The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1880-02-04

on different species. But at length
chance led to this discovery. The
frost OF 1709 caused the destruction
Of all the orange trees in Liguria.
To form the seed bed of the nursery.
men the seed of the sweet ORANGES
were used. These plants were con.
demned by the gardeners to be graft.
the same as bigarades had been, but
the frost following that of 1709 de.
stroyed many OF these gratis.
Ordinarily they grated anew the
vigorous sprouts from the trunk.
Some were, however, neglected and
these gave, after some years, very
fine oranges,
This phenomena excited the surprise
and attracted the attention of several
cultivators. They experimental by
allowing many, Of these reflections
natural sprouts to grow without
grating until a constant and uniform
success at length convinced them
that one might have sweet oranges
without recourse to the graft. / have,
at Finale, country seat where in
171S my grandfather planted a great
number Of orange trees. i The plants
all grated were furnished according
to custom by the, nurserymen OF
Nervi. Placed in these gardens
they made prodigious increase = =
until 1872 when they were frozen, to
TO the stump. Cut, close to, the
the earth they grew In, the spring
vigorously and the sprouts known to
be free were raised without being
grated. Unfortunately a large mum.
Der perished by the frost of 1899.
Y ct several stalks escaped, and each
Of them yielded, in 1906, as many as
5000 oranges. Never. before the
frost did they bear SO large "a mum.
Der, owing to the fact that then moth
ing was free but the foot. The
branches grq. ysssom gratis and did not
aevel6p Is eli as frsse ifs srges.
| shall enlarge upon this fact in the
chapters wherein I treat of culture
and of frosts.
y f.f .-t ID
1t is necessary to state that the re-
jections, Sprouts from the roots) of a
tree already adult bear fruit at the
end of three years, sometimes, even
sooner. s = The observation re-
specting free trees, made for the first
time at Finale, drew the attention of
all the amateurs and they formed i'm
mediately, in this country many nur-
reries of sweet orange trees. After
frost of 1853 these plantations were
extended especially where old trees
had perished the free trees were sub.
stituted. The success of these plan
tations justified at once the method
that was being tried, Not a single
one Of those plants tailed to bear
fruit. There was the satisfaction,
also, of seeing that these free trees
displayed a yigor in their vegetation
and a rapid increase such as, had
never been seen. in the old planta-
tions. The gardens of Finale were
now filled with this new race called
Seed Orange (oraatio di grd,aa) and,
little by little, it was also adopted in
neighboring districts, chiefly at Savo-
ma, at Pietra,, and at Spizzia where
they now raise only free trees, The
orange trees at Finale are, perhaps,
the. finest to be seen in Europe. =
Nowhere have I seen as large fruit
as in the neighborhood of the city
OF Finale. The garden of M. Allzeri
contains a hundred sweet trees, the
smallest Of which gives from twenty
five hundred to three thousand oran-
ges. More than one half of them
bear from three to four thousand.
One sees many of these trees in
the garden Of N. Aicardi, from which
have been plucked six thousand or
anges, and in NJ. Piaggia's garden
there is one distinguished as having
yielded eight thousand. This beauti-
full tree grows to the height of nine
metres (nearly 80 feet). Its branches,
which form a globe and descend to
the ground, present circumference
Of thirty-four metres (more than Ill
teet). The stem, still young and Wig
orods, is nearly five feet in circum-
ference. 1t is solely by this method
(of free trees) that the culture of the
orange has been carried to degree
Of success rarely seen in exotic
plants.
In less than sixty years this has