26 



Nature's Way is to drop seeds promiscuously wherever 

 they happen to fail, but only those dropping in favorable 

 spots in the forest or in well protected fence corners 

 survive germination, and after germination only the most 

 vigorous plants overcome the obstacles to which the bud- 

 ded trees are subject. Unfortunately it is not possible for 

 the planter to exercise such rigorous selection, but it is 

 practical in many instances to copy nature's methods of 

 growing trees. The tree growing in the cool moist forest 

 atmosphere is not subject to scale insects, because those 

 conditions are favourable to the .growth of fungi, which 

 will keep the scale in check. The surrounding trees and 

 shrubs take up a great deal of nourishment and rob the 

 citrus tree of food, for which reason it grows slowly. On 

 the other hand those surrounding trees and -shrubs shade 

 the soil, keeping it cool and moist. The mulch or leaf 

 mold protects the soil from baking by the sun, beating 

 by the rains and cracking from drought. 



Imitating Nature is the cheapest method of culti- 

 vation, and considering that a tree planted is capital in- 

 vested it pays well to take advantage of it. In the 'Com- 

 mercial method of starting a grove spraying is one of 

 the first operations, and in many of the earlier groves 

 more money was spent on that, tharT on all other work 

 ^combined. The more advanced planters who have prac- 

 tical experience and theoretical knowledge do not "lay 

 awake nights" studying up new cures for tree diseases. 

 They plan their work in such a way as to keep the trees 

 healthy and that is the keynote to success. 



The grove is in the first place started with windbreaks 

 around and smaller plants between the rows. This is 

 imitating forest conditions and the trees will not have 



