126 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



five acres, is the desideratum of the settler, and just enough 

 land besides to raise fodder for his horse and vegetables for 

 his family, ten acres, inclusive of the grove, will be ample. 



There is only one way of clearing hammock land, and 

 that we have already mentioned. There are, however, 

 several ways of preparing pine land for cultivation. One 

 way is to girdle the trees, Avhich deadens them, and puts 

 an immediate stop to the great drain their wide-spreading 

 roots make upon the plant food contained in the soil. 



The trees are left standing, and then the land is ready for 

 fencing and plowing. In a few months the decaying bark 

 and limbs begin to fall upon the ground, and continue to 

 do so for several years, and the branches must either be 

 carried away from time to time or else become an eye-sore 

 and a constant annoyance in cultivation. 



The first cost of this method of " clearing" is very little, 

 only about two dollars an acre, or even less ; but it is very 

 likely to cost more in the end than it saved in the beginning. 



After a few years' time, when the orange grove is fairly 

 under way, the deadened trees will begin to fall; after 

 heavy winds or a soaking rain down they crash, now here, 

 now there, and, as they are not noted for judgment, they 

 are just as likely as not to come down on an orange tree 

 and put it beyond the pale of recognition. And then it 

 must be chopped up, and either hauled away or burned; 

 the expense and trouble of doing which are just as great 

 as they, would have been at first, plus the loss of some of 

 your best orange trees. 



The claim that the dropping sap, bark, and branches 

 of the pine trees, left to decay on the ground, furnish a 

 valuable fertilizer, is a specious one ; and, even if one is 

 willing to have his grove strewn over with branches that 

 trip up his horse and interfere wdth the plow, the amount 

 of nutriment thus given to the soil is so small that a few 



