114 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



A dry packing-house, with numerous shelves and 

 frequent fumigation, will probably play an impor- 

 tant part in the future as a preventive of a tem- 

 porary market-glut, or the effects of a septennial 

 freeze. But this matter can be helped by an intel- 

 ligent selection of kinds for stocking a grove. Nor 

 have we even then seen the final result : if early 

 varieties have been propagated in this initiatory 

 stage of the study of the orange industry, others 

 will be introduced that are earlier ; if a freak of 

 nature has given us an orange that ripens in 

 March, the observant orchardist will not be long in 

 improving on this. 



A late-maturing orange has already been mention- 

 ed in these pages, but there is an early variety that 

 nurserymen pass over in their catalogues, yet which 

 should not be despised. Like the lemon grown in 

 this State, its treatment has not been such as to 

 bring out its merits. Under no circumstances is it 

 as good an orange as the ordinary Florida fruit, 

 when the latter is matured. But the " Thornless 

 Bell" is edible in September, and is best when 

 gathered then, before it yellows on the tree. When 

 permitted to turn on the tree it loses that sufficiency 

 of acidity which it possesses earlier, and which pre- 

 vents its being insipid the common objection to 

 it. Instead of a thick rind, it then cures with a 

 skin as thin as that of the imported Sicily orange, 

 and with which it will probably compare favorably 

 as to general quality. Let it be understood that 



