692 THE ORANGE FAMILY. 



largest supplies of this fruit. But it has, for a considerable time, 

 been cultivated pretty largely in Florida, and the orange groves 

 of St. Augustine yield large and profitable crops. Indeed the 

 cultivation may be extended over a considerable portion of that 

 part of the Union bordering on the Gulf of Mexico ; and the 

 southern part of Louisiana, and part of Texas, are highly favour- 

 able to orange plantations. The bitter orange has become quite 

 naturalized in parts of Florida, the so-called wild orange seed- 

 lings furnishing a stock much more hardy than those produced 

 by sowing the imported seeds. By continually sowing the seed 

 of these wild oranges, they will furnish stocks suited to almost 

 all the Southern States, which will, in time, render the better 

 kinds grafted upon them comparatively hardy. 



North of the latitude, where, in this country, the orange can 

 be grown in groves or orchards, it may still be profitably culti- 

 vated with partial protection. The injury the trees suffer from 

 severe winters, arises not from their freezing — for they will bear, 

 without injury, severe iV .-t — but from the rupture of sap-vessels 

 by the sudden thawing. A mere shed, or covering of boards, 

 will guard against all this mischief. x\ccordingly, towards the 

 south of Europe, where the climate is pretty severe, the orange 

 is grown in rows against stone-walls, or banks, in terraced gar- 

 dens, or trained loosely against a sheltered trellis ; and at the 

 approach of winter they are covered with a slight, moveable 

 shed, or frame of boards. In mild weather, the sliding-doors are 

 opened, and air is admitted freely — if very severe, a few pots of 

 charcoal are placed within the inclosure. This covering re- 

 mains over them four or five months, and in this way the orange 

 may be grown as far north as Baltimore. 



Soil and Culture. The best soil for the orange is a deep, 

 rich loam. In propagating them, sow, early in the spring, the 

 seeds of the naturalized, or wild bitter orange of Florida, which 

 gives much the hardiest stock. They may be budded in the 

 nursery row the same season, or the next, and for this purpose 

 the earliest time at which the operation can be performed (the 

 wood of the buds being sufficiently firm), the greater the suc- 

 cess. Whip, or splice-grafting, may also be resorted to early in 

 the spring. Only the hardiest sorts should be chosen for or- 

 chards or groves, the more delicate ones can be grown easily 

 with slight covering in winter. Fifty feet is the maximum 

 height of the orange in its native country, but it rarely forms 

 in Florida more than a compact, low tree of twenty feet. It is 

 better, therefore, to plant them so near as partially to shade the 

 surface of the ground. 



Insects. The orange plantations of Florida have suff'ered 

 very severely within a few years from the attacks of the scale 

 insect [Coccus Hisperidum)^ which, in some cases, has spread 

 over whole plantations and gradually destroyed all thj tiees. 



