STCRAGi: ITEM FFGCESSING-ONE Lpl-i-19E U.B.C. LIBRARY M A crrsstonxNcr. ?C, x^. O ^ (^3^^^-^=^^^ Digitized by the Internet Arciiive in 2010 with funding from University of British Columbia Library http://www.arGhive.org/details/treatisehandbooOOmoor TREATISE AND HAND-BOOK OP Orange Culture FLORIDA. LOUISIANA AND CALIFORNIA. Rev. T. W. Moore THIRD EDITION. REVISED AND ENLARGED NEW YORK: E. R. PELTON & CO., 1884. COPYRIGHT BT E. R. PELTON, i83i. CONTENTS. PACK Preface to the Second Edition v Preface TO THE First Edition vii Chapter I.— The Profit of Orange Growing i' Chapter II,— Of the Severai. Methods of Planting Orange Groves '" Chapter III.— The Wild Orange Grove Bidded 22 Chapter IV.— Groves from Transplanted Sour Stc-mps 30 Chapter V. — Planting the Orange Seed .. . 36 Chapter VI.— Budding 4' Chapter VII.— On Selecting a Location for an Orange Grove 47 Chapter VIII. — The Advantages of Partial Forest Shelter 54 Chapter IX. — "The Frost Line" and " The Orange Beli '' 60 Chapter X. — The Effect of Frost on Plants 63 Chapter XI. — Transplanting 68 Chapter XII. — The Distance Apart 72 Chapter XIII. — Cultivation 74 Chapter XIV. — Thorough Cultivation 79 Chapter XV. — Pruning 85 Chapter XVI. — Fertilizing 90 Chapter XVII.— Species, Varieties, etc 99 Chapter XVIII.— The Lfmon and Lime 116 Chapter XIX.— The Insects Damaging to the Orange Tree — The N.'kTURAL Enemies of such Insects, and the Reme- dies to be Applied 120 IV CONTENTS. PAGE Chapter XX. — Diseases to which the Orange Tree and Fruit are Liable, and their Remedies 128 Chapter XXI. — Rust on the Orange 133 Chapter XXII. — Gathering, Packing, and Shipping the Orange.. ... 138 Chapter XXIII.— Crops that may be Grown Among the Or- ange Trees 144 Chapter XXIV.— Oils, Perfumes, Extracts, etc., from the Citrus 147 Chapter XXV. — Conclusion 149 Appendix ^„ 153 Commendations ' 182 PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION. fHE author's reason for changing the title of this book so as to make it embrace the orange in- terest not only of Florida, but also Louisiana and California, is found in the fact that many corre- spondents, residents of the last named States, and the most skilful growers of the orange have ex- pressed unqualified approval of the methods of cul- tivation taught in this work. Resting upon their judgment, we send forth this third edition upon a wider mission to bear kindly greeting to all orange-growers throughout the Union. Fruit Cove, Oct., 1882, PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. STHE author's reasons for publishing a second ^ edition are several : 1. The first edition of more than two thousand copies is about exhausted, while orders for the work are most active ; so that, to meet the demand for information on the subject of orange-growing, a new issue would be necessary even if there were no need for emendations and enlargement. 2. A longer experience and continued -observa- tion now enable the author to write with more con- fidence on certain points left in doubt in the former edition, as well as to give new matter in almost every chapter. 3. Hundreds of letters have been received, mak- ing inquiry concerning matters not noticed in the first publication, also asking for fuller information on subjects briefly mentioned. To give the in- formation desired, and to extend it to others who doubtless would have asked similar questions had they not been restrained by a thought of the trou- ble and expense necessary to answer each individual VI PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION. by letter, the author has availed himself of this op- portunity to give, more thoroughly than he other- wise could, the information asked. To the Press, which has given so many favorable notices ; to the public, who have given so hearty a welcome ; and to the experienced orange-growers who have noticed with more hearty commendation than any others the little pamphlet first issued ; the author would here extend his thanks, and again send greeting and an earnest * ' God speed you. ' ' Fruit Cove, Fla., October, 1881. PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION. fHE writer for several years suffered greatly for want of some reliable advice on Orange Cul- ture. Could he have had such instructions as the following pages contain he might have hastened forward to profitable bearing by several years an orange grove now crowning his labors with suc- cess. He could have done this with half the amount of money expended by him in experiment- ing, in following unreliable advice, and in doing what at the time seemed wisest. It is to save others such useless expenditures and to help forward the best material interests of Florida that he has un- dertaken to give to the public the result of his ex- perience and observation on Orange Culture in Florida. Nor has he undertaken this without the earnest solicitation of many who are engaged in orange growing, and have witnessed his success and dis- cussed with him his plans. The writer has not only had ten years of actual experience in orange growing, but he has had be- fore him a wide field for observing the efforts of others engaged in this business. He has had throughout his life a passion for horticulture ; in vm PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION, early life considerable experience as an amateur cultivator of fruits. For twenty-five years he has been accustomed to eat fresh from the trees the orange grown in Cuba, in Central America, in Cal- ifornia, in Louisiana, and in Florida. His admi- ration of this *' queen of fruits" has led him to observe and inquire after the methods of culture in each of these several countries. During the ten years of his experience he has frequently travelled over the State of Florida, visiting, at all seasons of the year, the various sections engaged in growing oranges, discussing with growers their theories, and noting the results of their efforts. This little work, therefore, is not the result of the experience of a single individual confined to a single location, but the result of the experiments, the successes, and the failures of many, extended over the entire State of Florida. The Press of Florida has done much to help for- ward the knowledge necessary to success in orange growing in this State. Its appreciation of this great interest, and the readiness with which it has devoted its columns to growers for the interchange of thought and the discussion of theories, both false and true, has given to persons widely separated the benefit of each others' experience. For this work the Press of Florida, and especially the Agri- culturist 2Ci\A\h.^ Semi-Tropical, as more especially^e- voted to this interest, is deserving of all praise ; and whosoever would keep up with the rapidly growing PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITIOX. ix knowledge of orange culture in our peculiar cli- mate and soil must continue to read, as the Press will continue to publish, every new light on this subject. The Author here makes acknowledgments to the Press of Florida as well as to the thousands whom he has visited, and with whom he has dis- cussed the contents of tliese pages. All technical terms, as far as possible, have been avoided in these pages. Where such terms have been emplojed it has been solely to make the meaning less questionable. This book is intended as a manual for all who wish to best succeed with the least expense in growing the orange. Such terms as can be understood by the unlearned can be also comprehended by those who can command encyclopedias and the elaborate work of Gallesio. With earnest desire for the success of the orange grower in Florida, and with hearty good-will to them and to others who may engage in this honor- able and profitable business, this humble and little book is submitted by the Author. ORANGE CULTURE. CHAPTER I. THE PROFIT OF ORANGE-GROWIXG. ^ HEN compared to the profit from other kinds of business, that derived from orange-grow- ing is so large that a statement of facts is often withheld because the truth seems fabulous to those who have only had experience with other kinds of fruits. Those engaged in the business consider each tree, so soon as it is in healthy and vigorous bearing, worth one hundred dollars. Indeed the annual yield of such a tree will pay a large interest on the one hundred dollars — from ten to a hun- dred, and in some instances one hundred and fifty per cent per annum. Now'if we take into consid- eration that from forty to one hundred trees are grown on an acre, the yield is immense. In the quiet country, breathing its pure atmosphere, with fresh fruits and vegetables from January to Janu- iLvy, with milk, butter, honey, and poultry, the product of his farm and accessories to his grove, 12 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. the man who has once brought his trees into suc- cessful bearing can enjoy all these and much more besides, having at his command an income quite equal to that commanded by owners of blocks of well-improved real estate in our towns and cities, with not one tenth part of the original cost of city investments. Or, if the owner chooses, he is at liberty to go abroad without fear of the incendiary's torch or the failure of commercial firms. And even if a frost should come severe enough to cut down full grown trees — and but one such frost has come in the history of Florida — the owner of such a grove has but to wait quietly for three years, and out of the ruin will come a second fortune as large as the first, and without the cost of brick, mortar, and workmen. The age to which the orange tree lives, from three hundred to four hundred years, is so great that Americans do not know how to consider it in the light of z. permanent investment. The fear has sometimes been expressed that the business will be overdone, that the supply will after a while exceed the demand, and the price of the fruit so decline that the orange will be unprofitable to the grower. But those who entertain this fear have certainly not considered the facts. The area of the States with climate suitable for growing the orange is compar- atively small. The southern portion of California, a very small part of Louisiana, and the whole of Florida, if devoted to orange culture, is but a trifle THE PROFIT OF ORANGE-GROWING. 13 compared to the vast sections of the United States which will be well filled with inhabitants long before the orange-growing sections can be brought into bearing. The present yield of fruit grown in the United States furnishes hardly one orange a year to each inhabitant. Our population will likely double, judging the future by the past, in the next thirty or forty years. To furnish such a population with one orange or lemon a tlay will require no less than thirty thousand millions of oranges or lemons per annum. The skill in gathering, curing, and pack- ing the late and early varieties now appearing will enable the grower to furnish for the market at all seasons of the year either oranges or lemons. The wholesomeness of the fruit, together with its medici- nal qualities, will increase its popularity as an arti- cle of footl, until it will be universally used. At present the production of Florida oranges is so small that it is not known in the markets of many of our largest cities. The foreign varieties offered in those markets, even when fully ri])e and eaten fresh in their own countries, will not compare with the Florida orange. But in order to reach this country in sound condition they have to be gathered when green, and hence are not only unpalatable but un- wholesome. When the Florida orange becomes generally known, and the supply is adequate, it will exclude foreign fruit, and, because of its excellence, become universally used. Such will be the demand. Already successful shipments have been made to 14 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. Europe, which at no distant day is to get its best oranges in large quantities from Florida. Now note the possibility of supply. Only a small proportion of those sections with climate sufficiently mild to grow the orange can ever be made avail- able. A few of the more southern counties of California and that portion of Louisiana along the Gulf Coast can be made available for grow- ing oranges profitably. In Florida the climatic conditions are more favorable, but the land and location suitable are not one hundredth part of the State. Another fact lessens the possibility of yield. Orange culture belongs to the class of skilled labor. Hundreds engaged in the business will fail, because success requires intelligence, application, patience, and skill. Hundreds have already failed, from one or all of these causes, and have left the State, never dreaming that they alone are to be blamed for their failure. Men in the very communities thus aban- doned have succeeded because they were more pru- dent in the selection of soil and location, and used their intelligence and the intelligence of others, and persevered in the face of partial failure brought about by ignorance. But those men who failed took no advice except that of the landowner who offered to sell land cheaper than any one else. They read nothing that had been written by men who had succeeded. They took no warning of those who had failed. Stilted on their castle of THE PROFIT OF ORANGE-GROIVIXG. 15 self-conceit they stood, nor deigned to look down to the humble but priidait laborer for advice, till their castle fell, and they left the State imagining that the " sand of Florida" had proven an unsta- ble foundation and overthrown them and their cas- tle. Such instances will repeat themselves. Who- ever may succeeti, such men will fail. Whatever may be written, and wisely written on the subject, and however published, whether in book or journal, will not be read by them. I?ul while the above facts will lessen the general yield of oranges, it will make the business vastly more profitable to the men who possess the virtues necessary to success. The orange will pay beyond any other fruit at half a cent an orange on the tree. In Europe, where lands are exceedingly high, a grove is considered a most profitable investment, even when the fruit sells at from two dollars to four dollars per thousand. Ten years ago the Florida orange was considered well sold when the grower could get one cent on the tree. Few now sell for less than one and a half cent, and some average at their groves as high as four cents per orange, and the price still advances. In no business can a young man with pluck, in- telligence, and application, so certainly lay the foundation for a competency and fortune as in or- ange-growing in Florida. With the exercise of these he ma}- in ten years be what the country would call a rich man. A young man from [Middle Florida borrowed 1 6 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. money enough from his father to buy a piece of land. After paying for his land, located a few miles above Palatka, he landed in Palatka with three dollars in his pocket. These he paid for pro- visions, and went to work growing vegetables on about an acre and a half of cleared land. Six years afterward he sold his place for twelve thousand dollars cash, without owing a cent for anything. Many instances could be given of young men, as well as old men, who have done as well, and of some who have done still better. Young men have frequently written to the author to aid in securing for them a clerkship. His advice has been invari- ably given, " Go to work raising fruit in Florida, and be independent and have a home. ORANGE CULTIRE IN CALIFORNIA. We clip the following statistics of making an or- ange grove in California from the address of Mr. L. I\I. Holt, Secretary of the Southern California Horticultural Society. It will be observed that the rates are far above those charged in Florida in some of the items, land for one : *' An orange orchard in full bearing will yield loo,- ooo oranges to the acre. Five dollars per thousand will pay all the expenses of taking care of the orchard and picking and marketing the crop in San Francisco; or to any other market to which the freights are no greater. If the price should come down from the pres- THE PROFIT OF ORAXGE-GROWIXG. 17 ent fipfure to ten dollars per 1000 — jobbing rates — there will still be left live dollars per 1000, or five hundred dollars per acre for the producer, which on a ten-acre tract will satisfy the cupidity of the most avaricious. There is scarcely a possibility that the price of good clean oranges will reach so low a figure as ten dol- lars per thousand yet, for years to come. WHAT WILL IT COST TO GET SUCH AN ORCHARD? " As a guide to those who may desire to figure on the probable expense of starting an orange orchard. I give below some figures which are applicable to Riverside ; they must be changed somewhat for other localities. Land in Riverside settlement is compara- tively high. One year ago good wild land could be obtained for seventy-five dollars per acre, and even at sixty dollars per acre under the canals. To-day there is none for sale at a less figure than one hundred and fifty dollars per acre, and choice land in good lo- cations is held at two hundred dollars per acre firm. Lower priced lands can be had in other localities, and in no place in Southern California does it command as high a figure as here in Riverside. In applying these figures to other localities the price of land can be figured all the way from twenty-five to one hun- dred dollars per acre. Following are the figures for a ten-acre trac-t :' COST. Ten acres of land in Riverside $1500 One thousand trees, budded or seedling. 750 Planting and caring for same first season, at tweniy-five dollars per acre 250 Caring tor orchard second year, at fifteen dollars per acre 150 l8 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. Third year, fifteen dollars per year 150 Fourth year, twenty dollars per acre 200 Fifth year, twenty-five dollars per acre 250 Other expenses incidental to work 550 Total for five years $3800 Interest on investment 1200 Total $5000 " This is the expense account. There will be some receipts. If good budded trees are planted, the third year will give a little fruit, the fourth year still more, and at the end of the fifth year there wiil be quite a fine crop. In order to be safe in these calcu- lations we will place the yield and prices at the lowest possible estimate : Third year crop, scattering oranges — a few hun- dred or thousand — not counted. Fourth year, an average of fifty oranges to the tree — 50,000 oranges at twenty dollars per thou- sand $1000 Fifth year, nx> to the tree — 200,000 oranges at twenty dollars per thousand 4000 " If these prices are maintained the owner has his investment all back again at the end of five years, and is ready to ship oranges in large quantities every year thereafter. " All persons planting orange orchards do not do as well as this, and some do better. Those figures represent what can be done with good judgment and thorough work. If a man thinks to save by getting cheap and incompetent work, he may succeed in re- ducing the cost a few dollars, and the receipts a few hundred dollars, or even a few thousand dollars. If THE PROFIT OF ORANGE-GROWING. 1 9 he buys a poor tree he can get it for twenty cents, instead of paying the market price for a good thrifty tree, he will rriake another saving in cost of orchard, and in cost of boxes in which to ship the fruit," CHAPTER II. OF THE SEVERAL METHODS OF PLANTING ORANGE GROVES. fHE question is frequently asked, " Which is the best.?" The several methods are — ist, the budding of the wild sour treec 'vithout mov- ing them ; 2d, budding them first and planting afterward in some suitable location ; 3d, plant- ing the sour stumps and budding afterward ; 4th, growing the trees from sweet seed without budding ; 5th, planting the sweet seedling and budding either before or after removal from nursery ; 6th, bud- ding on sour seedlings either before or after re- moval from nursery ; and 7th, a grove of sweet seed- lings. Each of these plans has some advantage over the others. They all have advocates, but which of all has the greatest number of advantages is question- able. I have tried them all ; but, after stating the advantages of each, must leave to the grower to se- lect for himself as circumstances and inclination may control. If one is impatient for returns, let him choose the sour grove, if he can find it, and bud the trees where they stand. With proper management he SEVERAL METHODS OF PLANIIXG. 2i may bcii^in to leather in two years. If he is still impatient but cannot find a sour grove, let him buy the sour stumps, plant them in some suitable loca- tion, and he may begin to gather fruit in three years from planting. But if he can wait a while longer for fruit, with the hope of getting a longer- lived tree and more abundant yield, let him plant ^xntngcr trees, either seedlings or budded stock. If he wishes an early bearer and comparatively smaller tree, he can select the sour seedling budded. If a larger but later bearer, he can select the nveet seed- ling budded. If he wishes an abundant yield and the largest trees, and can wait a longer time, the sweet seedling unbudded will suit With good treatment such trees will begin to yield in eight years, and after a longer time, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, give him a fair quality of fruit ; but perhaps he will have as many varie- ties or sub-varieties as trees in his grove. The sour stock for a few years grows more rapidly, but will finally make a smaller tree than the swceL The best quality of fruit can be insured only by budding from the best varieties. As to the relative advantages of seedling and budded trees, each year's experience and obser\'a- tion increase my appreciation of budded trees. Were I to plant again, I think I would plant no other. CHAPTER III. THE WILD ORANGE GROVE BUDDED. Sp HIS grove yields so readily uijder so simple treat- Gi ment that we shall consider it at once. Of course nature has already determined the location, and in many instances the location has been wisely chosen, not only with reference to best protection from frost, but also in many instances with refer- ence to cheap and easy transportation, on the banks of navigable rivers and creeks. Wherever a wild grove can be found so located, the purchaser can afford to pay a liberal price if he has to buy, or the owner can afford to improve by the most approved methods, JNIany, however, have been the blunders made in attempts to improve such valuable property. I know of many groves greatly damaged, and some completely sacrificed, by bad management. The two mistakes most frequently made in the treatment of such groves are, first, the reckless destruction of the forest trees furnished by nature for the protec- tion of the orange, and, second, the continued pull- ing off of the young shoots from the stumps cut off for the purpose of budding. The first and second buds having failed, the cultivator continues to re- iriLD ORAXGE GROVE BUDDED. 23 diice the vitality of tlic tree by pulling off tlie young shoots, until at last the sap, for want of elaboration through the leaf, becomes diseased, and the tree, tenacious of life as it is, dies of the double cause of exhaustion and disease. It may be well to caution the orange-grower at once against the commission or repetition of this frequent blunder. Few of our forest trees will survive being cut down to a stump ; still fewer will survive if the young shoots are kept down for a few months. Every time the young shoots are pulled off, the young rootlets, correspond- ing to and starting at the same instant with the shoots, die, and the effort of nature to restore vital- ity is checked and weakened until the hardiest tree is soon killed. \\\ budding ' readily the soluble manure. Perhaps the best soil is found in our dark gray hammock with deep soil underlaid with a yellow clay or yellow sand subsoil. The natural growth should be tall and large, with an abundance of live oak and hickory, as such a growth would indicate an abundance of 50 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. lime. Of our pine land, that on which the hickory is found mixed with the pine, with yellow subsoil, should rank first. Such a soil is really a mixed hammock and pine. Next to this is the pine mixed with willow, oak, and black-jack. Consid- ering the ease with which such lands as the last two classes are cleared and planted, and the readiness with which the orange grows on them, they deserve a high rank, and especially if fertilizers are close at hand. In selecting a location in the purely pine lands, select that which is thickly set with tall trees, well drained, and with a yellow subsoil. Such soils, if occasionally dressed with alkaline manures, grow the orange admirably. While with proper care the orange may be grown successfully in almost any portion of the State of Florida, still it is wise to select a location which may combine all conditions favorable to the best results. Among the favorable conditions we would mention water protection. Whoever has travelled over the State, not by railroad or steamboat, but through the country, and noted the effects of frost here and there upon the orange trees, and es- pecially at the close of a severe winter, must attach great importance to water protection. Its advan- tages were known to the old settlers, as witness their frequent advice to those who in later years have gone into the orange business. Its advantages w^ere known to and made available by nature so far back that " the memorv of man knoweth not to the SELECTING A LOCATION. 51 contrary," as witness the many wild-orange groves to the south-east of lakes and rivers. As our coldest winds come from the north-west, the benefit of water protection on any given location is in proportion to the width of the water lying to the north-west, and the proximity of such a body of water to said loca- tion. There may be seeming exceptions to this general rule. Air currents are governed by laws similar to those governing water. Hence, when any obstruction suddenly opposes a current, whether of air or water, an eddy or circular motion is given to the current. Bodies of timber with dense under- growth standing on the north or north-west of a grove and along the shore of the river or lake have the effect of creating a rolling current of air like a breaker from the ocean rolling over a sandbar, and so, when the wind is from the north-west, bring down upon the grove a stratum of freezing air from above. The remedy for this is to clear out the un- derbrush along the shore and allow the warmer air from the surface of the water to flow through the grove. The taller trees should stand to keep the violence of the wind from the orange grove, and to check the violence of the air current upon the moist soil, which readily yields its moisture along with its heat to a strong air current, and so intensifies the cold. It is regretted that some good locations along the St. Johns have been marred, and groves made to suffer damage from want of attention to the above. The above facts also account for the well-known 52 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. fact that the frost sometimes " strikes in spots or streaks. ' ' Proximity to fertilizers is another favorable con- dition to be considered. The orange tree is a rav- enous feeder and an abundant bearer, and however fertile the original soil may be, and even though it should be sufficient to produce fine trees and sus- tain them for a few years, any soil would finally become exhausted and need to be replenished. Commercial manures can be bought, but even when transportation is cheap the cost is considerable. The abundant and frequent deposits of muck in al- most every locality have been shown by repeated experiments to be a valuable fertilizer. It would be well for the person looking for a location for an orange grove to have an eye to such a deposit close to the place for the intended grove. Leaves and ashes from a hammock close at hand, a shell bank, or limestone from which lime may be procured, should also be considered. Facilities for transportation is the last item to be noticed in this chapter of favorable conditions to be considered in locating an orange grove. One other condition will be discussed in a separate chapter. The orange will bear transportation well, whether the expense of transportation or perishableness of the fruit be considered. But it would be well for the reader contemplating planting oranges to esti- mate the cost of hauling, say five miles by wagon or cart, an average crop of oranges grown on an SELECTIXG A LOCATION. 53 acre, before he locates too far from a navigable stream or from a railroad. He can make the esti- mate for himself, and it will certainly have some weigfit in determining the location. Some of the finest young trees I have seen in the State stand upon a sandy loam — the original growth pine — underlaid with clay four or five feet below the surface, on which rested a thin stratum of marl. I have seen trees six years from the seed on such soils produce from four hundred to five hundred oranges. CHAPTER VIII. f THE ADVANTAGES OF PARTIAL FOREST SHELTER. HE frequent discussion of the subject consid- ^ ered in this chapter among orange growers, its importance to all, and especially its impor- tance to many portions of the State where suc- cess must ever depend upon either forest or some artificial protection, demands careful attention. Many persons have heretofore considered it un- necessary, and the idea even absurd. But years of experience and observation, and especially the ex- perience of the winter of 1876-7, have made many converts. Let the reader consider some facts that may be mentioned. Wild groves have grown luxuriantly, have borne abundantly, and lasted, no one knows how long, not suffering, so far as the writer has been informed, even from the severe frost of 1835 ; and all under forest protection. Again, all through Florida in almost every old settled community, and even in the southern tier of counties in Georgia, there are a few old trees standing and bearing well fine fruit. Hundreds seeing these Lrees have thought that what has been done once can be done again, and have planted in the immediate vicinity of such trees, but unfortunately in the open field, or, what AD VANTAGES OF FOREST SHELTER. 55 is equally fatal, where the morning sun would smite the orange tree after a frost ; and have fail- ed. They have failed to consider that these trees that have survived so long and done so well were planted in almost a dense forest, when only a few forest trees had been cut to give place to the cabin of the early settler ; or that they were planted on the north or west side of the house and thus never exposed to sudden thawing ; that under some such protection of house or forest they passed through the tender age of their early life until their own boughs could furnish their trunks the protection needed. As to the questions of pro- ductiveness and thrift under partial forest protection, they are settled by the success of the few who in the face of opposing theories have planted and succeed- ed. Some of the most thrifty young groves in the State, grown with less expense and equal to any of their age in productiveness, have been grown under the shelter of the pine or oak trees. INIany groves in a most flourishing condition, and supposed to be well located with reference to protection fiom frost, some far south and with considerable water to the north-west, were seriously damaged in the winter of 1876-7, and many trees beginning to bear entirely killed ; but the writer has not heard of a single instance of damage to trees in that win- ter where they were protected by forest trees stand- ing to the south and east of the oranges. Even the lemon, in ' 76-7, much tenderer than 5 6 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. the orange, was unhurt where so protected. One other instance. On the south or south-east of Or- ange Lake stood two beautiful and extensive orange groves side by side. They were wild groves budded and just coming into bearing. They both had the snme water protection. One grove was judiciously protected by forest trees left standing at suitable in- tervals ; the other grove was without such forest pro- tection. All the forest trees had been cut down. A few days after the severe frost of the winter of 1876-7 the sheltered grove was still as green as in midsummer, while the other appeared as though a fire had swept through it. Its leaves were dead or fallen, while thousands of dollars' worth of fruit, frozen and spoiled, hung upon the naked branches. The owner estimates that if he had left a few forest trees in his grove they would now be worth to him twenty thousand dollars. Are not such facts suffi- cient to check somewhat the reckless destruction of our noble forest trees and nature's chosen pro- tectors .'' In leaving trees for purposes of shelter for the orange, the direction given in Chapter III. on bud- ding sour groves should be attended to. Suitable trees at suitable distances should be left. Three things are especially desirable : ist, the rays of the early morning sun should be kept from falling di- rectly on the frosted trees. As the sun hangs far to the south during our coldest weather, tall forest trees on the south and east would materially benefit ADVANTAGES OF FOREST SHELTER. 57 orange trees standing from one to two hundreel feet from them ; zd, the rays of the sun should be per- mitted to fall, during some portion of the day, and in summer during a considerable portion of the day. ujwn each tree in the grove, as the rays of the sun, director indirect, are essential to plant life and health. But in our sunny climate and long sum- mers, shade and sun alternating throughout the day are found to be most favorable to many plants ; 3d, the roots of the forest trees should be kept out of the way of the principal feeders of the orange. Of course the orange trees should be as thoroughly cultivated as if they stood in the open field. Fail- ures in forest culture — and there have been some abominable failures — have occurred only where these p>oints have been disregarded. The following plan is suggested as one to which it is believed no reasonable exception can be made. Select a forest of tall and thickly set trees, whether of pine or hammock. Clear out the underbrush so as to allow a free circulation of air and to enable you to lay off more accurately your land. This done, lay off a straight line as the base of operating. Allowing your land to be a plat of five acres lying north and south, let this base line run east and vest fifty feet north of and parallel to your south- ern boundary. Run a second line one hundred and five feet north of and parallel to the first ; so continue through the plat, running these east and west lines at intervals between, alternating from 58 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. fifty to one hundred and five, and from one hun- dred and five to fifty feet apart. Now begin on the east side, and fifty feet from your eastern boundary you can run your base Hne perpendicular to your first base Hne. Go through the plat as before, alter- nating the distances between the lines from fifty to one hundred and five feet apart. You now have your land laid off in smaller squares of fifty feet, and parallelograms of fifty by one hundred and five feet. The timber on these smaller squares and parallelograms is to be left standing. You have also a number of large squares 105 x IC5, or about one quarter of an acre each. These larger squares are to be cleared of the timber and made ready for planting orange trees, and each square will be found to be surrounded on all sides by a strip of timber fifty feet wide. Around these squares next to the timber cut a ditch two and a half, or, if you wish, three feet deep, so as to cut all the roots of forest trees that would interfere with the orange. To prevent this ditch from draining the moisture from the grove, fill it with the litter from the orange land and leaves from the forest. The next year clear out this ditch, use the rotten leaves as a fer- tilizer for your grove, and fill the ditch again with leaves from the forest around. By this means you can have an endless supply of manure close at hand, and you can have the benefit of the sun and the benefit of forest protection without any damage from the roots of the forest trees. ADVANTAGES OF FOREST SHELTER. 59 In seclions where tlie frost docs not fall so heav- ily these squares for the orange may be greatly en- larged. But for the northern tier of counties in this State, where there may not be sufficient water protection, the dimensions given are large enough. With such a system as the above no man in Flor- ida who has the soil and the timber need hesitate to plant largely of this valuable fruit, both for himself and for market In the cut below, the dark lines represent the forest which has not been cut away ; the white spaces represent the spaces cleared for orange trees. iHBlB ■■■■ — -~- ^BBB CHAPTER IX. "the frost line" and "the orange belt." tUCH has been said and written in certain por- tions of Florida concerning " the frost Hne" and " the orange belt." I regret to put into this treatise a single line that savors of controversy. But justice and truth demand that certain statements be corrected, and the public informed as to the facts. There are so many good places in Florida that many men who have places imagine theirs to be best. Now it is very fortunate that there are so many good places, but it is very unfortunate that one section should be praised by its inhabitants to the detriment of another equally good. No good has come to the State at large, and I doubt if any will come, in the long run, to the special community that pursues such an unjust course. The climate of Florida is so excellent, her soil so varied, her at- tractions so great, that multitudes will continue to come, as they are now coming, from the Northern and Western States, and from Europe, till all our goodly land is filled with a thrifty and contented population. Do not let any of her citizens say anything that would injure the adopted mother of us all. "fROST L/XE" AND "OJiAXGE BELT." 6l As to " the frost line," there is no portion of the peninsula of Florida that is not subject to oc- casional frost, I have seen the effects of frost as low down as Fort Myers. Persons whose state- ments are entirely reliable, and residents of the sec- tion, have told me time and again that they have occasionally had their vegetables killed on the ex- treme southern capes of the peninsula. That frost is modified by latitude there is no question ; that the southern portions of the State are less liable to frost than the northern portions there is no doubt ; but do not deceive the immigrant by saying or im- plying that any portion of the mainland of Florida is entirely exempt from frost. And I do not know that this is to be deprecated. For while " Jack Frost" is an unskilled pruner, and by the little cut- ting he does in Florida may do some hurt, yet I think upon the whole both the orange tree and the health of the inhabitants are the better for his visits. I am sure my own orange trees were never so free from insects and in so healthy condition as to-day, eight months after the frost of December, 1880. And the only trees of my grove now giving indica- tion of rust on the fruit are those where the frost left a few leaves, giving a wintering and start to the rust insect. As to " the orange belt," there is no " orange belt' ' in Florida, unless those who so frequently use that expression mean to embrace the entire State. I do not mean to say that certain portions of the 02 ORANGE CULTURE IiV FLORIDA. State are not more favorable to tl;ie growth of the orange than other portions, but I do mean to say that the orange is so hardy that it can be grown profitably in. any part of Florida where proper cultivation is be- stowed and available protection given against the effects of frost. No finer oranges are grown than are grown in West Florida. On Fort George Island, at the mouth of the St. John's River, the thermometer fell to 1 6°, and yet the young grove of Mr. Stuart, planted according to the diagram given in the last chapter, is at present writing in fine condition. A few trees have done well on the mainland across the line dividing Florida and Georgia, while on the islands along the coast old groves in good condi- tion are to be found as high up as South Carolina. The frost of last winter caused the leaves to drop from the trees of the last-named groves, but the owners with whom I have recently conferred report their trees in good condition. I do not wish to be understood as advising per- sons w^ho wish to come to Florida exclusively to plant oranges to settle in INIiddle Florida. Other portions of the State would suit better for this busi- ness. But were I owner of some of the fine lands of the above-named section, and had such excel- lent protection as their fine forests and lakes afford, I should not hesitate to plant largely of the golden fruit CHAPTER X. THE EFFECT OF FROST ON PLANTS. ^^THIS is a matter of such moment that it needs kjt to be closely studied, and, if possible, thoroughly understood by all persons engaged in agricultural or horticultural pursuits. Either extreme of heat or cold is damaging to vegetation. Some plants are hardier than others, and so are less easily affect- ed by either extreme. Some families of plants are so hardy that they extend over nearly the habitable part of our globe. Some perennials are created with reference to greater heat, and are so limited in their natural condition to the tropics or the torrid zone. Others are created with reference to extreme cold, and hence are found in Arctic regions or on lofty mountains. While others, annuals, reach maturity within a few months, in order that their growth may be extended over a wider area of earth. These live in cold climates only during the warm months. Some plants arc limited to a very narrow belt. Humboldt gives the natural limit of the or- ange from 12° to 40° north latitude. Of course the orange can survive in this higher latitude only where the climate is affected by warm ocean cur- rents. 64 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. Cold and heat are nature's great agents in breaking down rocks, disintegrating earths, and so converting into soluble manures for the use of plants what otherwise would be useless for plant - life. In higher latitudes the effect of cold is to suspend circulation during the winter months, in order that the soil may store up during winter an ample amount of plant-food for the great effort of Nature to make fruit. It is owing to this that vege- tation in cold regions puts forth more rapidly dur- ing the short summers, and that fruit trees in such regions are so uniform in the production of fruit. This hint should be taken by the growers of or- anges in the semi-tropics. When their trees fail to put on asufficient quantity of fruit, let them manure in the fall or early winter — sufficiently soon for the manure to reach the roots before the buds begin to swell. Thus stimulated, the bush that would only put forth the less effort and produce a leaf or branch may be forced to the greater effort to pro- duce fruit. This fall manuring might prove inju- rious to a young tree, with wood too immature for the production of fruit, by forcing it to put forth shoots so early as to be nipped by a late frost. But it would have the opposite effect on a bearing tree, by forcing the production of blossom and fruit in- stead of tender branches, as both blossom and fruit of the orange will stand much more cold than the newly started leaves and branches. I have not infre- quently seen considerable frost fall upon both bios- EFFECT OF FROST ON PLANTS. 65 som and young fruit without any damage. In re- gions where there is no frost, the orange tree, when sufficiently fed, is in the habit of fruiting continu- ously. When water freezes it expands. It is owing to this law that cold is so fatal to plants fully charged with sap, mainly composed of water. The sap, by expanding, ruptures the cellular tissue — the woody cells containing the sap. The oxygen of the at- mosphere penetrates these ruptures, and, combining with the sap, induces fermentation. Unless pre- vented, either by artificial or natural means, this fer- mentation will extend itself to contiguous parts until the whole plant is destroyed, when only a small portion of the tender wood may, in the first instance, have been frosted. Nature's method is to close behind the rupture all avenues against the penetration of the atmosphere by a deposit of glu- tinous or gummy substance furnished by the inner bark. When the old wood or bark decays or drops off, this inner becomes the outer bark, and so the damage is gready and sometimes wholly repaired. The artificial remedy is to cut off the frosted wood and at once apply an ardficial skin impervious to the atmosphere. Many persons who have treated frosted orange and lemon trees have failed at this latter point. They have cut off apart or all the frosted wood, but left a surface to be cracked by the sun or drj'ing of the wood, and so only opened fresh avenues for the penetration of the atmosphere. 66 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. It is better not to cut at all unless the wound is to be covered at once. Shellac dissolved in alcohol, or a coating of whitewash, or a soft paste made of lime and fresh cow-dung, are good applications. When a plant is frosted, the direct rays of the sun will suddenly thaw and so contract the bark as to enlarge the avenues to the atmosphere and make the cold more fatal in effect. Hence, shading a frozen plant, or thoroughly drenching with water, is often a preventive of injury. 1 have seen orange trees saved by setting a pine bough or other shelter on the south and east, and when the thaw occurs in the afternoon, on the west side of the tree. It has before been mentioned that the sowing of oats thickly upon the ground in the fall will check the circulation of sap during winter by taking up the soluble manures. Nature has two methods of fortifying perennials against the effects of severe frost. One method is to deplete the tree of sap during winter. Deciduous trees are so rendered hardy. Their wood during winter contains so lit- tle sap that the expansion by frost is not sufficient to rupture the cells. Another method is to so com- mingle oil with the water of the sap as to counteract this law of expansion universal to frozen water. While frozen water expands, frozen oil or hydro- carbonates contract. The clockmaker has faintly imitated nature in this. By combining different metals in the rod which suspends the pendulum he has made the law of expansion furnish him with a EFFECT OF FROST OX PLANTS. C? rod equal in length whatever the changes from heat to cold. All resinous woods, such as the pine, the fir, etc., are of the class so protected by na- ture. Hence, though found in almost all habitable latitudes, these are under no necessity of shedding their folioge. The orange tree approximates in the character of its sap to this order of plants, and is therefore, though a tropical plant, able to stand the changes of a semi- tropical climate. CHAPTER XL TRANSPLANTING. ^ftOEFORE the work of transplanting begins, the ^^ soil for the grove should be well prepared. It is most generally the case that the great hurry to get the trees into the ground causes much neglect at this point, but this policy is a bad one. The haste should have reference to the early fruiting and rapid growth of the tree ; and they are not brought about by careless preparation of the soil. The soil should be deeply and thoroughly broken, and the ground cleared of the roots. To insure the setting of the trees a proper and uniform depth, the ground should be levelled with harrow or drag. No manure should be used at the time of setting, nor before, unless applied some months before set- ting and thoroughly incorporated with the soil. The best time for setting trees is the late winter or early spring, before the new wood has started. The ground is then cool, and the roots in as dor- mant condition as at any time during the year. It is better that the ground should be wet and the setting followed by showers. But wet soil is not so essential at this time of the year as it is when the transplanting has been done later and the ground TA'AXSPLANIVNG. 6g and sun are warmer. If the work of transplanting has not been completed before the warm, dry weather of spring has set in and before new wood has advanced far, it is best to defer the work till the frequent showers of August and September begin to fall. Good results sometimes follow summer, fall, and winter planting, but these seasons are not so good as the months of February, March, and April. One exception to this rule should be stated. Where trees are to be .set under forest protection so that they will esca])e any damage from frost, the late fall is the best time, as trees set at that time are well established and ready to start by the spring. In taking up the trees great care should be taken to prevent breaking or bruising the roots. As many roots as possible should be taken up. If the distance from the nursery to the site of the grove be short, and the nursery rows have been well ma- nured with muck, and the ground is wet at the time of lifting the trees from the nursery, much of the soil can be taken along with the roots. Imme- diately on lifting the roots from the ground they should be trimmed with a sharp knife wherever they are found to have been bruised or broken. The lower part of the tap-root also should be cut off to prevent its doubling up on being reset. Twelve or eighteen inches is sufficiently long for the tap-root. Put the tree under shade, and cover the roots with wet moss as soon as possible. Do not allow the fibrous roots to dr}', as they are very delicate and 70 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. soon perish. Should they die before setting, cut them off, for if left on after they have died they will only impede the starting of new rootlets. Keep them protected up to the moment of setting, taking but one tree at a time from its covering of moss. To insure still further against damage to the tender roots, have on hand a half barrel of muck made into a thin paste, and as fast as the trees are lifted and the roots trimmed, plunge the roots into this paste, take them out, and wrap in moss. The holes for the trees should be freshly dug. The work of setting is easily and rapidly done by three hands working together — one to dig the holes, one to prune and set the tree, and a third to fill in. The holes should be dug in the shape of an invert- ed saucer or truncated cone with about two inches of the top cut off. Proceed thus : Around the stake which marks the place for the tap-root, with a shovel or hoe take away the soil, letting the tool strike the top of the soil at the stake, and continue to dig deeper into the soil until at a distance of eighteen inches from the stake it has penetrated six inches below the surface. Proceed thus around the stake until it is completed. This gives the greatest depth of the hole on the outer edge or perimeter of the circle. Now take up the stake, and cut two inches of the top off the cone. Where the stake stood, push down the spade by working it back and forth until it has penetrated the ground about eighteen inches, or the full length of the tap-root 7 '/'. / \SPLA XTIXG. 7 1 of the tree to be set. Now insert the tap-root in this hole made by the spade. Be careful not to set the tree deeper than it grew in the nurser}-. With the hand pack the soil firmly around the tap- rout. Next spread the lateral roots over the cone, taking care to distribute them evenly over the cone. Throw on two inches of dirt and press it firmly with the feet. Finish by throwing in soil and lev- elling the ground, leaving the last layer of soil un- trod. Before the tree is left it should be trimmed with shears in proportion to the trimming done to the roots. If planting is done in summer or in hot -weather, and the ground is not protected by forest trees, it is better to mulch. If trees are older than three years, and wild grown, it may be necessary to dig the holes deeper than directed above, but the point of this caution is against deep setting. The writer is satisfied that more trees have been diseased and retarded in their growth, and frequendy killed, by deep setting than by any other one cause. CHAPTER XII. THE DISTANCE APART. mN the grove the distance apart at which trees IS' should be placed depends upon the character of the trees to be set. The seedling should have the greatest distance, the sweet seedling budded less, and the sour stock budded least of all. In Europe, where budding on sour stock is gen- erally practised, and land is much costlier than in this country, trees are set much closer than is the custom in Florida. In the former country, where set in the open ground, they are frequently put as close as ten or twelve feet apart, and where artificial covering during the winter is resorted to, still nearer. But in Europe orange trees never grow to the size they attain in Florida. In some of the old groves in this State where the trees stand forty feet apart the ground is completely covered by the branches of trees that have grown up since 1835. Thirty or forty years, however, is too long a time to leave the land uncovered. Trees planted nearer together will soon protect each other. The rule I have observed for some time is to set budded trees on sour stock 21x21 feet ; budded THE DISTAXCE APART. 73 trocs on sweet slock, 25 x 25, and sweet seedlings, 30 X 30 feet. When the planter wishes to set the budded and seedling in the same grove, a good plan is to set the sweet seedling y^ x 30, and then in the centre of the square formed by four trees set a budded tree. The budded trees will come into bearing some years before the seedling trees, and by so much lessen the dead expense of the grove. Another advantage of the last-named plan is, that space will be econo- mized and the trees still be at a uniform distance from each other. CHAPTER XIII. CULTIVATION. 7k kji tion, but it will only be a sickly existence. I know no plant, shrub, or tree that will pay better for good cultivation ; none that will respond so certainly to thorough cultivation. The ground in the grove should be kept level, the surface light. As far as the roots have extended the surface should not be stirred deeper than three inches. The more frequently it is stirred the bet- ter. Beyond the reach of the roots it is well to cul- tivate deep and frequently, but as the roots extend themselves this area of deep cultivation should be lessened. Alter the roots have extended themselves well over the ground, the best plow to be used is the sweep. A single thirty-two-inch sweep, or a gang plow, the middle or front plow twenty-two inches wide, and the two side plows fourteen inches each, does excellent work. It is better than the turning plow or cultivator. The sweep is much more uniform in the depth of its cutting than either. It is much more rapid in its work than the single plow. It is more apt to cut off the weeds below the surface and destrov them than the cultivator. CULTIVATION. 75 With such an implement, a grove free from stumps and httcr is easily and cheaply kept in fine condi- tion. While the orange trees arc young it is of advan- tage to keep the ground planted in garden crops — peas, beans, potatoes, tomatoes, anything that re- quires frequent work and will mature within a few weeks, partially shading the ground. Of course noUiing should be taken from the ground without making adequate return in the form of manures. Suitable fertilizers will be noticed in a separate chapter. Where the trees arc planted far apart, and ten or twelve years will elapse before the ground will be all occupied by the orange, grapes and peaches will do well and prove profitable, provided the soil is well drained. At no time should the roots of grass and weeds be allowed to mat themselves on land growing the orange. • Not only will they draw heavily upon the soil while they are growing, but when turned over the turf and malted roots w^ill necessarily leave the surface very irregular, causing the ground to dry rapidly under the influence of sun and wind. Some have advised cultivation to cease during August and September, alleging it to be better to allow the weeds and grass to grow after these months in order to check the fall growth, and thus allow the wood of the orange to so harden as to resist the influence of frost during the winter. But the writer has ex- 76 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. perimented extensively and expensively — considering results — with the above policy, and where others were pursuing the same policy he has advised them to try clean culture or garden crops on a part of the grove, and in every instance where the land has been kept thoroughly cultivated the trees have doubled, in size and thrift, those allowed to be left to the mercy of the weeds and grass. Another result should be considered in this con- nection. Where grass and weeds are allowed to grow in the grove they are generally killed by the frost during the fall or winter. In this condition they absorb and part with moisture very readily, ab- sorbing moisture when the atmosphere is warmer than the ground, and yielding it up when the at- mosphere is cooler than the ground or the wind is blowing. But to part with moisture is to part with heat and increase the cold. In some sections of Europe, before the invention of ice machines, con- siderable ice was collected and stored away where the general temperature was only 40°. The freez- ing was induced by simply covering over lightly and surrounding the ice ponds with wet straw. The wind passing through the wet straw took up from the exposed and larger surface of the straw its moisture together with its heat and left the water to freeze. To leave any dry straw, weeds, or litter on the ground during the winter only intensifies the cold and invites the frost. The writer knows of sev- eral beautiful groves that were entirely frozen down CULTIVATION. 77 from this cause, while others in the immediate vi- cinity were unhurt. JNIulching during the winter has a similar effect. In this immediate neighbor- hood an old and beautiful orange tree was heavily mulched during winter. It was the only tree hurt by the frost in the grove that was hurt very badly, taking two or three years to recover. While the trees are young, keep the grove clear of grass and weeds, summer and winter. If you mulch during the summer, bury the mulching as the winter ap- proaches ; dig holes and bury the litter. This in- struction is for young and tender trees. When the surface of the ground is well shaded by older trees, general mulching is recommended, as will be seen in another chapter. In cultivating the grove with the plow there is a constant tendency of the soil to pile up around the trunk of the tree. This should be watched, and if the crown of the lateral surface roots is a half inch below the surface, from this or from deep planting, the soil should be drawn from around the trunk till the upper sides of these roots are brought to the top of the ground. If the upper parts of these roots are left bare for one or two inches, where trees are five or si.x years old, and for a greater distance where the trees are older, these roots develop very rapidly, and not only furnish stout braces to the trunk, but great arteries for conveying life and food from the soil. This point is so little under- stood and attended to bv many cultivators that it 78 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. may be well to explain further. This development of the crown roots is nature's plan when it is not in- terfered with. Whoever will visit and examine a natural forest, whether of orange or other trees, will find the top of the crown roots from one to several inches above the ground and running in many in- stances, as great braces, well up the trunk of the tree. This development of the crown is slow at first, but increases in proportion as the upper sur- face of the roots lift themselves above the surface of the ground. This development can be hastened by taking away the earth from above the roots for a short distance from the tree, as mentioned above. The principle is the same as that adopted for the development of the bulb of the onion by taking the earth from around it. The root of the plant, being more porous than the stem, parts more readily with its moisture at the point where it is exposed, and hence the thickened sap lodges more readily at that point, and so hardens into wood and increases the growth. As the upward circulation passes only through the new or sap wood, this enlarged base furnishes, at the very seat of life and strength, new and increased capacity to the tree. CHAPTER XIV. THOROUGH CULTIVATION. i^irHEX the preceding chapter was published, ^jV-. four years ago, the writer hoped he had put the importance of good cultivation so forcibly as to induce any reader of the iirst edition of this treatise to fairly cultivate any orange trees that he might jilant with the wish io make them productive and profitable. But four years of additional observa- tion and experience convince the writer that a large percentage of those who are engaged in orange - planting in Florida arc wasting time and means by careless cultivation. Now let me drop this indirect manner of speaking of the writer as the third per- son. I want to look you in the eye, reader, and say to you if you do not intend to cultivate your trees thoroughly, or have them cultivated thorough- ly, do not waste money by buying land and having it planted in trees. In no business is the old aph- orism truer than in orange-growing, " What is worth doing at all is worth doing well." I would add, what is poorly done in this business is apt to bring poor return or no return to the owner of a grove. I will give one or two instances of many, ver)' many, that have come under my obser\ation. 8o ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. A little more than twelve months ago a gentle- man from Middle Florida purchased a portion of a grove that had been planted two or three years in Orange County. At the time of the purchase I could see no advantage in size or thrift of trees or excellence of soil in favor of that portion of the grove retained over that portion sold. Since the division of the grove the purchaser has had his part of the grove plowed once or twice. The other part of the grove has been well cultivated and fertilized. To-da}' the cultivated trees look as though they were several years older than the uncultivated — this difference thus brought about in one year. One other instance : Some years ago a neighbor bought several hundred trees from a nurseryman, who ad- vised him to suspend cultivation in August, in order that the growth of grass and weeds might check the growth of fall wood as a prevention of frost. Another party advised the planter to cultivate one half his trees throughout the summer and note the different results. He did so, cultivating small crops among the trees. The advantage gained in half a year is so marked that four years, so far from oblit- erating the evidence, has made it only the more ap- parent. One word about this often-expressed opinion and advice, " to stop cultivation in August, in order to check the fall growth and give the wood time to harden before frost." The orange tree, if well cul- tivated, will make from three to four growths dur- THOROUGH CULTIVATION. 8 1 ing summer. If not manured later than June, thorough cultivation will only hasten forward the seasons of growtli and ripening of the wood before fall. Besides, vigorous health with well-ripened wood is one of the best protections against damage b}- frost. If the object be to prevent any winter growth and suspend active circulation of sap during winter, this can be better secured by seeding the land heavily in oats. The growing oats will take up all soluble manures in the soil and leave the young, orange trees to rest till spring. Various discussions have been entered into throughout the State as to the relative value of deep and shallow culture. The disputants on the differ- ent sides have usually reached their conclusions not by generalizing, but by "induction" from a single experience or observation. One gentleman who had met with marked success in orange-growing wrote as the secret of success, " Deep plowing," " Tear up the roots." Convinced that there must be something unusual about the soil that would produce fine trees and fruit under such a method, I visited his grove, found it j)lantcd upon an oak scrub with no fertility in the upper soil, but under- laid a few feet from the surface with clay, on which rested a stratum of marl. The mystery was solved. There being no nourishment in the upper soil, the, roots had gone down to where they might find food, and so were little disturbed by the deep plow- ing. Indeed, the deep plowing only let in the 82 ORANGE CULTURE IX FLORIDA. sunlight and air for the further penetration of roots. But this case is exceptional. Nature's method is to deposit the most valuable manures near the sur- face of the ground. Trees, weeds, and grasses are, by means of roots, reaching down to bring up some of these manures from beneath, while the leaves are reaching out to gather other manures from the atmosphere, and so from these two directions nature is gathering and combining in organized and useful forms substance for plant-food to be deposited upon the surface of the soil, to be carried down by means of rain to the roots of the growing crops. Hence with nearly all plants, and especially those having yellow roots, the orange included, the most abundant feeders lie near the surface. Hence the most natural means of cultivating a grove is to mulch the entire surface with suiTicient material to prevent any growth of weeds or grass. This meth- od gives a treble advantage — it secures sufificient moisture for the roots of the orange, it avoids the necessity of cultivation with either hoe or plow, and gives sufficient fertility to the soil. This method is especially adapted to natural groves that have been budded and to groves planted on low lands. In the first instance, nature has already placed the roots near the surface, and it is poor policy to disturb the roots by plow or hoe, and so attempt to force nature from its long-established habit. In the second instance the roots will not penetrate a wet soil, but grow near the surface. The flourishing THOROUGH CULTIVATIOiV. 83 condition of the groves at Federal Point, on the St. John's, and other groves where the surface water can be carried off by shallow ditches, sufiicicntly demonstrates that the orange can be successfully grown on low lands by mulching, or by shallow cultivation with the hoe, or, as in some instances where the soil is rich, by mowing the grass and weeds twice a year and leaving them to rot on the ground. Where material is abundant and near at hand, mulching is the cheapest method of cultivation, as it is equivalent to both manure and frequent disturb- ing the surface with hoe and plow. In many parts of Florida abundant material is at hand. Leaves from our forests can easily be collected and carted to the ground. In many places a horse-rake can be used for gathering them in piles. The wire- grass can be cut by hoe, or better, where the forest is open, by means of a mower and horse-rake. Our marsh lands along our extended coast and the banks of our numerous rivers and lakes in Florida are at no distant day to be utilized and made valuable by furnishing thousands of tons annually for the pur- pose of mulching. The first year of my residence in Florida, living on a lake with a margin covered with grass growing above the water, I constructed a flat-bottom boat with a mower attached in front and driven by man-power, which enabled three men working a half day in a week to furnish nine head of horses with abundant and nutritious forage. 84 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. Such a machine impelled by steam could be made to do the work of a hundred men, and furnish mulching to growers on the banks of our rivers at a cost not exceeding one or two dollars per ton. CHAPTER XV". PRUNING. fRUNING is universally adopted by nature. In the forest all the branches of the little oaks and pines are near the ground. But as the trees grow these lower branches die and drop off. A few years later we behold thousands of graceful, well-trimmcd trunks. Where the oak grows up in the open field its method is to prune the inner branches and ex- tend the' surface, giving what fruit-growers call an open head. The grape-vine prunes itself. Where its branches are thickest the tendrils first strangle and then cut off some of the excessive branches. It is the Divine plan. " I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he catteth away ; and every branch that beareth fruit, he pruficth it that it may bear more fruit. ' Wise is the man who will follow such teaching. Happy is the man who has a taste for such work and can take up the voca- tion first taught man Avhen " the Lord God put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it ;'' especially where he can dress a garden of this golden fruit — a relic of Eden- -that is " pleasant to the sight and good for food." 86 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. It may be said, " If nature prunes at all, let her do it all." Yes, and it may be said, " If nature plants and grows the corn at all, why should I take the trouble to plant and cultivate?"' But such a man will reap little more than the harvest of his folly and indolence. Nature makes suggestions, but does not propose to do all the work where man's interest is especially concerned. Even be- fore thorns and briers had sprung up, it was man's duty and to his interest to " dresi the garden" so perfectly planted. Again, where nature prunes, knots and dead wood often become the starting points for extensive decay. But where a living branch is cut off with a sharp knife from a vigor- ous tree, the wound soon heals over, leaving no scar nor injury. The writer has practised on a grove of about 4000 trees all the methods of pruning, and not pruning, to satisf}- himself as to the best method. Nor has he spared himself the trouble of visiting many of the best groves in the State, watching the opera- tions of others, and questioning them closely as to their practice and the results. He will not trouble the reader with the many theories advanced, much less with discussing them. A few essential points are all that are necessary to be attended to. In pruning, the sharper the knife or saw, the bet- ter. Let the cut be clean and smooth. When the knife is used it is better to cut ///> than down, as tlic downward cut is apt to split the wood and peel PRUA'IXa. 87 off the bark. Do the principal pruning in the spring. By all means avoid fall or winter pruning, as it is apt to start new wood at a time when it is most exposed to damage from frost. Cut off all dead wood, and up to or a little into the living wood. Thereby the wound iieals more readily. As a general rule cut off all diseased branches, es- pecially if tliey have become so far diseased as to fail to develop healthy leaves. Do not trim up the trunk too high. Encourage the lower branches to extend themselves well around the trunk and far over the surface of the ground. If they do not touch the ground they are not too low. As the tree grows these branches will continue to droop nearer the ground until the lowest may have to be cut off after a while ; but this late cutting off is much better than to have the trunk exposed cither to sun or cold. Give and keep an open head to the tree. To do this, select the most vigorous lateral branches, leav- ing some on all sides of the tree, so as to obtain a head as uniformly balanced as possible. After cut- ting off the other branches close to the trunk, trim up these selected branches almost to a point, leaving onl\- a few oi the terminal smaller branches. When this is done the tree will look like a skeleton, and you will likely conclude you have used the knife too freely. But if this pruning has been done in the spring, and you keep ihe " water" shoots pulled off the trunk, and cultivate well, you will find the 88 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. trunk by winter inclosed in a beautiful head, with a . dense wall of foliage on the outside. The next spring trim these laterals in a similar manner, al- lowing the first laterals to rebranch a little distance from the trunk so as to be able to fill up the larger area by fall. Continue this method till your tree is large enough to bear its first crop. You can then slacken your pruning so as to encourage the fruit- ing. There are several advantages arising from judi- cious pruning. Whenever a branch dies, it not only ceases to benefit the tree, but becomes a drain on its sap and vitality, as an ulcer to the human body. The same is true, to some extent, with a diseased branch. Moreover, as a branch begins to die, its fermenting sap is slowly taken up into the general circulation, and so the disease extends itself some- times to the entire tree, unless it be cut off below the sound wood. This is especially the case when the frost has partially killed the young wood. The writer has known quite vigorous trees to be killed, not only to the ground, but entirely, by neglect at this point. The open head not only gives room for the free circulation of air through the branches, but also enables the gardener to watch the trunk and larger branches and remove from them insects that might prove damaging. Another advantage, arising from the open head is, it causes the lower branches to extend themselves far out from the trunk, and so gives a greater bearing capacity to the tree. Trees PRUNING. 89 in the grove of the writer pruned after this plan have doubled in development within two years, in their surface area, others standing by their side witli the same treatment, except that the latter were not pruned. CHAPTER XVI FERTILIZING. ' ST HIS has never been sufficiently appreciated in the O South. Her broad acres have always tempted to planting too much land and using too little ma- nure. Somehow, when Northern men come South they, too, yield to the temptation and fall into the Southern fashion. And yet no soil responds more readily to the influence of manure than our warm Southern soil. The manure put by Peter Hender- son on a single acre would be deemed by any Southern farmer ample for the broad fields of cot- ton stretching around his decaying mansion. A few men are wiser ; they have ceased to fell the forest for more land, and are contracting the planted area of the old land. They are endeavoring to in- crease their crops by manuring. Such men have succeeded, and are still succeeding. Some I know have grown rich by such a policy. No crop feeds more ravenously than the orange, and none will convert so large an amount of suitable fertilizers into fruit so profitably. INIuch of our Florida land will produce and sustain fine trees for a few years without the aid of manure ; but after some years of fruiting the leaves will begin to turn FEKTILIZIXG. 9 1 yellow, indicating a deficiency in the soil. Some of our lanils considered poorest- — black-jack ridges — in the vicinity of dwellings grow fine trees, and continue to sustain fine crops of excellent oranges. lUit these trees so located are almost daily replen- ished with accitlental deposits of nitrogenous ma- nures (the principal fertilizers needed on black-jack lands), as well as considerable wood-ashes and soot from the daily fires of the kitchen, and suds from the washtub. The flourishing condition of these trees only shows the advantage of manures. It is not safe to manure trees at the time of ])lant- ing. In some instances this has succeeded very well, but only when the manure has been long composted and frequently turned, so that no fer- mentation will occur around the wounded roots. When manuring 'tvill be done thus early it is better to scatter it on the ground and turn it several times in the soil some weeks before the tree is planted. After the tree has been planted and once started to grow, it is then well to manure it heavily till it begins to bear. Begin with a moderate quantity, applying near the outer extremity of the lateral roots, and increase the quantit}' every year and en- large the area to which it is applied. When garden crops arc planted, scatter the manure broadcast. Aim to make the ground rich — rich as a city garden. It will pay for the manure and cultivation if the ground be planted and well cultivated in crops, and especially if planted in vegetables where a market 92 ORAXGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. can be readily reached. There are several advan- tages derived from generous manuring when the trees are young : not only is the development of the tree hastened, but the tree is less liable to be attacked by some of the insects, and when attacked is better enabled to resist their ravages ; and when in vigorous health, but not making new wood during winter, it is less liable to be damaged by the influence of frost. To prevent this last-named evil the young tree should never be stimulated in the fall or latter part of the summer. It is much bet- ter to manure in the spring. Another advantage to be noted is, when trees are pushed before coming into bearing, the heavy manuring does no damage to the fruit. The kind of fertilizer to be used depends largely upon the character of the soil. If the land planted was originally heavily set in hard wood, and the ashes of the wood, cut in clearing, have been scat- tered on the ground, it is more than likely that the soil for a few years will have a sufficiency of lime, soda, and potash. In that case nitrogenous ma- nures will be needed. But if all the hard wood has been taken off the land and no ashes left, such a soil will likely have become poor in calcareous manures (as the readiness with which the pine springs up in our worn hammock lands shows), and should be treated as the piue lands, and manures applied containing all the elements of vegetable .life used bv the roots. FERTILIZING. 93 Some of the commercial manures arc valuable, when used in combination with other things, but none of them contain in the right proportions all the elements needed for the orange. The writer has used and seen used a large variety of these fertil- izers, and some benefit has been derived from most of them. From others no advantage has been dis- coverable. A good article of ground bone, where the oils and phosphoric acid have not been too generally expelled by burning ; Peruvian guano, and potash, both the nitrate and sulphate, are very good when combined with muck. These are es- pecially valuable when early vegetables are to be grown among the orange trees, as they highly stim- ulate the soil and hasten forward both the vegetables and orange trees. Land plaster should be especially mentioned as beneficial to our sandy soil, as it not only furnishes an important element to the soil, but in the ab- sence of clay in most of our soil furnishes a valuable absorber and retainer of the volatile manures so easily expelled by our abundance of sunshine. The writer thinks he has seen another advantage in the use of land plaster in the check which the sulphur, contained in the plaster, has upon some of the in- sects which damage the trees. Green crops turnetl under arc highly beneficial to young trees. Rye, oats, and barley, sown in the fall and turned under in the spring and followed by one or two crops of cow peas during the summer, 94 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. help forward a grove of trees wonderfully. It is still better if this be accompanied by a liberal dress- ing of wood-ashes. One ton to the acre is not too much. Manures from the stables, cow-pens, hennery, and pig-sty, indeed from every place where waste is de- posited, should first be deodorized by the liberal use of land plaster or sulphate of iron — copperas — dissolved in water and composted with muck, and be carefully saved and utilized. As they are highly stimulating, they should be composted with three or four times the quantity of muck, and frequently turned before using. But of all the manures, that which is cheapest and most abundant is the muck to bo found in our rivers, creeks, lakes, and ponds. A good article of muck is little less than decomposed vegetable matter. Leaves, wood, weeds, and grass, as they have fallen, have been washed into these deposits and decomposed under water so slowly and so excluded from the atmosphere that they have lost little of their original elements. Here they have been pre- served by nature, as in the crucible of the chemist, for ages, and now lie in rich and vast deposits for the use of the orange-grower. Some who have supp>osed they were using muck have been mistak- en. They have found a black sand with a little vegetable matter with it, If they had taken a little of it and washed it they would have found little else than sand, and some of it, that of a brown granular FEKTILIZIXG. 95 appearance, of a similar nature to " hard-pan." Such a deposit is of no value, and that containing the brown sand is actually injurious to the orange. Some who have used this kind of material have failed to discover any benefit and have cried out against all muck. But the time has passed for this. Too many have used muck and found it valuable for its merits to remain longer unknown. Where this deposit is close to the grove, an econom- ical way to use it is to haul it at once from the bed and spread it broadcast over the ground and plow it in. It should not be allowed to dry in the sun, as it then becomes lumpy. If turned under the surface it soon incorporates itself with the soil. After it is applied and turned under, a top-dressing of ashes or lime would prove beneficial. If the de- posit is some distance from the grove it is more eco- nomical to throw it into heaps near the bed, but under the shade, and still better to add a little lime slaked with salt water or ashes, as it is thrown in uniform layers. The pile soon heats and dries out, leaving the muck as friable as a bed of sand. It is then very light and easily handled and carted. In this condition it can be used in almost any quanti- ties ; the only danger to be feared from excessive use is in piling it up so deep over the roots as to smother them for a while. And yet if the crown roots are kept uncovered the surface roots soon find their wa\- to the muck near the surface. The writer has had the orange roots penetrate, for several 96 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. inches above the general surface, a pile of muck left for a few weeks near a tree. Before trees reach the bearing state they should be fed with nitrogenous manures, but after they have begun to bear, potash and kindred manures should be liberally used. Nitrogenous manures encourage the development of new wood and foli- age, while phosphate of lime and potash are neces- sary to an abundance of fruit. The yellow leaves of the tree indicate a deficiency of nitrogenous ma- nures, while the dark green leaves show an abun- dance. Where trees are slow in coming into bearing, or where old trees do not set sufficient fruit, give the trees a liberal manuring sufficiently early in the sea- son to enable the rains to carry the soluble manure to the roots before the time of forming the button for the bloom. By so doing you develop the bud, that would otherwise only make foliage, into a fruit bud. It requires more nutriment to make fruit than wood, and hence the importance of this in- struction. In colder latitudes the frosts of winter lock up the circulation of fruit trees that nature may have sufficient time to store food for the greater effort to bear fruit. But in the milder climate of the orange regions this circulation is not always check- ed sufficiently to prevent the consumption of the soluble manures in the soil. And hence when the time of fruiting comes, there is not a sufficient sup- FEKTILIZIXG. 97 ply of fertility in the soil to make the blossoms set the fruit, and so the tree makes the easier effort to form wood instead of fruit. After growth has been for a while suspended, by drought or poverty of soil, I have brought trees into blooming and bear- ing during midsummer by a liberal application of soluble manure. I have seen a grove that had pre- viously borne only a few scattering oranges brought into liberal bearing by the application of a good dressing of manure in November. Once more before leaving this subject : While commercial manures, properly combined and suffi- ciently concentrated, are a great convenience, owing to the ease with which they are distributed, the temptation to adulterate with something worthless, and sometimes something injurious to the orange, is so great that there is much uncertainty as to their real value. I .have occasionally used manures of the same brand and from the same establishment which differed so greatly in their real value that while I have found one lot entirely satisfactory, another lot has proven quite worthless. The intel- ligent orange-grower can proceed with much more certainty if he can make his own manures. For this purpose no country can furnish better facilities than Florida. In addition to the abundance of material for mulching, already mentioned, there is such a vast quantity of muck, leaves, and grass from forests and marshes that with a few cattle or horses a large amount of valuable manure can be 98 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. secured by those who are wilHng to take the trou- ble. Some of our planters in the State have made by this method as much as one ton of good manure per head of cattle or horses per month. And noth- ing is better for the orange than this well-rotted barn- yard manure. If it is not convenient to keep stock, a good compost can be made by adding 30c pounds of ground bone and 200 pounds of muri- ate of potash to one cord of muck. Turn frequent- ly the compost, and when well rotted apply broad- cast at the rate of 1000 pounds per acre, and har- row. CHAPTER XVII. SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. SLTITHERTO no mention has been made of any Ci>->T of the Citrus family except the sweet orange and. the wild or sour orange — bigarade. The methods of propagation and cultivation of all the family are so similar that no difference need be mentioned, except the fact that the citron, the lime, and the lemon, are much more tender than the orange, and need to be planted in more shelter- ed places. Gallesio recognizes but four distinct species in the family : the orange (sweet), the bigarade (sour orange), the citron, and the lemon. He justly remarks as to the varieties : " The citrus is a genus whose species are greatly disposed to blend together, and whose flower shows great facility for receiving extraordinary fecundation ; it hence offers an infinite number of different races which ornament our gardens, and whose vague and indefinite names fill the catalogues." Gray re- marks : " The species or varieties are much con- fused and mixed." Reese in his quotations from authorities makes a similar confession. But if the species and varieties are so confused in Europe, lOO ORANGE CULTURE IX FLORIDA. where the classification of the citrus family has been principally discussed, and where the multiplrcation of varieties has been somewhat held in check by their method of propagating the orange, mainly by graft or bud, what must be " the number of differ- ent races" which are to be found in Florida, where the general method of propagating the orange is from seed ? At the late meeting of our State Fruit Growers' Association a committee was charged with the work of naming our best marked varieties. They made a short report on the few varieties which came under their observation. But their work is not com- plete, nor likely to be for the next year or two. They are competent men, but their task is endless as well as important. Almost every community where the orange has been long grown from seed has some excellent and well-marked variety. Some of these varieties differ greatly. Some ripen early and others late. Some have thick tough skins with finely flavored fruit, and are well adapted to shipping a long distance, while others are of such a delicate skin and pulp that they will have to be eaten nearer home. Some are large and light bearers, while others are small and heavy bearers. Many varieties differ greatly in color, from the pale orange to a reddish orange, and even to blood color. It would be well for those who intend planting budded trees, or propose to bud trees now growing, to select the .most excellent kinds. SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. loz whether they have yet been honored with a name or not, as it is the quality of the fruit and not the name wliich is needed. The name and classifica- tion will come in time. Any new and remarkably good varieties ought also to be brought to the no- tice of the above-named State committee on no- menclature. These gendemen will do their duty, and Florida will be compelled to have her own nomenclature, as she has her own varieties. The orange of Portugal and the China orange are two well-known varieties in Europe, and are fre- quendy seen in Florida, but have changed some- what by having been reproduced from seed. The Orange of Portugal, or common sweet orange, IS a tree growing to a great height when raised from seed. Its leaf is green, having a winged petiole ; its shoots are whitish, its flowers entirely white and very odorous, though not equal in perfume to those of the bigarade. Its fruit, ordinarily round, is sometimes flattened, sometimes a little oblong. The rind, less than an eighth of an inch in thickness, is of a reddish yellow, and full of aroma ; the inner skin is a sallow white, spongy, and light. The sections, nine to eleven in number, contain a sweet juice, very refreshing and agreeable ; its seeds are white and oblong, germinat- ing very easily and reproducing usually the species with little change. There is a variety with no thorns ; it i^the race cultivated mostly l)y grafting, and is seen in all countries where this method of pi^opagation is followed. In places where the orange I02 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. is grown from seed it is rare to find it deprived of thorns. The China Orange is a variety excelling- all others in the perfection of its fruit, of which the juice is the sweetest, the most abundant, and the most perfumed. The skin is always smooth, glossy, and so thin that one can scarcely detach it from the pulp. This is characteristic of this variety. The Red-fruited Orange is a singular variety. Its appearance, its leaf, its flower, are all exactly like the common orange. Its fruit alone is distinguished by a color of blood, which develops itself gradually and like flakes. When the fruit begins to ripen it is like other oranges ; little by little, spots of blood-color ap- pear in its pulp ; as it advances to maturity, these en- large, becoming deeper, and finally embrace all the pulp and spread to the skin, which is, however, but rarely covered by the peculiar color ; yet this some- times occurs if oranges are left upon the trees after the month of May. This orange is multiplied only by grafts, having few seeds, and those of little value. This is a proof that it is a monster ; if it were the type of a species it would yield more seed and reproduce itself by seed. Its branches are without thorns, its fruit is sweet, but less so than the China orange, and it has thicker skin. It is cultivated largely in Malta and Provence. In Liguria it is found chiefly among amateurs and seeds- men. — Gallesio. So far as the Florida Fruit Growers* Association has determined, through their committee, the no- SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. 103 incnclature of our own varieties it is given below, and such should be authority among the growers in Florida. Ci/ron—Civitmon.—YrwxX. very large ; color that of ordinary lemon ; rind and pulp white, and almost tasteless ; tree vigorous. Orange Citron.— Yx\x\\. somewhat cone - shaped, more pointed than common variety ; color that of an ordinary orange ; rind cream-colored ; pulp yellow- ish ; rind sweet and highly aromatic ; fruit possesses less bitterness than the common variety ; tree a small, stiff, erect grower. For home use or commer- cial purposes this variety is in general cultivation. Tangierine Orange ; synonyms, Mandarin, Kid Glove, Tomato Orange.— 'B>\z& medium ; much flat- tened ; color dark orange ; broad, irregular cavity, with stem obliquely inserted and surrounded by a knobbed eminence ; eye set in a large depression one inch wide and five sixteenths deep ; longitudinal di- ameter two and a half inches, transverse diameter three inches ; skin irregularly ribbed or lobed ; color of flesh very dark orange ; pulp adhering to skin by a few filaments ; sections of pulp easily separated ; pulp coarse ; juice sweet and highly aromatic ; aroma marked ; quality first. Tree of original variety intro- duced by Major Atway, from Bayou Sara, La., and now growing in the grove of Dr. Moragne, at Palatka. Dancy's Tangierine. — '6\zq small ; much flattened ; color deeper and more brilliant than parent variety ; longitudinal diameter one and three quarter inches, transverse diameter two and one quarter inches ; the eye set in a deep cavity seven eighths in diameter ; I04 OKAXGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. stalk straight and inserted in a ribbed depression ; thickness of the skin three sixteenths ; general prop- erties of pulp same as parent, only superior ; fruit nearl)'- seedless. In flavor and external appearance this variety is superior to the original. Seminal vari- ety of the Tangierine raised by Colonel F. L. Dancy, Buena Vista, St. Johns county, Fla. Citrus Japonica ; synonym. Dwarf Ora/ige. — Dwarf-growing variety ; size of fruit small ; slightly obovate ; color deep orange ; skin thin ; eye set in a flattened depression ; fruit regularly ribbed, or lobed ; longitudinal diameter two inches, transverse diam- eter one inch and seven eighths ; color of flesh dark ; grain fine and tender ; juice very acid. Useless, ex- cept as an ornamental fruit. Navel Ora7ige ; synonyms. Umbilical, Bahia, Pernamhuco, Seedless Orange, E7nbigiio.— S\zQ large to very large ; eye presenting an umbilical appearance (from which it obtains its name) ; stem inserted in a shallow-ribbed cavity with deep lines ; skin three sixteenths thick ; longitudinal diameter three and five eighths, transverse three and three quarters ; flesh very fine, melting, and tender ; juice sweet, sprightly, vinous, and aromatic ; quality first. Ori- gin, Bahia, Brazil. Citrus Myrtifolia. — Myrtle-leaved orange ; fruit small and slightly flattened ; eye set in flattened de- pression ; leaves like those of the myrtle ; flavor re- sembling that of a bitter-sweet. Fruit useless for table. Sweet Seville {Hicks). — Size small ; slightly flat- tened ; color comparatively deep ; eye small, without depression ; skin very smooth ; thickness of skin two SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. 105 sixteenths ; longitudinal diampter two iiirhes, trans- verse two and three eighths ; color darker llian Navel orange ; foliage differs from other varieties examined ; leaves markedly obovate ; average length about three and one quarter inches ; width aliout two and five eigliths ; grain very fine, juicy, and melting ; juice very sweet and sprightly ; quality best ; a superior fruit in every respect except size. Supposed to be a seedling raised at Arcadia, St. John's county. Florida. Arcadia.— 'i'xie. large ; form somewhat flattened ; color deep ; eye set in slight depression ; stalk in- serted in a slight roughened cavity ; skin smooth with marked pits ; thickness of skin three sixteenths ; longitudinal diameter two and three quarter inches ; transveise diameter three and a quarter inches ; color of flesh deep ; grain coarse ; pulp melting ; juice slightly sub-acid ; quality good. Supposed seedling raised at Arcadia, and introduced by the Rev. Will- iam Watkin Hicks. Bergamot.—Yorm flattened, with projecting nip- pie ; color deep lemon ; eye absent, and its place oc- cupied by a nipple-like projection ; stem inserted in a slight depression ; skin two sixteenths ; longitudi- nal diameter through nipple three inches, transverse three inches ; color of pulp nearly white ; juice sweet and watery without any decided flavor ; rind possesses a pear-like fragrance, from which perfumers obtain their bergamot essences. Only worthy of cultivation as a curiosity. No!iparfz'l. — ?i\ze about medium; somewhat flat- tened ; color ordinary ; eye broad and set in a slight- ly depressed cavity ; stem inserted in a level, scarred surface ; skin three sixteenths thick ; longitudinal di- I06 ORA.XGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. anieter two and three quarters of an inch ; transverse diameter three and a quarter ; color of flesh ordinary ; grain fine ; pulp melting and tender ; juice sub-acid and vinous ; quality good. Seedling raised by Mrs. Mary Richard, Arlington River, Duval County, Flor- ida. Magnum Bonum. — Size large to very large ; flat- tened ; color light-clear orange ; eye set in a slight cavity ; stem inserted in a narrow depression ; skin smooth and glossy ; thickness of skin two sixteenths ; longitudinal three inches, and the transverse three and five eighths ; color of flesh light ; grain very fine, tender, and melting ; fruit ver}' heavy and juicy ; juice sweet, rich, and vinous ; quality best. Probably a seedling raided at Homosassa, Fla., the former res- idence of the Hon. Mr. Yulee. Old J'V;//.— Size about medium ; slightly flattened ; color dark orange ; eye broad, and set in a sl'ght cav- ity ; stem inserted in a narrow wrinkled depression ; surface of skin rough ; thickness of skin three six- teenths ; longitudinal diameter two and three quar- ter inches ; transverse diameter three and one eighth ; grain coarse ; pulp melting ; juice sub-acid and re- markable for a sprightly vinous property ; quality good. Seedling raised by Col. Dancy, Buena Vista, St. John's County, Florida. Buena Vista ; synonym. Sweet Seville. — Size me- dium ; slightly flattened ; color dark crimson ; eye set in a slightly depressed cavity ; stem inserted in a slight depression ; skin smooth, with deep pits ; thickness of skin nearly four sixteenths ; longitudinal diameter two and three quarter inches, transverse three inches ; color of flesh very dark ; pulp coarse, SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. 107 but melting ; juice sub-acid ; sprightly with vinous rtavor ; quality good. Seedling raised Ijy Colonel Dancy. No. 3 {Beach's). — Size above medium ; form ob- long ; color light ; eye set in flattened surface ; stem inserted in a s'.iglit, wrinkled cavity ; thiclsness of skin three sixteenths ; longitudinal diameter three and three eighths, transverse three and a qur.rter inches ; pulp coarse, not melting ; juice sub-acid ; quality fair. ' Osceola.— S\ze large; slightly flattened; color bright ; skin smooth and glossy ; eye very small, and set in a slight cavity ; stem inserted in small, shal- low, wrinkled depression ; skin three sixteenths thick ; longitudinal diameter three inches ; trans- verse three and a quarter ; grain coarse ; pulp rather melting ; juice sweet ; quality good. Seedling raised by L. H. Van Pelt, Mandarin, Plorida. Dixon Orange. — Size large ; somewhat flattened ; color light ; eye small, insetted in a slightly depress- ed cavity ; stem inserted m deep, narrow depression ; thickness of skin four sixteenths of an inch ; longitu- dinal diameter three inches ; transverse three and a half ; grain coarse ; pulp not melting ; juice sub- acid, wiihout any decided flavor; quality second. Seedling raised on Indian River. Sweet Seville {Tolma?i s).—Sv/.g below medium, but larger than Hicks' vaiiety ; form flattened ; color light orange ; eye large, without any cavity, and sur- rounded by a dark circle ; stem inserted without cav- ity ; skin smooth and two sixteenths thick ; longitu- dinal diameter two and a quarter inches, transverse two and five eighths ; pulp fine, melting, juicy. Io8 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. sweet ; inferior quality to Hicks' variety. Origin, Mandarin, Florida. Sweet Lemon. —Size very small ; form much flat- tened ; color lusty, grayish yellow ; instead of eye a marked nipple set in a deep cavity ; stem inserted in a slight depression ; thickness of skin two sixteenths ; longitudinal diameter two inches, transverse two and one eighth ; color of flesh dark lemon ; grain of pulp coarse ; juice sweet and insipid, with slight lemon flavor. Curious, but unworthy of cultivation. The following appeared m the Florida Agricul- turist, from the pen of A. H. JNIanville, one of our most intelligent nurserymen : SELECTION OF VARIETIES. In planting for profit it would be almost impossible for a person unacquainted with the many varieties of the citrus to make an intelligent selection without a more comprehensive guide than a biief description of the different varieties. Of the varieties of the Sweet Orange known in Florida, the Bell, Du Roi, Egg, Blood, and Navel are distinctly marked and readily distin- guishable by their appearance. The Bell — which must not be confounded with the insipid, thick- skinned, early, oblong variety— and the Du Roi are m every respect superior fruit ; their fine quality will always command for them a high price, while their distinctive characteristics will prevent deception or confusion regarding their variety. The Navel ranks among the first for size and quality ; and, like the above, its peculiar mark will distinguish it in mar- SPECfES, VARIETIES, ETC. 109 ket. Unlike the above, it is not a prolific bearer, on which account many fear to plant ; it is however by no means as shy a bearer as has been represented. Tiie Blood has not been fruited long- enough m the Slate to determine its market value. The Egg is val- uable as an early fruit for home use ; its small size and want of flavor render it unfit for market. The Sweet Seville and St. Michaels, though not distinctly marked, are to some extent distinguishable by the ap- ])earance of the fruit ; the former is one of the most delicious for home use, though too small for profitable shipment ; the latter is prolific and a good market fruit. Acis, Arcadia, Beach's No. 3, Creole, Dum- mit, Dixon, Excelsior. H.xmosassa, Higgins, MAG- NUM BoNUM, Nonpareil, Osceola, Old Vini, Peerless, Ahiti, and perhaps others having a local name and celebrity, are native varieties recently brought to public notice ; those in small caps are best known and most highly esteemed. They are all very similar, the difference, if any, being too slight to distinguish them in market, and of little importance to growers generally. The differences of description have arisen from soil, location, and treatment rather than from any intrinsic difference in the fruit. This multiplicalion of varieties differing little in character would seem at first to be useless, confusing the grower and burdening the nurserymen ; in fact, they served good purposes, placing a superior variety within reach of every section, and being a safeguard against the numberless inferior sorts. While, there- fore, it is immaterial in planting which of these be selected, it is highly important that a well-known ac- credited variety be chosen. Tardiff does not differ in 110 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. appearance or quality from the above, but retains its perfection until very late in the season ; if this habit remains permanent it will be one of the most desira- ble. Boteiha, Dulcissima, Jaffa, and other recently imported varieties have not been fruited long enough in the State to determine their qualities. Of all the citrus tribe the Mandarin or Tangerine orange is the most delicate and aromatic, though scarcely as luscious as the Sweet Orange of Florida. On account of its beautiful shape, color, and the ease with which the rind and segments separate, it is highly esteemed as a dessert fruit. Comparatively few are shipped, and these bring an enormously high price. The effect of increased production consequent upon the large number being planted remains to be seen. The trees are hardy and prolific. There are two distinct classes — the first dwarfed, willow- leaved, and yellow-fruited. Of this class there are many inferior seedling varieties which have occasion- ed a prejudice against it in some localities ; the trees can be planted much closer than the Sweet Orange. The second, full-sized, large-leaved, crimson-fruited, much prized on account of its color. The China and St. Michaels of the former class and the Bijou of the latter are superior varieties. Until recently Florida lemons have been regarded as too large, thick-skinned, and bitter-rinded for profitable shipment. The last few years have den\- onstrated this to be erroneous. Heretofore com- paratively unknown in market, a poor opinion was formed from the inferior quality and improper prep- aration of the specimens fowarded. The fruit is now in demand, sought for by local buyers and consignees SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. iii in Northern markets, and commands a price equal to tiie best P'iorida oranges and much greater than im- ported lemons. As a result of this favorable condi- tion of market, many are planting extensively. The lemon is more prolific and an earlier bearer than the orange, and its cultivation equally or more remunera- tive ; the tree will not stand as great X degree of cold as the latter, but is successfully grown as far north as Putnam County. While much of the fruit pro- duced in the State is superior in quality, there are numberless coarse, inferior sorts ; to avoid these, as with the orange, only well-known leading varieties should be planted. The Sicily, or imported lemon of commerce, French's Seedling, not the so-called French lemon, and Lamb have fruited for some years, and are far superior in every respect, the two latter being equal to the imported fruit. The characteristics of the fruit of these three varieties are essentially the same. French's Seedhng is less thorny than the others. Bijou, Eureka, Genoa, Imperial, and some others recently introduced promise well. Ever-bear- ing is valuable for home use rather than market. Young trees of this species, even of the best varie- ties, are apt to produce large, coarse fruit ; it becomes smaller and finer as the tree grows older. Extract from Ikirticullural Congress Papers, by Thomas Rivers, England. Dotclha and Dulcissiina, both thin rinds and very rich. Ei^g, very large, rind thick, remarkably juicy, but not rich ; a great bearer. Exqutsttc, a thin-rind- ed, rich, and juicy fruit. Maltese Blood, large, oval. 112 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. with dark red pulp, exceedingly rich, good and dis- tinct ; fruit from the same tree vary in color from deep red to the usual pale yeliovv color, with faint streaks of red. St. Michaels, thin rind, very juicy, and bears abundantly. Silver Orange, color of rind pale yellow, flesh pale, rind very thin, flavor piquant and delicious. Sustazn, large, and remarkable for its sweet juices. White Orange, large, rind pale yel- low, flesh very pale, flavor rich and good. The following is from the report of the Southern California Horticultural Society : FINE ORANGES. T. A. Garey, from San Francisco, presented sev- eral specimens of Carey's Mediterranean Sweet Or- ange, to show in what a good state of preservation this fruit will keep to so late a period as the middle of August. The specimens were cut and tested by those present. They were of a fine texture, solid, juicy, of a good flavor, and looked as though they would remam on the trees unimpaired in quality for a month longer. Mr. Garey claims for this fruit the following good qualities : This orange commences to fruit the second year from the bud. It bears heavy and regular crops. The fruit commences to ripen in December, and remains sound and firm on the tree until the follow- ing August. It is of large size, symmetrical shape, and extraor- dinary fine color. SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. 113 A large proportion are entirely seedless. The flavor is excellent, the grain very fine, and the fruit is almost entirely free from the tough and stringy membranous substances usually found in oranges. Its keeping qualities are superior to any variety tested in thib country, rendering it a superior market fruit. The tree is a rapid grower, symmetrical in shape, and forming invariably a round and beautiful head. An entire absence of thorns, avoiding by this pe- - culiarity the large percentage of loss usually sustain- ed in the puncturing of the fruit by the thorns or spines found on the common variety of orange trees. In concluding this subject of varieties, I would urge upon the orange growers of this State the ad- visability of selecting and cultivating varieties with reference to their time of maturing. The orange naturally has the advantage of most fruits in point of extending the time of ripening. It is a crop that can be harvested as the market demands — be- ginning ordinarily with November and ending with INIarch. And this period might be extended so as to embrace a still longer time, by gathering in ]\Iarch and carefully housing, thus preventing de- terioration of fruit by longer hanging on the tree, and giving relief to the latter. This course has been advised by one who has studied the methods of handling the orange in European groves. 114 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. A dry packing-house, with numerous shelves and frequent fumigation, will probably play an impor- tant part in the future as a preventive of a tem- porary market-glut, or the effects of a septennial freeze. But this matter can be helped by an intel- ligent selection of kinds for stocking a grove. Nor have we even then seen the final result : if early varieties have been propagated in this initiatory stage of the study of the orange industry, others will be introduced that are earlier ; if a freak of nature has given us an orange that ripens in March, the observant orchardist will not be long in improving on this. A late-maturing orange has already been mention- ed in these pages, but there is an early variety that nurserymen pass over in their catalogues, yet which should not be despised. Like the lemon grown in this State, its treatment has not been such as to bring out its merits. Under no circumstances is it as good an orange as the ordinary Florida fruit, when the latter is matured. But the " Thornless Bell"' is edible in September, and is best when gathered then, before it yellows on the tree. When permitted to turn on the tree it loses that sufficiency of acidity which it possesses earlier, and which pre- vents its being insipid — the common objection to it. Instead of a thick rind, it then cures with a skin as thin as that of the imported Sicily orange, and with which it will probably compare favorably as to general quality. Let it be understood that SPECIES, VARIETIES, ETC. Its all that is claimed for this " September" orange, as it mit^ht be designated, are its early ripening quali- ties and its wonderfully jjrolitic nature. CHAPTER XVIII. THE LEMON AND LIME. ^Comparatively little attention has been ^5 given in Florida to the cultivation of the lemon and lime ; and yet these are among the most val- uable of the citrus family, whether we consider their monetary value or their healthfulness. This neg- lect has arisen from several causes. The lemon is a more vigorous grower than the orange, and when planted on strong or fresh land the fruit grows to a much larger size and with a thicker skin than in Europe. The rind, also, when the fruit is permitted to yellow upon the tree, is bitter, which destroys the commercial value of the lemon. Other ill results are noticed when the fruit is permitted to ripen on the tree. Such fruit is comparatively light, the juice sparse, and charged with a small per cent of citric acid. All this is the result of a want of knowledge of proper treatment of the fruit. INIy lemons have brought in New York and Philadelphia more money per box than my oranges, and have in these markets ranked as first quality. I would mention also that as a gen- eral rule the lemon tree is more productive than the orange. This fruit which ranked so high was THE LEMON AND LIME. lij gathered (rom seedlings planted from seed of the Sicily and Messina fruit of commerce. If the fruit on these trees is allowed to ripen on the tree they average three fourths of a pound in weight, but of inferior quality, juice litde, and rind thick. My method of preparing for market is to gather the fruit when about one third larger than we find the Sicily lemon when it reaches our American market In curing, the fruit will shrink this extra third. The fruit is gathered in latticed boxes hold- ing about fifty lemons each and only two layers deep. The fruit should be cut with short stems, and so handled as not to be bruised. The boxes are at once put into a close room one on top of another, but forming a hollow square. If the room is large, cover the pile of boxes Avith a cloth that will con- fine the sulphurous gas with which the fruit is to be treated. Place in the centre of the square, and suf- ficiently remote from the boxes not to heat the fruit, an oven of live coals. Throw on die burning coals an ounce of flowers of sulphur, and fasten down the cloths. If the room is small and tight the cloth is not necessary. Allow the fruit to remain in a dark room for a week, then expose to sun- light— the direct rays of the sun a part of the day is best — until the skin is yellow. The fruit is then ready for market or to be stored for future use, for when thus treated it can be kept for an indefinite time. This sulphurous gas is of great benefit iu the curing of both lemon and orange : First, it aids Il8 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. in properly curing the fruit by toughening the skin and drying up the watery particles ; second, it is fatal to all parasites of the orange, whether vegeta- ble or animal. I am satisfied that a very large per cent of the speedy decay of the orange so fatal to shippers is occasioned by the genns of fungi left over from the former year in packing-houses, and old boxes in which rotten fruit was conveyed. These germs lie dormant, waiting for a moist at- mosphere favorable to their development ; they then develop and multiply with wondrous rapidity, showing their work in the fomi of mould on any moist surface, but especially on fruit. Some years ago I put into a basket that had held some decayed lemons, on the sides of which basket at the time of gathering I noticed a little mould, some very line Tangerine oranges. In two days' time half the fruit was entirely worthless. The fruit that was left on the tree, or that had been otherwise handled, was entirely sound. This gave me a hint. It was a very wet season ; most of our shippers were losing heavily. Commission merchants were constantly reporting " Fruit arrived in bad order,"' " Did not pay expenses. " I knew that sulphurous fumes were fatal to fungoids. I commenced to gather and ship in the midst of the damp season. I fumi- gated every box of fruit, and though mould had ap- peared on the fruit as it hung on the trees, I heard no report of decayed fruit, but on the contrary had THE LEMON AND LIME. 119 the report ol "Arrived in good condition," and " Good price. " I have not had nuicli experience in handhng the Hme, hut I am convinced that this fruit, most val- uable because of its healthfulness and its richness in citric acid, can be cured as easily as the lemon, and preserved quite as long if subjected to the treat- ment recommended for the lemon. This fruit needs only to be known in our Northern market to be valued even more highly than the lemon. When once brought into notice it will prove truly profita- ble to the grower. The yield is speedy and abun- dant. The Florida lemon, marketed during the latter part of August and all of September and October, meets with little competition from foreign fruit. CHAPTER XIX. THE INSECTS DAMAGING TO THE ORANGE TREE THE NATURAL ENEMIES OF SUCH INSECTS, AND THE REMEDIES TO BE APPLIED. §UT few insects injurious to the orange tree have appeared, but their ravages have now and then done considerable mischief, and awakened still greater apprehension. The insect which at one time was considered the most injurious was the long scale insect, resembling one side of a dis- torted muscle-shell, and was called by Packard As- pidiotus Gloverii. When it first made its appear- ance in Florida it threatened universal destruction of the orange groves. It first made its appearance at Mandarin, Florida, about forty years ago, to which place it was brought on some China orange plants freshly imported from China. The insect is very diminutive, and under a glass" of strong power has the appearance of a white louse. It is very quick in its motions (its movements resembling those of the chicken-mite), and conceals itself, dur- ing the presence of an enemy, under the scale erected for the shelter, first of the egg and then of the young insect. The eggs are purple and laid in two parallel rows. The insect when hatched at INSECTS DAMAGING ORANGE TREE. 121 once begins to suck the sap — like the aphis — from the bark and leaf of the tree wherever the scale happens to be fastened. It finally develops into a diminutive fly undiscoverable with the natural eye, except when late in the afternoon they can be seen between the observer and the declining sun when the tree infested is suddenly jarred. The effect pro- duced by their sucking is first to deplete and finally to e.xhaust and kill tlic branch and leaf to which they cling. Several remedies have been found effect- ual. The most effective yet known to the writer is a decoction of tobacco with sufficient carbolic soap to make a strong suds. Apply with a garden syringe or pump, through a perforated nozzle. Kerosene, in the proportion of one part of kerosene to eleven of water, applied in the same manner, is effective. But there is danger if too much be used. A mod- erate amount is a good fertilizer and stimulant to the tree. As there is no chemical affinity between the kerosene and water, the mixture has to be kept vigorously stirred during the time of applying it. Either of these applications has to be repeated two or three times, at intervals of ten or twelve days. Another insect similar to the one just consid- ered, but with scale of lighter appearance and of rounder form, is also damaging to the trees. This insect seldom attacks either the leaves or the tender wood, but confines itself mainly to the bark of the wood from one to four years old. They are easily and effectively removed bv washing the trunks 122 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. with wood-ashes and water in the proportion of one quart of ashes to three gallons of water. If found generally on the tree in positions not easily reached by the hand, syringe as before with " white lye" — lye prepared by boiling wood-ashes. A most formidable enemy to both these insects named has appeared within the last two years in the grove of the writer. It is a lady-bug with a sin- gle red spot on each wing case. In both the pupa and perfect state it is ever busy devouring these in- sects. Of course they are allowed full freedom of the grove, and are increasing very rapidly. Another enemy, noticed for the first time and during the present year in the grove of the writer, of the long scale insect, has appeared in the form of a small hang or basket worm, " named by ]\Ir. Packard as the writer has been informed through the entomological department of the Agricultural Department), Platoecitus Gloverii,'' but later named Psyche Confederata. The female remains in her case and devours insects inclosed under her web. The male is a small dark- colored moth. These insects are not a very formidable enemy to the scale, as the female confines herself closely in her operations under her web. But some small trees have been entirely rid of insects by their help. But if " these insects," as the entomologist of the Agricultural Department writes, " in their habits resemble the basket or drop worm of the North," they might prove an enemy to the orange tree as IXSECTS DAMAGING ORAXCE TREE. 123 well as to the scale insect, and if so should not be encouraged. Another insect resembles, when young, fine corn-meal dusted over the tree, but when the case in which the insects are inclosed is full grown it resembles the small barnacles clinging to a wharf built in salt water. When these cases are turned over and examined with a glass they disclose under each a multitude of small insects resembling lice. They do not exhaust trees so rapidly as the scale insect, but their presence is damaging. The leaves of the trees infested change after a while to a dark sooty appearance, and the tree docs not grow so rapidly. An enemy to this insect also has appjeared. I am informed by the entomologist of the Agricultu- ral Department, to whom I sent specimens of this and the other insects mentioned, that the " insect is tlie Evagoras Rubidus, which destroys the plant- lice on the cotton and orange, at least I have found it in the act of sucking out the juice of a plant- louse." As I finished the above sentence I laid my pen down to go out and capture some of these insects, that I might give a more accurate descrip- tion, and found a full-grown insect which had just pierced with his proboscis a full-grown house-fly. He continued his feast for a few moments as I watched, and when frightened retreated, carrying his prey with him. This insect when young resem- bles a red spider. As it increases in size it changes 124 ORAKGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. ■. to a salmon color with white spots. When haU grown, or about one half inch in length, two small black wings are visible. When full grown, or three fourths of an inch in length, two pairs of wings show themselves, the smaller or under pair black, the upper pair black, with salmon-colore