■MONTI 1 1 ^■ iui,i,i:'i"ix. ^^21 



A COMPARISON OF SOME CITRUS CONDITIONS IN 

 FLORIDA, CUBA AND CALIFORNIA. 



By Howard S. Fawcett, Associate Professor of Plant Pathology, Citrus Experiment 



Station, Riverside, Cal. 



INTRODUCTION. 



It is the purpose of this article to compare briefly, without going 

 into a scientific discussion, some of tlie differences in horticultural con- 

 ditions and practices in California, Florida and Cuba, in special refer- 

 ence to citrus culture. It is fully realized b}' the author, that .some of 

 the conditions and many of the practices are changing so rapidly and 

 are so varied that any general statements about them made from obser- 

 vations two or three years old. mtiy even now be open to serious 

 criticism. A comparison of citrus disease conditions has already been 

 made in Bulletin 262 of the California Agricultural Experiment Station, 

 published in 1915. 



FLORIDA AND CALIFORNIA. 

 Geography and Climate. 



Florida with an area of 54,240 square miles, is a little more than 

 one-third that of California with 156,170 square miles, and in popula- 

 tion in 1910 with 762,600 inhabitants, Florida had a little less than 

 one-third that of California with 2,377,500. In total amount of citrus 

 fruit raised, according to census of 1910, Florida with 5,970,000 boxes 

 in round numbers, had slightlv above one-third that of California with 

 17,300,000 boxes. 



Florida, because of the nature of its geological formation, is a com- 

 paratively low country, the highest point being a little over 300 feet 

 above sea level. The topography is concisely described by E. H. Sellards 

 in the Fourth Annual Report of the State Geologist as follows: "Not- 

 withstanding that Florida, the second largest state east of the Mississippi 

 River, is extensive in area, no point within the state is distant from the 

 coast more than 75 miles, ancl no elevations are found exceeding 300 

 to 310 feet above sea level. Originally, doubtless, the topography was 

 comparatively simple, the rise in elevation being with minor exceptions, 

 gradual from the coast inland. However, as the result of differential 

 erosion and other factors, well marked topographic types have developed, 

 and at the present time the topography is varied. The key to the 

 topography of the state is obtained by observing the distribution of the 

 limestone and the nonlimestone formations. The importance of lime- 

 stone formation upon the topography is due to the fact that the lime- 

 stone is more soluble and more readily eroded than most other 

 formations, and those sections of the state that are underlaid at no 

 considerable depth by limestones have been more radically affected by 

 erosion than the nonlimestone sections, and have been affected in a 

 different manner. The limestones erode chiefly by underground solu- 

 tion, as a result of which sinks, valleys and basins form, giving rise to a 

 cliai-acteristic topography. Although limestone formations underlie the 

 state throughout, it is only in limited sections of the state that they 

 are sufficiently near the surface to affect the topography." California, in 

 strong contrast, is a country of extreme differences of elevation inter- 

 sected and cut up by many mountain chains. To a citrus grower the 



