WHERE TO PLANT. 



47 



These groves were uot sheltered l)y overhanging trees, but 

 further north bv manv miles was a far-famed srrove on Oranc^e 

 Lake, that was thus guarded : and adjoining it another, Avherein 

 all the trees had been cut down. 



When that disastrous frost came, the latter grove looked as 

 if a fire had swept through it, the trees being stripped of their 

 leaves, and thousands of dollars worth of fruit lying under them; 

 while the former was totally uninjured, its leaves as green as in 

 midsummer, its fruit untouched. 



The owner of the unsheltered grove now declares that he 

 would gladly give twenty thousand dollars for a few of the 

 stately forest trees, that once sheltered his domesticated wild 

 grove. 



We have said enough to demonstrate the im})ortance of this 

 point, so will pass on to the consideration of pine land suitable 

 for orange culture. 



The growth of timber on these lands is, as its name denotes, 

 chiefly pine, with here and there, small oaks, shrubs, wild per- 

 simmons, hickory, and a few other trees, sometimes solitary, but 

 more frequently in groups : and where the latter occurs, it is called 

 " scrub hammock.'" 



The rule is, that where tall, straight pine trees are found, 

 large in size, and about seventy to the acre, and no undergrowth, 

 except the wire-grass, may be so termed, the land is of the fii-st- 

 class; where the small oak trees are scattered thinly about, it is 

 second-class, and where the oaks surpass the pines in number, 

 it is less desirable, being inferior to the others. 



There is something to be said however, even for this; it is 

 very poor at first, it is true, but it responds very quickly to fer- 

 tilizers, and even the poorest of it can be brought to a high degree 

 of cultivation, and thereafter continually improves year by year. 



There is only one way of clearing hammock land, and that 

 we have mentioned ; there are, however several ways of prepar- 

 ing pine land for a grove. 



One way is to girdle the trees, which deadens them, and 

 puts an immediate stop to the great drain of their wide spread- 

 ing roots upon the plant food lying latent in the ground. 



