"Fantastic Fruit" photo featuring a country boy dwarfed by giant oranges was one of a series from the Edward Mitchell Company of San Francisco. Southern Pacific Railroad and the California fruit and vegetable industry profited from these very popular postcards which were in circulation for years. If anyone would know about the cost of cultivating citrus fruit, it would be a grower from Orangevale. One hundred years ago the cost of planting an orange grove of 108 trees on a ten-acre parcel came to a grand total of $211.30 for the first five years. According to a statement from Orangevale resident George Mott, in 1903 his net profits from 3 acres bearing oranges and tangerines was $538.75!
