The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1882-02-02
Add l5S cost Of starting.
Add 100 say, for land, and we have
$3.50 as the coz, Of our irees a,

1888 as the cost Of our trees and
acre of land for ten full years, which
makes them fourteen years old.
The yield Of 442,500 oranges we will
call worth one cent each, net, which is
low, and our receipts have been $4,425.
or $4,000 more than tho outlay; and we
have :: piece Of property .!.a. Is worth at
least $4,000, for it is producing 81 900
yearly, net. and it will continue to in
crease in yield for years.
The following is n suggestion from
Major Marks rs TO how man can sun.
port himself while his grove is getting to
proper head. 1t is varied suggestion :
PLANT vegetables, plant cassaya, plant
arrowroot, raise melons, split rails at
$l.O0 per hundred, build cabins for your
neighbors ats $3.50 per day, raise chickens,
catch fish and eat them, make fertilizers.
shoot alligators in Lake Kissimmee and
sell their hides, hire out to your neigh
bors at $50 per month and worl: your
own place at night, sell lands, SWAP
horses, work on some one Of the railroads,
put up saw mills, cut and haul posts and
stakes, plant nursery trees, flowers, etc.
You can't starve. Fish are for the tax
ing, ana sweet potatoes are indigenous to
the soil. We have 5000 people in Or.
ange county and only (3) three paupers,
ana we have never seen beggar in the
county"
MAKING UP THE BIG GROVES.
A very heavy incres in orange culture
probably the heaviest-comes from
rich men who put capital.in and establish
large groves. In some cases tho proprie-
tors live in the State, but in most cases
they get some reliable man to supcrin.
tend for them, and they visit the grove
only in the winter. Nothing offers such
heavy profits as orange culture, if good
uperintendents can be found. A case in
point 10 Colonel Markham's. He agreed
with Mr.. r. II. Marks that lie would
furnish the land, the trees, the fertilizers
and The teams for planting e big grove.
and Mr. Marks furnish his own support
and personally superintcnd the trees.
AT the end of six years he was to take
one sixth of the trees and the land ON
which they were located as his property,
and Mr.. Markham to take the balance.
Under this agreement 5000 trees were
put out and have just begun 10 bear, be-
ing six years old. Mr.. Markham bought
100 acres at $50 an acre, or $4,000. The
trees cost him so cents each, or $4,000.
The additional outlay for the six years
was probably $5,OOG--or say $4,000.
He now has 5000 trees, for which he has
been offered $4,000, and which will
bring him, when in full bearing. 5000.
600 oranges annually, worth $4,000.
NJ. Marks has 900 trees that he values
at $50, 900, and would sell for no price.
This trade has paid both parties and
established e. very popular precedent.
1t is the safest way to establish an orange
grove-this union of capital and labor.
A shrewd, industrious man without capi-
tai can arrange with capitalists to put up
the money for any number of trees and
any amount of land. The per ccntage
usually paid for superintendent is TWEEN
ty per cent. or one.ffth. BY no combi-
nation can labor and capital work SO
pro6tably together.
THE VALUE OF A GROVE.
Solon Robinson, n veteran writer, says
ut is always safe to buy an orange grove
on basis of 800 for each healthy ma.
tured tree" This is an overestimate. per.
haps, and was based on "a cents for
oranges. Tine Speer grove, with GOO
trees, would bring perhaps $50,000 and
this Is the best in Florida. This is about
$4,000 per aero for ak acres 1t is the
bes1, simply because it is the Oldest. The
largest yield ever known from ore tree
came from the oldest in the STATE, Mt st.
Augustine, which bore 14,S00 oranges.
This is held to prove that up to 70 or 100
years the yield of tree will improve.
There are several trees that have yielded
Z ,000 and 5000 oranges. Mr.. Marcellus
darkham showed me tree from which
he sold SOC worth of oranges one season,
and an income of $50 tree is common.
The average yield Of year is about 600
TO the tree, or at present prices 80 in
money. An acre will hold seventy trees.
which gives about $500 to HE acre The
Speer grove, which Use simply because
1t is the only fully matured grove, tho
statistics of which are available, aver.
aged, General Sanford writes, 81 900 an
acre for three years, one year reaching
81 200 for the five acres. Mr.. Sims, of
South Apopka, sold lO5, 900 oranges from
one acre one year. The age of orange
trees is unknown, but it is presumed they
are good for one hundred years. They
are cultivated with much more care now
than formerly, being fertilzed regularly,
clipped and pruned, and watched very
closely. It is probable that under thia
Intelligent treatment the orange tree will
produce more fully, more regularly, and
live longer than under the old system.
They. are very hardy trees, and when be.
low the frost line are scarcely ever known
to die. They are very susceptible to
Wind storms, which whip the fruit and
even the foliage from the limbs.
THE QUESTION OF ovERDoING.
After all the most interesting question
connected with orange culture is, whether
or not the markets can be glutted On
this depends the profit of every mans
investment, and the success of the tire.
mendous experiment that Florida is
making. There are men who say that
oranges can be raised proftably at one.
third the present price, or half n cent
each but, while this may be true, such
fall IN the price would very much dis.
courage orange growers. The more l
talk with people VIII" are Informed on the
subject, the less room there is to believe
that there will be any serious fall. There
were 800, ,000,0 600 oranges imported TO this
country from the Mediterranean in 1879.
The Florida fruit is much superior to
this, and wherever tits brought into com
petition with it will drive it from the
market. Florida may make up her mind
that sho will in the next twenty years
send to market probably one thousand
million of oranges. It is true that the
area OF production il limited somewhat
by the lowering of the frost lines, but The
opening of the tropical belt will more
than compensate for this, and where a
single acre has produced 100, 900 oranges,
ana twenty acres ought 10 bring q mil.
lion. it would require only 10000 acres
in full bearing to bring one thousand
million. No one doubts that there will
be this much territory devoted to orange
culture within few years, if, indeed,