FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
129 
wood and summer pruning fruit, and 
plenty of it. Don’t neglect your bushes 
and they will reward you with an ample 
supply of large, luscious fruit. By thin¬ 
ning the fruit a full crop can be obtained 
annually—no 'off year’ in the way of 
fruit. Limit production and the fruit 
will be better developed and more sala¬ 
ble.” 
A writer in The Florida Dispatch, in 
May, 1882, gives further particulars of 
this interesting plantation of dwarf or¬ 
anges. When he visited them it was 
about twenty-two months since they had 
been budded, and they were carrying all 
the way from fifteen to forty oranges 
apiece, ‘'larger and farther advanced to¬ 
ward maturity than those of the same 
varieties on older standard trees over¬ 
head.” They were further described as 
follows: 
‘‘These miniature trees, ranging from 
two and a half to four and five feet high, 
are mostly of perfect form; branching- 
near the ground, limbed out symmet¬ 
rically, and presenting generally the 
shape of an obtuse cone, the true form 
for all fruit trees in this climate. The 
foliage of these Liliputians of the citrus 
family is also larger, thicker and darker 
in color than that of the ordinarwy sweet 
orange trees growing aound them; and 
they present an air of thriftiness and 
vigor which we were at first disposed to 
refer to the liberal use of fertilizers and 
extra care and cultivation. Dr. K. as¬ 
sured us, however, that such was not the 
fact, and stated that all his trees, dwarfs 
and standards, have been treated pre¬ 
cisely alike, and that there are no fa¬ 
vored, forced or pampered ones among 
them.” * 
The mode of propagation is thus de¬ 
scribed : 
9 
“He plants out a number of the Ota- 
heite shrubs or trees in a fair soil, and at 
the proper season, that is, when they are 
making a vigorous growth, he carefully 
layers, in the usual way, every available 
limb or branch. When these layers 
show signs of growth, he buds into 
them, very near the ground, such vari¬ 
eties as he desires to propagate. When 
the buds start, he does not cut off the 
stock above, but ties a ligature of cord 
or fine wire around and near the top of 
the stock, retaining the leaves to assist 
in nourishing and pushing forward the 
young bud. If this budding is done very 
early, the bud will make several growths 
during the first season, and the little tree 
will be large enough to transplant the 
following winter. When thus removed, 
the dwarfs may be planted six or eight 
feet apart—the Doctor’s are only five 
feet—and they will afterward require no 
more care than any good orange grower 
bestows upon the trees in his garden or 
grove.” 
DWARF ORANGES ON TRIFOLIATE STOCK. 
The complete destruction of all or¬ 
ange trees in North Florida by the 
freeze of 1895 gave great importance to 
the question of protection; and the 
question of protection is very largely 
conditioned upon the size of the trees. 
Everyone will recognize that it is ab¬ 
surd to consider for a moment the pro¬ 
tection of thirty-foot seedlings as a mat¬ 
ter of profit. In North Florida it is, 
therefore, a simple alternative—either 
trees of smaller size or no protection and 
no guarantee of oranges. The practi¬ 
cability of raising dwarf or semi-dwarf 
trees on the trifoliate stock—though it 
may require tubbing or other cramping 
