692 
THE ORANGE FAMILY. 
largest supplies of this fruit. But it has, for a considerable time t 
been cultivated pretty largely in Florida, and the orange groves 
of St. Augustine yield large and profitable crops. Indeed the 
cultivation may be extended over a considerable portion of that 
part of the Union bordering on the Gulf of Mexico ; and the 
southern part of Louisiana, and part of Texas, are highly favour- 
able to orange plantations. The bitter orange has become quite 
naturalized in parts of Florida, the so-called wild orange seed- 
lings furnishing a stock much more hardy than those produced 
by sowing the imported seeds. By continually sowing the seed 
of these wild oranges, they will furnish stocks suited to almost 
all the Southern States, which will, in time, render the better 
kinds grafted upon them comparatively hardy. 
North of the latitude, where, in this country, the orange can 
be grown in groves or orchards, it may still be profitably culti- 
vated with partial protection. The injury the trees suffer from 
severe winters, arises not from their freezing — for they will bear, 
without injury, severe frost — but from the rupture of sap-vessels 
by the sudden thawing. A mere shed, or covering of boards, 
will guard against all this mischief. Accordingly, towards the 
south of Europe, where the climate is pretty severe, the orange 
is grown in rows against stone-walls, or banks, in terraced gar- 
dens, or trained loosely against a sheltered trellis ; and at the 
approach of winter they are covered with a slight, moveable 
shed, or frame of boards. In mild weather, the sliding-doors are 
opened, and air is admitted freely — if very severe, a few pots of 
charcoal are placed within the inclosure. This covering re- 
mains over them four or five months, and in this way the orange 
may be grown as far north as Baltimore. 
Soil and Culture. The best soil for the orange is a deep, 
rich loam. In propagating them, sow, early in the spring, the 
seeds of the naturalized, or wild bitter orange of Florida, which 
gives much the hardiest stock. They may be budded in the 
nursery row the same season, or the next, and for this purpose 
the earliest time at which the operation can be performed (the 
wood of the buds being sufficiently firm), the greater the suc- 
cess. Whip, or splice-grafting, may also be resorted to early in 
the spring. Only the hardiest sorts should be chosen for or- 
chards or groves, the more delicate ones can be grown easily 
with slight covering in winter. Fifty feet is the maximum 
height of the orange in its native country, but it rarely forms 
in Florida more than a compact, low tree of twenty feet. It is 
better, therefore, to plant them so near as partially to shade the 
surface of the ground. 
Insects. The orange plantations of Florida have suffered 
very severely within a few years from the attacks of the scale 
insect ( Coccus Hisperidum ), whi«h, in some cases, has spread 
over whole plantations and gradually destroyed all the trees 
