USA > California > Riverside County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 57
USA > California > San Bernardino County > History of San Bernardino and Riverside counties, Volume I > Part 57
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The orange is the most beautiful and pleasing of all the fruit trees of California. The dark green leaves have all the year round a glistening beauty all their own, and with a fragrance ever present the trees give a lasting impression not to be soon forgotten. When spring comes the green leaves, the golden fruit and the profuse blossoms, with their pure white petals, filling the air with an almost overpowering fragrance, full of honey, make a picture that cannot be surpassed. It is fitting that the orange blossom should make up the bridal wreath.
The food value of the orange is just as great as its beauty and well justifies the tremendous quantity of fruit shipped and consumed on Eastern markets and even as far as Europe. When we consider that nearly 1,000,000 tons of oranges are shipped out of California every year or over 20,000,000 boxes, we are almost at our wits ends to com- prehend just how much that represents. The early settlers who have become used to the cry of over-production ever since the new era of plant- ing commenced had not the slightest idea that the industry would ever grow to such proportions.
In these days of preventable mortality among infants and the enormous quantities of substitutes that are used in place of mother's milk, it is gratifying to know that the elements that all of these substitutes are lacking into make a healthy, normal growth are all contained in orange juice, and it is cause for rejoicing that many infants dwindling away for lack of the necessary vitamines are immediately helped to more vitality by orange juice.
The following treatise by Dr. J. H. Kellogg of Battle Creek Sani- tarium, an authority on beneficial food, is of such importance that it is given a place in this history.
"Until comparatively recent years fruits have been almost universally regarded as articles of luxury rather than as staple foods which enter into the scheme of nutrition and are essential for the complete and efficient dietary. To one who has never given the matter special thought and attention, it is a surprise to discover how universal is the craving for fruits. Even the carnivorous Eskimos, who of necessity subsist chiefly upon animal foods, do not neglect to improve the opportunity afforded by their short summer season to gather and feast upon cran- berries and other small juicy fruits which manage to survive the bleak- ness of the Polar region.
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"Stores of these fruits are laid up for winter use and are a precious resource for a protection against scurvy and other ills which are likely to result from the almost purely carnivorous diet upon which Eskimos are compelled to subsist during a considerable portion of the winter months.
"We who live in a more favored clime find in the orange and other citrus fruits an abundant supply of this most delicate and wholesome of all food acids. The lemon contains 7 per cent, sometimes more, of citric acid, while the orange contains approximately one-half of 1 per cent. This acid in sweet oranges, though present, is disguised by sugar, which is found in proportion of nearly 11 per cent.
"The sugar of the orange, like its acid, has the advantage that it is prepared for immediate assimilation and requires no digestion. It does not need to pass through the digestive organs except for the purpose of dilution. Thus orange sugar, consisting of levulose and dextrose, is capable of being immediately assimilated by the body cells and, in a puri- fied state, would be perfectly assimilated if injected directly into the blood in proper quantities.
"It is to the sugar which it contains that the orange owes its chief value as a source of nutriment, although it contains, in addition to the sugars or soluble carbonhydrates, nearly 1 per cent of protein. The com- bined value of its food constituents amounts to 240 calories, or food units, per pound-a value which will be best appreciated by comparison with other similar foodstuffs. A pint of buttermilk, for example, has a food value of 176 calories, one-fourth less than orange juice.
"This statement will certainly be a surprise to many readers, but may be verified by anyone desiring to look the matter up (Bulletin No. 28 of the United States Department of Agriculture contains extensive tables showing the nutritive value of all common foodstuffs).
"A pint of oysters affords the same number of food units as a pint of buttermilk and hence has a food value of one-fourth less than orange juice. Even full milk is not so much superior to orange juice in nutritive value as one might imagine. A pint of orange juice contains nearly the same number of food units as three-fourths of a pint of milk.
"Thus, while the orange is always a grateful addition to any ordinary bill of fare, it also has nourishment qualities to highly commend it.
"The great value of the orange as a food adapted to certain grave conditions of disease is little appreciated by the public, and far less often utilized by medical men than the merits of this truly marvelous fruit deserve. Here are a few of its medical uses :
"As a food in fever cases, nothing could be more perfectly suited to requirements of the patient's condition. The fever patient needs water to carry off poisons which are burning him up and against which his cells and organs are struggling. Four to six quarts of water are needed daily to quench the fever's fires and aid elimination through the skin and kidneys.
"Orange juice supplies the finest sort of pure, distilled water, abso- lutely free from germs or foreign matters of any sort. The grateful acids furnish aid in satisfying thirst, and the agreeable flavor makes it possible for the patient to swallow the amount needed. The intense toxemia from which the fever patient suffers coats his tongue and often destroys his thirst for water as well as his desire for food. The agreeable flavor of orange juice aids greatly in overcoming this obstacle.
"Another special and valuable property of orange juice is the small amount of protein or albuminous matter which it contains. Fever patients have little gastric juice and very small digestive power, and so need to take
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food which is ready for absorption and immediate use. Foods poor in albumen are also needful in fevers because they do not leave residues to undergo putrefaction in the colon, as do meat, eggs and numerous other foods.
"Orange juice contains less than I per cent of protein or albumen, so that a patient may take three or four quarts of the juice without getting an excess of material which may easily become a source of great injury.
"Two quarts of orange juice combined with an equal amount of barley, oatmeal or corn gruel, makes an ideal food for a patient battling with typhoid fever.
"Another class of cases in which orange juice is almost indispensable is found in those most unfortunate and suffering of mortals-the bottle- fed babies. Usually fed on pasteurized or sterilized milk, these unhappy little ones seldom fail to show marked evidence of malnutrition. They are, indeed, not infrequently victims of scurvy, rickets or pellagra. The investigations of Funk, McCollum and many others have shown that the emaciation, weakness, arrest of growth and general malnutrition in such cases is due to absence from their food of the essential 'vitamines.'
"A few years ago, the fortunate discovery was made that orange juice contains elements needed to supplement the bottle-fed baby's dietary, resulting in immediate resumption of growth and a speedy return to health. This remarkable transformation may occur, not only in human infants, but in young animals upon whom the orange juice feeding experi- ment has been oft repeated.
"Every infant fed on sterilized milk or artificial infant foods; in fact, every infant fed from a nursing bottle and older children who are not doing well should receive daily not less than four ounces of orange juice to supply necessary vitamines.
"The diet of the average man, made up chiefly of white bread, meat and potatoes, is decidedly deficient in vitamines. Orange juice is needed to supplement these defective dietaries and might, with the greatest ad- vantage, find a place on every-table at least once a day.
"The acid of orange juice and the sugars it contains aid digestion by stimulating the gastric glands to increased activity. It is also an appetizer of the first quality.
"A glassful of orange juice before breakfast has a decided laxative effect with many persons. Sometimes it is advantageous to take a glassful of orange juice at bedtime as well as in the morning.
"On the whole, oranges are probably capable of serving more useful purposes in the economy of the body than any other fruit. As people become better educated in dietetics, oranges will be more and more appre- ciated and more freely used. They are one of the most perfect and most useful of all fruits. Every man who has a good orange grove in a favored locality has treasure equal to a gold mine."
When we consider that in the course of picking, packing and handling oranges there is a vast amount of fruit that from various causes is unfit for shipping and almost all thrown away. Seeing the immense piles of fruit thrown away one feels like exclaiming that this might have been "given to the poor," as was exclaimed on a former time. They certainly need it, but there is the expense of getting it to them and much of it would not bear shipping and has to be thrown away. This is a similar case to the meat packers, who as they jocularly say, "use up everything about the hog but the squeal and that can be preserved in the phono- graph." Efforts have been made in a small way by making marmalade and using the peel that was formerly said to possess a medicinal value, but all of these efforts heretofore made do not touch on the great question
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of waste of the culls. Greater progress has been made in making citric acid and lemon oil from' lemons which will find a place elsewhere.
We can only hope that everything of value in the orange which is not fit to ship will be turned to profit for the grower. A vast army has to be paid before the orange grower gets anything for himself. There is first of all the first cost of the grove, then comes the expense for care, water and taxes, these have to be paid, fruit or no fruit. Then there is picking, hauling, washing, grading, sorting, packing and putting on the cars. Then comes freight and expense of placing on the market, adver- tising, etc. Then to go back further there is the lumberman and sawmill man and the box shooks that have to be conveyed in many cases nearly 1,000 miles. Then comes the box-maker, usually the box-making machine, stenciling the boxes or labeling them, nails and paper used for wrapping and in other ways a whole army it might be said, and greatest of all, railroad charges, and the wonder is that there is anything left for the grower.
VARIETIES. Among all the varieties none meets with greater favor than the navel. Its introduction is like a romance.
As to who named the navel orange as at present known, the following, written by James Boyd, copied from the California Cultivator of Septem- ber 26, 1902, ought to settle the question-"Who named the Washington Navel Orange?" (As to the name Navel it comes from the protuberance in the blossom end of the fruit and was so known by the Portuguese in Bahia, Brazil.)
Abont the time that the Washington Navel came to Riverside Mr. Hayward, an orange nurseryman, imported some navel trees from Aus- tralia. At that time there was not know to be any difference in the navel orange, no matter where it came from. Mrs. Brodhurst, one of the earliest settlers of Riverside, and wife of a sea captain, was a native born citizen of Sydney, New South Wales. Always in speaking of oranges she pronounced the navel orange the finest of all oranges and wondered why some one did not try to introduce the variety into California. However, it came in by way of Orange, and no one suspected there could be any difference until they both fruited when it was found that the Australian navel was inferior in quality and a much shyer bearer. The tree itself is of more vigorous growth and grows much larger. This fact of being a more vigorous grower caused budders in the early days to cut budwood from the Australian more than from the Washington navel, causing much confusion and rebudding in after years. As soon as it was known that there was a difference in the two navels the distinction in names began to arise, and the Australian navel was gradually discarded from' that time on.
At first it was proposed to name the Washington navel the Riverside Washington navel, but common use and universal assent pronounced it the Washington navel, thus dropping the longer name. No one can claim any credit for the name as now in use, and there is no need to call it other than the navel orange, bitt it is a graceful tribute to attach the prefix "Washington" as showing that over fifty years ago the agricultural de- partment at Washington was working in the interests of agriculture and horticulture and that this is only one of the many benefits that it has conferred on the tillers of the soil.
As nearly as can be ascertained, the navel orange was first propagated about 1820 at Bahia by a Portuguese gardener, who is said to have been the first person in Brazil to propagate plants by budding. The superior value of the seedless navel orange in comparison with the seed-bearing frnit was soon recognized by the Bahians and at the present time the navel
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orange has almost supplanted the parent variety in the orchards at Bahia.
The navel orange is well styled the "king of oranges," and has advanced the orange business to an importance it could never otherwise have attained. Its rare beauty and high quality of fruit have undoubtedly drawn many into the business of orange growing who would otherwise never have thought of it.
It originated in the Province of Bahia, in Brazil. Bahia is wholly within the tropics, but has some high mountains in the interior, but whether it originated in the mountainous interior or on the seacoast we are not informed. Some say it is found growing wild in Brazil, but owing to its seedless character that is an impossibility, for its existence depends on man's propagating efforts.
The Australian navel was introduced into California a year or two previous to what is now known as the Washington Navel, and is a dif- ferent variety, the tree being a more vigorous grower, but is a shy bearer, and the fruit is more coarse and irregular in size and is altogether inferior to the Washington Navel.
The first navel trees were imported into this country by Mr. Saunders of the Department of Agriculture in Washington in 1870. It is pretty well authenticated, however, that there was an importation in Florida some years earlier by a party who had seen the oranges in Brazil, but as the navel does not succeed very well in Florida it is little wonder that importation was not heard from in a commercial way. By a fortuitous circumstance, some budded trees from the Government importation was sent from Washington to California.
So many ntistakes and misstatements have been made about the intro- duction of the navel orange to California, that no two accounts entirely agree. The time has come when the facts ought to be given to the public before all of those acquainted with them pass from this earthly scene. Much sympathy has been wasted over the late L. C. Tibbets and the ingratitude of the orange growers who left him spend his last days in comfort in the Riverside County Hospital. Mr. Tibbets is generally credited with being the enterprising introducer of the navel orange into California. As a matter of fact, Mr. Tibbets had nothing to do with the introduction of the navel orange and was never a navel orange grower in any sense of the word, having owned at one time something like 160 acres of land, which was mainly devoted to alfalfa raising. Mr. Tibbets never claimed to be the introducer of the navel and the most that he ever did towards spreading it was to sell buds from the original trees. If the fate of the navel had been left to Mr. Tibbets, the trees would have died from neglect before they fruited, as the original trees were very small at the time of introduction.
The introduction of the navel was one of those fortuitous incidents that sometimes occur in the affairs of men which have far-reaching conse- quences, and as might be expected, there was a woman in it, as is usually the case in all good things that come to the human family. About 1875, the exact year is in doubt, Samuel McCoy, a neighbor of Mr. and Mrs. Tibbets, was discussing budded fruit with Mrs. Tibbets in her home and expressed a wish that the department at Washington would take the matter in hand so as to make a greater certainty in regard to varieties being true to name. Mr. McCoy said there was a variety about which he had read in Chambers' Encyclopedia called the navel that was occasion- ally seen in the London market, which was superior to all other oranges, and of which it was said that "it was nearly double the size of the ordi- nary orange." No sooner said than done. Mrs. Tibbets, who had been a resident of Washington for some years and had a personal acquaintance
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with Mr. Wm. Saunders of the Government Gardens there, said she would write Mr. Saunders, asking him to send something of budded oranges to her in Riverside.
The result was that five trees were received by mail, three navel and two tangerine. Of the latter, which up to within a few years were grow- ing by the side of the navels, nothing of any great value has ever been derived. The trees were very small, but in good condition, and Mr. McCoy, at Mrs. Tibbets' request, took them in hand and planted them where they remained until transplanted in the spring of the present year at the head of Magnolia Avenue by the city authorities of Riverside. Mr. McCoy, who with the late Cyrus Cover, owned 20 acres adjoining Mr. Tibbets' land, and which is now known as the B. B. Barney place, cut a small twig from one of the trees from which he succeeded in getting one bud to grow on a larger seedling orange on his own place, which fruited before the original trees. The original trees stood some very hard usage from neglect, one dying, until it was really found that the fruit was superior in every respect, when, to protect them from vandals and thieves, Mr. Tibbets had them enclosed and took some care of them and sold buds to all who applied, when they were to be had. Buds from the original trees at Washington were about the same time sent to Florida, but were not a very great success from the standpoint of quality or prolificacy, and it was at first supposed there was an inferior strain of navel among the original imported trees, but subsequent importations from the Riverside trees showed that the navel was not a success in Florida. Owing to the lack of care given to the first trees, they were never so large as other trees budded from them. There is no difference in the quality of fruit in the two trees and subsequent importations from Brazil do not vary from the Tibbets trees.
Cover and McCoy budded about ten acres as soon as they could get buds, and as the stocks on which they budded were larger than the Wash- ington trees, it was not long until they got pretty well disseminated, but not very much before some of the fruit was put on exhibit at the first citrus fair held in Riverside under the auspices of the Southern Cali- fornia Pomological Society, in February, 1879. The Pomological Society usually held its first meeting in the fall at that time, but the growing im- portance of the orange business demanded an early spring meeting and exhibit of fruit. The fruit was at once seen to be so superior to all other varieties that it created quite a furore, and 1879 practically marks the first extensive preparations for planting the navel.
The navel is quite a thrifty grower, but is a semi-dwarf as compared with the seedling, and should, when in nursery, be headed at two and a half to three feet high, when its habits is for the lower branches to grow down and cover the ground. This it should be allowed to do, as it is from this wood that the finest fruit is obtained and in good bearing seasons a larger proportion of fruit can be gotten from these lower limbs.
As is well known, the navel commenced to bear quite young, bearing some fruit as early as the second year from planting. It was at first thought that this precociousness might be detrimental to the future devel- opment of the tree, but experience has shown that these fears are ground- less, as the old Cover and McCoy trees in the Barney Orchard are as prolific bearers of good fruit as any younger trees around Riverside.
As is well known by growers, the fruit is seedless, but occasionally a seed may be found imbedded somewhat at random in the pulp. From one of these seeds, J. E. Cutter grew a tree, which on fruiting, proved to be a navel, but with characteristics of its own, some of which were thought to be superior ; but as nothing has been heard of it recently, the
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probability is that it has not shown a general superiority to the original from which the seed was derived. The fruit of the navel is so superior that it has no difficulty in holding its own in the market wherever intro- duced. One of the arguments used against an increase of duty on the orange was that our fruit was so superior that it needed no protection as against foreign fruit.
The year 1878 is credited with producing the first Washington Navel, which was tested by a few leading growers at the home of G. W. Garcelon in Riverside and pronounced superior in every respect.
Improvements in the navel may be looked for from time to time, especially as bud selection has become a necessity in citrus growing both as to vigor of tree, full bearing and good quality of fruit. So important has this become that no nurseryman can sell fruit trees except budded from pedigreed trees. Improvements in quality will tend to increase the consumption and increase in quantity will benefit the grower who has so much to contend with.
MRS. ELIZA TIBBETS
MRS. L. C. TIBBETS. But little is known of Mrs. Tibbets. As Mrs. Eliza M. Lovell of Ohio, she in 1863 was married to L. C. Tibbets and came to Riverside in 1873. As the direct introducer of the Navel orange to Riverside she has commanded a good deal of notice of late years after her death. As a woman she was bright and vivacious and always good company. It was through her residence in Washington, from whence she came to Riverside, that she was acquainted with the family of Mr. Saunders of the Agricultural Department, and except for that acquaintance it is possible that the Washington Navel orange might not have been heard of for some years later, if at all. From the fact that no record has been found of the sending of the three Navel trees to Riverside (although this circumstance is said to be not an unusual thing) it is fair to come to the conclusion that the trees were sent more as a friendly act than as an official one by Mr. Saunders, and thus in a double sense we are indebted to Mrs. Tibbets for the introduction of the navel orange. Riverside at the time of application for the trees and at the time they were sent, season of 1874-1875, had not fruited the orange. l'hat the trees were not introduced in 1873, as is generally stated. Sam
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McCoy, who is personally connected with their introduction and plant- ing, did not come to Riverside until 1874. That there were three trees sent in place of two, one of which was lost by accident, renders the surmise probable that Mr. Saunders' memory was faulty in regard to the introduction of the navel. The fruit of the navel was first on exhibi- tion at a citrus fair held in Los Angeles in 1879 by the Southern Cali- fornia Horticultural Society, where its size, appearance and excellent quality produced quite a sensation. The year before that samples of the fruit were obtained and tested at the home of Mr. G. W. Garcelon in Riverside .:
The custom of the world has almost invariably been to remember benefactors of the race by erecting monuments to their memory after death. Although Mrs. Tibbets received scant honor in her life, after death the memory of the good she has done as the one who was the means of introducing the Washington Navel into Riverside has been perpetuated by depositing a large boulder at the head of old Magnolia Avenue adjoin- ing the land on which her home was and where the trees first attained fame with the following inscription on a tablet on the boulder :
To HONOR MRS. ELIZA TIBBETS AND TO COMMEND HER GOOD WORK IN PLANTING AT RIVERSIDE IN 1873 THE FIRST WASHINGTON NAVEL TREES IN CALIFORNIA NATIVE TO BAHIA, BRAZIL, PROVED TO BE THE MOST VALUABLE FRUIT INTRODUCTION YET MADE BY THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
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