166 



than the intrinsic value of growing orange trees for fruit — there is a certain 

 ornamentation that it gives that is valuable. There is no doubt that the 

 principal attraction of Southern California has been its orange groves, and 

 I claim if the same number of orange groves existed in this section of the 

 State, and this country had been advertised and called to the attention of 

 the world, that there is no reason why the country should not have become 

 as thickly populated as Southern California: It is well known that nearly 

 all of the deciduous fruits raised in California is in the northern rather 

 than in the southern part of the State, and from the Sacramento district 

 is a very large percentage of all the deciduous fruits sent out of California. 

 There are certain sections that make specialties of certain things, and I 

 think this State will run in specialties in the future — there are certain 

 places where peaches flourish, and can be shipped to better advantage than 

 others. Now, it will be found the best policy to plant such fruits as do the 

 best in that section, and in those places most remote from railroad trans- 

 portation it will be best to plant fruits to can or dry. Now, in certain 

 places all along these coast ranges, in what is called the thermal belt, we 

 have found places where oranges will grow with almost as much certainty 

 as deciduous fruits, and there has not been a failure of oranges in this 

 locality described for the past ten years. 



Mr. Klee: I desire to ask Mr. Butler how the budded fruit in Placer 

 County compares w T ith the seedling oranges, and if they will stand the 

 cold? 



Mr. Butler: It is the universal impression there that the seedling will 

 stand the cold and frost much better than the budded fruit. I think the 

 Mediterranean Sweet has suffered more than most other kinds. With very 

 few exceptions there has been no loss of trees in that section, though in 

 some places the wood was cut back to a considerable extent, but where the 

 trees were planted at the proper elevation, not particularly exposed to frost, 

 the tree has fully recovered, and beyond expectation; and next year we 

 shall not realize that there was any unusual cold last winter. 



Dr. Peck: My seedling trees were not injured at all; on my naval trees 

 the leaves were mostly killed, but not otherwise injured. On my Mediter- 

 ranean Sweet the new wood was killed and in some cases the tree. 



Mr. Klee: I ask the question because I think it is a very pertinent one 

 to know what varieties are best adapted to this climate. If, as claimed, 

 they have seedlings which are much hardier and bear well for years and 

 years good crops of good oranges, it would be wise, I think, to plant those, 

 and the sooner they go about that the better it will be. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



TOMATO CULTURE. 



Essa} r by Emory E. Smith, San Francisco. 



The tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum) , is a native of South America. 

 It was introduced into England in 1596, where it was grown for ornamental 

 and medicinal purposes, as the a love apple." Parkinson, in 1629, first 

 speaks of its being used as a food in the hotter parts of South America. 



