FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
57 
• V 
tain sections of Pinellas county; whereas 
these varieties can be profitably grown in 
other parts of the state. In further con 
sideration, it is recommended that the 
prospective purchaser consider only the 
trees of nurserymen known to be reliable. 
In nursery stock, deception can be very 
easily practised, and it is a form of de¬ 
ception the ill effects of which are cumu¬ 
lative. Hence, it is quite important to 
buy from a man whom you have good 
reason to believe is square. 
Stipulating variety and receiving it will 
not entirely protect you. Specifying 
height and inspecting the trees in the nur¬ 
sery is not enough. Exacting a certain 
caliper is not sufficient. You may receive 
the variety demanded; also an old 
dwarfed tree, passed in the nursery as un¬ 
fit during two or three previous seasons. 
You may purchase a five-to-seven-foot tree 
which has been trained to its spindling- 
height without possessing a vigorous root 
system. You may receive an inch-caliper 
tree, produced by repeated pinching of the 
bud, and with a root system not so' strong 
as a three-quarter inch tree should pos¬ 
sess. 
It is well, unless purchasing from a 
highly responsible, nurseryman, to select 
one-year-old buds, whose leaves still .cling 
to the trunk. One should insist on pur¬ 
chasing trees from unbroken rows when 
buying two-year-old stock. While such 
an attitude may at times be unreasonable, 
under such method it is at least certain 
that a survival of the unfittest does not 
fall to your lot. The best trees are none 
too good. Inferior trees in the end prove 
very expensive. 
In planting, set the trees so that the 
top of the crown will be about one-half 
inch below the level of the ground. The' 
trees will afterwards settle slightly. Trim 
all broken roots. Place lateral roots hori¬ 
zontally and water-pack. . Never plant ex¬ 
cessively high; that is, with the tree on a 
pronounced mound to avoid excessive 
moisture. Trees so planted seldom thrive 
and there is more land in Florida where 
oranges may be grown commercially than 
will ever be cleared for that purpose. 
December and January are jthe best 
months for planting. Trees set in No¬ 
vember will often force a growth the last 
of January, and a very slight cold will 
destroy this growth, further shocking a 
tree which had previously endured the 
shock of transplanting from the seed beds, 
its top removed when budded, and a sec¬ 
ond transplanting from the nursery to 
the grove—all within the space of two 
years. A fourth shock is one too many 
and seriously affects the vitality of the 
tree. Any planting later than Januarv 
is unfavorable by reason of the fact that 
the dry season usually begins by the first 
of April or earlier, and a later planting 
than January does not permit of sufficient 
time to acquire an adequate system of 
fibre and lateral roots before the intense 
heat of April and May. Also the sap is 
rising by the fifth or tenth of February, 
and no tree should be transplanted with 
the sap up. 
During the first ninety days water fre¬ 
quently. 
As to general tillage, there are several 
methods, all of which yield satisfactory 
results if consistently followed. The clean 
cultivation advocate must provide humus 
by hauling it into his grove. The man 
