Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1882-02-20
ELI PERKINS IN FLORIDA.
All About Raising OraDges-Ra-
nanas In Southern Florida.
Special Correspondence of the Chicago

Specaot Correspondence Of the Chicago
Tribune.
Orange trees grow in the sand. All Flori-
da is bed of white sand enriched by phos-
pilates. These phosphates are in the shape
of decayed animal matter. The sand is
specked with shells, the occupants of which
have died and gone to enrich the soil. So
an orange grove is set out In a 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 increasing,
as far as any one knows, forever. The age
of an orange tree is not known. They con-
tinue to bear and grow for no one knows
how long. l saw trees forty years old.
They were forty feet high, eighteen inches
through, and bore 10 900 oranges. Colonel
Hsrt, 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 con-
stsntly. 1t is narrowed and cow peas are
sown In the spring. In the fall the COW
peas are turned under to fertilize the soil.
l believe there are now orange trees enough
in Florida, when fully grown, to supply the
world with oranges.
Oranges commence ripening in Deem
Der, and ripen all along till March. 1t is
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 OF the trees with shears, and
sorted by rolling them down a right-angled
triangle open at the bottom. 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, aud sent to New York-freight
so cents box. A box holds from one hun
dred to one hundred and fifty oranges.
tree will bear from 200 to s, 900 oranges.
Trees pay from SIS to 5000 apiece annually.
A tree paying 5000 Of course would be
phenomenal tree, very old, and splendidlY
cared for. Colonel Hart told me he realized
$l75 from one tree. Groves produce from
$50 to $500 an acre, according to age and
cultivation. An orange grove of twenty
acres will sell for SAC, 600. 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 sure
"bonanza )" and really only the patient,
skillful and painstaking get rich In their
cultivation.
Good sweet oranges in Florida are worth
from 50 to 81 per hundred. Boys all over
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 or
aDges, which sell on the ground for 81 per
hundred. Such oranges would be sold for
81 10 Chicago.
The Mandarin orange, a 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 lady can peel them with
out soiling her glove. They grow on small
trees, seldom producing over two hundred
to tree. The TanZarin orange is produced
| by engrafting the Mandarin on to the native
orange tree. The fruit is about the same.
| Both come from dwarf trees.
Orange and pineapple trees can stand a
good frost. Freezing kills them, but good
| frost is 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 purely
tropical plant. 1t will stand no more frost
than corn. At Palatka visited Col. Hart's
| fifty acre orange grove. 1t is along the st.
Johns river. Next to the water he has sew
eral hundred banana trees. They had been
| touched with the frost, but still the punches
of bananas were ripe. A ripe banana picked
from the tree is truly delicious. When the
| frost cuts down the banana 1t sprouts again
from the roots; and in twelve months you
will see another stalk, fifteen feet high,
bearing one big bunch of bananas. The
root remains forever.
Bananas srping up from the same root
each year, bear one bunch of fruit, and die.
But during the summer little "suckers"
shoot up about five feet high. When the
parent stalk dies these little suckers take
their places. Bananas grow in South Flori-
ds. There there is no frost, and are profit
| able crop. The old banana stalks, after the
fruit is plucked, Is as good as green corn
stalks TO feed cattle with. The future will
see many bananas Iaised In Southern
Florida.