The trees grew rapidly,
and when they bore fruit it did not take the California orange growers
long to discover that here they had a treasure of more value than the
largest nugget of gold ever found in the state.
It was at a citrus fair in Riverside in 1879 that this golden king first
appeared before the world. Then from all over southern California came
orange men to get buds from these trees. Back home they went with the
precious bits of life. Acres of seedling oranges were quickly shorn of
their green crowns. Cut, cut, went knife and shears till only the stock
was left, and then into a carefully made slit in the bark was placed the
navel bud. It soon sprouted, and everywhere one could see the stranger
growing sturdily on its adopted stem. Thousands of buds were sold from
the two parent trees until there were hundreds of thousands of their
beautiful children growing all over the state, giving golden harvests.
If we owe to two ladies the success of orange culture in California, it
was a third who saved the industry when ruin threatened it. For a while
all went merrily with the orange grower; then in some way, from
Australia, there came into the country an insect pest called the
cushiony scale, which settled on the orange trees and seemed likely to
destroy them.
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