130 
FLORIDA STATE EORTJCULTVRAL SOCIEW 
of the roots to reduce the trees to 
dwarfs—has been fully established; and 
the trees are perfectly healthy and very 
prolific. But how about the quality of 
the fruit? Last fall Mr. George L. 
Taber, the well-known nurseryman of 
Glen St. Mary, sent me samples of a 
number of varieties grown on nursery 
trees, which I had seen a few days before 
in his nursery; none of them over i 1-2 
inches in diameter and six feet high. 
In his letter, after mentioning the va¬ 
rieties, he says: 
“With the exception of the one 
Hart’s Late, above alluded to, all the 
other samples were taken from trees 
grown on citrus trifoliata stock. They 
are all from stock grown thickly in the 
nursery rows. 
“While some of the varieties have not 
yet reached their best stage of ripeness, 
I think you will find them all fairly 
good eating. Blood markings, as you 
of course know, do not generally ap¬ 
pear until late in the season, and hence 
some of the blood varieties sent may not 
show much of this characteristic. The 
only fair w^y to make a comparison of 
varieties is from the same varieties on 
different stocks of the same age and 
varieties and grown under exactly the 
same conditions. By another year I 
hope to be able to show all varieties 
growing side by side upon both citrus 
trifoliata and sour stocks.” 
It may be well to state a point which 
Mr. Taber omitted—that, owing to the 
trees being still in the nursery rows, 
they were fertilized for growth and not 
or fruit. This rendered the peel slight- 
y thicker than it otherwise would have 
been, especially in the Navels, though 
n the Tangerines no such effect was vis- 
ble. When I saw this fruit there were 
hundreds of nursery trees, two or three 
years old, carrying from one to twenty 
oranges each. The varieties were: 
1. Maltese Oval: fancy bright, about 
176 size; flavor excellent. 
2. Hart’s Late on citrus trifoliata: 
about 176; fancy bright; not quite ma¬ 
ture; rather tart. 
3. Hart’s Late on sour: about 250 
size; blemished, not fully colored; peel 
thin; some raw acid. 
4. St. Michael Blood: fancy bright; 
size about 176; blood markings in splin¬ 
ters; quality best, delicious. 
5. Du Roi Blood: fancy bright; ob¬ 
long; about 176; not mature yet; a lit¬ 
tle tart; no blood markings yet appear. 
6. Magnum Bonum: fancy; fully 
ripe; quality excellent, sprightly. 
7. Ruby: fancy bright; size about 
200; well ripened and colored up; blood 
markings diffused through and through, 
almost blended; quality delicious, thor¬ 
oughly satisfactory. 
8. Majorca: fancy bright; oblong; 
not thoroughly matured; juice a little 
tart. 
9. Washington Navel: bright; about 
126; navel mark slight; peel about 3-8 
inch thick; juice of a heavy sweet flavor, 
but lacking in the sprightliness of most 
of the above; would be popular in the 
market. 
10. Tangerine: fancy; small; peel no¬ 
ticeably fine-grained and smooth, thin; 
flavor delicious, satisfactory. 
Considering that these oranges grew 
on nursery trees four feet apart one way 
and six inches to a foot apart the other, 
they are really a remakable lot of fruit. 
We leave our readers to figure out for 
themselves the possibilities which they 
suggest. 
