134 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



on "Florida Fruits and How to Raise Them," a few lead- 

 ing facts and figures with regard to an industry which is 

 usually made the ' ' backbone " of the Florida home will 

 certainly not be out of place. 



The State Land Commissioner, basing his statements on 

 verified figures, puts the cost of five acres (a man of mod- 

 erate means should not attempt more at first) set in trees, 

 fertilized and cultivated for five years, at eight hundred 

 and fifty dollars, and estimates the value of the property 

 at that time, simply as an orange grove, at five thousand 

 dollars. If the trees are choice budded fruit, and the 

 location on a lake, or near transportation, or a town, its 

 value is very much increased. 



Now, this estimate takes into account the cost of con- 

 stant cultivation, which is one of the heaviest expenses 

 the orange-grower has to meet. That this item will in the 

 near future be almost, if not entirely, a thing of the past 

 we firmly believe. 



Our own observations and experience, and those of 

 others scattered here and there over the State, point con- 

 clusively to the future orange grove as one of beautiful, 

 thrifty trees growing happily, their tender surface rootlets 

 neither torn nor mangled by the cruel plow or cultivator, 

 with a thick turf of Bermuda grass nestling close up to 

 their trunks, protecting the ground from sun-bake, enrich- 

 ing it constantly and silently by the decay of its roots and 

 tops, keeping down the noxious Aveeds, preserving an equal 

 moisture and requiring only an occasional top-dressing and 

 perhaps an annual hoeing around the tree. 



This is the grove that we see looming up in perspective. 

 We have seen it in practice on our own grounds ; the finest, 

 most thrifty trees we have — orange, lemon, pear, fig — are 

 those that have been left undisturbed for several years, not 

 even touched by a hoe, with Bermuda grass growing thick 



