90 



be borne in mind that Florida is a State of shallow soil*, and in 

 many instances we believe badly drained, whereas California is a 

 country of very deep soils. We feel satisfied that in shallow soils 

 deep planting will certainly bring an orchard into an unsatis- 

 factory state sooner or later, while in deep soil it is still quite an 

 important matter to keep the trees well up at planting. 



Never manure your trees when setting them, it is a dangerous 

 thing to do ; wait until your trees are well established in a few 

 months, then the manure can safely be applied and will be readily 

 and promptly brought into solution by the irrigation water, which 

 should be immediately applied, the tree should then very shortly 

 respond. 



STOCKS. 



There has been a great amount of controversy as to the best 

 stocks for growing citrus trees in this country. Mainly through the 

 scare caused by the ravages of the disease known as mal di sroina 

 (root rot) there would have been no controversy on the point, 

 except for the general depredations of this disease. We have stu- 

 died the matter somewhat carefully, covering some years now, and 

 our opinion is that those who would try to lead planters to accept 

 the Bitter Seville as the stock for Oranges and Lemons, regardless 

 of the variety, are not doing growers any kindness. It is well 

 known to most nurserymen who grow citrus trees for sale that they 

 have had to discard the Seville stock for several varieties of the 

 citrus family, and it is a great error on the part of planters to insist 

 on this stock. The fact of the matter is that nurserymen m filling 

 the orders of those planters who insist on Seville root for every 

 variety have the utmost difficulty in bringing the tree to a decent 

 size for sale. 



We are one of those who for certain varieties are in favour of 

 the old " Cape Lemon " as a stock, and although we fly in the face 

 of most others whose opinion is of value on this point, we are 

 quite prepared to stick to our view. It is well-known to us that 

 for some varieties grown in Australia, this is the only root that 

 gives satisfaction, and the same will be proved here in course of 

 time. We cannot understand why this variety is so bitterly con- 

 demned as a stock, because it is a well-established fact to those 

 who have studied the matter, that a great number of the orchards 

 of fifty years of age and upwards, are worked on this root 

 where they are not seedlings. In fact quite a fair proportion of 

 our oldest orchards (and surely it has been the survival of the 

 fittest) are worked en rough lemon ; we do not for a moment 

 advocate the wholesale adoption of the rough lemon as a stock, 

 but we wish to point out to growers that in our opinion there are 

 other stocks which have already stood the test of time in the 

 country we live in. 



