JONE I, 1886.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



837 



which constitutes their value as m-able land being nox- 

 ious, if not actually fatal, to humau life. The great 

 national curae, malaria, lias its chosen home on this 

 fertile soil, and the purchaser of such laud is, therefore, 

 perforce coupelled to increase his outlay by the pur- 

 chase of a second situ within easj- reach of his grove 

 laud, hut free from its dr.iwbacks for his residiuce. 



Haviug bought his land in a state of luiiure, and with 

 due regurii to the proximity of transportation, supplies, 

 and labour, the next step is to dear it of timber, and 

 prepare it to receive cultivation. The new settlor will 

 hi_' well advised not to attempt this task himself, but to 

 put it iu the hands of one of the whitu or negro 

 *' elearers" to be found in every part of the State. 

 The.se usefiJ men will contract to prepare land for the 

 plough at regular rates, according to the nature of the 

 growth and the prevailing wages in the vicinity. High 

 pine land can generally be cleareil for <'2f) to >30 par 

 acre l<2-5 being an a\orage ratej, the clearer having the 

 trees as his perquisite. For this sum he contracts to 

 remove the pine trees, stumps, and roots ; but, unless so 

 stipulated, his contract will not include grubbing, i.e., 

 the removal of the scrub-palmetto and other long 

 fibrous roots, which effectually impede the ploughshare, 

 and must be eradicated prior to cultivation. This 

 grubbing the same man will undertake, but he will 

 generally prefer to be paid by the day for his labour in 

 this department, and will eni))loy the necessary hands 

 at his employer's e.xpense. Unless the palmetto is thick 

 . — and this is a sigu of poor land — grubbing will rarely 

 cost more than <5 per acre, and on much high piuf^ land 

 it is practically unnecessary altogether. Clearing ham- 

 mock is quite another matter. The elearers always look 

 askance at a job of the kind, alleging the difficulty of 

 getting hands to take the work, and the purchaser will 

 be fortunate if he succeeds in gifting hammock land 

 moderately well-cleared and scrubbed for J.10U per acre. 

 Jfauy purchasers of such lots content themselves with 

 " dfuilening" the oaks and other tall trees by fire, 

 burning off the undergrowth, and merely clearing small 

 spaces, to allow of planting an orange tree in each space, 

 trusting to time and natural det^ay to dt^ th(; work of 

 clearing. I have my.se!f visited a grove— that of Oapt. 

 Sims, of Ocoee, Orange ('ouuty — commenced in that 

 way, and subsequently cleared out little by little as 

 opportunity offered. The orange trees had not suffered, 

 hut had made good healthy growth year by ye«r, and the 

 owner estimates his crop fur the coming season — the 

 first since the entire clearing w.a.s conq>leted — at no less 

 than 700,000 oranges, his grove covering just seventy- 

 five acres. AVhere wil.l orange trees are numerous in 

 the hammoc k, they should be carefully preserved and 

 budded with good varieties, thus savi!ig all the time 

 lost in the growth and maturing of young trees, and 

 insuring an early return and a hardy stock. 



The land, being cleared and grubbed so far a.s the 

 purchaser intends to carry those operations, requires a 

 fence. The most satisfactory .and most generally 

 adopted for orange groves is the barbed-wire fence, of 

 four stands of wire and one good stout rail — the latter 

 being required by law for the purpose of rendering the 

 obstruction visible to horses and. cattle. This style of 

 feuce will cost altogether about 00 cents a rod, or, say, 

 SlW for fivi; acres of land. I'loughing the land will 

 cost S2 or ,S3 per acre, and then all is in readiness tor 

 planting the grove. 



Now it is that the important difference between pine 

 and hammock land begins to make itself felt. The for- 

 mer has a white sandy surface, and a depth of only a 

 very few ijiches of cultivable soil. The latter is black 

 rich soil, full of leaf mould, and possessing in itself all 

 the essentials for successful orange culture. Whatever 

 is wanting in the former must be artificially supplied, 

 and innumerable "connnercial fertiliser.s" are in the 

 market, each of which claims to be the one thing need- 

 ful. It is not my purpose to recomend any one of the 

 number, or to dwell on this pirt of my subject. Sufhco 

 it to .say that all the well-kuo.vn brands are certainly of 

 use to orange growers, and that they may be bought for 

 prices varying from ~oO to "rCOper ton, or cve;i m-ire, and 

 that these prices i!;|i>:nil in a great nioasuro on the 

 locality, and the rates of freight paid by the agents tor 

 the carriages of the stuff from the factory. Every tree 



planted on pine land will require large and frequent 

 applications of "fertiliser," the purchase of which soon 

 become an important item ou the debit side of the 

 ledger. The trees themselves will cost about half a 

 dollar each, it two or three-year-old trees are set out ; 

 and this, reckoning si.xty trees to the acre, adds S.'HI per 

 acre to the initial outlay, without allowing anything for 

 the time of the ■•hands" employed iu the planting. 

 Jlost hammock lauds are sufficiently rich to render the 

 application of manure at the time of planting un- 

 necessary, and some good authorities go so far as to say 

 that this condition of the soil will remain uualtered for 

 many years. Hammock groves are, however, generally 

 treated with a moderate quantity of fertiliser after 

 their first two or thee years, the amount being regul- 

 ated by the general appearance of the trees, and being 

 always much less than that required upon pine land. 



The (trange grove is now set out, the future trees 

 looking like little wauds stuck upright iu the earth, and 

 giving scanty promise as yet of wh,at they will become. 

 The remaining requisites are careful frequent cultiv- 

 ation, sufficient supplies of fertiliser, minute invest- 

 igation and constant vigilance to guard against the 

 attacks of disease and insects, and last, but not least, 

 patience. The orange grower who fondly imagines that 

 he has only to set out a grove, and then take his ease 

 till his oranges are readj' for market, is reckoning sadly 

 without his host. No tree requires more care and 

 attention than the orange, and it is only just to add 

 that no tree better repays the care expended upon it. 

 Certainly none shows more readily, even to the inex- 

 perienced eye, whether it has or has not received its 

 due meed of attention. Not only are the insidious and 

 often fatal diseases waiting to seize the ill-cared-for 

 tree, but the eye of every neighbouriug orange-grower 

 is upon the groves around him, and a ])allid, irregular 

 growth will as surely betray tlie owner's carelessness or 

 laziness as if the trees had tongues with which to pro- 

 claim it. The amount of labour actually necessary to 

 success was well described to me by a gentleman whose 

 place I visited shortly after coming to Florida. lie has, 

 or had, besides his grove, a very pretty and apparently 

 very productive garden, which, however, he told me he 

 was goint^ to abandon to its fate. I ventured to renion- 

 Btrate, gardens being rare in that section of the State, 

 and in my ignorance suggested that surely his trees 

 might be trusted to care for themselves, while he ftave 

 his attention to his flowers beds. With a smile of 

 compassion for my innocence, he replied, " I can spend 

 every hour of every day, from sunrise to sunset, busily 

 occupied with my trees, and it I were able also to stay 

 up with them all night I should not have an idle 

 moment." 



In their fourth or fifth year blossoms will appear upon 

 some of the trees, a few of which will set ; hut the 

 proud owner will be disappointed to receive the sound 

 advice to remove all the fruit as soon as it appears. 

 The reason tor doing so for a year or two is that, hardy 

 as the orange tree appears to be, there is perhaps no 

 fruit so exhausting to its parent. Scarcely has ono 

 year's crop been removed when the next commences to 

 form, and, with no period of rest, the tree is occupied 

 iu the development of its fruit during almost an entire 

 year. Allowing young trees to fruit will therefore 

 lessen their growing powers, and dwarf them unnecess- 

 arily ; besides which, the oranges, if allowed to ripen, 

 are valueless as compared with those of older trees. 



Two or three more years must pass before the fruit 

 becomes moderately thin-skinned and juicy, and the 

 grove yields sufiicient to be worth boxing, and distribut- 

 ing among the Jowner's friends as an earnest of future 

 performances; and it will not be until the trees are ten 

 •r twelve years old from the seed — i.r., eight or nine 

 years from the planting of the grove — that sufficient 

 fruit can be shipped to cover the year's expenses and 

 yield some snvill profit as interest upon the outlay of 

 previous years. From this time onwards, it due care bo 

 taken, and no unforeseen accidents occur, the yield may 

 be expected toiDcrea.se pretty steadily; but the same 

 vigilance will still he necessary t.i repel the advances of 

 disease and the insect enemies of the orange tree. 



Such is, briefly sketched, the oraiigo-grower's early 

 career ; and I think it must bo sufficiently plain from 



