Page transcription
CULTIVATOR
March 23, 1911.
GRAPEFRUIT IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
By C. F. Baker, Pomona College, Claremont, Cal.
When Americans began settling in considerable numbers in Cuba, their attention was early turned to the possibilities of citrus culture there. The island abounded in hard wild seedling varieties of various kinds; however, some very superior fruits. Scale insects of many varieties occurred there, but were held in check by fungous parasites and ladybirds, though also other more serious pests, such as a pernicious root borer, exist there, and have already begun their active planting of citrus fruits. They ordered stock in large quantities from Florida. Usually the orders were for certain definite varieties, which were soon exhausted in the Florida nurseries. The nurserymen then filled up the orders with anything that they happened to have on the nursery rows. The result must be obvious. In a single ten-acre grove may frequently be encountered trees of Pineapple, Parson Brown, Valencia, Navel, Joppa, Jaffa, St. Michael and several others. Exactly the same condition reigned among the grapefruits. Florida has always been famous for her grapefruit, and varieties have multiplied there. Cuba can produce just as good. But the difficulties in harvesting and marketing these orchard mixtures were colossal. Solid block planting is a necessity for the economical handling of most fruits. Apart from other difficulties, the growers did not know enough about the trees to correctly distinguish the various varieties which their trees turned out to be, and their fruit had to be marketed simply as "grapefruit," whether Marsh Seedless, Duncan, Pernambuco, Hall Ercelior, Walters Royal, Triumph or McKinley, or a mixture of any of these. It became my solemn and voluntary vialle in Cuba to undertake the classification of these varied mixtures of oranges and grapefruit, and I carried this work on for several years with many very interesting results. I return to California, where everything is done right," and find here, too, a most remarkable job lot of groves. Moreover, I find many growers who do not know the varieties they possess. Others more confident will name them, but if I carry the same fruit to others, equally confident, I am quite likely to get other names for it.
Now, it is my humble opinion that California is capable of producing just as fine grapefruit as either Florida or Cuba. Eventually, I believe that this state will yield a finer product, since we have here a more all-alive community, and more vigorous, radical and progressive methods. We are now awakening to the fact that we have never yet taken the first step towards broad, thorough, systematic work in applying modern methods of plant breeding to our citrus fruits. A little haphazard and unsystematic selection here and there tells the whole story to date. We are not at the opening of a new era, but I expect to live to see the day when we will have a Navel orange or a Marsh grapefruit better in every respect than the average of today, and in addition possessing but four or five sections. What breakfast fruits they will make, and how rapidly they will replace the sorts we are getting along with today! There may be bud sorta even now existing in some California orchard that will yield such fruits. I have already seen some experiments that were definite promises of such possibilities. We can beat the world along these lines if we will get at the work actively enough.
The existing named varieties of grapefruit were each named from some single parent type and that particular type carrying the name always. However, every fruit grower is aware of the wide individual variation that occurs within the limits of any variety, and also the wide variation from the type in some character, that may be produced by varied surrounding conditions. If the variation be not too great, we may call it a variety. And how? Simply by approximating it to the original type which it most nearly resembles. A great trouble has always faced us in the fact that neither our orange or grapefruit varieties have received the more systematic and careful comparative treatment that has been given to the avocados by our Mr. F. W. Popenoe. With the works of Hume, DeLong, or even of Riaso or Bonavia, in hand, one must simply flounder about among many closely related varieties, with about as even chances of being wrong as of being right in the conclusions. Some few varieties are marked by very conspicuous characters which are almost always unmistakable, such as the orange-likeness of Aurantium, the sweet flesh of the Royal, or the pink flesh of the Tresca. But for the most part decisions have to be based upon judicious examination of the characters of the surface and the thickness of the skin, the shape—especially form of base and apex—the number of sections and seeds, shape of seeds, character of pith, and so on, and also occasionally the character of growth and foliage. Taking the fullest description of the varieties that have been given, and critically comparing them, we find many peculiar varieties that can scarcely be separated, as far as the current descriptions go, by any of the above-mentioned diagnostic values. In Hume's work, for instance, compare the descriptions of Hall and Pernambuco, Walters and Excelsior, May and McKinley, etc., etc. Nothing will take the place of being thoroughly acquainted with these things, and the time has come to permanently establish breeding gardens where one may see enough typical examples of the various varieties of authentic origin, and brought to characteristic and perfect development. Such a garden would give any firm foundation for breeding work, and exact knowledge, by absolutely (ignoring pedantic considerations) what our growers would go far to visit, if they could. Certainly in the case of the grapefruit, such a fundamental knowledge would be of the greatest service, both in selecting or breeding. Indeed, I believe that such planting should exist in every citrus grove. It is true that we have, the common property of the orange growers themselves, and that is the value of such planting would be of immense value and rich in information, apart from all other considerations. The growers are now only definitely organized on the business side of citrus work. I believe that there are just as evident reasons for organizing them for research, investigation and production. The cultivation of the grapefruit in Southern California today is only one of many evidences of our needs in this direction.
