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Taliesin Evans (ND-ND) http://tinyurl.com/CLP-TEvans

Orange Treasure

From "Orange Culture in California," 1874. Read Online Download PDF

Although missionaries introduced the orange to California, it was wealthy landowner Alfonso Wolfskill who jumpstarted an orange industry in the rich Los Angeles soil.

Writing for the Overland Monthly and Out West Magazine, journalist Taliesin Evans chronicled the rise of the California orange industry.

Alfonzo Wolfskill . . . happened to be strolling on one of the wharves of San Francisco, at which a schooner, just in from the Hawaiian Islands, was discharging her cargo of oranges. Much of the fruit was in an unmarketable condition, and was being cast overboard. Mr. Wolfskill conceived the idea of purchasing these rotten oranges for seed, which he did for a mere song. Shipping his purchase by first vessel to his southern home, he had the seed at once extracted, and subsequently sown. It was from the seedlings thus obtained that he planted out thirty acres of what is known as the Wolfskill Orchard, embracing 1,600 full-bearing trees—the largest full-bearing orange grove in the State—situated in the very heart of the city of Los Angeles, and from the success of which may be dated the development of orange culture, as a business in Southern California.

Taliesin Evans' history appeared in 1874 as "Orange Culture in California."

–Contributed by Stephanie Wilson.