Orattge CiiUare hi J^lorida. 229 



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 enter- 

 prising 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 horti- 

 cultural 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 Mediterra- 

 nean, the importance of the lemon as a stock is admitted, although it has been uro-cd 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, 1 would raise seedlings of this variety of 

 lemon, and bud fhem 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 obser^'a- 

 tions we are of the opinion that both are correct. On poor, sandy soil, the skin is 



