ORANGE— CITRUS FRUIT GROWING 



1479 



the state between the line above referred 

 to and the counties constituting South 

 Florida." 



Of tlie sweet-orange group well adapted 

 to this section may be mentioned Cen- 

 tennial, Tardiff, Homosassa, Jaffa, Ma- 

 jorca, and Parson Brown; of the man- 

 darin group, Satsuma, China, Dancy and 

 King; of the pomelo group, De Soto, Dun- 

 can, Excelsior, Hall, Marsh, Pernambuco, 

 Royal, and Standard. Shaddocks and 

 citrons are not grown as commercial 

 fruits, and Nagami is the leading variety 

 of kumquat for this section. 



South Florida includes the following 

 counties: Brevard, Dade, Monroe, De 

 Soto, and Manitee. 



The sweet oranges recommended for 

 this section are the Bahia on rough- 

 lemon stock, Tardiff, Homosassa, and 

 Majorca; of the mandarin group, China, 

 Dancy, and King; of the pomelo group, 

 De Soto, Duncan, Excelsior, Hall, Marsh, 

 Pernambuco, Royal, and Standard. 



Shaddocks are not grown commer- 

 cially, and are found only as ornamentals 

 or novelties. In the kumquat group the 

 leading variety is the Nagami. Citrons 

 are grown only as occasional specimens. 



Lemons are not grown as extensively 

 in Florida as in California. There are, 

 however, some good orchards of this 

 fruit, the varieties principally produced 

 in South Florida being Belair, Genoa, 

 Imperial, Sicily, and Villa Franca. 



On the keys and the adjacent coast 

 considerable quantities of limes grow 

 without cultivation and are apparently 

 naturalized. The Department of Agri- 

 culture has distributed various importa- 

 tions of limes into South Florida, and 

 nearly all of these varieties do very well. 

 The peculiar demands of the market. 

 however, are such as to make lime grow- 

 ing unprofitable. Nevertheless, very 

 high prices are paid for the limes which 

 are gathered from trees occurring spon- 

 taneously on the coast and keys. This 

 lime is generally spoken of as the Key 

 lime. It is a very small fruit and in- 

 tensely acid, and usually contains many 

 seeds. This same lime when taken to 

 the mainland and put under cultivation 



produces a large fruit, with very thick, 

 rough skin, approaching in size and ap- 

 pearance that of the usual lemon. Limes 

 of this size do not meet with ready sale. 



Lonisiana and Mississippi 



The citrus-growing section of Louisiana 

 and Mississippi occurs in the region 

 closely bordering on the Gulf. In Missis- 

 sippi it is near Biloxi, and in Louisiana 

 it is south of New Orleans. 



In these sections the common sweet 

 orange grown is known as the Creole. 

 This, strictly speaking, is not a variety, 

 but an assemblage of seedling oranges 

 that have been cultivated in this region 

 for some time. Of the mandarin group 

 Satsuma and China are the leading va- 

 rieties. Of the pomelo group only a few 

 are grown, these being the earliest varie- 

 ties, such as Royal and Triumph. 



Porto Rico and the West Indies 

 Generally 



Citrus growing throughout the West 

 Indies is in a rather formative state. The 

 efforts at systematic work in this line 

 have not been carried forward with the 

 same degree of vigor as in California and 

 Florida. Nearly all the varieties recom- 

 mended for South Florida may be planted 

 with more or less confidence in this re- 

 gion. After years of experimenting in 

 this region local varieties will doubtless 

 develop which will prove better than 

 some of the sorts now introduced on these 

 islands. 



GROWING AlVD MARKETING 



Setting Ont 



Usually the prospective orange grower 

 buys trees from a nursery and sets them 

 out as soon as the field has been cleared, 

 wishing, of course, to get the trees on 

 the land as soon as possible and to 

 hasten the time when he may be selling 

 fruit. Sometimes this is by no means 

 the most profitable procedure. Land 

 especially rich in organic matter and 

 heavily matted with roots from the na- 

 tive growth would be decidedly better 

 for having produced a crop or two of 

 vegetables before the grove was planted. 

 If for any reason it is not desirable to 

 grow vegetables, a crop of weeds grown 

 on it for a year would do much to 



