Imperial (217 page)

Results of Powell’s experiments on boxed fruit—Ibid., p. 7 (introduction).

“Eighteen carloads of lemons and oranges arrive in Boston, but with a thirty-percent spoilage rate.”—Information based on
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIV, no. 13 (March 31, 1905), p. 311 (“News of Country Life in the Golden West”).

Citrus growers’ notion of financing another transcontinental railroad—
California Cultivator
, vol. XXIII, no. 1 (July 1, 1904), p. 7 (“Fruit Growers’ League”).

G. Harold Powell on Whittier: “The dark green foliage and the flaming yellow fruit of the orange groves made a striking picture.”—Op. cit., p. 22 (letter of 27? January 1904, to Gertrude Powell).

“The El Cajon lemon district”—Ibid., p. 48 (letter of 24 February 1904, to Gertrude Powell).

Powell on Santa Paula: “the finest lemon Ranch in California . . .”—Ibid., p. 29 (letter of 4 February 1904, to Gertrude Powell).

Powell on Los Angeles: “. . . everyone wears ‘mixed grey goods,’ because the dust makes clothes grey anyhow.”—Ibid., p. 24 (letter of 28 January 1904, to Gertrude Powell).

Imperial crop accomplishments and irrigated acres, 1909—Imperial County Agriculture Commission papers, 1907-10, pp. 1-3.

Powell’s trip to Yuma and through Imperial County by train—Ibid., p. 95 (letter of 13 April 1909, to Gertrude Powell).

“. . . in the future Imperial Valley must be considered one of the orange sections of Southern California.”—
Desert Farmer
, Imperial Valley, May 1909, p. 101 (Will S. Fawcett, “Orange Culture in Imperial Valley”).

California citrus trees, 1910—California Board of Agriculture, 1918, p. 158. I infer the year to be 1910, but this is unclear. The exact figures are: oranges, 6,615.805 bearing trees, 2,093,410 non-bearing; lemons 941,293 bearing and 379,676 non-bearing; and pomelo, 43,424 bearing, 25,589 non-bearing. In 1912 California made $12,951,505 in oranges, $2,976,571 in lemons and $143,180 in pomelos, which you and I call grapefruit. —
Britannica Year-Book 1913
, p. 775 (entry for California).

Early extent of Inland Empire orange groves—Wagner, p. 17.

L. F. Farnsworth’s shipment—Tout,
The First Thirty Years
, p. 200.

First grapefruit orchard in Coachella—Nordland, p. 62.

Kinds of orange juice; R. J. Smith’s ambrosia—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing-order files, 1941-1971. Box 3. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets. Hearing upon a proposed marketing order for chilled orange juice. Held in Mirror Building, Los Angeles, California, Tuesday and Wednesday, August 2 and 3, 1960. Alice Book, certified shorthand reporter. Pp. 38-39, 51.

Citrusifying of San Fernando, 1914—William Leslie Davis, p. 120.

Fernando Rey Brand label—McClelland and Last, p. 12.

Near loss of Citrus Experiment Station—Wagner, p. 48.

“Oranges and Snow”—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXIV, no. 15, April 4, 1925, frontispiece.

Riverside’s citrus achievement, 1925—Ibid., vol. LXV, no. 21, November 21, 1925, p. 516 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”). In 1925, California Navels are quoted at 4.50-4.75 per box for 150s and larger and ranging down to 3.00 and 3.25 for 324s. Lemons are reported steady at from 3.75-4.50 per box F.O.B. shipping points. Foreign lemons available during the next 30 days are approximately 250 cars . . .—Same issue, pp. 410-11 (“Citrus Markets”).

Footnote: 1925 California orange production figures broken down by region—Ibid., vol. LXIV, no. 14, April 4, 1925, pp. 410-11 (“Citrus Markets”). Lemons show a similar pattern. The exact numbers are: southern California, oranges 11,960 shipments (I assume these must be traincar lots), and lemons 3,215; central California, oranges 5,826 and lemons 115; northern California, oranges 484 and lemons 23.

Danny Dane’s greatest hour—Sinclair, p. 113 (“The Golden Scenario,” written 1930s, published in 1994).

Rank of California next after Florida in citrus production; change in rarity of oranges between the world wars from Christmas-tree ornaments to everyday objects—USDA Yearbook series (1950-1951), p. 263 (M. K. Veldhuis, “Chemistry and Technology of Citrus”).

“We really looked forward to our holidays . . .”—Wagner, p. 47 (memories of Jean Burns, who was a Depression-era child in Iowa).

Origins and early history of citrus—
Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology
, vol. 1, p. 420ff. (entry on the citrus industry).

Record citrus export from 1935—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 528 (“Orange Freight Revenues Since 1885”).

Three citrus news items of 1936—Ibid., vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 524 (“Agricultural News Notes of the Pacific Coast”: “Southern California”).

Orange-picking photo from 1939—Wagner, p. 47.

Undated photo: packing #8 oranges—Wagner and Blackstone, p. 17.

The Paxton Junior lid-nailing machine—Seen at the Mission Inn Museum, Riverside, 2004.

Scarcity of Puerto Rican grapefruit—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 526 (“Better Outlook for Citrus”) mentioning early cleanup of Florida grapefruit, limited supplies of Puerto Rican grapefruit. “It is probable that California summer grapefruit will find a ready market in the East this year since there will be practically no competition during July and only the competition of the Isle of Pines during August.”

“Those little six-ounces of frozen concentrated orange juice . . .”—
California Farmer
, vol. 192, no. 8 (April 22, 1950), p. 364 (Joe Crosby, “Frozen Orange Concentrate Has Industry Guessing”).

Footnote: News about grapefruit juice—United States Department of Agriculture,
Weekly News Letter
, vol. II, no. 40 (May 12, 1915), p. 5.

Michael Arlotto on adulteration and California standards—Chilled orange juice marketing order, pp. 12-13, 17.

Stance of Glacier Groves against specific standards—Ibid., pp. 217-22.

The five major plants that make all chilled orange juice in California, and the output of the largest—Ibid., pp. 18, 56. Dairymen currently accomplish 80% or 90% of distribution of orange juice in California (ibid., p. 119).

The threat of Arlotto’s competitor in Bakersfield—Ibid., p. 154.

Florida’s orange-production cost is
those of California’s, in part due to lower labor costs—
California Farmer
, vol. 193, no. 1 (July 1, 1950), p. 8 (“Good Valencia Prices Seen; Tariff Cut to Hurt Lemons”). The same source also reports, however, that in 1947 when the canned juice market collapsed, so many Florida canners went bankrupt. Gamely, southern California ships out 33,500 cars of fresh Valencias, 6,000 cars more than in previous year. More than 8,500 cars will be for four million gallons for frozen orange juice concentrate.

The Holtville farmer—Ben Brock, interviewed on the premises of Brock Farms in Holtville, 2004.

Arlotto on Florida
vs.
California orange juice (“a good palatable product”)—Chilled orange juice marketing order, p. 159.

California
vs.
Florida: Another wrinkle—Opening my copy of
Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture
, I find a double-page spread comparing two grapefruit orchards, the one on the right under the purview of “Agrarian Eye: See What You Are Looking At.” The 20-acre organic farm of George Cunningham “sits in the heart of California’s $60-million-a-year grapefruit industry,” and so it might even be in Imperial for all I know, although it looks awfully lush. I see broccoli-colored vegetation on the bouldery ridge in the background, possibly even trees, although the 80%-recycled, 60%-post-consumer-waste paper stock on which this book has been printed does not lend itself to detail; anyhow, the sky is blue above the ridge and there are white cloud-inscriptions on it, so how
could
it be Imperial? The grapefruit trees, pleasantly variable and even unkempt, bear constellations of the rich yellow fruit, and I would enjoy rambling through the tall grass which carpets it all, picking a grapefruit, and eating it on the summit of that ridge. “Instead of the sterile and denuded nature of industrial orchards,” I am informed, “Cunningham’s farm amounts to a natural nirvana, where spiders, lizards, frogs, and many other species peacefully coexist with his efforts to produce nutritious and mouthwatering grapefruit.” On the lefthand page, alas, haunted by the evil “Industrial Eye: See What You Are Looking At,” I spy a tall, dark and uniform double row of trees, with many more doubtless hidden behind them; and in the foreground, the lifeless sand is strewn with crowds of fallen grapefruits. This orchard earns its mite of Florida’s 70 million annual dollars in grapefruit revenues—not much more than what California takes in, but on 9 times more acreage. “Even though much of Florida’s grapefuit gets turned to juice,” unlike California’s, “that doesn’t stop the corporate farmers from dousing their groves unnecessarily with the same toxic arsenal of pesticides thought to be required to maintain a “cosmetic appeal” to consumers.”—Kimbrell, pp. 178-79 (“Falling Far from the Tree: The Sterile World of Industrial Orchards”).

The new standard of 20%-minimum fresh juice (specifically applying to chilled orange juice)—Chilled orange juice marketing order, p. 34.

Mr. Arlotto: “In the chilled juice business in California . . .”—Ibid., p. 150.

Events in Motor, Iowa, 2003—
New York Times
, p. A14, “National Report” (Monica Davey, “A Farmer Kills Another and Town Asks, How Did It Come to This?: 2 Men Had Known Each Other 30 Years”).

“The average housewife little realizes . . .”—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXV, no. 21, November 21, 1925, p. 524 (“The Little Lemon”).

“In the citrus industry the ‘on tree’ inventory . . .”—California Department of Agriculture (1941). J. W. Tapp, Vice President, Bank of America, San Francisco, “Financial Status of California Agriculture,” p. 93.

Decreasing profitability of southern California citrus—USDA (1940),
Farm Size in California
, p. 7.

Footnote: “California has had an unusual opportunity to market lemons . . .”—
California Cultivator
, vol. LXXXIII, no. 15, July 18, 1936, p. 530, “Our Export Citrus Market.”

Change in orange-box labels—McClelland and Last, p. 55.

Descriptions of orange-box labels in remainder of same paragraph—Ibid., pp. 57, 62-63.

The old lady who used to live in Riverside—Helen La Londe, interviewed in Coachella, July 2004. Shannon Mullen was present.

“Eleven large cans of [orange] juice . . .”—USDA Yearbook series (1950-1951), p. 263 (M. K. Veldhuis, “Chemistry and Technology of Citrus”).

Footnote on the lemon market in 1950—
California Farmer
, vol. 193, no. 1 (July 1, 1950), p. 8 (“Good Valencia Prices Seen; Tariff Cut to Hurt Lemons”).

Longer storage life of grapefruit juice—Ibid., p. 264.

“Use of citrus products must . . . be expanded . . .”—Ibid., p. 267.

The “basic idea” of Bert Cochran—California State Archives. Department of Food and Agriculture. Bureau of Marketing. Marketing-order files, Box 6. State of California, Department of Agriculture, Bureau of Markets hearing on proposed marketing order for lemon products as amended, pursuant to the provisions of Section 1300.13(b) of the California Marketing Act, Chapter 10, Division 6, of the Agricultural Code. Thursday, June 24, 1952, beginning 9:30 a.m., State Building, 217 West First Street, Los Angeles, California. P. 127.

Complex relationship between citrus packers, growers and harvesters—California State Archives. ALRB restricted files, 1978-1984. Case RRT. Court of Appeal folder, Part I. This case occurred in Ventura County.

Lemon production at the end of the twentieth century—
Encyclopedia of Food Science and Technology
, vol. 1, p. 420ff. (entry on the citrus industry).

The Sunkist Vitamin C campaign; vitamin C in oranges, tomatoes and broccoli—McClelland and Last, p. 40.

The illegal immigrant who expected to enter orange heaven when he got to Northside—Crosthwaite, Byrd and Byrd, p. 66 (Isaías Ignacio Vázquez Pimentel, “Ña’ a ta’ ani’ mai”).