1912. 
127 
THE RURALsr NEW-YORKER 
CITRUS FRUIT GROWING; FLORIDA 
SOIL. 
C. A. D., Belton, Mo .—I want to ask H. 
B. Van Deman a few questions regarding 
Citrus fruits, etc. 1. What kind of stock 
do you bud grape fruit on, sour orange, 
lemon or seedling grape fruit? What va¬ 
riety of grape fruit is the best to propa¬ 
gate for commercial use, or is there only 
one? What kind of stock do you bud the 
avocado on? S. What is the best variety 
of mango to plant and what stock do you 
put it on ? 4. The guava ; how about 
that? Do you bud it, on what stock, or 
does it come true from seed? Which is the 
best variety? 5. What is the best variety 
of pineapple to plant for commercial use? 
0. I have just got back from a trip to 
southern Florida, viz., Dade Co.; have been 
out on that Everglade or muck land, and 
when they get it drained, there is going to 
be the richest farming laud in America. Do 
vou think Citrus fruits and especially the 
grape fruit will succeed on the muck soil? 
Vegetables grow in abundance on it. What 
is your honest opinion of that Everglade 
country, and soil? 1 am thinking about 
going down there to live; still I live in a 
good country here in Cass Co.. Mo. I can 
propagate most of the fruits that grow here, 
but am not familiar with the Citrus fruits. 
Ans.— 1 . The pomelo, which has been 
foolishly named “grape fruit,” is very 
close kin to the orange, lemon and all 
the Citrus family, and may be budded 
or grafted upon any of them or upon 
its own stocks, but there are three 
kinds used, owing to the local condi¬ 
tions or notions of the growers. On 
the rocky land of Dade County the 
Rough lemon is considered the best 
stock, because its roots go deep into 
the soil in spite of the seemingly ad¬ 
verse conditions. The pomelo stocks 
are also used by some, and they do 
very well in many cases. The Sour 
orange stock is also used for all the 
Citrus fruits in many parts of Florida 
but only for planting in low land. It 
suits that kind of soil very well but it 
is not at all suitable for the dry and 
stony soils. My superintendent planted 
200 pomelo trees on our land near Miami 
on this sour stock as an experiment 
befpre I knew it, and it has been a very 
dear one indeed, for the trees are almost 
an utter failure, and in strong contrast 
to the other trees on Rough lemon. 
There are several very good varieties 
of the pomelo. The Marsh, which is 
nearly seedless, is one of the best, and 
Duncan is another of about the same 
character but more seedy. Bayley is as 
good as the very best in quality, size, 
etc., and the Williams, of which I 
planted largely, is its equal. 
2. The avocado is budded on seed¬ 
lings that are grown from any common 
kind, and there are plenty of them in 
Dade County. The variety which is 
most largely budded is the Trapp, which 
ripens very late and is a large, round, 
green one, that originated in Cocoanut 
Grove and is a very early and heavy 
bearer. The Pollock is another good 
one, and there are several more new 
varieties that may prove to be equal or 
better than these kinds. 
3. To say what is the best variety of 
mango for Florida is one of the puzzles 
in practical, tropical pomology. Many 
years ago I imported inarched trees of 
several of the best known and esteemed 
varieties from India, and had them 
planted near Lake Worth in Dade 
County. By a frost all were lost but 
one tree of the Mulgoba. It grew well 
and bore large and luscious fruit, and 
this tree has been the parent of many 
thousands that have been propagated 
from it, but they have not generally 
been productive, and it is a very serious 
question with me and with all mango 
growers in Florida, Cuba and Porto 
Rico, as to what kind or kinds should 
be grown in a commercial way. A new 
seedling of the Mulgoba that is being 
tested, the Hayden, may prove to be 
much more fruitful, and in character 
of fruit it closely resembles its parent. 
The U. S. Department of Agriculture 
has imported very many of the best 
varieties and they are being tested in 
extreme southern Florida and other 
tropical sections of North America. 
4. The guava is almost entirely grown 
from seedlings, but there are some dif¬ 
ferences in the varieties and a very few 
named varieties of superior merits are 
known, and they should be propagated 
by budding. 
5. The Red Spanish is the variety of 
pineapple almost universally grown in 
Florida. It is not so large as the Smooth 
Cayenne, the Porto Rico and some other 
kinds, but it suits the climate and other 
conditions there and is a very reliable 
variety. The government experts have 
originated new seedling varieties and 
they are being tested out. in several 
places. 
6 . The final question of this lot 
which is about the muck! or Everglade 
lands is far the most serious. I have 
been asked and publicly answered sev¬ 
eral such questions and have been se¬ 
verely criticised by a few persons for 
what I have said in reply. Others have 
had their say, and in the main they have 
been about like my replies. All those 
who are fair-minded must and do say 
that the lands of Florida are poor in 
potash, phosphorus and nitrogen, and 
that almost without exception. I own 
a small tract of what is considered the 
richest land in Florida, which is in a 
large hammock in Hernando Countv. 
It has a growth of very large hickory, 
oak and some other hard woods, and 
no pine whatever. I believe it will grow 
a crop of corn or Citrus trees without 
any fertilizing for several years, but 
eventually this will be needed. To say 
that the muck land of the Everglades 
when drained “is going to be the richest 
farming land in America” is a most stu¬ 
pendous mistake, to say the least of it. 
It is the outburst of one who, I think, 
is deceived in this case, and no doubt 
such belief is shared by others equally 
ignorant of the real facts. I hope I am 
mistaken in my opinion of these lands. 
Florida is almost entirely a land of 
sand, and sand is poor in the main ele¬ 
ments of fertility unless it be made 
from rotten granite. I have seen rich 
land of that character in the Far West 
that grew splendid crops of some things. 
But where pine trees are growing on 
sandy land be sure of poverty of the 
soil. This holds good north or south, 
and I defy the refutation of the state¬ 
ment. _ Some of the “richest land in 
America” has been cultivated without 
fertilizers of anv kind for a hundred 
years and more and is yet yielding fair 
crops. I do. not know of one farm in 
a thousand in any sandy, piny regions, 
Florida included, that must not be fer¬ 
tilized to grow a fair crop on its virgin 
soil. And this is true of the muck 
lands of the Everglades so far as I 
have seen them. The crops of vege¬ 
tables seen there and mentioned by the 
visitor from Missouri I feel sure were 
grown with the aid of fertilizers. I did 
not see the fields but I have seen very 
many other fields and garden patches 
there and all over Florida. I am there 
every Winter for a time and am inter¬ 
ested in a small portion of the edge or 
the Everglade lands that adjoins the 
higher pine lands in Dade Countv. 
Nothing can be grown there with profit 
without the aid each year of plenty of 
fertilizers. That is not true of even 
the average arable portion of North 
America or any other country. Not 
that it does not pay to fertilize them 
and in some cases it is a sin against 
the land and against common farming 
sense not to do so. And I do not say 
that it does not pay commercially to 
grow crops with fertilisers on Florida 
muck lands, but this is a stern demand 
of the soil just the same. The fer¬ 
tilizer bills are the greatest drawback 
to profitable farming, trucking or fruit 
growing there and on all other lands 
that require them to be contracted. I 
know this from costly experience right 
there. I believe in Florida and think its 
climate lovely and the land very easy to 
work, and that it can be and is worked 
profitably, but it is deceiving to have 
anyone think that these lands are like 
the virgin lands of any region where 
clay is the predominant portion of the 
soil. The average Northern farmer 
thinks a black soil is a fertile one, for 
he has seen that tried out from child¬ 
hood. But a black muck soil on the 
Everglades of Florida is poor in almost 
everything but humus. That particular 
kind of muck is nearly about all de¬ 
cayed vegetation and some of it is peaty. 
I have had it hauled in and used it to 
help make potting soil. The subsoil is 
marl, rock or sand pure and simple as 
I have seen, but I hope there is better 
there. It has very little farming stabil¬ 
ity to it. When drained it becomes very 
dry and I have seen it on fire because 
it was nearly all vegetable matter. Then 
it becomes a necessity to irrigate it to 
make things that are planted grow. 
But why do the Everglade and other 
Florida land speculators boom the sell¬ 
ing of these lands? For their own finan¬ 
cial gains, regardless of the final out¬ 
come in many cases. The land liars are 
no better than the mining stock liars or 
any other class of scoundrels. They have 
gone so far that the Florida State Legis¬ 
lature has taken steps to check them in 
their money-mad schemes so I have 
heard. They are injuring the good name 
of Florida. Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas 
City and some other places are full of 
these sharks. They are doing great 
harm to the State and to their victims. 
They have shamefully deceived and 
cheated some of my personal friends. 
H. E. VAN DEMAN. 
There’s a profit side as well as a pleasure 
side in the use of a 
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