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Show Romances -of- , Industry By WINTHROP BIDDLt Ccpyrlirht. . IMS (New Tork Evening . World), by Preaa PaWUhlns Ca HOW TM t ORANGE CAME TO AMERICA. The travels of tha orange an Ita way to California are aa varied and aa dls-Unt dls-Unt aa the migration of tha nations. The orange la not an American fruit. It probably originated In aoutb China and from there wandered Into India. We know It by ita Sanscrit name (Narungee. which the Spanlarda corrupted Into Na-ranja. Na-ranja. and lha Provencals further corrupted cor-rupted Into Orange). Its first appearance In Europe waa due to Vasco lie Csina and hla associates, who made trm ftn-t voynae to India. Tlia Arab, who were inntruniental In spreading spread-ing Ihe luscious fruit over the Levant and a larae anient of the southern sliora of the Mediterranean, called it llortukaa (their word for Portugal). The Afores were afon planted wita beautiful groVes of oranges, whli'h gsvo the lalsnda tha tradition of helng tna Osrden of the Heerldi?s. The Cn'na anpla waa first brouahl to America, bathe ba-the Upantaidn. who at the time of the rreat ruh ( the riches of Meilro n Peru wi re cultivating the orange In their country. , It w.s the same gentlemen wno started Ihe crnnge groves of (allfornla and Meilco. which now constitute so material ma-terial a part -of the wealth of tnoJ states In Florida and parte of Foutlt America, the orange flourishes wild h"t when wild It Is frequently either bitter (Seville or Hlaarde orange) or sour. In IH99. due to a severe freese. tna orange crop of California, Florida. lxule- , lana and Texas dropped to .lil... luisas nr half at aa la thaflrece1- Ing decade. The thirteenth cens'Ji rhowed a rapid recovery and eipan'01J of the industry. In 19M Csllfornla sent out K.439.791 boxes and Florida 7(i,00.8W bThI' value of the crop l now about 000.000 a year, with California producing pro-ducing three-quarters of the total crop. One of the characteristics of the orange Is that It besrs fmlt for many yesra In the monastery of Sams ha Ulna, In Rome, there Is a tree of the bitter variety not the sweet orange or China apple- that is supoosed to have been planted by , Ht. romlnlc In 1200. It still functions, but Its antiquity la not a matter of cer. taintv. There are as msny vsrletles of orsngea, almost, ns there ere kinds of people on earth. And none of them are re.illy baa. but some are better than others. |