1156 



ORANGE 



As fares sweep over the pme laucK lunu'dh burninK 

 the lesmous pme straw, there is a „ )od deal uf flnelj 

 divided charcoal in these soils but i erj little humus, 

 while m hammock soil the percentage of humus is often 

 veiy large 



Platwoods (low pine land) is chaiacterized b\ several 

 sm ill coned hpecies of pme which otheiHise^er-* much 



li57 Florida Orane: grove 



resemble the long-leaved pines. This laud is often un- 

 derlaid with hardpan a foot or two below the surface. 

 Much of it is subject to overflow in tiie rainy months, 

 and when overgrown with gallberry bushes it is useless 

 for Orange culture. 



A prairie is a tract in the flatwoods overgrown with 

 grass only and covered by standing water during a 

 part of each year. 



A scrub is a tract of white sand — often like clean 

 granulated sugar— overgrown with dwarfed live-oaks 

 and other bushes, mr)srlv of the heath family and usu- 

 ally only a fow f.-.-t liiih, 

 trees, tbi- .•|Mn 

 moss and ■.i\]\ii\ 

 Orange c'uitmr i 

 and constantly frrtiiizi-ii. 



A bay or bayhead is a deep accumulation of humus — 

 muck and peat. When drained, such lands make the 

 best vegetable gardens. 



The shell-mounds are, as theirnarae implies, accumu- 

 lations of the shclK "f iiKiriin ..r fresh-water mollusks. 



intermixed with 

 to be thirsty, th 

 supplied, and alt 

 and produce fine 

 long-lived 



1.1 liumus. They are apt 

 li. M plenty of water is 

 it;c will grow upon them 

 fruit, the trees are not 



nd seem subject to disease. The 

 finest silky-skinned fruit is rarely, if ever, produced by 

 trees in vigorous health and rugged growth. 



The tendency of Orange trees on pine land, especially 

 bottomless pine lands — those not underlaid with clay — 

 is to wood growth, and the postponement of abundant 

 fruiting till a great age has been reached ; this is es- 

 pecially the case with seedling trees. The coarser the 

 pine land soil in texture, the longer, as a rule, will the 

 Orange tree take to reach a bearing age, sometimes 

 requiring twenty or thirty years, even with abundant 

 fertilizing, on the coarser sands. On the hammocks, 

 seedlings fruit at a much mr]]. r .il'. , nrd budded trees 

 often dwarf themselves fv ' r _-, 



South of the 27th degr. - iMie are some 



rich, red, loamy soils, will I. i.,: u. : 

 coral debris instead of quarL_. In 

 gions the Orange is supposed to fl<>urish only upon the 

 scrub lands, being dwarfed and subject to disease on 

 the otherwise rich and fertile red soils. 



When not injured by frost, the Florida Orange tree is 

 immensely productive of thin-skinned delicious fruits. 

 A good Florida orchard or grove is shown in Fig. 

 1557. A new tree arising from the stump of a frozen 

 tree is shown in Fig. 1558. Many groves have been re- 



largely 



ved 



ithii 



lound being too variable in size and often too small 

 Theodore L Mead 

 \S0THER View of Oravge Ciltire l^ Florida - 

 In primitive Orange culture the tree was a seedling 

 triiin selected fruit, and even at this time the majority 

 lit bearing trees in Florida are seedlings. Seedlings 

 ire late in coming into bearing, their fruit is of variable 

 quilit\ and the roots of sweet Orange trees are likely 

 to get the 'foot-rot," or »«a/-di-^o»na. Therefore grow- 

 ers aie now more careful as to stocks used and seldom 

 111 lilt till sweet seedling tree, but graft or bud on more 

 snit ilili roots. On very high land of best quality which 

 IS lb I |ih drained, it is" possible to raise the sweet seed- 

 ling \Mtliuut great danger from foot-rot. As long as 

 the loots are healthy the trees produce fruit in abun- 

 dance, and many growers contend that the fruit pro- 

 duced, whether of Orange, lemon or pomelo, on sweet 

 Orange stocks is better in quality of juice, has less 

 "rag" and a thinner skin, and hangs on the tree in per- 

 fection longer than when grown on other roi.ts. 



The sour Orange as a stock for other citrous trees is 

 a contestant with the longer grown sweet Orange, and 

 as it is free from gum disease, commonly called "foot- 

 rot," and yields abundant crops, it is planted on soils 

 which naturally suit it ; these are low, rich lands of 

 both pine and hammock. In the central part of Florida 

 it has run wild, and grows in the open hammock woods 

 wliere some years ago the best thickets were budded or 

 grafted to the sweet Orange, and up to 1895 bore enor- 

 mous crops of fruit. The sour Orange does not do so 

 well on higher land, though sometimes planted there, 

 and will not grow at all in dr>-, coarse sand, where the 

 "rough lemon" manages to exist and produce fruit. 



This "rough lemon" .seems to be a natural hybrid 

 citrus, with leaves and flowers somewhat resembling 

 the commercial lemon and with large, round, coarse 



J'arieties. - Of the leading varieties, Homosassa 

 may be taken as the type of the finest seedlings origi- 

 nating in Florida; otlier Florida seedlings have been 



4Pf<r 



4,jr 



1558. Sproul-grown Orange tree. 



fruit with a lemon's acidity, but with the appearance of 

 a coarse sour Orange. 



For quickness of growth and prolific fruiting, no 

 citrous tree compares with the " rough lemon " as a stock 

 for Oranges, lemons, etc., and growers are more suc- 

 cessful with it than with any other stock on diverse 

 soils so far tried. 



