Questions From the Question Box 
Mr. Hume: Now is a good time to 
open the question box. 
Question : Is -clean culture the best 
method for caring for an orange grove? 
Mr. Hume: I will call on Mr. Paint¬ 
er to answer that question. 
Mr. Painter: I would say not. I want 
to go on record right here as saying that 
I believe more damage is done to an or¬ 
ange grove by a plow and a cultivator 
in the wrong hands than any other source 
from which an orange tree suffers. 
Let me ask a question: What orange 
was it that made Florida famous? It was 
the orange that was grown in the ham¬ 
mock. When I first came to this coun¬ 
try, there were very few orange groves, 
except those in the hammocks. There 
we found the wild orange. We went 
in there and cut off the wild orange and 
budded it. It was impossible for a man 
to get in there with a plow, and conse¬ 
quently the trees were left without culti¬ 
vation, and the only cultivation they had 
was flat weeding once or twice a year. 
I don’t believe any grove that is cultivat¬ 
ed can equal an orange that was pro¬ 
duced at that time. I think Brother 
Sampson there will bear me out, for I 
think he used to get $5.00 or $6.00 a box 
for his oranges in the first place, and I 
doubt if he gets that now. 
The orange tree is a surface feeder. 
Now, I have heard some growers say 
that they were going to plow three or 
four inches deep to make the roots go 
down, so that they should go down for 
moisture. That reminds me of a long 
time ago when my father planted a gar¬ 
den. Among other filings, he planted 
some beans. A few days later my sister 
found out they were sending a root 
down, and she turned them all upside 
down so that the root would come up 
first. 
In other words, we are trying to work 
against nature. As I travel over the 
State, I have opportunity to see orange 
trees in a good many conditions. This 
morning I was in a grove where the own¬ 
er had persisted in cultivating year after 
year, and yet in his own yard there are 
several grapefruit trees growing up out 
of the Bermuda grass that has not been 
destroyed for some time, and those trees 
righ|t in the solid Bermuda grass are 
looking better than out in his grove, 
where he has been irritating them for 
the last two or three years. 
Now, I think if you orange growers 
go home and find a tree you have not 
irritated for the last two or three years, 
giving it something to eat and letting it 
shift for itself a little, you will find it the 
best looking orange tree you have on the 
place. The orange tree, in my observation, 
likes to look for its own feed, and if it is 
not in the soil, put it where the tree can 
find it. It will repay you, not only by good 
looks, but by good fruit. The best fruit 
