26 



ORANGE CULTUEE. 



pound to two gallons of water. 



This is not only effectual in keeping all insects at a distance, 

 but is an excellent fertilizer as well, thus " killing two birds with 

 one stone." 



This is a homemade " fertilizer as it were, being manufact- 

 ured in Jacksonville, and very easily procured. 



And now, having got our trees ready for the nursery, let us 

 see what is the proper location for the latter, and how best to re- 

 move the embryo gold mine to its nourishing care. 



It is an important thing to make a good selection for a nur- 

 sery ; because the plants are small, is no reason why they should 

 not have the best possible care, unless you want them to remain 

 small indefinitely. 



Hammock land, with the roots thoroughly cleared out, and 

 mellowed by frequent workings, is good, but pine land is better, 

 trees reared from their earliest infancy in rich hammock soil, and 

 then transplanted at three or more years of age, to pine land, 

 will be apt to droop and pine, and either die outright, or else 

 linger along for years only half alive, just as a child tenderly 

 reared and cared for, will droop if suddenly transplanted to a life 

 of exposure with coarse and insufficient food, for every nursery 

 tuee that is set out in a hammock grove, one hundred at least are 

 set out on pine land ; therefore, let them start out in life, on the 

 kind of food they are to have in after years ; then when they set 

 forth on their life work, in our great groves, there is no violent 

 change in their nurture, and thrift and vigor are assured. 



The site for a nursery should be on a slight rise to insure 

 proper drainage without ditching ; hard pan or clay should be not 

 nearer the surface than three feet ; the exposure should be south- 

 erly, and the site protected as far as possible from high winds. 



If water cannot be easily procured from a neighboring lake 

 or pond, dig a well in the center of the nursery ; it ^vill repay its 

 cost by the number of young trees it will save, for water they 

 must have, and a plenty of it, during their first summer in the 

 nursery ; after that they are old enough to take care of their own 

 water supply. 



Here again, mulching is of great advantage in preserving 



