The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1875-10-13
IAWAIIANGAZE
Orange culture in Florida.

treatise was read upon banana culture (publishec
July 10th, 1879. Mr.. J. II. Fowler, o.
Port Onnge, made the following comments upon
orange culture. They read very much as though
Mr.. Fowler we're acquainted with the troubles o.
orange growers in that country -
The cultivator must not allow the orange tree
10 be neglected, nor allow it to be abused by
placing it in an uncongenial soil or by bad treat
ment. 1t cannot live in a soil too low and wet
or 10 q soil impregnated with peroxide Of iron
such as our gallberry fats, with black iron-rused
and compacted subsoil. Nor can it well flourish
in some Of our richest, but low, heavy bommOck
soils without top shade or mulch upon the
ground. Too much undecomposed organic
manure of any kind will cause disease. Piing
up around the tree any substance, and thus heat
ing or covering the roots too deeply, will surely
produce disease. Putting into the hole, under
or among the roots, when the tree is set out,
any highly manured soil or undecomposed organic
matter, also endangers the health Of the tree.
So, likewise, does setting the tree too low in the
ground. If the ground is to be MANFRED, let it
be done six months, at least, before the tree is
set into it, and let the manure be thoroughly in.
corporated and uniformly throughout the whole
6eld-not in spots where the tree IS to be
planted.
Let there be dug good large hole, and let the
same be filed up with good top soil-nO manure
or foreign substance whatever; press it below
aud among the roots, leaving them in their nor
NAL position and not whit lower than they grow
naturally leave the ground level; plough or Cul-
tiyate as near the surface as possible water free
ly mulch lightly, and, il practicable over the
/ whole surface of the ground cultivate no tall
crops whatever, aud no small grain between the
! trees. II manure is used never apply it raw !;
never put it about the tree never two inches
beneath the surface. Begin at the centre, be-
tween the rows, to manure and TO cultivate, and
work towards the tree. Scatter the manure
broadcast, little at a time, and often cover it
with turn-plough, not over an inch, and mslch
thnly il convenient. Anything will answer for
mulch, the chief object being to keep the rays Of
the sun of Of the ground. Nsrer, neUer, allow
grass and weeds to grow among The trees. Pro.
tect the stems exposed 10 sun and frost, and keep
cattle aud deer from them when young
Don't be over anxious about getting fruit be.
fore the sweet top gets a good growth. Don't
try TO make sweet seedlings prove the uuestab-
lished hypothesis that they will bear quicker if
budded. If you want, and must have, early fruit
at the expense Of growth, cut your sweet seed.
ling half way of, or muulate the stem otherwise.
and will guarantee fruit as soon as by budding.
Give me, first, large, healthy, vigorous tree, and
then the fruit. Our orange trees are often great
ly injured by bearing too young, and by over
bearing. We can protect our young trees
against frost, and the older trees protect them
selves.
We know how to treat the scale insect. But
there is another disease doing in some instances,
great injury. l refer to what is called the
blight" damping off. die-back," &c. Its
first symptoms are twisted angular fresh shoot
In its later stages the end Of the shoot dies, the
limb turns downward, the bark splits, gummy
rustlke substances appear on the bark, new buds
seem to be eaten out, and the tree often grows
backwards and sometimes dies. The occasion of
this disease is, in my opinion, an uncongenial soil
or bad treatment. have produced it in more than
a thousand instances. | can produce it, | believe
in any tree 10 the State. | have, in some iu.
stances, cured it. l have suffered greatly by it,
and have studied it 10 all its phases My theory
is this Very minute spores or germinal ele.
ments Of fungi circulate IN the sap Of nearly all
our orange trees. These fungi like oil their in.
ppp,aral,fa ~, a.,ft
the largest mushroom, feed upon decaying or,
ganic substances They attack living organisms,
plants or animals on the castoff surface parts or
in those parts which have some tendency to dis.
ease, when they produce disease, or aggravate
existing disease, feeding and lourishiug as they
destroy the living parts Now, whenever from
any cause, especially from an overflow Of sap. as
when the top is cut Of Of the tree, or when the
tree Is over stimulated with manure, or when the
tree becomes in any degree diseased, these spores
Of fungi begin to feed and develop aud multiply
they then, by their own ravages, greatly intensity
the disease, which again makes their growth
more rapid, and thus the reciprocal influence
goes forward to the great injury of the tree
That the primary cause was unhealthy soil or
bad treatment producing q tendency to disease,
when the spores Of fuugi already floating in the
sap took advantage Of this tendency to disease,
and developing greatly aggravated it, and then
fourished all the more and that when the new
shoots became thus diseased, this insect found
them 10 conditions favorable for the deposit and
development ofIts eggs, and thus the disease was
increased, bot not primarily or even secondarily
caused by the insect. Who would say on look
ing into barrel Of decaying oranges, that the
many species Of insects there feeding and de-
veloping were the primary cause of decay in
those oranges We must discriminate between
causes Of organic life and conditions suited TO its
development and growth. And so in our dag
nosis Of disease in plants as well as in animals,
we should endeavor to find first symptoms and
trace successive stages, and find the relations of
each stage to conditions and facts which may
come in as primary or subsequent cause. Mr.
Fowler thought the most frequent primary cause
of this disease was the imprudent use of stimu-
lating manurss, and commended great caution IN
their use. He believed cotton seed should never
be applied to an orange tree in its crude state.