14 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



Europe, which at no distant day is to get its best 

 oranges in large quantities from Florida. 



Now note the possibility of supply. Only a small 

 proportion of those sections with climate sufficiently 

 mild to grow the orange can ever be made avail- 

 able. The long dry seasons of California prevent 

 the possibility of growing this fruit in that State ex- 

 cept by irrigation, while the estimated yield per 

 tree is only six hundred oranges. In Louisiana the 

 possible area is but small. In Florida the climatic 

 conditions are more favorable, but the land and 

 location suitable are not one hundredth part of the 

 State. Another fact lessens the possibility of yield. 

 Orange culture belongs to the class of skilled labor. 

 Hundreds engaged in the business will fail, because 

 success requires intelligence, application, patience, 

 and skill. Hundreds have already failed, from one 

 or all of these causes, and have left the State, never 

 dreaming that they alone are to be blamed for their 

 failure. Men in the very communities thus aban- 

 doned have succeeded because they were more pru- 

 dent in the selection of soil and location, and used 

 their intelligence and the intelligence of others, and 

 persevered in the face of partial failure brought 

 about by ignorance. But those men who failed 

 took no advice except that of the landowner who 

 offered to sell land cheaper than any one else. 

 They read nothing that had been written by men 

 who had succeeded. They took no warning of 

 those who had failed. Stilted on their castle of 



