America's Crop Heritage


excellence was acknowledged, and the fruit was called Riverside Navel, thus
ignoring the label attached to the plants which was Bahia, a very distinctive
name which should have been retained. Afterwards other Californians, not wishing
Riverside to be boomed with the name, changed it to Washington Navel, all of
which was uncalled for but this Dept. could not alter it, and it was considered
best to adopt the name, and so avoid further confusion. We budded many hun-
dreds from time to time and sent them to Florida where it has never become very
popular owing to its not bearing plentifully.
 The second introduction of the navel orange was made by
Richard A. Edes, the United States Consul at Bahia. Edes wrote
Capron in April, 1871: "I have the honor to acknowledge receipt
of your letter of February 26th and by the American Steamer
which leaves this port in May. I will forward to you as directed
the cuttings of the navel orange tree of this province." Com-
missioner Watts, who had replaced Capron, wrote Edes that
summer that the trees had arrived in good condition with but
one lost. ". .you have placed the department in possession of one
of the most desirable varieties of Orange known; and one which
it has desired."
 When the trees mailed to Mrs. Tibbetts came into bearing, the
quality of the orange as a market variety was promptly recognized.
By the end of the century many thousands of acres had been
planted in California, hundreds of carloads of the fruit were being
transported to the East annually, and it already had been favorably
received in the English market. Saunders called it in 1899 "perhaps
the most valuable introduction ever made by the Department of
Agriculture in the way of fruits." The Bahia navel orange, making
up the bulk of the California orange industry in 1920, had an
annual value of $16 million and the average annual production
in 1921 was computed at 8,600,000 boxes. A bronze plaque was
set up at Riverside, California, in honor of Mrs. Tibbetts' work;
an oversight omitted the name of William Saunders!
 The Department of Agriculture was urged in 1870 to use ships
to introduce various tropical fruits for cultivation at St. John's,
Florida. Orange and lemon culture was promising to become
important by 1878, and a small glass house for fruiting was set
aside by the horticultural division to determine the value of dif-
ferent varieties for propagation. A large collection of citrus fruits
was imported from Europe in 1870 and 1871 including the
"Tangerine oranges" and the St. Michael orange from the Azores.
Hundreds of plants were grafted and sent to the Southern and
Pacific states. A collection of grafted orange trees received from