146 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
tivation generally produce the thinnest¬ 
skinned and best appearing fruit. 
Mr. Hart.—I will say my groves have 
not been plowed in many years. I do not 
cultivate deeply after the second year 
from setting a grove. 
I wish to speak of budding the orange, 
more especially the Washington Navel on 
rough lemon stock. This variety is a shy 
bearer on sweet or sour stock but fruits 
well on lemon yet my experience is that on 
stock the navels are very coarse and poor. 
My navels were so poor on this stock the 
past season that I would not have shipped 
them at all had I known just how poor 
they were. The fruit may be better on 
pine lands but for hammock I would say, 
don’t use lemon stock at all. 
I am cutting down my navels and put¬ 
ting in other varieties. 
2. Citrus trees in a grove eight to ten 
years old have grown so thick limbed that 
it is almost impossible to gather the fruit 
grown inside of the trees. Would it be 
well to prune out a lot of the inner 
branches and twigs? Would it be a good 
time directly after the blossoming season 
is passed? 
Mr. Hart.—The older I grow in orange 
'^culture the more I find that I am not posi¬ 
tive of many things I thought I had set¬ 
tled in my mind, I have not settled. I 
believe in letting the tree grow, I do not 
think it was born depraved and has to 
be cut to pieces every year. I do hardly 
any pruning at all except to take out dead 
wood and I am very much pleased with 
results. Now as to the second question, 
I would say this much, I would not prune 
right after the trees bloom, if I were 
going to prune at all it would be right 
liefore the starting of new growth. 
Mr. Connor.—I was with Mr. Waite 
while he was pruning some trees in Man¬ 
atee Lemon Co. Grove at Palmetto three 
years ago. If he has made it pay—after 
the use of the knife in what I called at 
that time a very free manner, it would 
convince me that pruning is a good thing. 
I would like to know what his success 
has been. 
Mr. Waite.—If the grove is situated 
near, or in the white fly belt, I should 
advise pruning out the centers of the or¬ 
ange trees, for the fly'likes these thick 
places, and we have noticed that almost 
immediately after it gets started in a 
grove the scale insects kill the most of this 
inside wood and unless the tree is cleaned 
out you will get but little fruit. 
With us the grapefruit and lemon trees 
do not grow as compact, and the lemon 
especially, sheds a great deal of its inside 
foliage from the fruit spur wood, yet 
these will invariably produce bloom which 
is well protected from cold, and the fruit 
thus produced is of the finest quality. As 
the fly is quite severe on the lemon we 
have found that the scale soon kills a 
greater portion of this inside wood. 
We have no set time for pruning, but 
I believe that January is the best month 
in which to prune, as the tree at that 
time has enough sap flowing to enable it 
to heal the wounds thus produced. 
Mr. Longley.—Mr. President, I do not 
want to interfere only to prove as near as 
I can that pruning is very objectionable. 
I had a neighbor who had a grove of 
about 85 acres who is always pruning 
and today he claims four thousand trees, 
but he will iiot average one box of fruit 
to the tree. I do not prune at all and have 
a good crop of fruit all' through my trees. 
I claim that pruning is good in the fore 
part of the winter before blooming time. 
