272 Appendix. 



No. 28. 



In Blackwood's Magazine for September, 1885, p. 316, 

 there is an article, entitled, "Florida, the state of orange 

 groves." 



The writer says : " The Florida orange is a delicacy by 

 itself, hitherto unknown to the world, and which Spain need 

 never attempt to rival. Between an Indian river orange, 

 and the coarse-grained, spongy, bitter-sweet product of the 

 Mediterranean, there is nothing whatever in common. The 

 one is a thing to be eaten in the usual routine of life, the 

 other is a delicacy which we can only hope to stumble on at 

 rare moments. A ripe Floridian, well grown, and in good 

 condition, melts in the mouth like a juicy peach. It is nectar 

 in poetic form ; and the fashionable mode of eating it in 

 Jacksonville is to cut it in two, and empty it with a teaspoon. 

 So delicate is the pulp, and so tender the skin, that the one 

 difficulty in enjoying it is the handling of it."* .... 



" In tropical countries the winter is generally the wet 

 season, and what it lacks in cold, it makes up in damp, and 

 a general atmosphere of rheumatism. But Florida has its 

 rain in the summer ; at Jacksonville, they register from fifty 

 to sixty inches of rain per annum, the average being about 

 fifty-four inches. More than two-thirds of the fall occurs 



in the months of June to October inclusive The 



oldest of the orange groves in Florida is under fifteen years. 

 .... Strangers are told that natural trees (seedlings) will 

 bear in seven or eight years, and budded ones in five or six ; 

 but that is a different thing to getting from them fine-flavoured 

 fruit. After the seventh or eighth year, they improve every 

 season, and with careful cultivation, they should have attained 

 a full measure of juiciness, and delicacy by their twelfth 

 year. There seems to be no historical limit to their fruitful- 

 ness. Trees of mythical age exist in various parts of the 

 state, which have had 5,000 oranges in one crop. It is a fine 



* Those I saw in the London shops did not come up to this descrip- 

 tion. They were very fine flavoured oranges. 



