64 CITRUS AURANTIUM. 
caused by frost, it may be observed, that there are more standard trees planted 
in Florida, at the present time, than there ever were at any former period. Pre- 
vious to 1S35, St. Augustine produced annually from two million to two million 
five hundred thousand oranges, which were equal in bulk to about fifteen thou- 
sand barrels. They were shipped to Charleston, Baltimore, New York, Boston, 
&c, and usually brought from one dollar to three dollars per hundred, or 
about three dollars per barrel, producing in the aggregate, a little short of fifty 
thousand dollars per annum. During the orange season, the port of St. Augustine 
formerly presented quite a commercial aspect, there being frequently from fifteen 
to twenty vessels in it at a time, loading with fruit. A person who was the owner 
of one hundred standard trees, could safely rely on a yearly income arising 
therefrom of two thousand dollars, sometimes three thousand, and even four 
thousand dollars! In 1829, Mr. A. Alvarez gathered from a single tree, six 
thousand five hundred oranges ; and it is said that there was a tree on the St. 
John's, which bore ten thousand fruits in one year ! But ordinarily each tree 
produces about two thousand fruits. 
The orange has also been an object of culture for a long time in Carolina and 
Georgia; and in 1762, it will be seen by the London " Annual Register" for that 
year, that there were four barrels of this fruit shipped from Charleston to Eng- 
land. 
Soil and Situation. The orange is found to flourish best in a warm, fertile 
soil, composed of sand and loam, or sand and clay, not too dry, and sheltered 
from chilly and parching winds. But it is cultivated in varied soils, and will 
thrive in any country, with a mean annual temperature of 62 to 84 F. 
Hence the locality favourable to the growth of this species depends fully as 
much upon soil and situation as upon latitude ; and we are induced to infer, 
that, if the temperature be sufficiently high for maturing the flavour, the fruit 
is delicious in proportion to the uniform salubrity of the air ; and that those 
high temperatures which often force a very large expansion of fruit are 
against the fineness of its quality. For instance, we will contrast the fruit 
of St. Michael's, in the Azores, of Bahia, in Brazil, or of some of the West 
India Islands, with that of Malta. The former is always exposed to the 
equalizing breezes wafted across the Atlantic, while that of the latter, lying 
near the arid and sultry coast of Africa, is subject to more changes of season, 
and a greater and higher range of temperature. There is also some difference in 
the soil of these places. The artificial earth, which forms the soil of Malta, was 
originally brought from Sicily ; and by the decomposition of the rock, or of the 
saline particles brought by the same " pestilent sirocco" that blasts the fruit of 
the south of Italy and Sicily, a crust is formed, which, if not removed by trench- 
ing, at the end of a certain number of years, ceases to be productive, or the 
oranges become so bitter, that they are neither palatable nor healthful. But St. 
Michael's, Bahia, and the other places referred to, have no such disadvantage; 
the soils in those places are native, and deposite nothing calculated to injure 
their fertility or impair the qualities of their fruit. The same fact may be corrob- 
orated in comparing the climate of the slopes and valleys of the Estrella, near 
the lower Tagus, and that of the maritime Alps, and the Apennines, in Provence 
and Liguria, with that of Andalusia. At St. Augustine, in Florida, the fruit is 
generally of a superior quality, owing to some peculiar influence of the soil and 
climate. The mean annual temperature of that place in 1842, was 73 F., 
and in 1843, 72. The extreme heats from June to September are usually as 
high as 92 ; but they have been known to reach 97. The extremes of cold 
generally range from 38 to 40 ; but sometimes the mercury has fallen as low as 
3U. On the 9th of February, 1835, the time that nearly all the orange- 
trees of Florida were cut off by frost, it is said that the thermometer indicated a 
