12 ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 



the man who has once brought his trees into suc- 

 cessful bearing can enjoy all these and much more 

 besides, having at his command an income quite 

 equal to that commanded by owners of blocks of 

 well-improved real estate in our towns and cities, 

 with not one tenth part of the original cost of city 

 investments. Or, if the owner chooses, he is at 

 liberty to go abroad without fear of the incendiary's 

 torch or the failure of commercial firms. And 

 even if a frost should come severe enough to cut 

 down full-grown trees and but one such frost has 

 come in the history of Florida the owner of such 

 a grove has but to wait quietly for three years, and 

 out of the ruin will come a second fortune as large 

 as the first, and without the cost of brick, mortar, 

 and workmen. 



The age to which the orange tree lives, from 

 three hundred to four hundred years, is so great 

 that Americans do not know how to consider it in 

 the light of a permanent investment. The fear has 

 sometimes been expressed that the business will be 

 overdone, that the supply will after a while exceed 

 the demand, and the price of the fruit so decline 

 that the orange will be unprofitable to the grower. 

 But those who entertain this fear have certainly not 

 considered the facts. The area of the States with 

 climate suitable for growing the orange is compar- 

 atively small. The southern portion of California, 

 a very small part of Louisiana, and the whole of 

 Florida, if devoted to orange culture, is but a trifle 



