PEEFACE. 



The writer for several years suffered greatly for want of some 

 reliable advice on Orange Culture. Could he have had such instruc- 

 tions as the following pages contain he might have hastened forward to 

 profitable bearing by several years an orange grove now crowning his 

 labors with success. He could have done this with half the amount of 

 money expended by him in experimenting, in following unreliable 

 advice, and in doing, what at the time, seemed wisest. It is to save oth- 

 ers such useless expenditures and to help forward the best material 

 interest of Florida that he has undertaken to give to the public the 

 result of his experience and observation on ORANGE CULTURE IN 

 FLORIDA. 



Nor has he undertaken this without the earnest solicitation of 

 many who are engaged in orange growing and have witnessed his 

 success and discussed with him his plans. 



The writer has not only had ten years of actual experience in 

 'jrange growing, but he has had before him a wide field for observing 

 the efforts of others engaged in this business. He has had throughout 

 his life a passion for horticulture ; in early life considerable experience 

 as an amateur cultivator of fruits. For twenty -five years he has been 

 accustomed to eat fresh from the trees the orange grown in Cuba, in 

 Central America, in California, in Louisiana and in Florida. His 

 admiration of this " queen of fruits " has led him to observe and inquire 

 after the methods of culture in each of these several countries. During 

 the ten years of his experience he has frequently traveled over the State 

 of Florida, visiting, at all seasons of the year, the various sections en- 

 gaged in growing oranges, discussing with growers their theories and 

 noting the results of their efforts. 



This little work, therefore, is not the result of the experience of a 

 single individual confined to a single location, but the result of experi- 

 ments, successes and failures of the many, extended over the State of 

 Florida. 



