47 



When your trees are ten years old, five years old 

 from planting, if all the conditions have been favorable, 

 they will likely begin to bear, and at twelve to fifteen 

 years, or seven to ten years after planting, may be expected 

 to yield from ten to twenty dollars per tree. 



Frost sometimes interferes with the best regulated 

 groves. Wind, rain and drouth, have been known to 

 shorten the crop ; insects are troublesome, so that it is to 

 be expected you will meet with disappointments in orange 

 growing as well as in other pursuits. 



A grove of five hundred or one thousand trees, at 

 twenty years old, if well cultivated, will yield an income 

 sufficient to satisfy the wants of any one not over-extrava- 

 gant in his notions. 



GATHERING AND CURING ORANGES. 



One of the most important features in successful orange 

 culture, is gathering the fruit and curing it for market. 

 However lucky you may be in bringing your grove to early 

 and full bearing, if the gathering and curing of the crop is 

 not intelligently conducted your profits will not meet your 

 most sanguine expectations. 



The orange, when under-ripe, is plump and solid ; the 

 skin is hard and largely composed of water, and at this 

 stage if "bruised, or the skin abraided in any manner, decay 

 soon begins and extends, and in a very few days the fruit ig 

 rotten and worthless. 



The fruit should never be pulled from the stem. The 

 stem of the orange is hard and tough, and the fruit adheres 

 to it with wonderful tenacity. 



In all cases where it is desired to preserve the fruit, 

 the stem sheuld be cut with a knife or shears, the fruit 

 handled carefully without bruising, and carried directly 

 to the 



