MUCH has been written and published regarding Orange culture; and it is a matter of conviction that many persons have regretted engaging in the pursuit. Since the close of the civil war there has been a sort of mania on the part of some to engage in Orange culture, and the majority have failed. Strangers visited the groves at Mandarin Orange Mills, Palatka and Enterprise, ascertained the pecuniary results, contracted the orange fever, planted groves, and as an evidence of the results I shall merely cite one case. In the summer of '69 I visited St. Augustine, and on my return was detained for several hours at Picolata. This point had been an old settlement; the land worse than exhausted by repeated cropping. To occupy time I examined the locality, and found that an enterprising Northern man had started a grove. From the worse than impoverished condition of the soil, defective culture, abundance of weeds, and the jaundiced appearance of the foliage of the stocks, I predicted failure. Two or three years after, we noticed in the proceedings of the Farmers' Club, the doleful yarn of a Mr. Somebody who had engaged in Orange culture at Picolata, and had failed.

The communication contained a lamentable description of the State, the soil, real estate agents, the people, and Orange culture in particular. But the failure of such a person is no evidence that the culture of the Orange is not profitable, or that the State is not a desirable place for the enterprising emigrant, with the necessary tact, perseverance and knowledge, to insure success.

The proper persons to engage in Orange culture are those possessing a sufficient amount of knowledge to enable them to judge of the productiveness of soil; to plant, propagate, bud, and prune the Orange tree The parties to engage in the business are those who have sufficient wealth to enable them to pay for skilled labor and await returns; or active, energetic, industrious men, possessing a sufficiency of horticultural or agricultural knowledge to enable them to produce other crops, until the golden harvest is ready for market.

With regard to budded or unbudded trees, much difference of opinion exists. Some advise the planting of seedling trees, and others recommend budding on the wild orange stock. Some of the old groves, and many of the new ones, have been planted with unbudded trees raised from the seed of sweet oranges. Unfortunately, the orange sports from seed, and the fruit of an unbudded grove will vary in size, form, color and sweetness. To insure the best and most marketable fruits, we would urgently recommend the importance of planting budded trees - and trees budded from the best varieties in cultivation; The stock heretofore used has been the wild orange, peculiar to the State. The stocks are removed from the forests, cut off about four feet above the soil, and budded in June or July after transplanting. One thing has been overlooked in Florida, and that is, the importance of the lemon as a stock for the orange. The lemon is of more vigorous growth, and will succeed where the orange will fail - hence one of its advantages. Along the shores of the Mediterranean, the importance of the lemon as a stock is admitted, although it has been urged as an objection that it is short lived.

The orange on the orange stock remaining vigorous and productive for three hundred years, on the lemon stock for about one hundred and fifty years. I have repeatedly found, in Florida, a rampant growing variety of the lemon producing very large, thick-skinned fruits, succeeding in poor soil where weeds struggled for existence. If I intended engaging in Orange culture, and was forced to raise my own stocks, I would raise seedlings of this variety of lemon, and bud them with choice varieties of the orange. By utilizing the stock, I am convinced that the planter would secure a crop of fruit much earlier than by planting orange trees raised from seed. When the wild orange stock is used, fruit is seldom produced before the fourth year, and when unworked seedlings are depended upon, the planter need not expect returns before the seventh year.

A difference of opinion exists regarding the best soil for Orange culture; some advocate a light, poor, sandy soil, and others a rich, heavy one. From our observations we are of the opinion that both are correct. On poor, sandy soil, the skin is generally thin and the pulp contains an excess of saccharine matter; but on such a soil the trees are of slow growth and the yield limited. On rich and rather heavy soils the trees grow luxurantly, mature early, and produce abundant crops of large, richly colored and marketable fruits. Some of the largest and finest oranges we ever inspected, were grown on the rich hammock lands in the neighborhood of Brocks-ville. The natural habitat of the wild orange tree is low, rich land, with permanent and potable water within from two to five feet of the surface.

But little attention has been paid to the preparation of the soil for Orange culture. To any one about to engage in the business, we would say cultivate your trees in a nursery for several years, and each year apply quantum suf. of manure; by such a proceeding, bearing trees can be produced at an earlier day. Instead of planting the trees where they are to remain permanently, we would thoroughly prepare the soil for their reception. If old and exhausted land, we would plough deep and sow green crops to be ploughed under, or pasture stock on the land. By a judicious selection from three to four green crops can be produced in one year. In the course of three or four years, poor land could be improved by this procedure, and Orange culture made a success. If new land, we would advise the trees to be grubbed and the land thoroughly cleared. If the new land is poor, we would recommend thorough culture, and the growth of green crops as a manurial substance. The poor, sandy lands of Florida are deficient in humus, and the growth and turning under of green crops would secure the needful elements.

Those who have been accustomed to raise wheat and corn, will remark, "that this is paying dearly for the whistle." But an orange grove is planted but once in centuries; that the richer the soil, and the sooner returns are obtained; and that a bearing grove will yield from five to fifteen hundred dollars per acre annually - hence there is an inducement for thorough preparation of the soil.

Pruning the orange tree in Florida seems to be tabooed; and the trees are a dense mass of branches and leaves with the fruit confined to the perephery. If the trees were annually pruned, and the head kept open, a greater quantity, and a superior quality of fruit would be produced.

The prospector, when examining the State, inquires, "where can I obtain manure?" To the uninitiated I may remark that muck exists in immense quantities, limo is cheap, and in any of the lakes and rivers fish are in countless numbers awaiting the night line with its hundred or more hooks, or the seine with its trap-like embrace. Hence manure of a superior character can be made at a trifling expense. A superior quality of super-phosphate of lime is manufactured at Charleston and sold at $28 per ton. Charles H. Edwards & Co., of Sarasota, are preparing an excellent article of fish guano, and supplying it at $18 per ton. Sheep succeed in the State, and the settler could make them profitable. If shepherded and cared for, their increase would average 90 per cent. The wool is a marketable commodity, and if the animals were penned up at night, the manure produced would be of value. Fowls and cattle succeed, and with pasturage and feed the year round, their manure, associated with plenty of muck and fish, if applied to poor lands, would render them productive.

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