ORANGE 
639 
at Wauchula, De Soto County, and Or¬ 
lando, Orange County. 
A large acreage of oranges, mostly of 
the Satsuma variety, has been planted 
along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico from 
Florida to Texas. The bloom does not 
yield much nectar. About 40 miles below 
New Orleans, La., in the Delta of the Mis¬ 
sissippi River in Plaquemines and Jeffer¬ 
son Counties there are many miles of al¬ 
most continuous orange groves. The first 
orange trees were planted in this section 
more than one hundred years ago. In 
Texas the orange orchards are largely re¬ 
stricted to Galveston and Brazoria Counties 
on the Gulf coast, but citrus-growing is in 
course of development in the Rio Grande 
Valley. 
In Arizona orange culture is an impor¬ 
tant industry in the Salt River Valley in 
Maricopa County where there are 2,500 
acres. The orchards are confined to the 
slopes, which are free from orange-killing 
frosts. The oranges in this section ripen 
early, and the first shipments often reach 
the eastern markets in time for the Thanks¬ 
giving trade. The culture of orange and 
grapefruit will expand considerably in 
those parts of the Salt River Valley where 
winter temperatures permit, and there is 
an average water supply. 
The orange was introduced into Califor¬ 
nia by the early Catholic misssionaries, but 
its cultivation on a commercial scale began 
about 45 years ago. Today the State has 
two-thirds of the trees and produces three- 
fourths of the crop, devoting 234,600 acres 
of its fertile soil to growing oranges and 
lemons. In 1920, 15,000 families received 
$81,000,000 for citrus fruits, or an average 
of $475 for every acre of bearing trees. 
The area of orange groves bearing fruit 
was 133,500 acres and of non-bearing or 
young groves 50,400 acres. Of bearing 
lemon trees there are 33,000 acres and 17,- 
000 acres of young trees. This is probably 
the largest area of citrus-bearing fruits in 
the world. 
While oranges are grown to some extent 
in many counties in California there are 
two well-defined dense areas of production. 
The smaller area is in the foothills of the 
Sierra Nevada in the San Joaquin Valley. 
In Tulare County there are over 800,000 
trees, and the crop of citrus fruits in 1910 
was valued at $4,000,000. In Fresno and 
Kern Counties the number of trees is much 
smaller, the total being about 200,000. The 
larger area of citrus fruits is located on 
the southern and western foothills of Los 
Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, and 
Riverside Counties. In Los Angeles Coun¬ 
ty there are 34,000 acres of orange groves 
and 10,000 acres of lemon trees, in San 
Bernardino County 43,000 acres of oranges 
and 7,000 acres of lemons, while Riverside 
County has an acreage almost as large. 
There is also considerable commercial pro¬ 
duction in Santa Barbara, Ventura, and 
San Diego Counties. Northward in the 
Central Valley in Butte County many acres 
of orange trees are successful. Citrus 
fruits can indeed be grown in favorable 
localities from San Diego County to Shasta 
County. 
As with many other honey plants, the 
secretion of nectar varies in different locali¬ 
ties and is greatly influenced by weather 
conditions. In the cool regions near the 
coast there is little nectar. Fog also often 
interferes with the flight of the bees so that 
there may be very few days which are ideal 
for field work. In the foothills it is occa¬ 
sionally very cold; and an apiary at an 
elevation of a few hundred feet has been 
snowed under for a few hours, while in 
the valley below the orange trees were also 
white—but with flowers, not snow. At 
Redlands the weather is very warm and 
there is little fog with the result that, four 
years out of five, orange bloom yields a 
fair crop, in proof of which may be cited 
the experience of a beekeeper who states 
that he has shipped one or more carloads 
of pure orange honey every year except 
1904. Yet even here the weather is some¬ 
times so cool that tons of nectar are lost be¬ 
cause the bees are forced to remain in the 
hives. Even in fair weather the flowers 
have been known to yield only a scanty sup¬ 
ply of nectar. But when the conditions are 
suitable there is probably no other plant in 
the United States which secretes nectar more 
copiously. At times the clothing of pick¬ 
ers and pruners is wet by the dripping 
nectar, and the horses and harness require 
washing at the close of a day’s cultivation 
among the trees; while even the ground is 
dampened by the many falling drops. 
The very heavy water-white honey is un- 
