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Show Blf!!? I THE FAMOUS ORANGE TREE. ' KM& If I In Hamilton Wriglit's article on California in k1 pl m Leslie's Weekly, he speaks of the ""orange tree K l 1 R planted by General Bidwell on Bidwell's bar, 170 Bl ii'i B miles north of San Francisco, and says it still HT j I H stands. That has been a wonderful and famous HU tree. It began to bear oranges about 185G. The tree grew from an orange seed and was never grafted, but so sweet and luscious was its fruit that for years cuttings from it were sought for all over Southern California. It stands just where the foot hills begin to take on mountain form and sometimes the snow falls a foot deep upon the earth in which it stands, but it blooms and bears its fruit regularly and often the blooms for a new crop and the ripened fruit of the previous year are seen side by side upon its branches. The sight of the orange blossoms and the golden fruit on the same branches makes one think instinctively instinc-tively of a bride that has married for money. When the tree was planted Bidwell's Bar was practically the head of navigation in that direction. direc-tion. But the Prospector pushed on up the hill; he was followed by the pack train; then somebody some-body built a toll road, and the big teams with their housings and bells followed; then the whistle whis-tle of the locomotive ten miles away was heard and by this time the Bar must be almost as silent as it was prior to '49. But the old orange tree stands there still with its blooms and fruit, typical of the changes wrought in fifty years. |