56 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
of bearing fruit—nature's first effort at 
reproduction in the struggle for exist¬ 
ence. They are thus producing some 
fruit at three years, and a considerable 
crop at four years from setting. At 
eight to ten years they are practically in 
full bearing. Of course, this assumes 
that they have been set out on ground 
suited to the production of a grove, and 
have been given at least ordinary good 
care in the matter of cultivating, fertil¬ 
izing, pruning, etc. Drainage is also an 
important factor in the steady growth of 
a grove, especially on our low hammock 
soils. 
The method briefly outlined is prac¬ 
tised with some exceptions and variations, 
quite generally over the island. Most of 
the plantings will give ioo to 150 trees 
to the acre, though there are a few acres 
that will exceed Mr. Blood's standard of 
200 to the acre by a hundred or more. 
Instead of setting in squares, the hedge¬ 
row method is followed by many, spac¬ 
ing the trees twenty-five or twenty feet by 
ten or twelve feet. In one grove there 
are two rows on the edge of the grove, 
spaced 20 feet by 5 feet—90 trees in all— 
that yielded this year a car load of fruit 
from one-fifth of an acre. These trees 
were set by Mr. W. L. Halsey more es¬ 
pecially to act as a wind-break, but they 
are certainly serving a double purpose. 
There are obvious drawbacks to such 
methods of close planting, chief of which 
to us is the difficulty of picking and haul¬ 
ing fruit out of the grove. This is over¬ 
come in some degree by omitting occa¬ 
sional rows, and using sleds or hand 
carts out to these roads. 
It will also be objected that the normal 
or wide spaced grove, say seventy-five to 
the acre, will be at twenty-five or thirty 
years the best money maker after all— 
perhaps so. If, however, the owner of 
a close planted grove finds after a term 
of years that his trees are really suffering 
from over-crowding, it would not be an 
impossible thing to take out every other 
row. He would still have left as many 
trees to the acre as the average grove. 
Some of the close planted groves of 
Terraceia are now fifteen years old or 
older, and are showing no signs of going 
back as yet. They have already paid for 
themselves several times over, and have 
well satisfied their owners with the meth¬ 
od of close planting, at least for Terraceia. 
DISCUSSION. 
Mr. Hume: The question has been 
asked, Mr. Robinson, as to whether it 
is necessary to prune the trees on Terra 
Ceia Island. 
Mr. Robinson: The only pruning we 
do is to take out all the dead limbs, leav¬ 
ing a roadway under which a mule can 
travel. 
Mr. Marks: I would like to ask if the 
trees in the Platt grove are on ridges, 
and what the capacity of those 15-year- 
old trees is. 
Mr. Robinson: The trees are set on 
mounds, which practically places them 
on ridges. We irrigate the surface, run¬ 
ning water down the middles, and capil¬ 
lary attraction takes it up to the tree. 
Mr. Blood's grove this year, ten acres, 
turned out over 8,000 boxes. Mr. Paint¬ 
er says one year, 11,000. 
