Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1881-04-14
Florida Oranges.

LQ6 orange culture In flOf1Qa
amounted to little or nothing before the
war. Northern industry and methods
have found their way into the State since,
and gave this cultivation remarkable
impetus. Ten years ago even the
product amounted to but little. Now it
brings millions to the State, and its in
crease for the next ten years can hardly
be estimated. General Cameron was
taken recently by ex-senator Yulee,
friend and former associate, who repre-
sented Florida in the Senate thirty-fve
years ago, to see the largest orange
grove in the world. This was the first
time they had met since Mr.. Yulee left
the Senate for the South In 1861, and
the renewal of the friendship between
the two has been one Of the pleasing
incidents of the stay in Florida. Colonel
Duffy ana mys we're invited to ac-
company the party, and did se Long
before we reached the great grows tu=
ward which we were tending there were
patches of orange trees to be seen on
every side, many Of them with the
golden fruit still hanging to the
branches. Beautiful flowers bloomed
in the black muck, and edrl5 vegetables
were Just springing up. A little 1atst
the train dropped us in the midst of
rs, 1000 orange trees, covering over 400
acres Of ground. A perfect wilderness
of ofatigB trees, apparently not culti-
waited with care, Certainly net planted
regularly, but just as nature had soNn
the wild seed. The wild luxuriance of
nature had, however, been curbed
by man, who in pursuit of wealth had
turned vinegar into honey, and by graft
ing on the sour trees tie finer sweet va
rieties, had snatched from the wilderness
an income of over $4,000 a year.
General Cameron rambled with us over
the place, all of us plucking the golden
fruit ad hb.; and imagining ourselves in
the veritable Garden Of Eden earth,
air and sky, soft, balmy and ethereal;
combining to fix the illusion-and were
only brought back to realization that
we were fifty miles from our hotel by an
exclamation from cHe Of the party:
by Jove, we're lost r. This fact soon
became apparent to us all, and just think
Of it-you who are bound by bands Of
thick-ribbed ice-lost in an orange
grove in Florida General Cameron
enjoyed the joke, and busted himself
eating the fruit plucked with his own
hands. Many of the trees were laden
with fruit Of immense size and beautiful
color, although much of the crop had
been gathered One of the tempting
sights in the grove was the
grape fruit, of great size and beautiful
lemon color It is said to be the forbidden
fruit of the Garden of Eden. It is USE
less, except to look at and for preserving,
although it is eaten by some. It has a
sour, insipid taste. Lemons of immense
size, growing Upon small trees, now and
then dotted the orchard. After an hour
spent in looking over the grove we, one
by one, found our way back to the pack
ng-house, where the superintendent
told us that 13, 900 boxes of oranges had
been shipped this season from one-haIf
of the grove over which we had been
rambling that means ], 800, 900 oranges,
for which the owner had been offered
$35, 600 while the fruit was on the trees.
How many years does it take for an
orange grove to come into bearing ?" l
asked the superintendent. "Eight
years from the seed, and about five
years If grated OF budded on to the
wild fruit. That is, / mean to say they
will bear in eight years from the seed,
and in five years from the graft. They
constantly grow better and bear more
oranges every year. No man can tell
how long the tree will be useful-cer-
tainly more than 100 years"
Mr.. Fairbanks, the historian Of Flor
ida and an eminent authority upon the
orange, says that an average tree will
bear, season in and out, 700 oranges,
and that where they are grown from the
seed or transplanted regularly, about
sixty trees to the acre would be fair
average. These sixty trees in fair
season would yield $4,000 oranges,
worth at the grove $S40. This is cold,
reliable estimate of what an ordinary
orange grove viii do; many viii do
more, and still more will do less, but
$40 worth of fruit upon an acre Of
ground will strike the Northern farmer
as being decidedly profitable. Boston
Herald.