e adoption of the best varieties for the soil. As
different sorts of oranges mature at different seasons, a variety is
needed to give edible fruit in each month from December to May
inclusive. In February, 1887, I could not find an orange of the first
class compared with the best fruit in other regions. It may have been
too early for the varieties I tried; but I believe there has been a
marked improvement in quality. In May, 1890, we found delicious oranges
almost everywhere. The seedless Washington and Australian navels are
favorites, especially for the market, on account of their great size and
fine color. When in perfection they are very fine, but the skin is thick
and the texture coarser than that of some others. The best orange I
happened to taste was a Tahiti seedling at Montecito (Santa Barbara). It
is a small orange, with a thin skin and a compact, sweet pulp that
leaves little fibre. It resembles the famous orange of Malta. But there
are many excellent varieties--the Mediterranean sweet, the paper rind
St. Michael, the Maltese blood, etc. The experiments with seedlings are
profitable, and will give ever new varieties. I noted that the "grape
fruit," which is becoming so much liked in the East, is not appreciated
in California.

[Illustration: ORANGE CULTURE. Packing Oranges--Navel Orange-tree Six
Years Old--Irrigating an Orange Grove.]

The city of Riverside occupies an area of some five miles by three, and
claims to have 6000 inhabitants; the centre is a substantial town with
fine school and other public buildings, but the region is one succession
of orange groves and vineyards, of comfortable houses and broad avenues.
One avenue through which we drove is 125 feet wide and 12 miles long,
planted in three rows with palms, magnolias, the _Grevillea robusta_
(Australian fern), the pepper, and the eucalyptus, and lined all the way
by splendid orange groves, in the midst of which are houses and grounds
with semi-tropical attractions. Nothing could be lovelier than such a
scene of fruits and flowers, with the background of purple hills and
snowy peaks. The mountain views are superb. Frost is a rare visitor. Not
in fifteen years has there been enough to affect the orange. There is
little rain after March, but there are fogs and dew-falls, and the ocean
breeze is felt daily. The grape grown for raisins is the muscat, and
this has had no "sickness." Vigilance and a quarantine have also kept
from the orange the scale w