18 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE VALUE OF ORANGE GROVES. 



Having pointed out the rock on which so many fair 

 barks have foundered, let us now look at the other side of 

 the picture and see what has been done and may be done 

 again by those who start aright, and regard orange growing 

 not as a pleasant pastime, but as a serious, earnest busi- 

 ness, to be carried out faithfully, carefully, and intelli- 

 gently, like any other business in which success is desired, 

 and to be learned and studied as such. 



What reasonable man would expect to be successful in 

 a pursuit entirely new to him, without seeking such 

 sources of practical knowledge thereof as might lay open 

 before him? 



And yet there are men who would bristle all over with 

 indignation were it to be hinted that they do not possess 

 common sense, who yet embark in a new life as orange 

 growers, and think they will succeed, while they scorn ad- 

 vice, refuse to seek counsel of those whose experience is of 

 many years' standing, and turn their backs scornfully upon 

 the books and periodicals written by practical men familiar 

 to the business so new to them. 



Such self-sufficient egotists as these will fail as orange 

 growers, and either leave Florida, pronouncing her noble 

 groves humbugs, or else turn back to the beginning and 

 wisely seek the course they before despised. 



The man who meets with as few drawbacks as possible, 

 and pushes forward his grove to its utmost capacity, is the 

 man who is not too proud to confess that he does not know 

 more about astronomy than the astronomer, more about 

 geology than the geologist, more about farming than < the 



