300 FLORIDA FRUITS ODDS AND ENDS. 



hardy, and will withstand a temperature of 15 or even 

 lower, while the fruit continues uninjured unless the tem- 

 perature falls below 26, which is an exceedingly rare oc- 

 currence. And even if the fruit was frozen once in eight 

 or ten years, we could stand it ; but it need not be frozen 

 at all, even with the temperature at 20, for all we have 

 to do, on the first suspicion of danger, is to gather and 

 bury the fruit in dry sand, and then market it at leisure, as 

 we have already mentioned on page 134. 



A few wise men thus saved their crop this present season, 

 and at this present writing are reaping the result in per- 

 fectly ripe, sound oranges, that sell readily at from three 

 to five dollars a hundred. 



No, there is no ground whatever for discouragement of 

 orange culture; on the contrary, well - located, healthy 

 groves are actually more valuable now than before the 

 great freeze, because their value and hardiness are placed 

 on a surer basis ; we know what we before only believed, 

 because we could not know. 



But the most important lesson of all those that our re- 

 cent unexpected experience has taught us is this : 



Diversify production ! To employ a homely but signifi- 

 cant phrase, " Do n't put all your eggs in one basket;" then 

 if your basket gets upset before it reaches market there is 

 something else left to fall back upon for support. 



Floridians needed a shaking up, and a pushing out of 

 the one groove which was filled up with oranges, nothing 

 but oranges. Our soil and climate are as well adapted to 

 many, very many other fruits as they are to oranges and 

 the citrus family. Then why give our whole attention to 

 the one only? 



If our people had paid as much attention in the past as 

 they will do in the future to figs, peaches, pears, plums, 

 grapes, apricots, pecans, walnuts, strawberries, and black- 



