Mr. Editor : Your note requesting my views on the above is at hand; but as your correspondent has so thoroughly ventilated the subject, I can add but little unless in corroboration of his statements. I may remark that, in complying with your request, I have no selfish ends to answer, - having no interest, directly or indirectly, in land in any Southern State. My first visit to Florida was made in 1844, and the last in July of this year.

Mr. Jacques states that "good high hammock land requires no preparation before planting except clearing and digging the holes." I am aware that this is the course usually pursued in Florida; and that the trees grow and bear under such treatment. But if planters could be induced to properly prepare the land before planting, the yield would be increased, and the size and quality of the fruit improved. The orange is a hardy tree, and will annually furnish its harvest under treatment which would destroy an apple or pear tree. The trees are badly planted, and are allowed to "go it alone".

I am convinced that your correspondent's "facts and figures" will be severely criticised by those who have been in the habit of pocketing a small yearly income from the culture of fruit, vegetables, or grain.

During the month of January, 1865, I carefully examined a grove of about 300 trees - one that had received no care or culture for four years. A large number of oranges had been gathered and sold, yet my estimate of the remaining portion of the crop was 1,500 per tree; number of trees to the acre 130; valued at $25 per 1,000, $4,875 per acre. In July last I examined another grove, planted about nine years; the trees were planted very close, say 200 to the acre. My estimate was 1,500 fruit per tree; and if the owner can realize but $20 per 1,000 for his fruit, he will receive $6,000 as the product of one acre. Reduce the price to half a cent per orange, and the result would be $1,500 per acre, - a profitable investment when compared with strawberry or grape growing.

Mr. Jacques refers to stocks, and I fully agree with him that the wild orange stock offers the quickest return; but I am convinced that the orange is more luxuriant in growth, and the fruit is larger, if budded on the lemon stock. This, I admit, is a tedious process of raising a grove, but one that deserves the attention of the settler. The day will come when nursery-grown oranges will be in demand, more especially if the grower is careful in selecting superior varieties for the purposes of propagation. With regard to durability, the lemon stock is objectionable. It is the received opinion on the Continent, that the orange, budded on the orange, will last for 300 years, but on the lemon only 100. But even if worked on the lemon, a man can plant a grove for the benefit of his children. During a recent visit to Florida I instituted inquiry relative to the price of stocks, etc., and was informed that parties would contract to supply the stocks, plant them, and, at the proper season, bud them, at 50 cents per stock.

Mr. Jacques remarks that "Florida oranges are the best in the world;" and I am convinced that some of your readers who are not posted will exclaim that "such a statement is all bosh." Now, sir, Mr. Al Fresco claims to know a good fruit from a bad one; and as he has eaten oranges grown on the Continent, Azores, West Indies, Australia, and Pacific islands, he contends that he is in a position to compare; and he has no hesitation in asserting that he never found any to equal those of poor neglected Florida. The climate of Florida seems peculiarly adapted to this fruit - developing to the greatest extent all its good qualities; but what is wanted is some enterprising person to introduce the Navel orange. This variety is the largest of the family, seedless, juicy, productive, and carries well. When some one cultivates this variety in Florida, where it can attain perfection, and forward to the New York market some of its fruit, then, and only then, will our Rip Van Winkle fruit culturists awake to the advantages of our favored neighbor.

Some years since, at one of the British consulates in tropical America, twenty-seven varieties of fruit appeared at the dessert; and the host requested the opinions of his guests regarding the best fruit on the table, and all decided in favor of the Navel orange.

The climate of Florida seems to possess every requisite to develop all the individuals of the citrus family. The lime grows to perfection; and the citron grows to greater perfection than on the Continent During a recent visit to Florida we were presented with a "small citron" weighing three pounds, and were assured that "some of the same crop, from the same tree, weighed eight pounds." I was positively assured by a gentleman in St. Augustine, that his crop of lemons from "one tree, about fourteen years old, sold for over $100" - the fruit were sold to visitors as curiosities. The gentlemen pointed out three "small lemons," which he informed me were "the last and the smallest of the crop," and kindly presented me with the largest of the three. Upon measuring it I found it to be five and one half inches in length and eleven inches in circumference.

Very inferior oranges are to be found in many of the groves; and this fact is readily accounted for from the fact that many of the trees are seedlings, and in some cases no care was exercised in selecting buds from best varieties. In certain portions of Florida, and, if my information be correct, mainly in the neighborhood of Mandarin, the fruit of the orange is subject to a vegetable fungus or parasite, which leaves a dark stain upon one side of the fruit.

Some will assert that orange culture will soon be overdone and "fizzle out," like strawberry and grape growing. This will not occur for a lengthened period, if at all. Strawberries, grapes, pears, apples, and such fruits, can be raised over a vast extent of country, but the culture of the orange must, of necessity, be confined to a comparatively limited area. Our population is rapidly increasing, and new markets are being constantly opened up by railroad extension. Why in the name of common sense send our spare change abroad for oranges, lemons, limes, and citrons when we have the climate and soil to produce them in greater perfection than the imported ?