Iron County register., 1882-03-09
Raising Oranges and Bananas
Florida.

Florida.
Orange-trees grow in the sand. All
Florida Is bed of white sand enriched
byphosphates. These phosphates are in
the shape of decayed animal matter.
Inc sand is specked with shells, the oc-
cupants of which have died and gone to
enrich the soil. So an orange-grove is
set out in sand-bed. Fifty trees are
set to the acre, which gives each tree
about thirty-five feet. Late orange
raisers are setting thirty-five trees to the
acre. The tree commences to bear
when eight years old; and keeps in
creasing, as far as any ons knows, for
ever. The age of an orange tree is not
known. They continue to bear and
and grow for no one knows how long. |
saw trees forty years old. They were
forty feet high, eighteen inches through,
and bore 10000 oranges. Col. Hart, of
Palatka, told me that he had sold 5000
worth of oranges in one season from one
Of these fine old trees.
An orange-grove has to be cultivated
constantly. 1t is narrowed and cow
peas are sown in the spring. In the fall
the cow-peas are turned under to fertil-
ize the soil. | believe there are now
trees enough in Florida, when
FULLY grown, to supply the world with
oranges.
Oranges commence ripening in De-
cember, and ripen all along till March.
1t is a delightful crop for farmer to
raise, because he has plenty of time to
harvest it.
This is the way they harvest oranges:
The oranges are cut off the trees with
shears, and sorted by rolling them down
,rr14 ,l,>I -, @f,r, hot
tom. The little ones go through the
opening first; and the very largest ones
roll clear to the end of the trough. Then
they are rolled up in paper, boxed up,
and sent to New York-freight fifty
cents box. A box holds from 100 to
$50 oranges.
A tree will bear from 200 to 5000
oranges. Trees pay from s. to 5000
apiece annually. A tree paying S200,of
course, would be a phenomenal tree,
very old, and splendidly cared for. Col.
Hart told me he realized S175 from one
tree. Groves produce from $50 to $500
an acre, according to age and cultiva-
ton. An orange grove of twenty acres
will sell for $4,000. There is much
money made in the cultivation of
oranges, but much patience and skill
are required. Many Northern men have
failed, because they simply set out the
trees. and then GO away and leave them.
They have to be constantly attended to.
They are not a sure s'bonanza;" and
really only the patient, skillful and pains
taking get rich in their cultivation.
Good sweet oranges in Florida are
worth from 50 to 81 per hundred. Boys
all over Florida peddle small, delicious
oranges two for five cents. The small,
sour, Valenciennes oranges, which sell
in Chicago thirteen for 25 cents,
would not be eaten in Florida Some
groves in Florida, well kept up
and well fertilized, produce large,
sweet oranges which sell on the
ground for 81 per hundred. Such
oranges would be sold for 81 in Chi
cagO.
The Mandarin orange, new variety
in Florida, is the highest-priced. They
are worth Sc per hundred in Florida.
They are very sweet. They are called
the kid-glove orange, because a lady
can peel them without soiling her
gloves. They grow on small trees, sell
dom producing over 200 to the tree.
The Tanzarin orange is produced by
engrafting the Mandarin into the native
orange tree. The fruit is about the
same Both come from dwarf trees.
Orange and pineapple trees can
stand good frost. Freezing kills them,
but good frost is a benefit. 1t kills
the insects. So the best pineapple
groves and orange groves in florida are
along the tropical belt.
The Banana, on the contrary, is a
purely tropical plant. 1t will stand no
more frost than corn. At Palatka L
visited Col. Hart's fifty acre orange
grove. 1t is along the st. Johns River.
Next to the wharf he has several hun
dred banana-trees. They had been
touched with the frost, but still the
punches of bananas were ripe. ripe
banana picked from the tree is truly de-
licious. When the frost cuts down the
banana it sprouts again from the roots
and in twelve months you will see an
other stalk, fifteen feet high, bearing
one bio bunch of bananas. The root
remains forever.
Bananas spring up from the same
root each year, bear one bunch of fruit
and die. But during the summer little
sssuckers" shoot up about five feet high.
When the parent stalk dies these little
suckers take their places. Bananas
grow in South Florida, where there is
no frost, and are profitable crop. The
old banana-stalk, after the fruit is
plucked, is as good as green corn stalks
to feed cattle with. The future will see
many bananas raised in Southern Flori
da..EH Perkins, in Chicago Tribune.
The discovery of oil has made a
complete change in the character of
Richburg, N. Y. Up to July it was a
iii, ~~o of 3OO ,,oop1o lar~a1v Sav-