TWENTY-EIGHTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 



163 



DIFFERENT VARIETIES OF ORANGES AND THEIR 

 RESPECTIVE MERITS. 



By CHAS. C. CHAPMAN, of Fullerton. 



The California fruit-grower is among the most enterprising horticul- 

 turists in this or any other country. He keeps in close touch with the 

 markets, receiving daily telegraphic reports from the leading cities of 

 the country. The slightest indication of a want by a market for any 

 particular fruit or special variety is quickly noted by him, and straight- 

 way he sets about endeavoring to supply the demand thus indicated. 

 Not always even does he wait for the consumer to make known his 

 desires in this respect, but frequently he creates a demand for his 

 product. There is, however, one unfortunate feature in this attempt to 

 meet such demand. Every fruit-grower is kept . so well posted by 

 attendance upon farmers' clubs and institutes, and through the numer- 

 ous horticultural journals, that there is at once a movement all along 

 the line to grow fruit to meet the indicated want. The uttermost parts 

 of the earth are called upon to supply the stock from w r hich to make 

 the start, or the genius of some grower develops from his own orchard 

 the desired fruit, or one that meets favor with the trade. 



It is quite natural that every orchardist should want to grow fruit 

 which meets the most ready demand at remunerative prices. Although 

 experience has quite fully demonstrated the merits (or lack of it) of 

 practically all the well-known varieties, the question, however, under 

 discussion is an important one. It requires a number of years of 

 expensive attention from the setting of a grove to its yielding a crop. 

 A grower, therefore, contemplating putting out an orchard or the 

 rebudding of one already in bearing, is considering a question of great 

 interest to him. He should carefully weigh the merits and weaknesses 

 of the various varieties from all the essential points. Marketing condi- 

 tions during the interval from the setting of an orchard to its bearing 

 may radically change, or a prospective favorite may develop a weakness 

 that will make it wholly undesirable. This has been the experience of 

 many growers who have seen their coveted wealth gradually and 

 slowly but surely vanish. To avoid these expensive and exasperating 

 mistakes growers should do a little careful figuring and thinking for 

 themselves. It will not do to follow blindly and en masse in the footsteps 

 of any grower who may have made something of a success along some 

 particular line. There has been a great deal of thoughtless work done 

 by growers following some neighbor who has set out a particular variety, 

 which under his management and also under conditions not enjoyed by 

 all, has proven successful. Thus a sentiment in behalf of this variety 

 is created, and often without good judgment, or even a fair degree of 



