REPORT ON FREEZE INJURY TO CITRUS 



TREES FOR 1916 AND 1917, WITH NOTES 



ON ORANGE CULTURE IN SOUTH 



ALABAMA 



By 



O. F. E. WlNBERG AND G. C. StARCHER 



Assisted by 

 c, l. iseell 



INTRODUCTION 



A few citrus trees have been grown in the yards and 

 around the houses in South Alabama for perhaps fif- 

 ty years or more. Most of these were seedling sweet 

 or sour oranges and a few seedling lemons. 



The introduction of the Mandarin Orange, Satsuma 

 variety, the pomelo, or "grape fruit" Nagami and Ma- 

 rumi varieties of kumquats and the tangerine marked 

 the beginning of the citrus industry in South Alabama 

 on a larger or commercial basis. 



Since the introduction of these fruits into South Ala- 

 bama, the development of the citrus industry has been 

 rapid. Present conditions point to the continuation 

 and acceleration of this development. During this 

 short period of development some growers have made 

 mistakes and in consequence thereof suffered losses. 

 The growers are not altogether, or perhaps not at all 

 to blame for these mistakes nor should they feel too 

 strongly the pain of disappointment which they have 

 suffered, because in anj' new industry there must be 

 pioneers, mistakes and disappointments out of which 

 success will come. Pioneers in the citrus industry 

 in South Alabama have furnished, together with our 

 experiences, material for this bulletin compiled from 

 tabulated freeze reports and individual tree statistics 

 from Baldwin and Mobile Counties on 1360 orchards 

 or parts of orchards containing 446,746 trees. 



The killing and banking graphs as well as some of 

 the general conclusions are drawn from about 55,000 

 summarized words tabulated under the following 

 topics: The number of trees killed and killed back 

 with dates; time, kind and amount of fertilizer; time, 

 kind and amount of cultivation; elevation and depres- 

 sions; time of banking and its effect; character of soil; 



