thus making the 

 irees now actually fifteen years old. They 

 have been bearing about six or seven 

 years. II is from Lhis six acres that Mr. 

 Twogood expects to harvest 2000 boxes of 

 oranges. He .iudgc« his crop this year 

 from actual yields in previous years. He 

 lias, however, about sixty budded trees, 

 now bearing lightly, in addition to the 450 

 •seedlings, and possibly it may require a 

 portion of this fruit to make up his esti- 

 wiafee. Ho also has ten acres of budded 

 orange trees that are just beginning to 

 v.how' fruit. 



"He has obtained |3 per box, with the ex- 

 ceptioai of one year— t^o years ago— when 

 on account of the freei'.e he got only ^2.25 

 per box. If he gets ^i:} per box this year, 

 that will be §1000 pei- acre, which will pay 

 ten per cent on an investment of $10,000 

 per acre, or something less after deduct- 

 ing running expenses. 



"Regarding the cost of caring for a 

 place, that depends upon circumstances. 

 'If a man has a five-acre tract, it costs him 

 more to take care of it than it does if he 

 has twenty or forty acres. A man can 

 liire all the work done in an orange or- 

 <;hard for §30 per acre a year, but in addi- 

 tion to this w^ork he must give a certain 

 ^imouat of personal ciire and attention not 

 ^:alled for in the |30 per acre contract. If 

 he expects to hire all the work done, but 

 lo supervise it in pei*son, and do a little 

 himself occasional 13% $30 per acre ought to 

 keep an orchard iu good sha{)e for one 



■"Willi this year's cirop Mr. Twogood 



will have taken about $12,000 worth of 

 fruit from his six acres in twelve years 

 since planting — all of which, of course, 

 has been within the last six years. The 

 orchard has cost him something like the 

 following tigures: 



^i^Six acres of land at $25 per acre $ 1.50 



Four hundred and fifty trees at $1 each 450 



Twelve years of care at $80 per acre a year. , 2,160 

 Interest on amount at 10 per cent for six yra. 1 656 



Total investment $ 4,416 



Total receipts 12,000 



$ 7,984 



"The present value of property each 

 one can estimate for himself. Can Mr. 

 Twogood afford to sell that orchard for 

 .$0,000 per acre ?" 



As the market goes, Mr. Twogood does 

 not realize $3 per box for his fruit; but, at 

 half that price, provided the crop holds up 

 to estimate, his returns will be $500 an 

 acre. 



If, in the evolution of the orange indus- 

 try, the time shall come when a grove in 

 full bearing yields only ^100 an acre net, 

 the profit ought still to satisfy a man of 

 moderate ambition. With ten acres in 

 trees, yielding a revenue of $1,000 a year, 

 and the hundred and one accessories and 

 economies of country life, a man ought to 

 be able to live and support a family. He 

 may enjoy not only the substantial com- 

 forts, but many of the elegancies of life, 

 This is an independence. 



*In order to avoid a false impression, I should 

 say that such land is no longer to be had in River- 

 side at $25 an acre, hut Is worth, unimproved, tea 

 times that figure. 



CHAPT 



C II A R ACTE RISTICS 



'Scientists t6ll us that tho orange is a 

 berry. Tlie pulp, the separating mem- 

 )>ranes and the skin are bat a thickening 

 ♦if tho pericarp or seed vessel. 



Jn this respect tho orange resemblflfc the 

 i^rape (also a berry^ and totally difierent 

 from the A|>fjle, iu which all of the parts 

 4J the flower— caJyx, corolla, stamens and 



ER XL 



OF THE ORANGE. 



pistil— are wrought into the fruit. The 

 natural office of the orange, then, is to 

 bear seed. 



Before a thousand years of evolution 

 made tho orange what wo know it today, 

 the tree bore beans— or at least produced 

 its seed in pods clustered together at the 

 end of a stem. If you will peel an oranga 



