336 Transactions of the American Institute. 



Northern Florida, while on the Halifax they escaped, and the trees 

 are this year more heavily laden then ever. The orange will grow 

 upon almost any soil, but if planted upon pine lands fertilizers are 

 necessary. Burned shells, ashes, bones, etc., should be freely supplied. 

 The advantage of planting upon hummock land is that it is exceed- 

 ingly fertile, and is often supplied with the needed alkali in its shells 

 and shell-marl. This is the case along the coast. From St. Augustine 

 south, the coast soil is based upon immense beds of shells and coral. 

 Sometimes the shells have been broken up by the action of the waves of 

 the sea when the land was forming, and concreted into what is known 

 as coquina rock, while the hummock lands — the lands which were 

 last reclaimed from the waters — are filled with microscopic shells, 

 constituting with its admixture of sand and vegetable matter, what 

 we call shell-marl. Oftentimes the surface of the ground is mainly 

 an immense mass of oyster-shells, harder to spade than a gravel-pit. 

 Mr. Sutton's grove, near Daytona, stands upon such a bed, and his 

 grove of 1,000 trees, with that of Captain Burnham's, has made the 

 reputation of the Indian Biver orange. The cluster of twenty-eight 

 oranges upon a single twig twelve inches in length, brought to this 

 city by Dr. P. A. Gordon, of Daytona, a few days since, came from 

 Mr. Sutton's grove. 



Orange groves are brought forward by one of the following 

 three methods : First, by budding or grafting wild trees where they 

 stand ; second, by transplanting the wild stocks and afterwards bud- 

 ding them ; and, third, by planting sweet seedlings. In the first 

 method cut off the wild tree one foot from the ground during the 

 winter or spring, cut with a bevel, coat with wax, and allow a single 

 shoot to grow from the stump. By June this will be ready to bud, 

 or it may be grafted at any time when the bark is free. Clear away 

 the forest shade gradually until the orange has become accustomed to 

 the warm sun. Train but one bud or graft, because, first, it will use 

 all the sap and make as much top in a given time as a dozen ; second, 

 two shoots will envelop the decayed end of the stump, and, inclosing 

 a mass of infectious matter in the • very heart of the tree, will affect 

 the trunk clear to the roots. Sickly trees in old groves are almost 

 all of this class. A single shoot will crowd the decayed portion to 

 one side and heal it under, while the heart of the stump and the 

 heart of the sweet sprout will unite and make one continuous healthy 

 trunk from the ground up. Nip the terminal bud at the desired 

 height for making the top, and thenceforward allow the tree to assume 

 its own form. When it is desired to transplant the wild stocks, 



