136 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
shows on the tree for all it is worth, and 
generally about ten to twenty-five per 
cent. more. A tree seldom comes up 
to expectations; when picked and meas¬ 
ured, the fruit is not there. We guessed 
at the load on this tree and that tree, 
and the Doctor’s views were more mod¬ 
erate than our own. We had requested 
him to bring along a tapeline to do some 
measuring and estimating, but the trees 
so far, at the utmost we could reckon, 
were manifestly so far below ten boxes 
that we said nothing about it. 
It developed later that he meant 
pomelos, not oranges. 
The Doctor frankly said he did not be¬ 
lieve he had a tangerine with over three 
boxes on it, the average being about 
two or a little over. 
t 
THE POMELOS. 
We drove out into the road, then 
down a few hundred yards, and into a 
pomelo grove. The trees are rather ir¬ 
regular in size, but we noted that the 
tallest ones only reached a little above 
the buggy, even the topmost tips. The 
fruit was all contained on boughs not 
above the buggy, and very little as high 
as that even. The middle of the trees 
were fairly bulging with fruit. It was 
getting decidedly interesting. Finally 
we came to a tree which we all decided 
we ought to alight and measure. The 
modest pomelo is very different from the 
showy tangerine. The pomelo has its 
fruit hidden in the middle, like a quail’s 
nest, with the eggs piled up two or three 
deep. “Part the leaves and look in 
there,” said the Doctor. We could not 
do it; the fruit was in the way. “Stick 
your head in there and see what you can 
find,” he said, laughing. After looking 
around a little we found a rift where a 
man’s head could be inserted between 
the fruits. There was nothing much in 
there but fruit. We withdrew our head 
and thrust in an arm full length, touch¬ 
ing the trunk, and felt the fruit as thick 
in there as on the outside. 
We are free to admit that we never 
saw the equal of this before. On this 
and other trees there were masses of 
fruit where, if we could have cut away 
two cubic feet of it just as it hung, 
picked it off and placed it in a box (two 
cubic feet), it would have filled the box 
two-thirds full if not more. Dozens of 
the fruits hung down on the ground, and 
resting on these, tier after tier, was built 
up in regular fashion to the summit—a 
broken, leafy, pale-lemon pyramid of 
fruit. If this tree had been cut off at 
the ground it would not have fallen 
over; it could only have canted over a 
foot or two; the fruit would have held 
it up. Great masses of fruit hung here 
and there, which the wind could no 
more shake than it could a sackful of 
Nova Scotia potatoes or a quarter of 
Chicago beef. 
MEASURING THE TREES. 
In view of this unequaled spectacle, 
we felt a little backward about measur¬ 
ing the tree, as implying a skepticism 
concerning the Doctor’s estimate which 
we no longer entertained. But he pro¬ 
duced the tapeline and we proceeded. 
We threw one end of it over the tree, 
then the other end over, at right angles, 
thus dividing the tree into quarters. 
Two of us attempted to count the fruits 
in one quarter, but it was useless; we 
had to abandon the attempt. The tree 
was twenty-eight feet around the 
