ORANGE—CITRUS FRUIT GROWING 



1481 



enough to permit a man to drive a cul- 

 tivator under the branches. The severe 

 cold of several winters has caused this 

 custom to be very largely abandoned. In 

 the southern part of Florida, where there 

 is no danger from frost, it has been found 

 that shading the ground by the limbs has 

 been very beneficial to the grove. An- 

 other important advantage in low-headed 

 trees is that the fruit may be gathered 

 much more cheaply than from tall trees. 



Nearly all orange growers will agree 

 that the pruning out of dead and worth- 

 less branches is of benefit to the tree. 

 The extent to which sound wood is pruned 

 out, however, varies with the notions of 

 the individual grower. Some of the most 

 extensive and best growers in Florida 

 practice no pruning at all. Diseased 

 branches should always be cut out, re- 

 moved from the orchard at once and 

 burned. Sprouts that start from below 

 the bud must be removed, and this 

 should be done as soon as possible. Water 

 sprouts need not and ordinarily should 

 not be removed. There are conditions 

 under which removal is entirely proper, 

 but the very common practice of remov- 

 ing them simply as a pastime is a very 

 harmful occupation. The fact that a 

 water sprout appears shows that the 

 tree is in a position to elaborate more 

 reserve material than can be elaborated 

 by its present leaf area. After a year or 

 two years these water sprouts produce an 

 abundant crop. 



A citrus tree should be kept in a low, 

 compact form, but violent pruning, such 

 as is often practiced in deciduous fruit 

 orchards, is not only unnecessary but 

 often harmful. There are special cases, 

 such as lemon orchards, and there are 

 some regions in which trees must be 

 mutilated to make them fruit; but that 

 does not affect the general rule that cit- 

 rus trees should be sparingly pruned or 

 not at all. 



Picking 



In citrus growing, as in the growing 

 of other commercial products, the ag- 

 riculturist frequently does everything 

 perfectly up to the time of harvesting his 

 crop. He then gets in a hurry, and as 



a result of overhaste his product goes 

 into the market in bad condition. This 

 is especially to be regretted since so fre- 

 quently his fruit is fautless when the 

 time for picking arrives. 



In picking citrus fruits the greatest 

 care should be exercised not to include 

 any imperfect specimens. The fruits 

 should be separated from the tree by 

 means of a clipper, cutting the stem off 

 close to the fruit, leaving it smooth, so 

 that when another fruit comes in contact 

 with the cut stem it will not be injured 

 thereby. The picked fruit should be 

 placed in some sort of basket. Frequently 

 the fruit is picked in sacks. While 

 thousands of crates are picked in this way, 

 and the fruit is marketed in fairly good 

 condition, first-class oranges in the prime 

 of condition are apt to be either scratch- 

 ed or slightly bruised. Thoroughly ripe 

 fruit is so filled with juice that it will 

 spurt out if a thorn or the point of a 

 knife blade be stuck through the skin. 

 It must be taken to the packing house 

 with the greatest care and permitted to 

 cure before it is fit to pack. When the 

 picker has secured as much fruit as can 

 be conveniently put in a basket, it is 

 turned into a field crate. These crates 

 are usually of slightly larger size than 

 the shipping crate, and so constructed as 

 to make it possible to nest them for trans- 

 portation to the packing house. After 

 the fruit has been picked for some time 

 and the skin has toughened and the fruit 

 has been permitted to shrink to some ex- 

 tent, it may be handled with much less 

 danger of being injured. This usually re- 

 quires from three days to two weeks. At 

 the end of this time the fruit is graded 

 according to its appearance. This grad- 

 ing has to be done by hand, and re- 

 quires the judgment of a man skilled in 

 citrus sorting. Various names are given 

 to the grades of oranges, such as brights, 

 fancies, seconds, golden russets, russets, 

 dark russets, and so on. Usually there 

 are about three grades in a grove, the 

 brights, golden russets, and russets. The 

 brights are divided into fancies and sec- 

 onds. 



Lemons are picked while the color is 



