.113 
FLORIDA ,STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
Small trees can be protected by 
banking the trunks with surface soil, 
also by standing brush etc., around 
them during the winter. After a tree 
gets up to six teet or more in height 
it will stand a considerable white frost 
—one that would kill a small plant to 
the ground. When cut back by frost, 
a great many subjects will sprout up, 
but this is a loss of time and hence 
the trifling labor necessary for the 
early protection is well spent. 
Firing orchards by the use of crude 
oil promises to be our best means of 
protection on a large scale, but of 
course wood or coal may be used if 
cheap enough in the locality. 
Protection by the use of sheds with 
skeleton roofs which are covered in 
winter with cloth affords an absolute 
protection, if firing is resorted to at 
dangerous temperatures, the cloth 
keeping out the wind and giving off 
very little heat. We find that a very 
small amount of heat is necessary in 
such a shed, and that firing is rarely 
necessary over once or twice a winter. 
This is, perhaps, expensive, but for 
certain subjects may be used with a 
surety of success, even in middle Flor¬ 
ida. 
Protection by building walls around 
a small area and using fires, even with¬ 
out any roof, is also a success, as has 
been demonstrated by Mr. Millen, of 
Dade City, who has three fourths of 
an acre so arranged for a guava orch¬ 
ard. The walls around this orchard 
are fourteen feet high and only on the 
north and west sides, yet during six¬ 
teen years he has lost but a little 
growth and raises immense quantities 
of fruit yearly. The guavas are set 
fairly close, being twelve by twelve 
feet, and this helps conserve the 
warmth. The fruit of the guava is so 
valuable for cooking in all ways that 
this fruit alone may be the source of a 
large income to the growers of Flor¬ 
ida. 
The pineapple growers seem to have 
worked out a very economical system 
of shedding, using their lumber for 
walls and woven lath and wire for cov¬ 
er, suspended on a very light frame¬ 
work of timber and heavy wire; pines 
so grown are undoubtedly of superior 
size and quality, making a profit on the 
shedding expense. This system would 
not of course be applicable to other 
tropical fruits, as the pines require the 
shade continually and the lath is not 
taken down at all. For purposes of 
protecting tropical trees under a cover¬ 
ed shed, the cloth or other material 
must be used only when absolutely 
necessary or else the trees will be in¬ 
jured by the lack of sunshine, and also 
fail to set fruit properly. Our system 
has been to fasten down very thin cot¬ 
ton cloth, slightly heavier than cheese 
cloth in December, and to reef back 
portions of this late in January to allow 
entrance of sun, wind and bees. If nec¬ 
essary these portions are quickly 
closed. The cloth is totally removed 
in March. The ideal shed would have 
about one-half or two-thirds of the low¬ 
er part of the wall of lumber, the upper 
portion of removable cloth so arranged 
