The Satsuma Orange 
H. K. Miller, Monticello 
Once upon a time, in the not very dis¬ 
tant past, the center of Florida’s citrus in¬ 
dustry was many leagues north of its pres¬ 
ent limits, and there are those present who 
remember when all the counties of North 
Florida boasted of the excellence of their 
oranges. However, the recurrent visita¬ 
tions of Old Boreas have pushed the cit¬ 
rus industry down into the peninsula or 
central and southern part of the State, 
leaving only here and there an isolated 
specimen of an orange tree, more persist¬ 
ent than its one-time fellows, as a mute 
and lonely witness to the past golden age 
of North Florida. In the days of which 
I speak citrus culture was more of a lux¬ 
ury than a commercial enterprise and it 
seems to me that the wintery visitations 
did far less injury in killing the groves, 
than it did by producing a chronic case of 
cold feet throughout all North Florida. 
Had this section of the State persistently 
striven to produce oranges in spite of ad¬ 
verse circumstances, I believe it would, 
today, be contributing annually, thousands 
of cars of Florida gold to the markets of 
the North. This would have become pos¬ 
sible by adopting the Satsuma orange for 
that section, growing it upon the citrus- 
trifoliata stock. 
The Satsuma was introduced from the 
Orient and has been grown in Florida for 
more than forty years, in fact since 1876, 
having been first tried by Mr. Geo. R. 
Hall. It belongs to the Mandarin group 
of orange, so named as indicative of the 
high esteem in which they are held in the 
Orient. This variety is especially adapted 
to the trifoliata stock but appears to be 
incompatible with other stocks in general 
use. It is not only inherently hardy, but 
when grown upon the trifoliata it is de¬ 
cidedly so, due to the fact that this stock is 
a deciduous plant and becomes dormant 
during the winter season. It has been 
known to withstand a temperature of 14 
degrees F. with no injury, not even be¬ 
coming defoliated. The trees have been 
killed, however, when full of sap, by much 
less cold. 
It is passing strange that the Satsuma 
did not immediately come into general use 
after the disastrous winter of 1894-5. 
Possibly the reason is because of the pe¬ 
culiar habit of the Satsuma to be largely 
influenced by the conditions under which 
it is grown and consequently the variety 
thought to be so uncertain as to be un¬ 
worthy of extensive trial. Had it not 
been for this peculiarity or had its cultiva¬ 
tion been better understood, there is little 
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