Methods of Handling Citrus Groves 
J. A. Stevens, DeLand 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
When our President notified me a few 
days ago that I had been placed on the 
committee to report on “Methods of 
Handling Citrus Groves,” I began to won¬ 
der what I could say that would be of in¬ 
terest to members of the society; and as 
I pondered the matter, I was struck by the 
similarity between “Methods of Handling 
Citrus Groves” and the “Negro Prob¬ 
lem,” as expressed by a northern lady 
who had come to live in the South. After 
she had spent several years trying to train 
colored servants to work according to her 
ideas, a friend came to visit her who had 
been a classmate in a northern college 
where they had often exchanged views 
on the weighty problems that are consid¬ 
ered at such times. After this friend had 
been in the South for a few days, she ask¬ 
ed her hostess: “What do you think now 
of the negro problem?” To which the 
hostess replied: “Which problem? There 
are as many problems as there are ne¬ 
groes.” There seems to be as many meth¬ 
ods of handling citrus groves as there are 
growers. 
At each meeting of the society, some 
phase of the subject has been discussed, 
and I do not know that I can present any 
new ideas, but will try briefly to make 
some comparisons between groves on low 
hammock lands in the northern part of 
the citrus belt, and those grown on higher 
soils. 
Citrus fruits are grown in Florida on 
various types of soils. By far the greater 
percentage of groves are on pine land, of 
which there are several kinds, as shown 
by the soil maps. A much smaller per¬ 
centage of groves are on hammock lands, 
where the palmetto and hardwoods grow. 
The type of grove which I wish to dis¬ 
cuss is the kind that is planted on low, or 
cabbage hammock, so-called because of 
the abundance of cabbage palmetto trees. 
In this latter type, apparently successful 
methods differ—in certain respects, quite 
materially from methods practiced in oth¬ 
er types of soil. 
In the first place, when preparing 
ground to plant citrus trees, instead of 
clearing off all the timber, it seems best to 
leave quite a little standing timber, espe¬ 
cially palmettos, but also some live-oaks, 
hickories, red bays and occasionally mag¬ 
nolias and sweetgums, but these two last 
named are not considered as favorably as 
the others, since their roots are thought in 
some cases to rob the citrus trees more 
than the others. The object in leaving 
standing timber is to afford frost protec¬ 
tion and to give partial shade. This pro¬ 
tection is of little or no benefit in the 
case of a freeze with high wind, but on 
still nights with falling frost, the standing 
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