366 CITRUS FRUITS AND THEIR CULTURE. 



FLORIDA SHEDS. 



In the Florida State Horticultural Report for 1903, 

 an excellent report on the condition of the shedded 

 groves in Florida is given by Mr. E. O. Painter. The de- 

 scriptions of the protection of the Mead grove at Oviedo, 

 Fla., the Swift grove at Pomona, Fla., the Haw Creek 

 grove at Crescent City, Fla., the Wetumpka grove at 

 Hastings, Fla., and the Barney shed (J. A. Stevens) at 

 Citra, Fla., are reproduced here. 



THE MEAD GROVE AT OVIEDO. 



The cloth is twelve feet above the ground, and has 

 now been made movable by ropes and pulleys, so as to 

 let in the sunlight whenever it is not too cold. 



The trees are planted 5x20, the intention being that 

 each row shall be practically one tree 250 feet long. Have 

 used 10,000 pounds of fertilizer on one acre in the past 

 two years, using one pound per month to each tree till 

 signs of die-back appeared. Have put on no fertilizer 

 since last June. Prior to that, had used only Simon Pure 

 Die-back for some months, and the trees have mostly re- 

 covered. I have had some good fruit, mostly grapefruit, 

 each year, including the first year the trees were planted. 

 The trees are 250 tangierines, 125 grapefruit, 84 Ruby 

 Blood orange, making 495 trees to the acre. 



The shed is irrigated and warmed by sulphur water 

 from a deep six-inch well, and supplied by a powerful 

 steam pump. Hydrants, forty feet apart each way, each 

 with a spray-nozzle covering a circle forty feet in 

 diameter, nearly cover the ground, like rain, and in cold 

 nights keep the shed as warm as can be desired, the tem- 

 perature of the water being always at seventy degrees. 



