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AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
The two largest fig orchards to be found In California, are in Butte county. 
There are a number of smaller ones, but whatever the size, there is no other 
crop that pays the grower as well. It is only within the past three years 
that the attention of fig men has been turned this way, and then only to 
find the best articles raised in the State. There is a large tract of this foot- 
hill land yet untilled that will raise just as good figs as those grown in my 
orchard, that will be soon set to trees of this kind, for the raising of figs 
is the most profitable business that we have in the fruit line. The trees 
are free from most of the pests that trouble other kinds of trees, and are 
prolific bearers, rarely missing a full crop, and the fruit always finds a ready 
market. It is a part of the history of this State, that many years ago acre 
after acre of fig trees were planted, and all grew r with amazing rapidity. It 
is also true that when they came into bearing, more than half of the figs 
raised in any one year became sour and worthless save as food for stock, 
while a large part of the rest went to feed swine for want of a market, 
and as a result orchard after orchard was rooted up and the ground planted 
to other things. Within the past few years but very few fig trees have been 
planted. What is the result? Just as the good qualities of the fig came 
to be known and appreciated, and a good market opened for it, but few 
growers can be found. I am told that a sixty acre orchard is the largest 
in the State and that mine is the second in size, and this information comes 
from the largest dealer in figs. I am further told that there is no other 
state in the Union that can begin to compete with us in raising this fruit; 
that in no other is it raised as a source of profit, though in Arizona it grows 
well in very many places. 
The lesson of where to plant the fig has been an expensive one, but like all 
others, it has been learned, and as a result, a number of men are on the 
lookout for lands on which to plant. They do not want to make any mistake 
this time, and they need not if they wall closely observe the lands now 
raising this fruit, and select similar tracts for themselves. The foot-hills 
of Butte should be covered with this profitable tree, especially as new mar- 
kets have been opened that will take tons of dried figs to supply. To such, 
let me say, that there are thousands of acres of land along the foot-hills 
of Butte that will raise just as good and as profitable fig crops, as that 
covered by the .two largest orchards in the State. 
THE ORANGE, LEMON AND OLIVE IN NORTH CALIFORNIA. 
REPORT BY S. S. BOYNTON, OROVILLE. 
The orange industry in the Sacramento Valley is attracting more attention 
every year because of the earliness of the fruit and because of the vast 
extent of territory in which the orange can be successfully cultivated. 
The orange will thrive throughout the whole of this valley except in the 
lower and wetter portions. It does best however in the low foot-hills of the 
Sierra Nevadas and the Coast Range where the soil is a red clay mixed with 
gravel and w T here the drainage is -almost perfect. Owing to the long dry 
summers of this region, it is necessary to irrigate this fruit freely and hence 
those sections where water is convenient for irrigation have taken the lead 
in orange growing. This is especially true in Butte, Placer, Yuba and 
Sacramento counties, all of which lie on the lower slope of the Western 
Sierras. 
