Strangely enough, the soil and climate of south ern California makes of this variety a different fruit from the South American form. One of the chief merits of the Washington Navel is its keeping qualities in overland transit.
The harvest of oranges in California begins in time to supply the Christmas trade. Navels are picked and shipped from November till May. Valencias, a European, seeded variety, the best and most popular late orange, from June to Sep tember. Malta Blood, a red-fleshed, small fruit of excellent quality, from March to June. Mediterranean Sweets, of good size and few seeds, fine in flavor and texture, from April to July. St. Michaels, fine, juicy fruit with very thin rind, May to July. These are the standard varieties grown for market.
Tangerines and Mandarin oranges are loose from the skin when ripe, and easily parted into sections without spilling any juice. They are sweet and pleasantly aromatic, grown chiefly for local de mand.
Kumquats are tiny olive-shaped oranges, an inch long, thick-skinned, with scant room for pulp. They are eaten, skins and all, or made into con serves. They are a dwarf species from Japan.
The marmalade of commerce is made of the bitter orange, an Arabian variety, taken into Spain by the Moors in the ninth century, and cultivated chiefly in the neighborhood of Seville. The dark skin is candied for export to England and other northern countries. Quantities of the fresh fruit are used in English homes and factories, for the Englishman must have orange marmalade wher ever he goes.
The Citron whose thick inner rind is candied and preserved in Sicily, Corsica, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, grows also in the West Indies and Brazil. It grows wild in northern India, from which region it has come into cultivation in India and China. It is not edible when fresh.
The Lemon, a close relative of the orange, origi nated in India or China, if tradition is to be be lieved. It has followed the orange over the world, but is a trifle less hardy. Its place in the list of useful fruits is distinct, and lemon-growing is an important industry in Florida and southern Cali fornia. England gets lemons chiefly from the
Mediterranean citrons districts and the West Indies.
Lemons lose quality by hanging on the trees after they reach fair size. They are picked green, and from that moment "must be handled as care fully as eggs." In dark, but well-ventilated store houses the fruit is slowly cured and attains its yellow color. The next step is the washing that removes dirt that the oily surfaces accumulate. From the washing machines, the fruit is dried, and then shipped or stored. There is no reason for hurrying lemons to market. Fruit picked in December will keep till July, if properly stored in airy boxes.
The Lime is a small green lemon with sour juice that furnishes a most refreshing beverage. The home of the species is northern India, whence it has been carried into the West Indies and Mexico, in this country, and widely scattered in Asia and Europe. England imports a great deal of lime juice. The varieties come true from seed. The plants are dwarfs, and are often planted as hedges.
The Pomelo, called "grape-fruit," because of the grape-like fruit clusters, is the largest of all citrous fruits, and its popularity grows apace. It is an improved form of the shaddock, a native of the Malay Archipelago, and the South Sea Islands, coarse, bitter, and sour in flesh, and weigh ing from ten to twenty pounds! The few years of selection and cultivation have developed a smooth-skinned pomelo, full of juice that is sprightly, but not bitter, and with a minimum of "rag," the tough tissue that separates the compartments of pulp. Nothing can be more delicious than such a fruit, served with enough sugar to temper its tartness. Orange trees are readily changed over to grape-fruit by budding or grafting, or vice versa. So any one in California or southern Florida who has overcome his first dis taste for the new thing can supply his home table by converting two or three orange trees to the new fruit. It takes only a season or two to effect the transformation.