22 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
4 
that sour orange root is preferable for 
growing fruit of the best quality, but 
there are some sections of the State, such 
as the Polk county ridge land and the red 
sand ridges of the lower East Coast where 
it would seem as though rough lemon root 
gave good results. However, it would be 
well in setting out young trees to investi¬ 
gate this point very carefully, for I have 
seen in some localities where Valencias 
had been budded to lemon root that the 
fruit had a tendency to dry out at the 
stem end, as well as show green around 
the upper portions of the orange. In 
some cases, this being noticed as early as 
the first of March, and of course, such 
tendencies would greatly lower the quality 
of such fruit. 
VARIETIES 
It is always well for one to acquaint 
himself with the varieties best suited for 
his special locality as far as may be pos¬ 
sible, and in speaking of this, I would call 
your attention to the fact that there are 
undoubtedly two or more strains of some 
of our best known varieties of citrus 
fruits, some of which do not bring forth 
fruit of the best quality. Take for in¬ 
stance, the Parson Brown orange; this 
orange, as we all know, has not the flavor 
when at its best that we expect in some of 
our mid-season varieties. Yet it has its 
place in our industry, in that it ripens 
earlier, giving us an orange for market¬ 
ing during the latter part of October and 
November. Therefore, to produce a Par¬ 
son Brown of the best quality, one must 
be sure that it is of a strain that matures 
among the earliest. Another well known 
variety, the pineapple orange, has at least 
two distinct strains, one the truly high- 
colored type, another strain exactly the 
same in every description with the excep¬ 
tion that it has not the high color. I have 
seen these two strains growing in the same 
grove and of the two, the high colored 
one is always the more preferable. 
Having selected a suitable locality and 
planted thereon trees of the best varieties 
and root adaptable to our location, we 
have complied with the first section of our 
problem and come now to the second sec¬ 
tion, that of cultivating, fertilizing, spray¬ 
ing and pruning for quality in fruit. 
CULTIVATION 1 
Cultivation should be done with the idea 
in view, not only of producing fruit of the 
best quality, but also that we might keep 
our fruit trees in a healthy growing condi¬ 
tion and so expect quantities of quality 
fruit. This subject of cultivation has 
been discussed at many of our meetings, 
from all of its different angles, and I do 
not think it necessary for me to enlarge 
upon it, only to say that I have for two or 
three years and am still carrying on ex¬ 
periments in non-cultivation in one or two 
small plots in several of the groves under 
my supervision. It is my opinion that 
from a fruit quality standpoint that a 
practice of cultivating lightly from early 
spring until the summer rains commence 
is preferable. In the heavier soils the disc 
and spring tooth harrow may be used if 
spools or sleds are used to govern the 
depth. In the lighter soils the disc har¬ 
row on spools, followed by the acme har¬ 
row is recommended. 
