208 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



or four weeks ahead of time of planting. At the time of plant- 

 ing we used about three-quarters of a pound of commercial fer- 

 tilizer to each tree, thoroughly mixed with the earth. 



A TEST ORCHARD. 



The test orchard planted in this way consisted of four trees, 

 each of many of the most prominent varieties of oranges and pom- 

 elos. Half of the trees planted were upon Citrus trifoliata stock, 

 and the other half upon sour and sweet stocks mostly sour. 

 In planting, the trees upon sour and Citrus trifoliate were in- 

 terspersed, one being on sour, the next on trifoliata, the next 

 on sour, and the next on trifoliata, so that neither the trees 

 on sour nor those on trifoliata have any benefit of any varia- 

 tion in quality of land, should any exist, throughout the orchard. 

 The trees were planted thirty feet apart each way, in order to 

 give each tree the benefit of all the ground that it could utilize 

 and to make the test as thorough as possible. 



The trees that were planted had been dug and heeled in just 

 previous to the unprecedented freeze of February 12, 1899, dur- 

 ing which the thermometer went to ten degrees above zero. All 

 of the trees had their tops severely frozen back, and when we 

 came to plant, the majority of the trees showed but a few inches 

 to a foot of live wood above the bud. Planting frozen-back trees 

 on absolutely wild, sour land is not, under ordinary circum- 

 stances, a commendable project, and would hardly have been 

 done in this instance except for the purpose of inaugurating 

 at the earliest possible moment, a test orchard that should show 

 the comparative growth, productiveness, hardiness, time of rip- 

 ening, etc., of all the prominent varieties on sour and Citrus 

 trifoliata stocks. 



The tabulated statement herewith given was made June 20. 

 1901, twenty-seven months after the trees were planted. In ob- 

 taining the height, breadth and number of fruits each tree was 

 accurately measured and the fruits carefully counted; and the 

 result given is the average of two trees, except in a very few 

 instances, where one tree of a variety had died and had to be 

 replaced a year later. In such cases the comparisons are be- 

 tween one tree each of sour and Citrus trifoliata. 



