68 



CHAPTER XVIII. 



CROPS THAT MAY BE GROWN AMONG THE ORANGE TREES. 



The question is often asked, " how can I make a living while the 

 orange trees are coming into bearing?" The answer is "just as you 

 would make a living if you were doing nothing else but farming 

 or gardening, or growing fruits that come in bearing sooner than the 

 orange." If you are a city clerk and know nothing about hoeing, and 

 plowing $nd chopping, you would find it rather tough for the first year 

 or two, to make your bread in the valley of the Nile, or your meat 

 and bread in the blue-grass region of Kentucky. In either case you 

 would have to deny yourself, for a year or two, of "luxuries" dear to 

 you, among the most valued of these otium cum dignatate. You would 

 have to pull off your coat and go to work. You would have to 

 consult the natives to learn practical and common sense, and you would 

 be surprised at the profound depth of your ignorance of the means of 

 making the bread you have been eating all your life. But knowledge, 

 even this humble knowledge, is good for the soul and the man. And 

 you can learn, and even learn to love to work. The sweet sleep and 

 refreshing rest under the soothing anodyne of labor would come without 

 the learning. After awhile would come the noble independence of a free 

 man. Try it, young man, try it! Come from the crowded city to the 

 country! Come South, come to Florida! You will regret it for the 

 first year or two, and apply hard names to your adviser, think him and 

 his book a great humbug; but if you have the virtue of continuance, 

 you will after awhile bless him for the advice, and your children will 

 bless you for your wisdom. But from this digression to the subject in 

 hand. 



It has already been noticed that garden crops may be grown among 

 the trees profitably to the laborer and the trees. Grapes and figs can 

 be brought into bearing within three years from the cutting, and 

 peaches in three years from the seed. Guavas can be grown under 

 shade of trees in the latitude of St. Augustine, and abundantly and 

 profitably further South. Plums do better in Florida than anywhere 

 I have ever seen them grow. The Japan and wild goose plum will 



