Grove Factors Influencing Citrus Fruit Quality 
George V. Leonard, Hastings 
Upon receiving notice from Secretary 
Floyd that I had been appointed to serve 
on a committee representing citrus fruit 
quality at this meeting, I was at first at a 
loss to know what was expected of me, 
and, having an opportunity to talk this 
over with Mr. Floyd, I learned that we 
were expected to come before you, this 
body of citrus fruit growers from all 
parts of the State, many of whom have 
had a great deal more experience in grow¬ 
ing fruit than I have had, and tell you 
how to go about to raise fruit of the best 
quality. Quite an undertaking, is it not? 
Let us first consider just what are the 
requisites of fruit of the best quality. 
Good quality fruit should be smooth, thin 
skinned, it should be uniform in appear¬ 
ance and highly colored when fully ripe, 
as well as juicy and sweet. Fruit of this 
description will not only be attractive and 
pleasing to the eye, but also to the taste. 
There are a great many different fac¬ 
tors that must be considered in attempting 
to produce fruit of the best quality. First, 
we might say we should consider locality, 
then stock or root, variety and strains of 
varieties, cultivation, fertilizing, spraying 
and pruning. These are only a few of the 
important factors to be considered, but I 
do not wish my paper to be too lengthy, 
so will not take up but these few important 
factors. 
LOCALITY 
Climatic and soil conditions should have 
our consideration here. For the past few 
years my work has carried me through 
different sections of the State a great deal 
and the experience thus gained has led me 
to believe that citrus fruit can be raised 
more or less successfully on almost any 
type of soil in the State; some, of course 
giving better results than others. I have 
seen citrus growing on the low flat woods, 
the high pine land, the low hammock and 
the high hammock, the high sandy ridges 
of the lower East Coast, as well as the low 
muck lands of the same section, the oak 
ridges of Polk county, and many other 
types of soil. And as I have stated, I be¬ 
lieve that oranges are grown successfully 
in all of these sections, but in growing 
them for the best quality I should favor a 
rather heavy strong soil, one that would 
not require as much fertilizing as the 
lighter soils might. 
ROOT STOCK 
Just a word in regard to the stock. I 
should say that under average conditions 
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