1883.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
573 
The Origin of Wheat. 
Whether any of our cereals have ever been found 
in a perfectly wild or native state, is still an unset¬ 
tled point. Some claim that wheat has beeu met 
with in parts of Asia where it could not have been 
introduced, but this is doubted by otheis. Botan¬ 
ists have long discussed the question of its origin, 
some insisting that all our numerous varieties came 
from a single original species, while others sup¬ 
pose there were several such species, and that these 
had become extinct, or still remained unrecognized. 
Several years ago, a gardener in the south of 
France, named Fabre, professed to have discovered 
supposed parent op WHEAT (yEgitops ovata). 
the real source of wheat. He experimented with 
a common wild grass of the country, which, by 
successive yearly sowings, produced in about 
twelve generations wheat as good as the average 
kinds. This announcement excited great interest, 
and directed the attention of experimenters to the 
grass, which acquired new distinction as the parent 
of the most important cereal. The grass, formerly 
known as JEgilops ovata (it has lately been united 
with the wheat genus, Triticum ), is common all 
through the Mediterranean region, but so unim¬ 
portant that it does not appear to have a common 
name. Its general appearance is given in the en¬ 
graving, which is of the real size, though the 
bight varies from four to twelve inches. Some ex¬ 
perimenters, among whom was Dunal, the botanist, 
claimed to have confirmed Fabre’s results, and 
were strong advocates of this as the origin of 
wheat. Godron, a man of science at Montpelier, 
suspected that this alleged conversion of the grass 
was due to its hybridization by the pollen of true 
wheat, and afterwards proved this to be so by di¬ 
rect experiment. The view that yEgilops is the ori¬ 
gin of wheat is now generally abandoned, though 
there are a few who still adhere to it. While the 
grass lost interest as the parent of wheat, it ac¬ 
quired another distinction in affording the first 
instance in which hybridizing was known to have 
occurred spontaneously between species of grass. 
Oranges in California. 
BT M. E. BAMPORD. 
Orange trees were first planted in California 
about 1820, by Franciscan friars, at the old San 
Gabriel Mission in Los Angeles county. Many of 
these old trees still bear excellent fruit. San Ga¬ 
briel is now the chief orange centre of California, 
having probably half the bearing trees in the State. 
In this locality the orchards have often netted live 
hundred dollars per acre, annually. In 1834, when 
the trees at San Gabriel had just begun bearing, 
Don Louis Vignes took young trees from there 
and started the second California orange orchard, 
at the city of Los Angeles. Seven years later Wm. 
Wolfskill planted a second orchard at Los Angeles. 
His neighbors ridiculed him, telling him he would 
get no fruit during his life-time, but he lived to 
enjoy his oranges for twenty years, and they often 
gave him an income of a thousand dollars an acre. 
His last crop, on about twenty-eight acres, sold on 
the trees for twenty-five thousand dollars. The 
earliest orchards, however, contained but a few 
trees each, and were enclosed by adobe walls to 
prevent injury from the herds of wild cattle. 
From 1857 to 1862 orange growing was greatly 
checked by the insects, which caused an almost 
total failure. But in 1862 this pest abated and there 
was a good crop. There were then in the whole 
State only about two thousand five hundred trees, 
over two-thirds of which were in the Wolfskill 
orchard. From 1870 to 1880 much excitement ex¬ 
isted in Southern California over orange culture, 
and every man who could secure an acre, planted 
it with these trees, expecting to realize a fortune. 
The best fruit sold for about forty dollars per 
thousand, and down to twenty dollars for poorer 
qualities. The present price in San Francisco is 
about fifteen dollars per thousand, but at this rate 
a well established orange orchard is very profit¬ 
able, and much to be desired by those wishing to 
secure a comfortable competence. 
In 1879 fifteen car loads were sent from Los 
Angeles to Utah, and from that date Salt Lake 
City has continued to be a good market for Cali¬ 
fornia oranges. Since 1862 their culture has been 
much extended. The Surveyor General reported two 
hundred and fifty thousand bearing trees in 1880 ; 
and there are probably three or four times as many 
not yet yielding fruit—the total number of trees 
being estimated at one million. San Francisco uses 
almost twelve million oranges annually, of which 
over half are from home orchards, five millions 
being still imported from Tahiti and Mexico. The 
entire crop of this State for the season of 1881-2 
was twenty millions. A great annual increase is 
generally anticipated during the next decade. 
As California oranges come in market after those 
from Florida, there is no competition in the Western 
States, and little danger of over production. The 
various railroads have of late favored the growers 
by reducing freights to certain points, espec¬ 
ially to Arizona, in whose hot dry climate this fruit 
is most welcome. Though mainly grown in the 
irrigable district of the southern part of the State, 
orange trees are planted and flourish throughout 
the Sacramento Valley, and even at an elevation of 
a thousand feet on the Sierra Nevada foot-hills 
the fruit ripens earlier than in Southern California. 
Sixty to one hundred trees occupy an acre ; when 
full grown they are twenty to twenty-five feet high, 
and shade a circle fifteen to twenty feet in diame¬ 
ter. The orchards are generally irrigated every six 
weeks, and plowed after each watering to prevent 
baking. Bearing begins from the fifth to the 
eighth year after planting; in ten years about 
one thousand oranges per tree are picked, and 
in fifteen years about two thousand. The fruit 
is often sold on the trees, the buyers doing 
the picking, packing, and shipping. Ripening 
continues from December to April, but the harvest 
lasts nearly all the year, since many leave the ripe 
fruit on the trees several months, thinking the 
flavor is thus improved. California oranges having 
drier skins than those grown in other climates, are 
well adapted for export. Eight boxes sent from 
Los Angeles to London, in 1875, arrived in the most 
perfect condition, not one being lost by decay. 
In planting orchards in Southern California, 
seedlings and buddings are used. The former are 
now in disfavor as the product is small every 
alternate year ; and the thick thorns often injure 
the fruit when sw'ayed by winds. Budded trees 
grow less tall, have very few thorns, and their 
more open branches facilitate gathering the crop. 
Damages to Orchard Trees. 
When the owner visits his young orchard after 
the snows have melted away in spring, he often 
makes the disheartening discovery that many of 
his trees have been girdled by mice or rabc.ts. Judg¬ 
ing from our own correspondence, the damage by 
these animals must in the aggregate be very heavy, 
and sensible of its importance, we have given each 
year, in our “ Hints About Work,” a timely warn¬ 
ing. But numerous letters come every spring an¬ 
nouncing the injury and asking how the trees can 
be saved. The discovery is often made so late 
that a reply and remedy cannot be given through 
the paper until the season is too far advanced for 
it to be of use. We therefore refer to the matter 
at the beginning instead of at the end of winter. 
The first thing to be done is to examine the ex¬ 
tent of the injury. Frequently it is not so bad as 
it looks, and the inner bark is not entirely removed. 
If this covers even a fourth of the wounded por¬ 
tion, and connects the bark above the wound with 
that below it, the chances are that the wound 
will heal if drying can be prevented. The ordinary 
grafting wax, applied on old, worn cotton cloth, or 
on paper, as used in grafting, should be applied 
over the injured portion. This, especially on quite 
small trees, will prevent all evaporation. Another 
application is the old grafting clay, made by thor¬ 
oughly mixing and beating together stiff clay with 
half as much cow manure. Apply this over the 
wound quite thickly, and fasten it in place by 
wrapping with an old cloth and tying with strings. 
If the inner bark is completely gone, nothing re¬ 
mains but to bridge over the wound with cions, 
MANNER OP INSERTING THE CIONS. 
and thus restore the communication between the 
roots and the top. The cions may be taken from 
the same tree if they can be spared, or those from 
another of the same kind will answer as well. 
The methods of cutting the cions and inserting 
them are so plainly shown that description is un¬ 
necessary. A small chisel may be used to aid in 
setting the cions. This method of cutting the 
ends is better than making the slope on the opposite 
side. If the wound is low enough, it may be cov¬ 
ered with a mound of earth; if not, employ one of 
the methods suggested above. If the injured trees 
are young and numerous, it may be cheaper in the 
end to replace them with new trees, than to try 
to repair the old ones by the insertion of cions. 
