58 FLORIDA FRUITS ORANGES. 



a heavy rain or a high wind, or frequently without these 

 provocations ; down they crash, now here, now there, and 

 as they are not remarkable for good judgment, they are 

 just as likely as not to come down on an orange tree and 

 put it beyond the pale of recognition. And then the 

 fallen giant must be chopped up and either hauled away 

 or burned, the expense and trouble of doing which are 

 now just as great as they would have been at first, plus 

 the loss of some of your best orange trees. 



The claim made that the dropping branches, bark, and 

 sap of the pine trees left to decay on the ground furnish a 

 valuable fertilizer is a specious one; and even if one is 

 willing to have his grove strewn over with branches that 

 trip up his horse and interfere with the plow, the amount 

 of gain to the soil is so small that a few cart loads of rot- 

 ten sap and grass hauled from outside and spread around 

 the orange trees would far surpass it. Altogether we can 

 not recommend this method, for we do not think the gain, 

 even considering the small first cost, at all commensurate 

 with the "after-claps" of the falling pines, crushed and 

 ruined orange trees, the inevitable final clearing up of 

 trash, and last, not least, the certain introduction of the 

 destructive wood-lice among the orange trees. 



Another and better way is to hew down the trees, have 

 rails split from all that are suitable for the purpose, then 

 pile and burn the remnants; this method costs for the 

 clearing from twelve to eighteen dollars an acre, according 

 to the number of trees to be disposed of, and the amount 

 of "small deer" in the shape of small bushes and young 

 oaks to be grubbed up by the roots. 



But then the stumps of the pine trees remain in the 

 ground, and it is a sad mistake to leave them there, as so 

 many do ; they are not only a constant eye-sore (that is 

 the least of the objections), but no matter how often and 



