For several hundred years oranges have grown in this country. For about
the last forty years men have made a business of growing them.
Oranges and lemons are called citrus fruits on account of their content
of citric acid.
The two predominating varieties in California are the Washington Navel
and the Valencia orange.
The California Navel orange is in the markets of the country from
December 1st until about June 1st, when the California Valencia type
takes its place and remains until the latter part of November.
It is a fact, therefore, that oranges are now picked fresh every day the
year round in this country, and that the California oranges you buy in
the summer are not fruit that has been held in storage, but are as fresh
as any fresh fruit that the retailers offer.
Most California oranges and lemons are picked from the trees by gloved
hands, so that the finger nails of the pickers will not injure the skin,
for even a tiny scratch on the skin of an orange or lemon is sufficient
to open the way for germs of decay.
Mr. G. Harold Powell, formerly connected with the United States
government, was the discoverer of this source of great loss to the
citrus industry. The use of gloves in the picking is thought to save the
growers approximately $1,000,000 yearly.
When the oranges have been picked they are sent in boxes to a packing
house where they are put through an automatic washing machine which
thoroughly scrubs all dust and dirt from the skin; they then pass
through a dryer and thence along a belt to men and women who roll the
oranges over for examination and distribute them to other belts
according to their color and the condition of the skin with regard to
blemishes of all kinds. The oranges then pass over automatic
sizers--that is, V-shaped rollers revolving horizontally. The oranges
continue along these rollers until the space between the rollers has
widened to the point where each particular size drops into a labeled
bin. The sizes are designated by numbers, such as 150, 176, 250, etc.,
these figures signifying the number of oranges that may be packed in a
regulation size box in which the jobbers and retailers buy the fruit. In
other words, size 150 is a larger orange than 250.
The quality of an orange is judged in the packing house merely by the
color and the condition of the skin. Size has something to do with it,
but this is only one consideration. Many of the smaller oranges are just
as good to eat and sometimes very much better than the larger sizes, and
the condition of the skin, unless it happens to be broken in any way so
that germs of decay can enter, ordinarily has no depreciable effect upon
the flavor. The public, of course, finally judges an orange by its
sweetness and tenderness, and a large, well-colored, smooth fruit is
likely to reach the market in better condition than the rougher fruit
which has a marred skin.
Oranges are usually divided in grades into four classes called, in the
order of their quality, Extra Choice, Choice, Standards and Culls.
Lemons are handled throughout the processes in practically the same
manner as oranges.
[Illustration: _Photo by Brown Bros._