WHERE TO PLANT. 55 



you propose to use for your grove, and thus avoid the 

 possible application of the fable of "The Lark and Her 

 Young Ones." 



We have never yet met an orange grower whose trees 

 were located on good pine, with clay a few feet below the 

 surface, who was not thoroughly satisfied with the progress 

 of his grove. Then the hammock land is much more ex- 

 pensive than the pine ; when the latter can be had of the 

 best quality from ten to twenty dollars an acre, the former 

 is held from fifty to seventy-five, or even a hundred dollars. 



The expense of clearing the land preparatory to cultiva- 

 tion must also be taken into account. The hammock land 

 is full of underbrush, young trees, roots, vines, and pal- 

 metto ; all these must not only be cut down, and either be 

 burned or piled up to decay, and furnish by and by nour- 

 ishing food for the future grove, but the numberless roots 

 must also be grubbed up at no light expenditure of time 

 and money ; time, if the settler is a strong man, able and 

 willing to work; money, if he has to hire the clearing 

 done for him. 



It does not cost less than forty or fifty dollars to clear 

 an acre of hammock land as it should be cleared, and for 

 a year or two afterward the fight against the upspringing 

 roots must be waged unceasingly, or the clearing will go 

 back to its original state, and all the time and money 

 already expended be thrown away. 



In clearing a piece of hammock for a grove it is only 

 the undergrowth that should be got rid of entirely ; nearly 

 all, if not quite all, of the grand old live-oak trees should 

 be left standing to flourish as of old, before civilization 

 had dreamed of intruding upon their time-honored do- 

 mains. This is a very important point in the well-being 

 of the grove, especially in one formed by budding a former 

 "wild grove." 



