FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
53 
under my shedded grove to protect the 
bloom, the wind drifted the smoke out 
on the river, showing that the wind was 
from the east. We had it for several 
hours at 24 degrees, and some fruit near 
the ground we cut into and it was full of 
ice. We have been unable to find any 
explanation of these conditions, but the 
foregoing are the facts. 
Mr. Taber—I have had some expe¬ 
rience, and we have found that after the 
wind has blown for twenty-four or thirty- 
six hours from the northwest, and finally 
goes around and blows from the south, 
that we have it just as cold from the 
south as it was from the northwest, and 
we have actually lighted fires at 4 o’clock 
in the morning to protect the trees from 
the south wind. 
Mr. S. B. Mann—In regard to the 
north end of a south wind, it is as cold 
as the south end of a north wind. In 
our county there has been a great deal 
of money expended in tents, in sheds and 
in open fires, and those who have made 
no attempt at protection, except the 
banking-up of the sand as high as you 
could make it stand, are just as well off 
to-day, so far as I know, and I have come 
to this conclusion—perhaps you would 
not all agree with me—that if I cannot 
grow oranges where I live without sheds 
or artificial protection, then I must quit 
it and do something else; and that, I 
think, is about the wisest thing we can 
any of us do. 
Mr. Stevens—We have about fifty 
five acres under sheds, and we are very 
well pleased with the results. We find 
the trees grow better under the sheds, 
they take less fertilizer, they have more 
moisture. We found the moisture 
warmed the surface and I will say this, 
that the trees under the sheds so far 
take up ammonia so fast that it is very 
difficult to give them any regular ferti¬ 
lizer. They take up too much ammonia. 
We gave less of it and in some cases 
none whatever, and still results showed 
they had too much. Whether it is the 
ammonia has been taken out, I cannot 
say. Those trees showing sappy growth 
have no fruit. I think they will. One 
thing about the shed is that we have not 
got to hurry the fruit off for fear it will 
freeze. 
Mr. Mann—I did make an exception 
of those sheds where there was fire kept 
up, and I think it is commendable in 
Mr. Stetson, who has the millions to do 
it with. W^e have not. 
Mr. Russell—If it is true, as Mr. Ste¬ 
vens informs us, that we don’t have to 
fertilize with nitrogenous fertilizers 
those orange trees which are under 
sheds, is that not a big item? That is 
the great thing we claim in the pineapple 
business, and so it is in growing oranges. 
If we can escape that big expense, if we 
can feed that orange tree with bone and 
potash, and get good fruit, I think we 
are ahead of the game. The nitrogen is 
the greatest expense. 
Mr. Fairbanks—I can only give infor¬ 
mation from the result of some fifteen 
years of experience in Florida, and I 
think it will be encouraging. I came to 
the state about seven years after the 
freeze of 1835, and from that time on the 
trees were growing well until the scale 
insects attacked them and nearly de¬ 
stroyed all the groves. That seemed to 
be a destructive plague that would ren¬ 
der groves impossible, but in a few years 
that passed away, and with care the or¬ 
ange trees were brought forward and 
grew. 
From 1835 to 1895, sixty years, there 
