FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
137 
gate the cause of so much fruit arriving 
in soft and dried out condition from Polk 
county. They were sure we must have 
had a freeze some time or other. This 
soft fruit was from a lemon stock section. 
The time is coming when fruit grown 
on sour orange stock will be so stenciled 
on the box and command a better price, 
especially on late shipments of Valencias. 
Careful study of the prices received for 
fruits from different sections of the State, 
will show which sections top the market. 
Nursery Inspector F. M. O’Byrne sent 
out a questionnaire on citrus root stock 
and the following is a summary: 
In Coconut Grove section the preference 
is on lemon root, it bears earlier but is not 
so long lived and fruit is not so good as 
sour orange or grapefruit. 
Around Fort Myers about half the trees 
are on sour orange, next preference is 
grapefruit and rough lemon. 
“Lemon can be used on lighter drier 
types of soil, is a rapid grower, but short 
lived and subject to foot rot. 
“Advantages of sour orange: Good on 
low heavy soil; stands moist conditions, 
immune from foot-rot. Grapefruit has 
same advantages as lemon and similar dis¬ 
advantages.” 
DeLand section is partial to sour, with 
grapefruit and lemon used only in limited 
quantities. 
In Fort Pierce section about 60% is 
planted on sour orange, 30% in lemon 
and 5% on grapefruit. “Use sour when 
soil is suitable, as fruit is superior on 
sour.” 
“Lemon will grow well on soil too poor 
to grow sour, but on sour, fruit is better, 
more resistant to cold and longer lived.” 
Dade county: “Use grapefruit on high 
and sour on low land. Lemon makes a 
good showing earlier in life, has no tap 
root and fruit dries out.” 
“Grapefruit has fine root system, best 
of all. Sour orange produces most perma¬ 
nent grove.” 
Around Arcadia almost 50% of groves 
are on sour. Writer says, “Sour every 
time.” 
From Bartow 75% of trees are on lem¬ 
on; 20% are on sour and 5% on grape¬ 
fruit. 
The writer says: “Lemon stands dry 
weather on poor soil better, makes a quick¬ 
er growth in nursery, responds to ferti¬ 
lizer, scabs worse, easily affected to foot- 
rot and gummosis, produces coarse fruit 
under abnormal conditions. 
“Sour orange stock in the end produces 
better fruit and longer lived tree. The 
texture of the fruit is considerably better, 
finer in quality, is practically immune 
from foot-rot, and does best in heavy 
soils, but does not produce thrifty trees 
on high rolling sandy soil. Requires 
more fertilizer than lemon, inclined to die- 
back and frenching. 
“The advantages of grapefruit are that 
although the tree is somewhat dwarfed, 
it produces an excellent, bright, thinner 
skinned fruit; the first prize grapefruit at 
Tampa Fair for three years was on grape¬ 
fruit stock. 
“The grapefruit likes a low soil and ap¬ 
pears to do well where land is under- 
