12 

 CHAPTER III. 



THE WILD ORANGE GROVE BUDDED 



Yields so readily under so simple treatment that we shall consider it at 

 once. Of course nature has already determined the location, and in 

 many instances the location has been wisely chosen, not only with 

 reference to best protection from frost, but also in many instances with 

 reference to cheap and easy transportation, on the banks of navigable 

 rivers and creeks. Wherever a wild grove can be found so located the 

 purchaser can afford to pay a liberal price if he has to buy, or the 

 owner can afford to improve by the most approved methods. 



Many, however, have been the blunders made in attempts to 

 improve such valuable property. I know of many groves greatly 

 damaged, and some completely sacrificed by bad management. The 

 two mistakes most frequently made, in the treatment of such groves, 

 are, first, the reckless destruction of the forest trees furnished by 

 nature for the protection of the orange, and second, the continued 

 pulling off the young shoots from the stumps cut off for the purpose 

 of budding. The first and second buds having failed, the cultivator 

 continues to reduce the vitality of the tree by pulling off the young 

 shoots, until at last the sap, for want of elaboration through the leaf, 

 becomes diseased, and the tree, tenacious of life as it is, dies of the 

 double cause of exhaustion and disease. It may be well to caution the 

 orange grower at once against the commission or repetition of thi& 

 frequent blunder. Few of our forest trees will survive being cut 

 down to a stump, still fewer will survive if the young shoots are kept 

 down for a few months. Every time the young shoots are pulled oft; 

 the young rootlets, corresponding to and starting at the same instant 

 with the shoots, die, and the effort of nature to restore vitality is 

 checked and weakened until the hardiest tree is soon killed. In bud- 

 ding old stumps I have found it of great advantage to allow a few 

 shoots to grow along the trunk, below the bud, pinching back these 

 shoots, allowing a few leaves on each shoot to grow to full size and so 

 furnishing the tree with healthy sap, encourage the development and 

 maturity of new wood and new roots and keep up an active circulation. 



