6 



GRANGE CULTUEE, 



At Cordova, that far-famed seat of ancient Moorish splendor 

 and luxury, there are still remaining a number of monster orange 

 trees, known to be seven hundred years old ; their trunks are 

 j)artly hollow, their bark cracked and rugged, and yet each year 

 these doughty old giants yield up their seven and ten thousands 

 of large, luscious golden balls, as though yet in the hey-day of 

 their youth ; and who knows ? perhaps they are I Certainly, as 

 yet they show no intention of dying of old age, nor of retiring on 

 half 23ay, nor of shirking the active business of their lives, and 

 doubtless, if one versed in their native tongue were to say to them — 



'*How old must an orange tree be before it ceases to bear ? " 

 they vrould shake their great, bushy heads and reply. 



'•You must ask older trees than we are ! " 



Even in England, at Hampton Court, where the tree is raised 

 only as a curiosity, and is carefully sheltered under glass, there 

 are several, the register of whose birth bears date of over three 

 hundred years ago. 



So you see it is no rash assertion, this of ours, that no orange 

 grove o^\Tier Avill live to see his trees cease to yield him an income 

 and a good one too, if he but treats them with moderate kindness, 

 unless, indeed, some extraordinary extraneous cause supervenes 

 to destroy them, such as fire or flood, which may be reckoned as 

 among the impossibilities. 



Before referring in detail to the mode of culture pursued in 

 Florida, in raising this justly celebrated fruit, a brief glance at its 

 origin may not be amiss. 



An earnest naturalist, Galessio, was the first to trace its his- 

 tory with any degree of authenticity, and the result of his careful 

 researches he published to the world, in his *' Traile' du Citriis,'' 

 issued in Paris, in the year 1811. 



According to this author, the Ai'abs, penetrating further into 

 the interior of India than any foreign nation had done before, 

 discovered the orano^e familv flourishinp: there and held in hieh 

 esteem by the natives. 



From this point the Arabs conveyed the sweet, now called 

 China oranges, into Persia and Syria, and the bitter orange, now 

 called the Seville, found its way into Arabia, Egypt, the north of 



