Page:Tree Crops; A Permanent Agriculture (1929).pdf/88



The geographic possibilities for carob culture in California seem to me to be excellent. The carob grows in orange climate. California has a large area with orange climate. As a thermal belt above the frosty valley floors it stretches for a great distance along the eastern edge of the Great Valley. It also rings around much of the shore and lowland between San Francisco and San Diego. Please note that I am speaking of orange climate (temperature). Since the orange trees are water hogs and California is a land of almost rainless summer, the orange can only be grown where irrigation is possible. Naturally this is but a small fraction of the land with orange temperature. Therefore, the major part of California land having orange temperature cannot become orange land, but much of it may become carob land, since this tree can survive and even bear a light crop in the rainless summer. Sample plantings years ago have proved that the carob will thrive over an area much larger than the possible orange area.