ITS RISE AND PROGRESS IN FLORIDA. 



9 



these, the luscious sweet orange of Europe, so well known in the 

 Northern States, was a boon unknown and undreamed of ; they 

 knew, it is true, that, scattered over the central and southern 

 portions of Florida, were wild groves of beautiful trees, bearing a 

 large yellow fruit, but that fruit was exceedingly bitter and sour, 

 and held by them in no esteem. 



It was not until our unhappy civil war had come to a close, 

 and the ancient regime was broken up, that a new people began to 

 press beyond the borders of Florida, bringing in their midst the 

 commencement of a new era in its hitherto stagnant civilization. 



Even then it was sometime before the attention of these new 

 comers w^as drawn to the capabilities of the wild sour orange 

 groves scattered all around them in the rich hammock lands, and 

 the first bold pioneer who ventured to experiment upon their true 

 value, met, as is usual in such cases, with no encouragement from 

 his neighbors, but rather determinated opposition and ridicule. 



A case, in illustration, was related to the writer recently by a 

 neighbor, a lady who is now^ the proud owner of several fine 

 bearing groves : Fourteen years ago she removed with her family 

 from the Northern part of the State down into the "Great Lake 

 Eegiou, " and "Orange Centre;" building a home in the piney 

 woods for the sake of health. The want of shade w^as at once 

 apparent; to supply this desideratum, ^QYQY2i\ large sour orange 

 trees were transplanted from a wild grove near by. They flour- 

 ished exceedingly well, but their fruit was allowed to rot upon the 

 ground, uncared for. One day there came a stranger, who argued 

 so eloquently upon the great gain to be obtained by cutting their 

 tops off, and inserting buds from a sweet orange in their trunks, 

 that, sorely against the will of our informant, her husband pro- 

 ceeded to follow the stranger's advice. " I scolded and cried, and 

 cried and scolded," she said, "but it was of no use; the tops of 

 those splendid trees were sawed off, and the little green sticks the 

 stranger gave us were put into the bark of the poor, bare trunks. 

 In a few months-, seeinsr how fast the buds were growino*, I besran 

 to think perhaps there was some truth in the stranger's words, and 

 in three years, when I saw a fine crop of splendid oranges, the 

 -sweetest I had ever tasted, I blessed the stranger, and thanked 



