CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE. 



271 



CULTIVATION OF THE 0RANC4E. 



Throuch the kindness of A. H. Palmkr, Esq., Director of tiie American and 

 Foreign Agency at New- York, we have received the Journal of the Agricultural 

 and Horticultural Society of Perth, Western Australia, from which we extract 

 the following observations on the Cultivation of the Citrus Tribe, by W. Tan- 

 ner, Esq., a member of said Societj'. From the adaptation of the soil and cli- 

 mate of a large portion of the southern territory of the United States, to the 

 profitable cultivation of the Orange and other species of citrus, we trust that 

 his remarks, together with the subjoined notes by Mr. Browne, will be duly 

 appreciated by a large portion of our readers, particularly those who reside in 

 Florida, where this species of culture has long been practiced with success. 



The fjeims cifrux comprisinsr, according to 

 some, eigVit species, and some of these spe- 

 cies containing several varieties, is 8U])|)osed 

 to have been brought originally from India, 

 and perhaps other parts of Asia, wliero it is 

 now found growing wild. Tnie, it is also to 

 be seen in a wild state in parts of South 

 America, yet these plants are probably re- 

 mains of gardens long since abandoned. It . .„ ^„ 



is now cultivated in the open air in the East I li""'^'';^'''; i'erhaps no person in Florida had more 



] \i' » T T T 1 » . T 1 ; tnan Uie latter nmnbcr in fu boarni'' condition at 



and West Indies, Japan and Australia; and the time of the great frost, which occurred on the 

 in Europe, in Spam, rortugal, r ranee. Italy, I 9th of February of that year. There were many 

 and the Azores. The oraiiiies of St. Miehael j "'*^<^* 'hen to be found in St. Augustine, which ex- 

 are now the best that are 'to bo met with in ^-fC'lcd 40 leet in hight with tninlis from 20 to 27 

 -u -c< 1 » 'ni, I . f .u- ' ""^"cs "' "'»nit!'er, and which, probabv, were more 



the Europeiin market The plants of this : than a century old. But there are manV persons S 

 genus, m audition to the useuimess of their that vicinity, at the present time, vlio are extensively 

 products, are worth cultivating were it only engaged in the liusiness. The late IMr. Kineslev left 



for their beaut\-. In Eiiroi.e orange trees TT*^,*?' ^•"'"'''f ™S •"■eS;in.lB43, all of Which 



' aie on the bt. John's. In addition to these, there 

 are al.-^o on the same river, more than one hundred 

 orange gi-oves, which, it is estimated, contain 20,000 



1,000 lemons each, yeiu-ly ; oranges 300 to 

 ."iOO chests. The imports into England, from 

 all parts, have sometimes averaged 270,60'} 

 boxes a year.* 



* For many years past, no email deg^-ee of atten- 

 tion has been paid to the culture of the common 

 edible orange, at St. Augustine, and on the river St. 

 John's. The number of trees owned by ditfeient in- 

 = prior to 1845, varied from ten to tifteen 



dividuals 



continue flowering nearly all summer, and 

 the fniit takes two years to come to maturity, 

 60 that for a eonsider-.ible period of each year 

 a healthy ti-cc exhibits every sbige of the 

 production, from the flower bud to the ripe 



trees. At St. Augustine, it is said, there are, at least, 

 30.000 standard trees, 4,000 of which are owned by 

 Mr. J. Douglass, about the same number by Mr. V. 

 Sanchez ; and by Mr. J. Drisdale, and the lady of the 



fruit in perfection at the same time. In Spain late rir. Anderson, fifteen hundred each. Notwith- 

 there are old orange trees foniiing large tim- ^tanding the injuries which the trees have suftered 



ber. In the convent of Santa Sabiiia at Rome, ^Zll'n. t?f''^'"i«"^" "<^ '"='^«-'^' fo'" « [ew years, as 

 »i • ^ on r . 1 • 1 , . ,M well as by the oiscouragenient caused by trost, it 



there is an orange tree 30 feet liiga, and said [ may be observed that there are more standard trees 

 to be 600 years old. At Nice in 1789 was an I planted in Florida, at the present time, than there 

 orange tree 50 feet liigh, requiring two men I V^'' """*' "' ^''V former period. Previous to 183.% 

 to embrace it. The orange is a taller and r=;nnn,fV'?.';'i?'l"'-;*:i^"""'!"y <■'■"■", ~-^""'000 ^o 



more beautiful tree than either tlie citron or 

 lemon. In Algarve and Andalusia, the onmge 

 trees are of great size. 



" The present amount of oranges and lem- 

 ons exported from St. Michael, is upward of 

 120,000 boxes, and 70 or 80 vessels are some- 

 times seen lying in the roads waiting to carry 

 them to Europe. The imports into" England 

 from I'ortugiil in lemons and oraiiires are 

 200,000 boxes. The principal exports from Se- 

 ville are bitter and sweet oranges and lemons. 

 The sweet oranges are more cultivated than 

 the bitter. About .")0 vessels of from 80 to 

 120 tons are annually loadetl with oranges 

 and lemons at Seville. The exports from 

 Malaga are from 11,000 to 14,000 chests of 

 (559) 



2,.')00,000 oranges, which were equal in bulk to 

 about l.'i.OOO barrels. They were shijjped to Charies- 

 ton, Kahinioie. New-York, Boston, Arc, and usually 

 brought from -SI to S3 per hundred, or about $3 per 

 barrel, producing in the aggregate a little short of 

 .S.)U,000 per annum. During the orange season, the 

 port of St. Augustine formoriy presented quite a 

 commercial aspect, there being frequently from fif- 

 teen to twenty vessels in at a time, loading with 

 fruit. A person who was the owner of IIIO standard 

 trees, could safely rely on a yeadv income arising 

 therefrom of $2,000— sometimes $.3,000, and even 

 S4.00U ! In 1829, Mr. A. Alvarez gathered from a sin- 

 gle tree, 0,500 oranges ; and it is said that there was 

 a tree on ihe St. John's, which bore 10.000 fruits in 

 one year! But ordinarily each tree produces about 

 2,000 fruits. The orange has also lieen an object of 

 culture fur a long time in Carolina and Georgia ; and 

 in 1762. it will be seen by the London '• Annual Re- 

 gister " for that year, that there were four barrels of, 

 this fruit shipped from Charleston to England 



[Brvwiu — Trees of America. 



