CHAPTER XIV. 



THOROUGH CULTIVATION. 



HEN the preceding chapter was published, 

 four years ago, the writer hoped he had put 

 the importance of good cultivation so forcibly as to 

 induce any reader of the first edition of this treatise 

 to fairly cultivate any orange trees that he might 

 plant with the wish to make them productive and 

 profitable. But four years of additional observa- 

 tion and experience convince the writer that a large 

 percentage of those who are engaged in orange - 

 planting in Florida are wasting time and means by 

 careless cultivation. Now let me drop this indirect 

 manner of speaking of the writer as the third per- 

 son. I want to look you in the eye, reader, and 

 say to you if you do not intend to cultivate your 

 trees thoroughly, or have them cultivated thorough- 

 ly, do not waste money by buying land and having 

 it planted in trees. In no business is the old aph- 

 orism truer than in orange-growing, "What is 

 worth doing at all is worth doing well. ' ' I would 

 add, what is poorly done in this business is apt to 

 bring poor return or no return to the owner of a 

 grove. I will give one or two instances of many, 

 very many, that have come under my observation. 



