Citrus trees in our Nursery, Winter Haven, Florida 
Citrus Fruits 
ME vSAIX I MARY NURSERIES COMPANY has for a great many years 
grown by far more citrus trees than any other nursery in the world. While we do 
not grow citrus trees exclusively, producing other nursery trees as well, still the 
growing of citrus trees has always been the paramount and largest interest of our 
nursery business. Words like “largest" or “biggest" do not necessarily mean much 
to a prospective buyer until he stops to consider that the reason for this largeness 
is nothing more or less than the result of a continued and ever-increasing demand 
for stock that has absolutely made good with our customers in every sense. 
It is the purpose of this section of our catalogue to present to our customers a precise description 
of the citrus nursery stock we grow. It is not our purpose to give a history of the citrus industry or to 
write a complete treatise on the culture of these fruits. The subject is too broad. The prospective 
planter has a general knowledge of the business, gained by association with it in some of its phases, and 
our thirty-nine years of experience in it are entirely at his command by personal visit or by mail. 
We ourselves are deeply interested in growing Citrus I'ruit. We know it to be a profitable business 
and \\c are constantly adding to our own plantings. Almost without exception, during the past several 
years the prices of ('itrus Fruit have steadily increased and the demand has at the same lime more 
than kept pace with the sui)ply. There is absolutely no danger of overproduction and at this time 
the growing of Citrus Fruit commercially is, we believe, a safe and profitable industry. 
Sour Orange. Rough Lemon, and Citrus trifoliata seedlings used in our nurseries are grow'n in 
our ow'n seed-beds, thrifty, vigorous, w^ell grow'n, carefully selected and graded at time of setting in 
the nursery rows. I'hey have not been forced beyond their normal growth. 
.■\fter transplanting in the nursery rows, the stocks are carefully fertilized and cultivated accord¬ 
ing to the methods w'orked out in the thirty-nine years of our nursery experience. Needless to say 
that, in this period of time, we have learned how to grow^ the very finest nursery trees that can be 
produced. That our customers agree with us is evidenced by the annually increasing volume of our 
business. These years of experience are of untold value to our customers. 
We know the comparative value of different sorts because we are growing them in our test 
orchards. In these orchards the largest-known collections of ('itrus Fruits are to be found. For 
instance, at the meeting of the American Pomological Society in Washington, in November. 1913, 
we exhibited eighty-three varieties of Citrus Fruits of our ow'n growing. No such collection of ('itrus 
Fruits grown by one firm w^as ever before brought together. Not all of these varieties, are, of course, 
offered in our lists; but the best, as determined by actual test in the citrus districts, are propagated. 
'Fhe varieties w'e are propagating are selected strains, with a straight-line history going back to 
an individual tree of known merit. In our propagation work, care is taken to select w'ell-develo{)ed 
buds from trees of authentic parentage, thus making sure that the young trees are true to name— 
-quality trees in every ])articular. At the time the trees are sold, the roots of one-year trees arc 
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