298 J^'ive Smmners in the I,and of I^lowers. 



novice to-day is much of a puzzle to explain, and why ? The climate and soil of 

 Florida are very peculiar, and therefore but seldom understood until experimented 

 with. The sandy foundation is so porous and devoid of nutriment ; the surface 

 where much sand exists necessarily gets so hot in summer, that everything decom- 

 posable in it must decompose with the united effects of the powerful sun and abun- 

 dant moisture, always present in the air to such a degree that plants must do or die, 

 in a very short time; and this is why 'tis called the land of flowers; the majority of 

 plants bloom ere they grow often one-tenth of the height they do farther north. I 

 have often seen blossoms larger than all the other foliage on the plant. This forcing 

 process so carbonizes the vegetable matter that goes to fill up the marshes, that the 

 marsh mud is not as valuable when applied to plants as one would suppose, though 

 it be all made from vegetable deposit. 



This muck when dry is a powerful absorbent of ammonia, and this explains the 

 cause why it often injures plants when first applied too abundantly, close to the bare 

 roots of trees. I have heard of several persons injuring their young orange trees by 

 such applications. If finely pulverized and saturated with ammonial manure it acts 

 finely and lasts longer than any manure I know of here. 



The low wet lands and those but two or three feet above the water level, where the 

 wild orange is found in the thick hummock, with often immense live oaks six and 

 eight feet through, with a sandy subsoil always wet, if cleared and exposed to the 

 sun, will not make a permanent grove without ditching and manuring to an amount 

 per acre, that deters even very enterprising persons from undertaking it. At 

 Sand Point, most of the inhabitants prefer planting in the dry pine woods, and there 

 with sufficient manure they do best, and this want of sufficient manure is the great 

 drawback to extensive orange growing. To grow cattle to an extent sufficient to 

 produce an amount of manure, requires one to live so far from their neighbors that 

 life is too lonely, and the necessaries of life that come from a distance too expensive. 

 Cattle ranges in so thin a soil must necessarily be far apart to get the proper amount 

 of food. The thinness of the soil generally throughout the State, will cause the 

 producing of oranges to be so expensive, that an abundance of fruit will not soon be 

 raised sufficient to supply all the inhabitants of the State, though they are shipped 

 off for sale as much as possible for the sake of the money they bring. A large per 

 cent., often one-third of the fruit on a tree, cracks open before ripe, and those that 

 are shipped do not bear transportjition as well as oranges raised in dryer climes. I 

 would never advise any one to go into orange raising to make a living in Florida, 

 unless they can secure some of the few favored spots where Indian mounds have 

 made a deeper soil, or some river deposit furnishes an abundance of suitable soil, 

 which seldom occurs. That orange trees will produce in poor sand is not reasonable, 

 and in this town I have been shown one grove of 50 trees that have been planted 

 and the ground kept clear of weeds for 25 years, yet they have not produced a peck 

 of oranges, yet. I found nearly all the women living in what is considered the best 

 sections for orange growing, quite glad to leave the country for good, and seldom 

 could I find a man that had been^on his place five years, but would gladly sell for 

 one-half cost. 



