FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
87 
yard plantings of the past 25 to 30 years, 
that the land will grow them, but it is a 
question of getting them started. I have 
talked with a number of people who have 
been trying this, and it is apparently 
mainly a matter of water. After the seo 
ond summer they are sufficiently estab¬ 
lished to stand any ordinary drouth with¬ 
out need of watering, but faithful water¬ 
ing is required to bring them to this con¬ 
dition. Planting in a basin 12 to 18 
inches deep, and at the same time mulch¬ 
ing very heavily, seems to be of much as¬ 
sistance; and shading with slatted lath 
frames, with the top covered over with 
burlap, seems to be well worth the cost 
involved. This frame may be covered 
with old sacks, temporarily, if a frost is 
threatened during the first winter. 
Planting the young trees in a young 
pineapple field, simultaneously with the 
pineapples, is a splendid plan, and works 
out beautifully, as has been often dem¬ 
onstrated with citrus trees also. Carroll 
Dunscombe, at Stuart, has some Trapp 
trees which were planted seven years ago 
in common St. Lucie sand (which is now 
well supplied with humus) among a field 
of young pineapples. They look as well 
as any trees of their age that I have seen 
anywhere in Florida, outside of custard- 
apple hammock. He reports them to be 
very productive, and they appeared to be 
setting a good crop when I saw them a 
few weeks ago. He is so well pleased 
that he plans to plant 50 to 100 acres this 
year, provided he can get the slips and 
trees. 
In planting out old pineapple fields, it 
is often an open question as to whether 
it will pay. If you cannot plant out pine¬ 
apples at the same time to help pay ex¬ 
penses, and provide the surplus fertilizer 
needed, it may still be worth the trouble 
and cost to get something growing on the 
old unsightly field. Avocado trees stand 
more cold than pineapples, and even if we 
did not have the old trees to prove it, we 
could safely assume that fields that had 
produced pineapple crops successfully 
would serve to support an Avocado 
grove, without danger of loss from that 
factor. L. C. Harbrecht on the north 
bank of the St. Lucie at Rio, has some 
very promising Avocado trees, mainly 
Trapps with a few Guatemalans, which 
he has successfully brought to the bearing 
stage, upon one of the highest, sandiest 
old pineapple fields to be found any¬ 
where. He prefers Solano among the 
Guatemalans. 
Water seems the great factor on these 
sandy ridges. At the residence of the late 
John Sorensen of Jensen, there is a row 
of seedling Avocado trees, planted many 
years ago, as evidenced by their size. 
One stands close by the well, and rises to 
the full altitude of the 50-foot windmill 
tower, and is easily 50% bigger than the 
one which comes next to it, and is 20 or 
30 feet farther from the well. This ap¬ 
parently tells its own story. 
In a grove I am planting a mile west 
of the shores of Lake Worth on “fine St. 
Lucie sand, yellow sub-soil phase” (as 
described by the U. S. Soil Survey), I 
have this clearly demonstrated. It is an 
old abandoned orange grove, which was 
destroyed by fire some years ago, and has 
been cleared 18 or 20 years, and until I 
acquired it recently, had been swept pret¬ 
ty regularly by fire every year. One tree, 
