Orange

or'enj, a shrub or small tree closely related to the lemon and citron. The varieties under cultivation are from a common stock thought to be native to tropical Asia. California navel oranges are seedless and have a second series of cells, a sort of fruity, top-shaped core in the center of the tip. This orange originated at Riverside from trees obtained from Brazil through the agricultural department at Washington. Tangerines are a small orange from China. They have a reddish, baggy, easily removed rind and sweet pulp.

Orange trees are said to attain an age of one hundred fifty years. Old trees yield more freely and produce fruit with a thicker rind and sweeter pulp than young trees. Orange wood is yellow, hard, and close grained, well adapted to fine carpentry and inlaid work. The leaves are oval and evergreen. The flowers are of a pure white and have a penetrating fragrance. In the countries of southern Europe orange blossoms have been used from time immemorial as bridal wreaths. Botanically, the fruit is a large berry, having eight or ten cells filled with a more or less acid, juicy pulp. The skin contains considerable citric oil.

The orange region of Europe extends from Malta to the Azores, including Spain, Portugal, Italy, and southern France. Orange trees are obtained by planting seed and by grafting or budding the seedlings, as in the case of apple trees. There are three orange regions in the United States,--Florida, the Delta of the Mississippi, and California, with hopes of Arizona and adjacent territory. Florida had almost driven foreign oranges out of our markets when the freeze of 1898 killed the plantations as far south as Tampa, entailing a loss of $100,000,000. The annual output grew from 600,000 boxes in 1885 to 6,000,000 the year of the freeze, but fell off at once to 100,000 boxes. California oranges are of excellent quality, and hold the western field well. Few European oranges leave the Atlantic coast. It is estimated that California has 95,000 acres in oranges. Shipments of citrus fruits, including oranges, lemons, and grape-fruit, reached 40,000 cars in 1909. Oranges are shipped to market in slat cases divided by a board into two compartments, each practically a cubic foot in shape and capacity. Each orange is cut from the tree with a knife or scissors. The oranges roll down a cloth-bottomed trough between brushes that clean and burnish them. They are run through a slatted trough to sift or sort them by sizes. Each orange is wrapped in tissue paper. They are packed with great regularity, just so many in a row, and an exact number of rows and layers according to the size of the orange. Each box is marked with the name of the grower or packer, and the size, that is to say, the number of oranges in the box.

Sixty per cent of the citrus fruit of the state is marketed by the California Fruit Growers' Exchange, a cooperative association that has outlived several disasters and reorganizations. There are ninety-six local associations composed of local growers. Each has its packing house. These local associations are grouped in fourteen districts, representatives of which constitute the Exchange with headquarters at Los Angeles. The Exchange obtains a price of about $2.50 per box on an average, selling in distant markets. Freight and icing charges average ninety-five cents a box. Packing costs thirty cents a box. The cost of operating the exchange is six cents a box. Profits and losses are averaged. The net proceeds are distributed monthly among the growers.

Ten acres is considered a standard orange orchard, enough for an individual grower. Such a grove represents an investments, we may say, of $15,000. A fair yield is four hundred boxes of oranges--a car--to the acre. The cost of growing, including cultivating, pruning, spraying, irrigating, water charges, and the cost of picking and hauling to the packing house, is not far from $75 an acre. Judging from the returns of the past ten years the yearly profit from an orange grove may be set down at from 4 to 15 per cent on the investment.