metrical tree, and in a year after budding it is ready for the orchard. As a rule, not more than half the plants that come up in the seedbed live and make marketable trees, though a skilful nurseryman may save 75 per cent of them.

The proper distance apart for planting in the orchard is from 20 to 24 feet feet for budded trees, and from 25 to 30 feet for seedlings, but the rule in the past has been only about twenty feet for each. For absolute safety the trees are, when young, protected from frost by wrapping with burlaps, or grass, yet many growers do not observe this precau

tion.

A net income of $500 per acre may be relied upon when an orchard comes into bearing, though productiveness is governed by care and feeding. An outlay of $30 per acre each year for fertilizers will be returned many fold at harvest time. There are many instances where well-fed groves at Riverside have netted from $750 to $1,100 per acre.

It is true that in a number of cases orange orchards have proved failures, but like all failures there was a reason for it. Most frequently it has been because of lack of proper selection of location. The tree will bear more frost than will its fruit and the temperature in winter may be such that although the trees will do fairly well, when the bearing age arrives the grower is disappointed to find the fruit frosted year after year, and in his case, at least, concludes orange growing is a delusion and a snare.

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Again, water will be developed and spread over as large an area possible, the quantity per acre being determined by the amount required for the young trees, but when in bearing, a much greater quantity of water is required. If the supply cannot be increased, the fruit will be inferior, and "orange growing does not pay." Or the land and water may be right, but the location be where the winds will whip the fruit

until it is either blown from the tree. or so badly thorned and chafed as to seriously affect its market value. Windbreaks should protect the

orchards even in the most favored localities, for the more the trees are protected the better. Another cause of failure is that the work is often undertaken as a speculation and not as an industry. Oranges will not grow of themselves,. and the man who expects to take tons of fine fruit from an orchard which receives little or no care, will be disappointed. It does not pay to raise poor fruit, whatever the cause may be, but it does pay well to grow good fruit and no tree gives more bountiful returns for generous treatment.

Irrigation is necessary every five or six weeks, from March until November. The water is turned into a flume or head ditch along the highest side of the orchard, and from this flows in tiny rills through previously prepared furrows until the ground is thoroughly saturated-from 36 to 48 hours.

The scale is the orange growers one enemy. Of these the most troublesome are the red, the white, and the black. The latter becomes formidable only in moist localities, particularly in proximity to the ocean, and is another reason why orange growing near the coast is more difficult and less remunerative. The dangerous white scale at one time threatened the destruction of the business in this State, and as it did not confine itself to orange trees but spread over every other tree and shrub, other fruits were equally endangered. A search was made to find a natural enemy that might succeed in its extermination where man failed. The result was the importation from Australia, three or four years ago, of the Vedalia cardinalis or Australian ladybird, a tiny beetle. After being thoroughly tested, they were distributed in the various infected districts, and the white scale is now practically a thing of the past, as is also the industrious little friend of the orange grower, the

ladybird. They will not devour other insects, but in the absence of their natural food prey upon each other, hence their disappearance with the scale.

Both the black and the white scale are easily discovered, while the red. scale is so minute as to be difficult to detect, and an orchard may become infected before its presence is known. Since its nature has been learned, there has been much experimenting, and it is now under control. By an Act of the Legislature, each county is allowed three Horticultural Commissioners, who are appointed by the County Supervisors, and their duty is to superintend the inspection and destruction of all insects injurious to trees or fruit. In the orange growing districts the inspectors go about armed with a ladder and microscope (the latter to detect the red scale) and any suspicious looking fruit or foliage is carefully examined. If a single red or white scale is discovered, the tree is marked for the fumigator. It is then covered with a tent which confines the fumes of a gas preparation, and is thoroughly disinfected. When the entire district is finished, the inspection begins over again, thus making it impossible for the scale to gain a foothold. The commissioners and inspectors are paid by the county and the expense of fumigating is borne by the grower. If he refuse or neglect to comply, the affected orchard is declared a public nuisance, and proceeded against accordingly.

Since the success of the Australian ladybird, an entomologist has been sent abroad in search of a like remedy for the red and black scale and other injurious fruit pests, the State appropriating $5,000 for the purpose. His reports are of the most gratifying nature, and the horticultural officers have just received 30 species of beetles, new to this State, which Prof. Loebele is positive will destroy not only the insects injurious to citrus fruits, but all those that attack the deciduous trees of the State as well.

The orange, which scientists tell us is a berry, begins blooming in California in March and continues until the end of April. In the hot summer sun the young oranges grow but slowly and are not distinguishable in hue from the foliage of the tree. It is when the snow-crowned mountains look down on the fruitful valleys that they assume the brilliant gold that becomes so effective in their setting of dark, rich green. Unlike other fruit, the orange is not ripe when its color is fully developed, and for years the reputation of California oranges suffered because they were marketed as soon as properly colored, though still as sour as lemons. It is yet two or three months before they have developed their full sweetness.

Florida is the strongest competitor and produces nearly three times as many oranges as California, but as the Florida crop ripens from Dec. 1st to March 1st, and California, from Feb. 1st to May 1st, they do not seriously interfere.

The United States now produces more than we import and the condition of the imported fruit upon arrival is such that it must be quickly marketed and consequently only affects the large cities where landed and their immediate vicinity. As we cannot compete with the imported oranges in price, it is only our finest fruit that reaches these cities. A very large proportion, however, is marketed before reaching the Atlantic Coast States, Chicago, St. Paul, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Kansas City being great distributing points..

In picking, great care is used not to bruise or damage the fruit, each orange being clipped from the tree. At the packing house they are run through a grader, which assorts the sizes ready for packing. They range from 112 to 240 per box and a good packer will average from 65 to 70 boxes per day.

Wages paid for packing is four cents per box, picking the same, and with other expenses, brings the price of handling up to fifty cents per box, while transportation to Eastern market costs from eighty-five cents to ninety cents more. A large percentage of the crop is sold F. O. B. at the place where grown.

The growers in the various districts are organizing associations for the more systematic marketing of fruit, as by united action uniform brands may be established, a more reliable market created and gluts avoided by sending every carload to the right place at the right time. This will also prevent the false branding of inferior fruit, which has wrought much injury in the past.

The present crop promised to be more bountiful than ever before, but the windstorm that swept over the San Gabriel Valley in the autumn, and the cold weather of December will materially reduce the quantity of fruit, although the damage was not so great as was at first feared.

Citrus Fairs have been held for a number of years past, and nothing furnishes such opportunities for artistic arrangement and brilliant effects as the deep-hued orange of all sizes, from the miniature Mandarin t tle overgrown seedling that may a nost be mistaken for a pumpkin, i termingled with the paler lemon, a d relieved by evergreens and a valth of such magnificent flowers as are found only in California.

Each year surpasses the preceding in the gorgeousness of the display. The State Citrus Fair, held at Los Angeles, a year ago, was transferred bodily to Chicago, where it was known as the Orange Carnival, and attracted thousands of visitors. March 2d was the date fixed for the opening of the State Citrus Fair this season, which was also held at Los Angeles.

Very liberal premiums were offered, and everything combined happily to make it exceptionally attractive. Plans are being made for an exhibit

at the Chicago World's Fair, which shall in every way be worthy the industry it represents, and the State within whose borders are grown every natural product of our splendid galaxy of States.

Every year a Citrus Fair is held in Los Angeles at which the various towns and counties of Southern California are represented and where some remarkable structures are reared made wholly of oranges. There is much rivalry between the various localities, and Riverside, Pasadena, Redlands and Sierra Madre Navels compete side by side the gleaming rows presenting a beautiful appearance, the entire hall being a blaze of color. In the present paper some of the designs of the citrus fair of 1891 are show., each being characteristic of the town and often artistic and beautiful in the extreme.

The Fair of the present year was, if anything, more beautiful than its predecessors and was enjoyed by the hundreds of tourists who make their winter home in the southern countries.

The Fair of 1892 opened its doors. at Hazard's Pavilion, Los Angeles, and continued three days — fifteen hundred boxes of oranges being used to produce the rare. and attractive designs exhibited. The hall was lavishly decorated with ivy, the fragrant pepper, thousands of palm trees and flowers of all kinds and descriptions. A prominent feature. was a gigantic crown of oranges supported by columns wound with ivy and containing a huge pyramid of