The Kimball graphic. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1905, 1885-10-09
Orange Growing in Florida.

grove to come into bearing?" The
question was asked by a northern
man in an earnest, deliberate way,
that vas intended to evoke a candid
reply from the orange grower to whom
it was put.
"How long is a piece OF string?n re-
turned the orange grower.
If he had been disposed to attempt
an answer he might have said truth
fully that an oronge grove will .'come
into bearing" in from six months to
15 or 20 years from the time Of start
ing it, and that whether the interval
is half a year or a fifth of a century
depends almost wholly upon the wish
of the owner.
There is a colored man in this town
who has in hisgrove a number OF trees
whose topmost leaf is less than 18
inches above the ground, and whose IL
ny branches are now weighed down by
young fruit. Their trunks are about
half an inch in diameter. Kneeling
down Over one OF these miniature
trees, SO as to have his subject well in
hand, he said:-
.'1his tree is a sweet bud on a ma
tive stem. The sour stem was set out
here a year ago last spring. 1t was a
sprout M or two years old when l
took it from the nursery. / don't
know which. The budwas put in last
September. In March the tree was SO
full OF bloom that it looked like a bou-
quet. The life OF a tree is counted
from the time it was. put in the ground
whether as a seed or a sprout-if it
is a sweet tree. and from the time of
| p%uttingin the buds if a sour tree. So
you see here a tree that was in bloom,
or lin bearing, when it was six months
old"
Within half a mile OF this colored
mans grove IS a grove in which are so
or go sweet Seeding trees that are ID
years old. The largest Of them are
about Is feet tall, with tops 1Ofeet in
diameter and trunks l6 inches in
circumference. Only one of them
has ever borne q blossom, and that
one now has four oranges on tits
first crop. This grove has never been
properly tended, and has had no fer
tilizer worth mentioning put omit.
An orange grower ofconsiderable ex-
perience said: "a sweet bud cut from
a bearing tree may have within itself
the germ and potency OF twigs that
will straightway bear blossoms, or it
may not be sucha bud. In the former
Ease the twigs and the blossoms are
bound to come out ii the bud can be
kept alive. Ii it could be kept alive
inserted in the cork Of a bottle 1 don't
know but it would be possible to show
a beer bottle bearing q full crop OF
young oranges within sismonths after
it left the brewery. Now, if the roots
of the sour tree are sufficient to sup
ply nutriment in the necessary guam
tity to the youngbudt the little oranges
may stay on andripen, otherwise they
will fall off. If the oranges on the col.
ored man'ssiX months old bud don't
drop off pretty soon the tree itself will
drop off. The probabilities are that
that tree, if allowed to have its own
way, will drop it's fruit for three or
four years, and will then begin to ripen
half q dozen oranges a year, growing
less new wood each year, and finally
standing still a stunted shrub that
will bear maybe so or so oranges at a
crop.
Now about the big, sweet seedlings
that have not begun to BEAR" the or
ange man went on. s'They are an ex-
treme case, as much as the colorod
mans half-year-old bearing grove is.
They have been growing under the
temporary disadvantage OF almosten-
i five porl,at EOrt,,,o t,ly 49, ~o, H.
enough in it to keep them alive and
making healthy wood, though slowly.
Maybe next year, and maybe not till
three or four years later they will
show bloom. The first crop ought to
be, perhaps 100 oranges to the tree,
the second close to 500, and the third
fully 1000. Ii the colored man had
planted n sweet seed at the same time
he put the bud in his sour stem that
is now in bearing, as they say, the
probability is that he would have got
a profitable tree from the seed as soon
as from the bud, III casethe buddidn't
begin bearing SO early as to prevent it
ever making a valuable tree.
How 500 would / expect to havea
grovethat wouldpayfor taking careo Of
itself and return a satisfactory profit
on the investment if I began making it
now? Well, in 10 years-provided
oranges brought the sameprice then as
chey bring now"
The matter of fertilizing has a good
deal to do with the growing OF orange
trees in all except thefewfavored spots
where the soildoes not require suchre.
enforcement. The colored range
grower mentioned in the foregoing wax
unableto buy fertilizers; so hefertillzed
with fish caught inthe st. Johns river
with d seine and drawn up on his
mule cart. He conducted this. work
after the manner ofan independent and
original investigator.
''This yer tree, said hefondly patting
the smooth yellow trunk of fine seed.
ling, sis seven years old from the seed,
and was raised OF shad. Not a bit Of
fertilizer but fish, and not a fish but
shad has ever been put on it. I al.
ways boil up the fish. Then I care.
fully dig away the earth, bury the
boiled meat on the fine roots andcov-
er it with earth. The liquid use for
watering the roots. This shad tree
has 1000 young oranges on it. Over
there is a mullet tree You see it has
three trun's separating about eight
inches from the ground. They were
three little trees, standing several inch
es apart, and ! drew the bodies to-
gether with my finger and put a wire
around them. Youcanju just see a seam
in the bark where it has joined. The
trunk must be about nine inches
through at the bottom, Ireckon. just
beyond is a tkree-year-old bud I am
raising on catfish, and thoselittle nur-
gerry trees are led on chowder made Of