ITS CULTUBE IN CALIFORNIA. 



13; 



by irrigation! And he imbibed a notion, 

 somehow, that the foothills were dry and 

 sterile. This prejudice existed for a hun- 

 dred years. Not only did the original 

 settler maintain it faithfully to the end, 

 but his sons and his sons' sons, to the 

 third and fourth generation. 



Our comparatively recent discovery that 

 the foothills offer desirable lands for fruit 

 culture is, in reality, no discovery at all. 

 The viticulturists of the old world haye 

 known the fact and have taken advantage 

 of it for many years. In France, the most 

 celebrated vineyards — Chateau Marguax, 

 Chateau Leoville, Monte Bello, Cliquot, 

 and many more— are located on the sum- 

 mit or sides of eminences. In Germany, 

 Johannisberg and. other noble wines are 

 produced on the Rhine hills. Spain was 

 the last among European countries in dis- 

 covering the natural advantages of the 

 highlands, and when the fact became pat- 

 ent some of the more desirable locations 

 advanced in value a thousand per cent. 



For fruit trees as well as for vines the 

 elevated lands are in request in France 

 and Spain, and in Mediterranean coun- 

 tries. Substantially the same fruits that 



excel in our higher altitudes excel in the 

 higher altitudes in France. 



Gen. H. S. Sanford, of Florida, writing 

 of citrus culiu*e in Sicily, says: *'The 

 richest soil does not produce the most es- 

 teemed fruits. Thus, in the vast and fer- 

 tile valley of the Concho, back of Paler- 

 mo, covered with orange groves of most 

 luxuriant growth, its productions sell for 

 one-third less than those of the same trees 

 planted on Monte Reale, and other hills 

 in sight, with poor, calcareous soil ; and 

 whose fruits, prized especially for export, 

 by reason of their quality of long keep- 

 ing, are known by the mark ' M ' (Moun- 

 tain)." 



It is thus shown that the prejudice of 

 the pioneer fruit grower against our foot 

 hills was opposed to precedent as well as 

 to good judgment. Having eyes, he saw 

 not the proofs set before him by nature in 

 the wild growth of trees and shrubs, and, 

 having ears, he heard not the testimony 

 of other peoples. Suffice it that the cen- 

 tury-old prejudice having at length been 

 dissipated, fruit and vine growers 

 throughout the State haye been making- 

 seven-league strides to recover the lost 

 territory. 



CHAPTER IX. 



STATUS OF THE ORANGE INDUSTRY. 



The orange tree is not indigenous to 

 Southern California. Neither can it exist 

 here in a wild, untended state. Perhaps 

 these circumstances, seemingly disadvan- 

 tageous, are really points of strength, 

 when we consider that personal exertion 

 supplies every deficiency. 



Mankind — especially the mankind of 

 this soft, sub-tropical clime— is somewhat 

 predisposed to "take things easy." 

 Humor his laziness a little, and he be- 

 comes lazier still. If our not-too-energetic 

 early settlers had found that by simply 

 dropping the seed, they might grow thick- 

 ets or oranges in the fence corners and by 

 the roadsides, depend upon it, there 

 would haye been wild fruit enough to sup- 

 ply every demand. But with such a con- 



dition of affairs, the incentive to careful 

 modes of cultivation would have been 

 lacking, and to this day our people might 

 have contented themselves with a profus- 

 ion of inferior fruit, unable to command 

 any extended market, and oblivious to the 

 great possibilities of the orange-growing 

 industry. Such, indegd, is the case in 

 Central and South American countries, 

 which have been endowed by nature with 

 all our advantages and with the disadvant- 

 age of growing the fruit without personal 

 effort. 



Our cultivators, obliged from the outset 

 to give their trees close attention, and ad- 

 monished that the profits would be gauged 

 by the thoroughness of their work, have ^ 

 addressed themselves to mastering every 



