Middletown transcript., 1881-04-08
FLORIDA ORANGES.

The orange culture in Florida
amounted to little or nothing before
the war. Northern industry and meth
DDS have found their way into the State
since, and gave this cultivation a re-
markable impetus. Ten years ago even
the product amounted to but little.
Now it brings millions to the State.
and its increase for the next ten years
can hardly be estimated. General Cam
eron was taken recently by ex-senator
Yulee, a friend and former associate,
who represented 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 accompany the party, and did SO.
Long before we reached the great grove
toward 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 IS, 600 orange
trees, covering over 400 acres of ground.
A perfect wilderness of orange trees,
apparently not cultivated 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 grating on the
sour trees the finer sweet varieties, had
snatched from the wilderness an income
of over $4,000 a year. General Cam
eron rambled with us over the place,
all of us picking the golden fruit Gd
liJ., and imagining ourselves in the
veritable Garden of Eden-earth, air
and sky, soft, balmy and ethereal, COM
bining 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 lost ~ 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. 1t is said to be the for
hidden fruit of the garden of Eden. 1t
is useless, except to look at and for |
preserving, although it is eaten by some. |
1t has sour, insipid taste. Lemons
of immense size, growing upon small
trees, now and then dotted the orange
orchard. After an hour spent in look
ing over the grove We, one by one,
found our way back to the packing
house, where the superintendent told
us that 1900 boxes of oranges had
been shipped this season from one-half
of the grove over which we had been
rambling that means 100000 oran-
ges, for which the owner had been Of
fered S35, 900 while the fruit was on the
trees.
'How many years does it take for an
orange grove to come into bearing S'' l
asked the superintendent. Eight years
from the seed, and about five years if
grated or budded on to the wild fruit.
That is, I mean to say they will bear !