14 



OKANGE CULTURE. 



know : do not trust entirely to hearsay ; find out all you can by 

 actual trial and experiment ; study reliable books relating to your 

 new business ; take one or more weekly papers devoted to the same 

 cause ; be energetic, persevering, careful to do your best and 

 make the most of the advantages you possess ; never use or prac- 

 tice those three most reprehensible words in the English language 

 •'too much trouble. " 



Do these things, and in eight or ten years from the day you 

 set foot in Florida, a penniless man, perchance, you will be in com- 

 fortable independence. Aye I more than independent for all your 

 life to come, and your children, and grand-children after you. 



Every man who has succeeded in raising a grove, has done 

 so by jDursuing just !6uch a course as we have suggested ; and na 

 man will fail who is content to follow in their footsteps. 



One of our earliest pioneers in orange growing was an Eng- 

 lishman, John Eaton, by name. 



He served in our army during the Seminole War, and when 

 discharged at its close, in 1837, accepted the offer of the Govern- 

 ment to give one hundred and sixty ( 160 ) acres of land to anr 

 soldier who would settle on and cultivate a portion of it. 



AVe, in these enlightened days, know how to envy this man 

 the grand opportunity, for selecting choice lands that lay before 

 him, but he had not our knowledge. 



The wondrous value of the wild orange tree was a sealed 

 book to him ; he was a plain working man, and at that time an 

 invalid ; all he sought was a quiet i^lace in a mild climate, that 

 " his days might be jDrolonged in the land " so he selected his 

 homestead on the St. John's River, in Orange County ; he built 

 him a little hut on a small shell-mound, where about 50 wildor- 

 ange trees were growing, and there with fish and game at his 

 door, and a small garden patch by his side, he dwelt alone for 

 twenty years. 



Some one came along after he had been there a short time^ 

 and initiated him into the mysteries of budding ; and then more 

 from curiosity than with any thought of profit, he budded his fifty 

 wild trees. 



He " builded better than he knew ; " in a few years these 



