89 



is a laborious process to separate the rind from even a ripe orange, and 

 impossible to find an abnormal crop in other respects. These points 

 may be thought s >mewhat theoretical, but they have brought convic- 

 tion to a large number of practical men, who will hereafter, in the 

 event of a dry, hot season use the orchard plough to train the tree roots 

 down to a safer feeding surface by preventing the formation of a dust 

 pan. Tn spite of the adversities of last season, I know several cases of 

 deep ploughing which h- Id the fruit intact until May, while many in 

 the same locality were compelled to harvest their crops in early winter 

 where shallow cultivation had prevailed. If the experiences of the past 

 three years have demonstrated that dry-year crops may be improved by 

 superior cultivation, a repetition of the troubles that befell tbe orange- 

 grower last season may be avoided in the future. 



In the pruning of orange trees there is no new item to present. 

 Elaborate articles have been written on this point, but the practical 

 orchardist does little or no pruning. To look after the water sprouts 

 that may distort his trees, and to trim out the branches that die of 

 inanition and thus give the tree an inside bearing surface, are about 

 the limits of orange-tree pruning as practised by the best growers. 

 The orange tree will produce fancy fruit grown so near the earth that 

 i< may ripen in the sand, and indeed the best fruit is usually found 

 upon the lower branches. 



The question of adaptability of soil is no longer an open one. It has 

 been settled so thoroughly by experiences that the new investor can 

 avoid mistakes by a tour of investigation. Generally, lands which bear 

 light, regular crops produce a somewhat superior orange, while the 

 heavier lands produce slightly inferior fruit, but heavier crops Modern 

 meihods of fertilizing have modified these characteristics until it may 

 be broadly stated that there is only an immaterial difference in the 

 fruit grown throughout the true citrus belt. A problem in regard to 

 fertilization presents itself this season for the first time. The facts are 

 that hundreds of groves where hardpanning had occurred for two or 

 three years carried the annual or s j mi-annual applications of fertilizers 

 to the beginning of this year with but partial assimilation The light 

 rainfall, the sparse irrigation, and other deficiencies caused by three 

 consecutive dry years, together with the light cultivation, must have 

 prevented the utilization of the fertilizers. This has brought a strange 

 experience — the finest condition of trees ever seen, with the lightest 

 crop ever grown from an equal foliage surface. The conclusion is that 

 the trees last winter were supplied with a superabundance of wood- 

 growing, but not sufficient fruit-producing, elements. There is a field 

 for investigation here that the scientific authorities should exploit. 



The question of insect disinfection is too large to cover in a paper of 

 this character. In a majority of the citrus growing sections unclean 

 fruit bears its own penalty in washing charges, in falling to lower 

 grades, and in the disrepute it brings to the orchardist. Fumigation is 

 more universal this fall than at any other time. It has been reduced 

 to a science, and while the practice is not always successful, poor work 

 is no longer tolerated without a penalty upon the fumigator. There is 

 little complaint of impure cyanide, but much of its improper applica- 

 tion. Daylight fumigation, or more properly warm weather fumiga- 

 tion, is under ban, but many otherwise practical growers have not 



