6 BULLETIN 64% U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The principal source of damage to the present citrus plantings is, 

 however, neglect of a proper routine of nursery and orchard prac- 

 tice, including control of insect pests. Pruning in the nursery to 

 produce symmetrical trees with the greatest possible production of 

 fruit-bearing wood has been neglected. Later, when planted in the 

 orchard, branches of various sizes are allowed to die from one cause 

 or another, often from scale insects, and the dead wood removed, 

 leaving a misshapen tree. The trees are nearly always planted too 

 close. Owing to the shallowness of the soil 1 the orange roots must 

 spread to a great distance close to the surface, those of the different 

 rows thus meeting and forming a network over the entire orchard. 

 The branches of the various trees in the row also interlace in many 

 cases, resulting in comparatively puny and undersized trees and low 

 production. Furthermore, it is often impossible, at least always 

 difficult, to get about in the orchard to give it the proper cultiva- 

 tion and spraying, and in cultivating the bark frequently is bruised 

 and branches of varying sizes are broken. 



Cultivation, fertilization, and spraying are neglected very often 

 or practiced only intermittently. As stated by their owners, about 

 38 per cent of the orchards are not cultivated at all, the weeds in 

 many of them growing almost as high as the trees. About 10 per 

 cent of the orange groves receive such cultivation as is necessary for 

 the raising of vegetables, which are grown between the rows. 



Several classes of fertilizer are used, regularly by some, and in- 

 termittently by others. The chief kinds used are cotton seed, either 

 meal or whole, commercial mixed fertilizer, stable manure, and 

 shrimp hulls; sometimes two or more of these are used together. 

 Approximately 37 per cent of the orchards, however, had received 

 no fertilization of any kind for several years. A considerable pro- 

 portion of the orchards, about 30 per cent, are sown with a cover 

 crop, generally cowpeas. 



No standard program of controlling insect pests has been followed, 

 except by a very few of the more progressive growers. According 

 to reports received from 97 per cent of the orange growers of the 

 State, spraying against scale insects, the white fly, and the rust 

 mite has been practiced at one time or another in the last five years 

 by only 15 per cent of those who reported. Some of those who 

 sprayed made only 1 application a year, others as high as 5, and 

 11 different combinations of insecticides had been used with an 



1 The water table in Plaquemines Parish, where over 90 per cent of the citrus fruit of 

 Louisiana is produced, lies from 1 foot beneath the surface in some orchards to 7 feet 

 in others, but the average depth throughout the parish is only 23 feet. Draining usually 

 is accomplished by open ditches, from 1 to 2 J feet deep and from 2 te 3 feet wide at 

 the top, leading to an outfall canal, which connects with a bayou of the swamps. In 

 some cases there is a pump, propelled by a gas engine, to hasten the outflow and care 

 for exceptionally heavy rains ; and around some groves rear and side levees are con- 

 structed. About 40 per cent of the groves, however, have no drainage system. 



