Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1882-02-16
THE NO OF ORANGES.
What Florida Orange-Groves Now
Produce and Are Expect.
ed to Produce.


,.-.,- ed to Produce.
The state OF Florida raised this wear
over 5O.OO0,000 oranges, and this was
a short crop. 1 asked DIR. Harris. the
speaker of the house, tonight. what
the crop would be FIVE years from now.
and he answered: AT least FIVE times
that much, or 100000 "And Eve
years laterP' "Ahl figures fail for
that compilation" he said, laughingly.
l have seen nothing in print that gives
an adequate idea of the immensity of
the culture. In the old days orange
growing was fancy pursuit, INDUCED
in here and there. A grove of 500
trees was then large one. The finest
grove in Florida is the Speer grove,
near here. which covers only six acres
and has 500 trees. The next best is
the Hart grove. at Palatka, which has
700 trees. The first is worth $4,000.
and yields $4,000 oranges, worth on
the trees SIS a thousand. The crop
this year "a short year), sold for $4,000
on the trees. The Hart grove is worth
100000, and yields about $1,000 a year.
The only reason that these groves are
so valuable is that the trees are about
forty years old, and in full bearing.
Now, Mr.. Markham, Of Atlanta, has
near the Speer grove, with its 600
trees, n grove of 600 young trees just
coming in" as they call it. His son,
Marcellus, has 1000 trees, of which
only 600 are bearing, and Judge Hay.
day, N orrOxya 90 q OOO fraoo ;,,at hoo~,.. ..
their first fruit. Gen. Sanford a grove
of 5000 young trees. Mr.. w. i. Trav-
wick, Of Macon, a grove of 5000 trees.
From these figures, samples of hun
dreds Of others, it will be seen that or
ange- planting for the past few years
has been a business on large scale in
stead Of q fancy, as formerly. For ex-
ample. Mr.. Markham's grove will pro-
duce ten times as many oranges as are
produced by the Speer grove, now the
finest in the state. Gen. Stanford's
grove alone will produce more oranges
than are now produced in a radius of
eight miles which has 1872 groves. Or,
TO make it palmer, Sanford is the Gen.
ter of the largest orange-producing
portion of the state. In a radius of
eight miles from this hotel there are
1892 groves, with los, 265 trees. These
groves now produce 100000 oranges,
but only five per cent Of the trees in
this radius are bearing. When the
other ninety-hve per cent come in, this
radius of eight miles will produce So
100000 oranges, or as many as the
entire state now produces. To partic-
ularize: Col. Markham now gets So
600 oranges from grove that in six
years will produce 100000; Judge
Hayden 100000 from grove that in
four years will produce 100000; Gen.
Sanford $4,000 from a grove that in
six years will produce 100000; and
so on through the list. In addition to
the accessions from these groves COM
ing In, the groves now bearing will in
crease their yield annually for many
years, as the full fruitage of tree is
not reached under twenty years. In
addition to this there are thousands of
new trees being put out annually that
in five or ten years will add millions
to the crop. 1t will be seen, therefore,
that the estimate of 250,000,000 or
anges as the crop for 1887 is very
reasonable one. Indeed, it may just
as likely be twice that much. In ten
years 1t will certainly be SOC, OOO, 600,
with indefinite expansion beyond that
point.