The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-09-28

would be valuable to the o"
small groves: -,
At present the demand 10 .'I
;,anno. ion on the manner Of plant
inc and trarsplanting young trees
lint as to what shall be done Will
the thousands OF old trees "hose
.ons hova been more or less killed
Int the trunks OF which seem 1uil %
life.
To the man who has ten OF wv en-
,v trees thus circumstanced 1t is mol
a great problem. That class nave
solved it already by trimming OH the
dead wood. But those who nave
100 or 500 or perhaps 1000 orange
trees whose tops are either dead OF
greatly injured hesitate to undertake
the Herculean task assigned them Dy
those who say, Gut off the dead
wood as soon as possible" was
greatly perplexed as to the course l
should pursue, having many nuns
dreds of trees thus partially killed.
1 finally concluded to take the al
vice of Mr.. Quinette, one OF the Old
est fruit growers, tor personally l
have had no experience with such
results as were left by last Winters
cold.
Mr.. Quinette says; Leave the
dead wood alone till next Spring Tor
the following reasons: First, you
can't exactly know what to cut and
what,,to leave now. Second the dead
branches will sustain and protect
the new shoots from the heavy winds
in the Fall and Winter. Third, next
Spring you can, with strong hook
on a long pole, do more work In one
day towards getting the dead wood
out of the trees than you can do
now in ten DAYS with a saw" These
seemed good and sound reasons to
me, and I am acting on them.
The cold has a tendency to cause
the body OF an orange tree to throw
ont a great many suckers. These
ought to be watched and rubbed off
n the Spring, before they are large
enough to need a knife or saw. But
,hey should be cut off now If they
nave been neglected. A large
amount of the strength and nutri'
ment of tree is drawn away by
these suckers from the limbs that
will ultimately produce the fruit
besides they are getting older and
tougher every week, and the sooner
they are cut off the easier will be the
task.
The question OF how to cultivate
old trees is an1timportant one.
have for years used a light pillow in
the grove with apparent success, tax
ing care not to go closer than five OF
six feet from the trunk and not tC
cut too deep. l have seen this year
splendid results from the use Of {
tool that was made to loosen the
dirt around my orange trees in
yard covered with Bermuda grass
A piece of cast steel bar three
quarters Of an inch square, and abou
niue inches long, was drawn by ;
smith to quite sharp point, an(
firmly set into stout round handle
abou! five feet long. a foot Diec
was fastened to the lower end OF tn
handle so that the weight OF tn
body could be thrown upon the i'm
plement as one does in spadlng. Il
that way the spear.like point, abou
eleven inches long, is easily drive
its whole length INTO the ground, AM
with the leverage afforded by tn
five foot handle, the dirt rs PRED u
and loosened Tor eight o. ten inche
around. Driving the point thus int
the ground about every twelve o
fourteen inches around the trees tn
dirt was looseued without turnin
over the sod or eating the roofs
The growth Of the trees cultivate
il that way This season has been SUI
,r,st Nn l,Orpn ~ ~ N u