FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
45 
By O* W. Conner, Tangerine* 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen: 
There are so many subjects that must 
be taken up, in making a report on ‘‘Citrus 
Fruits” that I hardly know where to be¬ 
gin, but I trust you will be patient with 
me, and that what I have to say will be of 
some benefit, to the beginners, if not to 
those older in experience. The cultivation 
of Citrus Fruits in Florida has, within the 
past few years, advanced to first place, of 
all Horticultural pursuits, and vast 
amounts of capital have been invested in 
large, and small groves all over the state, 
but most particularly, in the central and 
southern portions. And where ten or 
twelve years ago, a grove of fifty, or one 
hundred acres was considered a big thing, 
we now have many groves planted, that 
cover anywhere from one hundred to five 
hundred acres, and more going out every 
year, so I feel well assured, that in a very 
short time, we will enjoy the distinction of 
having the largest acreage of citrus 
groves, of any state in the Union and per¬ 
haps of any area of equal size in the world, 
and as the success of citrus fruits depends 
largely on these new groves, I trust you 
will pardon me for giving them so much 
attention in this paper. 
With the increase in acreage, it becomes 
a necessity to so distribute the varieties 
planted as to reduce to a minimum the 
chances of overproduction, in any one 
class of fruit. And by reviewing the 
Grapefruit situation, we can surely learn 
the disadvantage of even partial overpro¬ 
duction. There is no question in my 
mind, but that there have been too many 
Grapefruit trees budded, and planted in 
Florida in proportion to the fruits of other 
varieties, and we have seen excellent fruit 
drop from almost fabulous prices three 
years ago, to about cost of production, the 
past season, and it was chiefly due to the 
fact that the demand was not sufficient to 
clean up at any time, the excess of fruit 
shipped. It is true that in some 
cases, good prices were realized, but 
this was not a rule, and the average was 
far below what the leadirig growers ex¬ 
pected to receive. The demand is cer¬ 
tainly limited. If the Pomelo was such a 
fruit as it is customarv to eat out of hand, 
- 
it would be different. But its uses are 
almost entirely limited to table, or dessert 
purposes, while the round oranges are 
eaten by almost everyone, on all occasions, 
from one end of the world to the other. 
And even when making up the lunch for 
outing parties, this delicious fruit almost 
invariably finds its way into the hamper. 
It is true that the demand is in a small 
way increasing, for Grapefruit, but not 
rapidly enough to keep up with the in¬ 
creasing output of Florida, California, 
Cuba, Jamaica, and Porto Rico, all of 
which, except California, produce nearly 
the same quality of fruit that we do. 
I have no way of determining the ex¬ 
act proportion of Pomelo, that are already 
planted, but believe that fully one third of 
the whole number of Citrus fruit trees now 
growing in this state, are Grapefruit, and 
as the majority of these trees have not as 
yet come into bearing the results of over¬ 
production have not as yet been felt, and 1 
feel perfectly safe in saying that ten years 
hence (if all the Grapefruit now planted 
come into bearing, and barring freezes) 
