FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
51 
eral statement from me as to my opinion 
as to the future of the citrus and nursery 
business. I fear very much that it will not 
be possible for me to attend the meeting at 
Jacksonville much as I would like to do so. 
I had expected to be in Cuba, but was 
able to get away somewhat sooner than 
usual, but find that I must go to New 
York at once, which will prevent my at¬ 
tendance at the meeting. I do not suppose 
you will have much time for a lengthy 
statement from me, and will therefore en¬ 
deavor to make it brief. 
Orange growing in Cuba, up to com¬ 
paratively recent date, was merely inciden¬ 
tal. None of the groves had ever been 
planted with the idea of shipping fruit to 
market, but such fruit as was grown came 
from trees which happened to be planted 
in one place or another by accident. These 
trees are found growing all over the 
Island, and have never received any care 
worth mentioning. In many parts of the 
Island there are many wild trees growing 
in the forest, just about as they did in the 
hammocks around Orange Lake, except¬ 
ing that they are not quite as plentiful. 
There are also a great many bitter sweet 
trees growing throughout the Island, and 
the fruit on these trees, as well as that on 
the sour trees, seems to be identical with 
the fruit grown in Florida. In regard to 
the quality of the sweet orange I will say 
that there is as wide a range as there is in 
Florida, and while I have eaten oranges 
in Cuba which I consider to be as good as 
any I have ever tasted, I have also eaten 
many which were very poor. There is 
nothing very surprising about this, how¬ 
ever, when the circumstances under 
which they were grown are taken into con¬ 
sideration. The trees are generally stand¬ 
ing where there is no chance whatever to 
cultivate them, and in many instances the 
entire ground surrounding the trees is 
choked with a dense growth of other trees 
and plants. Many of the trees are grow¬ 
ing in what is called Guinea grass land, 
and this grass grows very rank, and often 
attains the height of eig'ht to ten feet. 
During the many wars which have pre¬ 
vailed on the island, either one army or the 
other persisted in setting fire to anything 
that would burn, in order to burn out or 
smoke out the enemy. This was, of 
course, pretty tough on the orangp trees, 
as many of them were burned to the 
ground, while others were badly injured. 
A great many people who have been to the 
Island have told me that they never saw a 
large orange tree, but had the trees in 
Florida been burned as they have in 
Cuba, the same statement might truthfully 
be made here. If we were to have a freeze 
which cut our trees to the ground 
about every four 3^ears I doubt if anyone 
would ever see a large orange tree in 
Florida. There has been practically no 
shipment of oranges from the Island of 
Cuba for many years. The entire product 
of these scattering trees being consumed at 
home. Within the last two or three years, 
however, several Ameifrcan Syndicates 
have planted large groves of oranges and 
grapefruit in Cuba, and the prospect is 
that within a very few years Cuba will be 
known as a factor in the citrus fruit busi¬ 
ness. While it is true that oranges will 
grow in any part of the Island it is also 
true that a great deal of the soil of Cuba is 
not well adapted to citrus fruit culture, 
owing to the fact that it is very heavy and 
almost impossible to cultivate. Such land 
will produce magnificent sugar cane, as 
during the rainy season they do not ex¬ 
pect nor is it necessary to cultivate sugar 
cane, and at such time as I have descrilDed 
it is impossible to work a horse for the 
