43 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY! 
There are a great many things that 
will influence the care of the trees. In 
the first place, all the experience I have 
had has been in the high pine ridges. I 
might say I believe such as we have 
around Winter Haven and Florence Villa. 
I have had no experience with flatwoods 
and hammock lands. The method of 
handling those lands will have to come 
from someone else. 
The general plan in our section is to 
plow very shallow in the fall of the year. 
That, plan, however, is not followed by 
all. That is largely a protection from 
fire in a grove. It is not absolutely nec¬ 
essary to plow. You can run an Acme 
harrow and keep the growth down so 
that it will not become a menace to the 
grove. 
As the spring approaches, with its dry 
weather, we always try to keep the Acme 
harrow going to keep the ground from 
caking and to keep it from losing all the 
moisture through evaporation. At the be¬ 
ginning of the rainy season, after every 
good rain, it is a very important thing to 
do, that you may not lose the moisture. 
If you are not situated so that you can 
irrigate the grove, it is very important 
to keep the moisture in the soil. 
When the rainy season comes, we just 
let the grass and weeds grow and take 
the grove. Underneath and around the 
trees we keep the grass down so that they 
will not rob the trees of too much of the 
fertilizing elements, but we let the mid¬ 
dles grow up to any cover crop. Each 
one must decide for himself the condi¬ 
tions best for that. 
There might be a number of things that 
would indicate different care of a grove. 
One is the stock, perhaps, on which the 
trees are grafted. Different stocks re¬ 
quire different treatment that each one 
has to figure out for himself in his own 
particular community and his kind of soil. 
There is a great inclination among 
many people to attend to things in their 
groves, always at some future time. The 
time to do a thing is right when it is need¬ 
ed. Take time by the forelock in the 
handling of a grove. If you know certain 
work should be done, do it immediately, 
and don’t wait until tomorrow, or next 
week, or- next month. Great damage may 
be done, and often is done, by not attend¬ 
ing to your grove at the right time. 
Mr. Skinner is here, and Mr. Griffing. 
I hope Mr. Peters of Tavares will be here 
this afternoon to give his paper. 
L. B. Skinner 
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen : 
I have no paper, but I have been thirty 
years in the orange business, and if I 
could not say something without a paper, 
I would think it was about time I was 
going out of the business. 
Now, this subject, Methods of Han¬ 
dling Citrus Groves; I suppose you want 
to start with the young trees. 
I am pained sometimes to see the way 
some people handle their groves. To start 
with, Mr. Thompson hit the nail on the 
head when he said they started too soon. 
They plant their trees too hastily. Down 
at Winter Haven and Florence Villa I be¬ 
lieve it would pay to dig a large hole and 
fill it with soil before you plant the trees 
in the ground because the soil there is 
so thin. (Laughter.) 
