ITS CULTUEE IN CALIFOKNIA. 



17 



more general and uniform than in any 

 other locality of like extent that I could 

 name. Owing to the fact that statistics 

 have here been carefully compiled, T am 

 enabled to present something like a satis- 

 factory view of the industry taken as a 

 whole and averaged up by the acre. These 

 statistics are drawn from the files of the 

 Press and Horticulturist. Returns fur- 

 nished by the cultivators in 1882 showed a 

 grand total of 200,000 orange trees, cover- 

 ing 2,000 acres. The trees reported in 1882 

 may be considered as nearly all bearing 

 at the present time — some at their best, 

 others yielding their first or second crop, 

 which is light. Some of the seedlings may 

 not yet have come into bearing. Last year 

 (1883-4), the total orange product of the 

 valley was 25,000 boxes. The fruit then 

 brought an average of |3 per box. 



This year, the trees being more advanced 

 and the crop generally fuller, it is esti- 

 mated that the product will be from 100,- 

 000 to 150,000 boxeSo Returns received 

 from advance shipments range from %1 to 

 |3.13 per box. These are net returns to 

 the producers, free of any expense for 

 picking, packing and shipping. The vari- 

 ation in prices is owing, in a great meas- 

 ure, to different qualities of fruit, the 

 Riverside Navels and other choice budded 

 varieties selling above the seedlings. As- 

 suming $1.50 per box as an average price, 

 the net income from 100,000 boxes of fruit 

 would be $150,000. Or, taking the larger 

 estimate of 150,000 boxes, it would be 

 $225,000. These returns averaged upon 

 the 2,000 acres devoted to orange culture, 

 would give from $75 to $112.50 per acre as 

 ^he net return. In this calculation, it 

 must be remembered, enter the trees not 

 yet bearing, others just coming into bear- 

 ing and a small proportion in full bear- 

 ing. Prices also range lower than ever 

 before, with one exception, owing to the 

 fact that our channels of trade are but just 

 opening up, and as yet the means of dis- 

 posing of so large a product are inade- 

 quate. 



It is estimated that the orange crop of 

 Riverside, when the trees are in full bear- 

 ing, — say five years hence, should amount 

 to five boxes to the tree, or 1,000,000 boxes. 

 Allowing the price to be 75 cents per box 

 (and it is hardly likely that fruit of the 



quality raised in the interior valleys of 

 California will ever go below that figure), 

 we shall have an aggregate net income of 

 $750,000, or an average of $375 per acre. 



These general estimates may seem over- 

 drawn. Perhaps tlie inscrutable logic of 

 events may prove them so. But I can as- 

 sure my readers that the basis of calcula- 

 tion both in price of fruit and yield, are 

 far below what is being realized in indi- 

 vidual cases. 



It is a matter of record, and has been 

 cited in a preceding- chapter, that some of 

 the early cultivators realized profits which 

 seem fabulous. Governor Downey says of 

 Don Luis Wolf skill:' "He lived to enjoy 

 his oranges for twenty years, and they 

 gave him, some seasons, an income of a 

 thousand dollars an acre. The last crop 

 disposed of in his lifetime, from about 

 twenty-eight acres, sold on the trees for- 

 $25,000." The Don's sons and daughters, , 

 grown to mature years, still enjoy a 

 princely income from the estate. 



Six or seven years ago the profits of 

 orange culture ran up to marvelous fig- 

 ures. In a speech delivered by Mr. J. de ■ 

 Earth Shorb to a public body, that gentle- 

 man stated that a single acre of Col. B. D. 

 Wilson's older orange groves yielded 

 nearly $1800 in one year, a fact which can 

 readily be believed when singletrees have 

 been known to net sixty or seventy dol- - 

 lars, and when from sixty to eighty trees . 

 are planted to the acre. Three years ago 

 Mr. Dalton netted $800 from a quarter of 

 an acre planted in orange trees of a fine 

 quality'-, and of mature growth. 



In these times of increased production 

 and lessened prices I do not know that 

 any cultivator claims to equal the old 

 Don's profit of $1000 per acre, or Col. Wil- 

 son's $1800. But it has been not unusual 

 for a grower to clear as much as $500 an 

 acre. In the season of 1882-3ione producei- 

 in the San Gabriel valley sold his crop on 

 the trees for the lump sum of $23,000.. 

 This from about forty acres of orchard. 



In the files of the Press and HorticuUtir- 

 ist for Dctobev 25, 1884, I find the follow- 

 ing : 



"Mr. 1). C. Twogood has 450 seedling or-^ 

 ange trees, covering six acres of land'. 

 The trees were planted twelve years ago, 

 and the roots M ere three years old when, 



