The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-04-14
Florida Oranges.

The orange culture in Florida |
amounted to little or nothing before the |
war. Northern industry and methods |
have found their way into the State since, |
and gave this cultivation q 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. q
friend and former associate, who repre-
sented Florida in the Senate thirty-five
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 and myself were invited to ac-
company the party, and did so. Long
before we reached the great grove to-
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 early vegetables
were just springing up. A little later
the train dropped us in the midst of
$4,000 orange trees, covering over 400
acres of ground. A perfect wilderness
of orange trees, apparently not culti-
waited with care, certainly not planted
regularly, but Just as nature had sown
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 the finer sweet va
rieties, had snatched from the wilderness
IN income of over $4,000 year.
General Cameron rambled with us over
the place, all of us plucking the golden
| fruit al lib, and imagining ourselves in
the vertable 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 one of the party:
"By Jove, we're lostw This fact soon
! became apparent to us all, and just think
of it-you who are bound by bands of
| thick-ribbcd 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. 1t IS said to be the forbidden
fruit Of the Garden of Eden. 1t is use
less, except to look ct and for preserving,
although it is eaten by some. 1t has a
sour, insipid taste. Lemons of immense
size, growing upon small trees, now and
then dotted the orchard. After an houl
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 $4,000 boxes of oranges had
been shipped this season from one halt
of the grove over which we had been
rambling that means 1,S00, 900 oranges,
for which the owner had been offered
$50, 900 while the fruit was on the trees
"How many years does it take for an
orange grove to come into bearing?"
asked the superintendent. "Eight
years from the seed and about five
years if grated or budded on to the
wild fruit. That is, l 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 tel
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 vii
bear, season in and out, 700 oranges
and that where they are grown from the
seed or transplanted regularly, abou
sixty trees to the acre would be fai
average. These sixty trees in fai
season would yield $4,000 oranges
worth at the grove $40. This is a cold
reliable estimate of what an ordinar,
orange grove will do; many will Dc
more, and still more will do less, bu
$40 worth of fruit upon an acre O
, ground will strike the Northern farme
as being decidedly proftable.-BoStoi
, H-Tdld.