48 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
question but that North Florida would 
have undertaken the growing of the Sat- 
suma on a commercial scale soon after its 
introduction into the State. A small acre¬ 
age was grown with decided success by 
the Glen St. Mary Nurseries at Glen St. 
Mary. This planting was made about 
1890. 
It was about 1900 that the planting of 
Satsumas assumed a considerable magni¬ 
tude, hardly so much in Florida as in Ala¬ 
bama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas. 
A fair degree of successful production of 
trees planted throughout the Gulf Coast 
country soon led to a veritable boom in 
this enterprise. Millions of trees were im¬ 
ported from Japan. The inexperienced 
promoter soon occupied the center of at¬ 
tention and very extensive plantings were 
made in Texas with little regard to the 
type of soil or location with reference to 
frost protection. In that state alone the 
annual plantings exceeded the million 
mark. For the most part, this effort was 
put forward by new settlers who were in¬ 
experienced or else unaware of the period¬ 
ic northers which sweep over Texas from 
time to time. A succession of these bliz¬ 
zards from 1912 to 1915 practically ex¬ 
terminated the orange growing industry 
of that state. Such orchards as escaped 
the cold in the extreme south of the state 
were in a large measure unsuccessful on 
account of non-adaptability to the alkali 
soil prevailing in that section. 
The widespread infection of citrus can¬ 
ker, which had been introduced from Ja¬ 
pan on imported trees added to the general 
demoralization and retarded further ef¬ 
fort, not alone in Texas but in all sections 
where the Satsuma was being tried out. 
From 1907 to 1915 aside from Texas 
perhaps the most extensive plantings were 
made in southern Alabama, chiefly in Mo¬ 
bile and Baldwin counties. The plantings 
here as in other sections were for the most 
part pioneer work, engaged in by new set¬ 
tlers or those otherwise inexperienced in 
the cultivation of citrus fruits. As a mat¬ 
ter of fact, very, very many undertook to 
grow Satsumas who had had no previous 
training or experience in any line of horti¬ 
culture. The significance of this state¬ 
ment may be more fully appreciated when 
it is pointed out that the successful hand¬ 
ling of a Satsuma proposition calls for as 
much and indeed probably very much 
more intelligent thought and action than 
the present highly complex business of 
growing and marketing of round oranges. 
Notwithstanding this initial handicap, the 
development in Alabama reached a consid¬ 
erable degree of success and was giving 
promise of a new and wonderful enter¬ 
prise, when the unforeseen events came 
very near duplicating the disaster which 
had only recently befallen the industry in 
Texas. First the World War so upset 
calculations of many of the growers that 
progress was seriously impeded. Then a 
tropical storm during July swept the coast 
from some miles east of Pensacola west¬ 
ward into Louisiana with terrific force, 
defoliating practically every Satsuma tree 
in this wide region. The result was that 
the following fall found all these trees in 
full sap with tender foliage. As luck, or 
fate, would have it, a sudden drop of tem¬ 
perature to 22 degrees F. occurred in No- 
