River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1884-01-03
From Florida.

GAINESVILLE, FLORIDA. Dec. 2, 1883.
In my last | spoke of the production
Of long staple cotton in this state, and |
earn that much of this staple article
IS furnished from this place by Col. j..
C. Dutton & Co. for the manufacture
IF Clark spool cotton. Samples Of
Florida long staple cotton took first
premium at the late Cotton EXPOSE
zion at Louisville. In some portions
If this state the soil is well adapted
TO the growth of cotton where it is
made the leading agricultural product,
and is highly profitable.
There is no Disgusting the well
known fact that orange growing is
par excellence the leading industry of
the state. 1t has become trite say
ing that "Florida has two principal
crops. to-wit. a crop of oranges and
one of Yankees, but it is an open
question whether the latter does not
pay the better in the long run. Think
of paying four dollars day at any of
the first class hotels in the state, or
even more than that-but about
the oranges. This industry is increas-
ing in ratio unprecedented, and
hough apparently in its infancy the
fruit market is beginning to show the
effect of bountiful production, and the
prediction is openly made by some
we'll informed people that in ten years
the fruit will not be worth the pick
ing and packing with the addition of
freight: but this is Florida heresy.
However that may be it is certain the
growth of trees and the breadth of
orange groves is being increased in a
high ratio from the little Seeding
plants in the nursery to the beautiful
round top tree thickly set with golden
fruit.
The modus operandi of growing the
trees is to plant sweet orange seeds i'll
boxes filled with highly fortified
earth, and by judiciously watering the
plants after termination they may
possibly make a growth of two feet in
height the first year. after which they
IRE set in TO VS. eighteen inches or two
feet apart in well prepared and fertil
lied ground in the nursery where they
are thoroughly cultivated a year or
two and then budded from some well
known and standard variety
trees remaining in the nursery two OF
hree years after budding, subjected
in the meantime to proper trimming
md culture, when they are ready to
be placed permanently in the orchard
or grove, and they usually begin to
bear fruitin about three years. Some
use trees not budded, but the fruit is
uncertain. Extensive growths of the
native sown orange trees have been
found in some parts of the state
which have been utilized by trans
planting and budding. Upon such
stalks sweet oranges of standard ex'
cpllence are grown in Il very few
years alter budding. II irdly any kind
If fruit tree bears rough handling and
transplanting so well as the orange,
md none responds sooner or more full
Iy to Intelligent care and cultivation.
| Though the trees are sensitive to frost,
md many in this vicinity were nearly
killed by hard freeze seven or eight
years ago, yet the temperature OF
twenty-six or twenty-eight degrees
which occurred on the morning of the
| 10Th inst, seems not to have injured
the foliage on the tender shoots but
| slightly. Though very large pro
portion of the fruit is still pendant
mon the trees it is thought nn injury
has resulted, and that the foliage is
not sufficiently injured to prevent the
ripening process in the fruit. which is
said to improve in quality by remain
ing OH the trees till January.
Until the late frost, and perhap:
| now. one could supply his table witt
green peas. fresh radishes and lettuce
turnips. greens aud various edibles
fresh from the soil.
As to the healthfulness, it is idle Il
ignore the presence of malaria in al
most every part of the state, but es
pecially along the st. Johns River, anC
some families in this town were in
Idueed to leave that vicinity from con
siderations of health, though having
large Investments near to it, yet case
of malarial disease seem rare and ca
| silly controlled in this section Of tn
country. l.. r. w.