The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-03-24
Florida Oranges.

The Florida orange. now risen to
worldwide fame as the most esculent
fruit of its kind, has double place in the
local attractions, for it appeals to the eye
as well as to the taste. Language is we'll
nigh wasted in any attempt to describe
the beauty of the tree with its deep-green
leaves, athwart which as a foil the golden
discs of the fruit are hung. There are
many revelations for the Northerner
when he first sees the fruited orange
tree. One is the enormous quantity of
fruit which it will sometimes bear In
the famous grove of Colonel Hart, on the
st. John s River, opposite Palatka, have
been shown a single large tree, perhaps
| twenty feet high, and of the same diam
eter through the branches, which in one
season has borne 5000 oranges, filling,
say, forty-six of the ordinary double
boxes. Another revelation is the thick
ness of the fruit on the inside as well as
outer branches. have seen bunch
of oranges growing so thickly together
that if a bushel basket had been passed
over it, and the branch cut off, the basket
could have been filled with solid fruit
What excites most wonder of all is the
soil in which the trees grow, if we may
use that term for light sand like that of
the Cooney Island beach, absolutely bare
of grass and seemingly as sterile as Sa-
hara. Still another disclosure is the fact
that the ripe orange picked from the
tree is only better by an infnitesi-
NAL quantity than the same fruit care
fully selected at Fulton Market This,
of course, may be Il matter of taste,
| but it has been tested in the writer s
case by the best and ripest orange which
the manager of the Hart grove could Sc
lect after looking over half hundred of
his two thousand trees. There are
oranges and oranges, however, even in
Florida, where the Indian River variety
still bears the highest repute, and is sold
here at retail as high as in New York
The test OF a good orange, other things
being equal, is its thin skin and heavy
weight when lifted in the hand; this
weight, it will be understood, being in
turn the test of the amount of juice inside
its yellow skin. AS to orange culture in
Florida, too many scientific volumes have
been written on the theme to Justify
much allusion to it in this letter. In
brief it may be averred that if the in
weston can afford to wait for from six to
ten years without return of a cent on his
money, and is fortunate enough to have
an experienced planter and primer, the
business is fair speculation. Skillful
packing is also of extreme importance,
for single imperfect orange may rot
and spoil whole box. Orange raising
is just now said to be overdone in Flor
ida; but as this statement is fathered
chiefly by those already well embarked,
it must be taken with much allowance
The really saving clause in the orange
industry is the long period-some five
notwithstanding which the ripe fruit
ready for market can remain unpicked
on the tree. One of the freaks of nature
which shows this prolonged vitality of
the fruit is related to me by gentleman
on one of whose trees an orange has re-
manned for several seasons, periodically
drying up little, then filling out again
with fresh yellow rind. -Paiatka
| RIA J Ger. N I. Post