36 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



spaces any where. Then mulch the plants, keep down the 

 weeds, give them a sprinkling now and then of some kind 

 of fertilizer ; not too much, however, for it is not wise to 

 accustom them to too "rich living." For the first year 

 after setting out let them grow as bushy as they please ; 

 the foliage will shade the tender bark of the stem, and 

 encourage the formation of a mass of fibrous rootlets ; but 

 after the first year it is well to prune surplus branches, 

 leaving one leader to form the stock of the future tree ; 

 do not let the little shoots that put out along the stem do 

 any more than show themselves before you pinch them off; 

 keep a foot or two of the stem clear of branches. 



From the first year on, you can bud your young seedlings 

 with some choice varieties, and then in from one year from 

 the bud each little tree will be worth thirty cents, and in 

 another year forty or fifty cents, according to variety and 

 growth ; or, as seedling two-year-old trees, sell at twenty 

 cents, three years at thirty, four years forty, each year 

 adding ten dollars per hundred to their value. 



There is now, and will be for years to come, a brisk de- 

 mand for young trees, both budded and seedlings, and the 

 thrifty far-seeing settler may readily clear several hundred 

 dollars annually with the investment of no capital save 

 that of a little care in planting seeds and raising a nurs- 

 ery. 



