University of California Citrus Experiment Station facts for kids
The University of California Citrus Experiment Station was the first part of what is now the University of California, Riverside campus in Riverside, California. This special research station played a huge role in helping California's orange farms and the entire farming business grow. It was started on February 14, 1907, and had its 100th anniversary in 2007.
Contents
History of the Station
The First Laboratory
In the 1870s, Southern California's "citrus belt," an area famous for growing citrus fruits, grew very quickly. This happened after new types of navel oranges from Brazil were successfully planted in Riverside. Soon, orange groves spread all the way from Pasadena to Redlands.
A citrus farmer named John Henry Reed had a great idea. He thought the state should pay for a science lab just for studying citrus fruits. He got other farmers to support this idea. Reed also led experiments with new plants and wrote many articles about citrus farming.
A local politician, Miguel Estudillo, worked with Reed to write a law called Assembly Bill 552. This law set aside $30,000 to build a lab for studying plant diseases and an experiment station in Southern California. On February 14, 1907, the University of California officially created the Citrus Experiment Station (CES) on 23 acres (93,000 m2) of land on Mount Rubidoux in Riverside.
At first, the station, called the Rubidoux Laboratory, focused on solving problems with soil, like how to use fertilizers and water correctly to help crops grow better.
Moving to a Bigger Home
In 1913, a very cold winter damaged many of the orange trees in Southern California. This made the citrus industry, which was worth $175 million, very worried. They asked for more government-funded research to protect their crops. The state government provided $185,000 to create a larger Citrus Experiment Station.
The new director of the CES, Herbert John Webber, looked at several places for the new station. He decided on a 475 acres (1.92 km2) piece of land near the Box Springs Mountains, about 2.5 miles (4.0 km) from the center of Riverside. When the University of California approved this choice on December 14, 1914, the people of Riverside were thrilled. The city celebrated with whistles and bells.
The new station was built in the Mission style, which looked like the old Spanish buildings of Southern California. It opened in 1917.
Important Discoveries
Webber hired a team of eleven scientists to work at the new station. They were experts in different areas like farm chemistry, how plants work, plant diseases, insects, and orchard management.
The Citrus Variety Collection
Webber started the Citrus Variety Collection, a special orchard with about 500 types of citrus from all over the world. This collection grew to be the largest of its kind. He also planted hundreds of other crops, like 70 kinds of avocado, to create new and better fruit varieties through controlled pollination.
Major Achievements
During Webber's time as director, the scientists at the CES made many important breakthroughs:
- Fixing Salty Soil: Walter P. Kelly figured out how to drain salty water from soil. This made thousands of acres of land in California usable for farming again.
- Better Fertilizers: They developed new chemical fertilizers to help crops grow.
- Genetics Research: Howard B. Frost studied the genetics of citrus plants. He was the first to find out how many chromosomes some citrus fruits have and discovered new ways to create better citrus varieties.
- Fighting Plant Diseases: Howard S. Faucet studied diseases that harm citrus trees, like gummosis. His work helped find ways to control these diseases and discovered that some were caused by a virus.
- Insect Control: H.J. Quale's research on insects helped farmers protect their crops. Harry H. Smith and Harold Compere found a natural parasite in Australia that could control the citrophilus mealybug, a pest that was destroying crops. This saved farmers in Orange County about $1 million every year.
Growth and New Research
After Webber retired in 1929, Leon Dexter Batchelor became the director. The station grew even bigger under his leadership. Scientists began studying new things, like using herbicides to control weeds and researching how air pollution affects crops.
In 1951, Alfred M. Boyce became the new director. After World War II, farming in Southern California was booming, and the station grew with it. It added five new departments, including the first department in the country for nematology (the study of tiny worms called nematodes).
By 1961, the station's name was changed to the Citrus Research Center and Agricultural Experiment Station (CES-AES) to show how much it had grown.
Modern Research
In the 1970s, research at the station began to include new fields like molecular biology and genetics. Scientists also started to focus on protecting the environment and farming in dry areas. They developed new types of crops, like turfgrass that could handle salty soil and air pollution.
One famous success was controlling the ash whitefly. This insect was causing millions of dollars in damage to crops. Scientists brought in a tiny, stingless wasp that naturally controlled the whitefly. This project brought a lot of positive attention to the station's work.
In recent years, the station has created new types of citrus fruits, like the 'Oroblanco' grapefruit and the 'Tango' mandarin. They also developed new types of cowpea plants that grow quickly and can handle heat, which helps fight hunger in parts of West Africa.
The Station Today
Today, the CES-AES is managed by the College of Natural and Agricultural Sciences at UC Riverside. It includes the original 420-acre (1.7 km2) station and a 540-acre (2.2 km2) research station in the Coachella Valley. Researchers at these stations study over 50 different crops.
Famous Collections
The Citrus Variety Collection is still an important part of the station. It has about 1,000 different types of citrus and related plants. It is one of the most important collections of its kind in the world.
In 1924, an insect expert named Philip Hunter Timberlake joined the station. His huge insect collection, especially his collection of bees, became the start of the Entomology Research Museum at the university. Today, the museum has about 4 million insect specimens.
See also
- Kinnow - A type of mandarin created at the Experiment Station.
- Oroblanco and Melogold - Sweet grapefruit types also created at the station.
