HORTICULTURE IN FLORIDA. 139 



from fifty to sixty feet above the sea level. There is very little 

 laud much above the oceau, and east of the St. John's River it is 

 very low. In going from Jacksonville to Ocala they rode on a dead 

 level through a very uninteresting country. Most of the orange 

 culture is west of the river, and all were surprised to see how 

 quickly it has grown up. At Ocala there is a wide avenue leading 

 three-quarters of a mile to the building of the Florida International 

 and Sub-Tropical Exposition, which had been tendered for the use 

 of the Fomological Society. This building had been put up 

 within sixty days, in a pine wood, and there were several tall pine 

 trees growing inside. The exhibition of oranges and other fruits 

 of the citrus family was marvellous, the specimens varying in 

 size from oranges no larger than walnuts to the enormous shad- 

 docks. There were a hundred and fifty varieties of oranges, but 

 it was diflScult for an untrained eye to perceive any diflTerence 

 •between some of them. The shaddock is regarded as of no value, 

 but the grape-fruit or pomelo, which resembles it in outward 

 appearance but grows in clusters, is preferred to the orange for 

 mating before breakfast with sugar. The oranges are full of juice, 

 with very little pulp. 



The delegates were surprised to find that such able men had gone 

 there and been fascinated with orange culture ; also that their 

 numbers are increasing immensel}'. The papers on the culture of 

 the sub-tropical and tropical fruits read at the convention evinced 

 surprising ability ; the\' were admirable essays on the culture of 

 the orange, pineapple, banana, etc. Some wholly tropical fruits 

 can be cultivated in the lower parts of the State. Our markets 

 will probably be flooded with oranges from Florida. The Harris 

 grove consists of a hundred and eighty acres ; the owner went 

 there not twenty years ago, with less than fifty dollars, and this 

 year of low prices his crop sold for $60,000. This is what is 

 called a natural grove, consisting of wild trees grafted; the trees 

 were consequently not in rows, but growing irregularly. Generally 

 the soil is very sandy, but here there is much humus in it. The trees 

 were thirty feet high, interlocking though thinned out, and it was 

 very easy to lose one's self in this forest. The party of a hundred 

 persons got separated there. The sight was one of which we 

 should not have credited the story. Half the crop was unharvested, 

 and while the party were there ladders were run up tbe trees, and 

 two or three thousand oranges were brought down. The trees 



