SITE FOR CITRUS ORCHARD. 



In deciduous planting, as we have already stated, we almost 

 always have reason to deplore the absence of data, as to whether 

 trees will grow or no. As in deciduous trees, where the seedling 

 and coarser sort of grafted tree will thrive, it does not follow that 

 the more delicate and more valuable fruits will always do well ; 

 we consider however that in Citrus growing it can be practically 

 recognized as a fact that when seedling oranges will grow and 

 thrive, improved varieties will also do so. We are therefore at 

 once placed in the position of having data in citrus growing 

 practically all over South Africa. This helps us considerably. In 

 fact, we consider very good work has been done in orange grow- 

 ing as regards sites. It has been actually proved all through the 

 Colony, also throughout the Orange River Colony and Transvaal, at 

 all events the best districts and the most favourable sites for plant- 

 ing. The opening up of the higher tableland for citrus planting 

 would have been quite a problem without such data, as it has been 

 demonstrated that it is only certain locations that are at all suitable, 

 owing to the prevalence of frosts in the higher veld. One site may 

 be perfectly free from frost, whereas another, a few hundred 

 yards away, is swept by frosts or cold winds which would render 

 the planting of citrus trees a fatal investment. It takes years to 

 arrive at this knowledge, and it is the years of settlement mainly 

 by the Dutch that has given us this valuable knowledge. Take 

 Florida, every orange grower knows how the State has been 

 devastated by occasional frosts, which have swept through wide 

 stretches of the country, cutting down to the ground thousands 

 and thousands of acres of bearing orchards. We take the Florida 

 situation in this way. The old Portuguese settlements along 

 the coast had luxurious old orange groves, which as the 

 State was developed and as the transport of fruit to northern 

 markets became a fact, were found to pay well. There- 

 upon land speculators and others boomed the country as 

 an orange growing country, and the boom took on. 

 People rushed to the conclusion that because orange trees 

 in old orchards thrive in certain districts, that large 

 stretches of country were equally suited, consequently trees were 

 planted out by thousands in districts that might not perhaps 

 catch a frost in ten years. We see the same result in a different 

 direction resulting from Uitlander enterprise in the Transvaal. 

 Millions of blue gum have been planted because they are quick 

 growing; we ourselves have seen hundreds of acres of them 

 destroyed by frost ; we believe it is now recognised that a hardier 

 tree is required. Therefore let us use the data which is before 

 our eyes over the country, and recognize that the limit of citrus 

 culture is in no particular area of altitude or otherwise, but that 



