2 



THE OEANGE; 



the country for the delights nowhere else 

 to be found, surrounding themselves 

 there with all the elegancies of a city 

 home. And if upon occasion the rich 

 man choose to pull ofit' his coat and bear 

 the brunt of toil, who shall say that he 

 will not enjoy his dinner the better and 

 sleep the sounder o' nights thereaftei ? 



The Held proves invitmg to people of all 

 "Classes and conditions. The 3'oung man, 

 just starting out to make his way in the 

 world, cultivates his trees and vines along- 

 side the superannuated minister; and 

 across the way is the farm of a lady who 

 quit school-teaching because she tired of 

 its drudgery. Many men who continue 

 in business or professional practice in 

 town have their villas in the suburbs, or 

 their countr}^ homes of easy access, where 

 they live beneath their own vine and fig- 

 tree, and cultivate their own orange. 

 And if long-time residents are thus drawn 

 away from the city, attracted by the 

 -charm of out-door life and the pleasure 



of horticulture in this semi-tropical cli- 

 mate, what wonder that many who come 

 from the snow-bound East and North are 

 captivated and impelled in the same di- 

 rection ! 



Orange culture must continue as it has 

 begun, an industiy suited to the most in- 

 telligent and refined people. It is better 

 adapted to small farms than large. It 

 produces better results under the eye and 

 hand of the master than when dele- 

 gated to hired labor. As it requires both 

 skill and industry, it gives healthful oc- 

 cupation to the mind as well as the body. 

 While the growing of an orange orchard 

 involves something of an investment, 

 supplemented by several years of waiting, 

 and no small amount of labor and care, 

 the reward at last is ample. If one elect 

 to bridge over the waiting and work by 

 purchasing a grove already' in bearing, he 

 will have to pay pretty good wages to the 

 man that built the bridge. 



CHAPTER II. 



A RETROSPECT, AND A QLTE8TI0N ANSWERED. 



Will it pay to raise oranges? Yes, and 

 no. It will pay to raise good fruit; it will 

 not pay to raise poor. Simple as this 

 |)ropositiou appears when reduced to 

 print, it has taken a good many of us 

 here in California a long time to find it 

 out. While experience has already dem- 

 onstrated that this survival of the fittest 

 is inevitable, we will yet be compelled to 

 acknowledge that it is reasonable and 

 just. The time was, and not so long ago 

 either, when many of our people rushed 

 into orange growing as they would have 

 rushed into a speculation in stocks. Car- 

 ried away by the prospect of great re- 

 wards, they engaged in the industry 

 blindly and recklessly:— planted orchards 

 in localities not at all suited to them; 

 planted scrubby or infested trees; planted 

 l>eyond their means; planted without a 

 knowledge of orange growing, and some- 

 times with no natural taste for horticul- 



ture; planted, planted, planted anywhere, 

 anyhow, anything, if only they might 

 possess themselves of an orange grove. 



Taking advantage of this furor, the 

 few nurserymen that carried citrus stocks 

 put their prices up to a dollar or two a 

 tree, sold out, got rich. Then the frenzy 

 of speculation extended to the propaga- 

 tion of orange seeds for relays of nur- 

 series, and a wider extension of planta- 

 tions. Nursery projects were inaugurated, 

 ranging through eyery degree from the 

 hundred-acre joint stock enterprise to the 

 row of oyster cans which viaicrfamilias 

 established in the back yard to augment 

 the family income. From this planting 

 came trees that were good, bad and in- 

 different, of course, but the average was, 

 if possible, worse than the preceding sup- 

 ply. And when this heterogeneous stock 

 was fairly on the market, — then the del- 

 uge; or rather, the contrary. 



