IN OUR ORCHARDS 189 



still studded with golden fruit. The last year's crop 

 will not be entirely gone before the first of June. 



We speak of oranges here as we do of apples in 

 the North; not in the general but in the particular, 

 asking for a Ruby or a Jaffa or a Tardif or a Wash- 

 ington Naval. Most of these are of recent intro- 

 duction and are improvements on the old sorts that 

 were planted by the Spaniards. The lemon is 

 slightly more tender to frost than the orange, yet 

 you find here and there a tree covered with lighter 

 yellow fruit bending its limbs to the ground. The 

 grapefruit also is frequently planted in the same or- 

 chard, and this also bears its fruit very heavily. 



But nothing is finished in the Florida orchard as 

 nothing is through with evolution in the Northern 

 orchard. In my short life is included the entire 

 development of the whole Fameuse and Winesap 

 families, which now include many of the best apples 

 that we grow. The orange is on the same road of 

 evolution, and while Mr. Burbank is working among 

 the plums, and Stark Brothers are offering us such 

 apples as King David, and Mr. Munson is origina- 

 ting such grapes as Headlight and Brilliant, ne.w sorts 

 of oranges, sweeter and richer, are being created in 

 Florida. We have already a lemon that weighs two 

 pounds, thin-skinned and exceedingly high flavored. 

 It is a wonderful sight when filling full the limbs of 

 a twelve-foot tree. 



There is another fruit down there called the 

 loquat. It is a combination of pear and cherry, a 



