The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1885-09-25

"How long doesit take an orange
grove to come into bearing2' The
question was asked by a northern
man in an earnest, deliberate way,
that was intended to evoke a candid
reply from the orange grower to whom
it was put.
"How long is a piece of string9" re-
turned the orange grower.
1.-The 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
Is 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 his grove a number of trees
whose topmost leaf Is less IMAM 10
inches above the ground, and whoseti-
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 we'll in
hand, he said
''This tree is q sweet bud on a ma
tive stem. The sour stem was set out
here a year ago last spring. 1t was a
sprout one or two years old when /
took it from the nursery. / don't
know which. The bud was put in last
September. In March the tree was SO
full of bloom that it looked like bou-
quet. The life of q tree is counted
from the time it was put in the ground
whether as a seed Or a sprout-if it
is O. sweet tree. and from the time of
puttingin 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 15 feet tall, with tops 10feet in
diameter and trunks 16 inches in
circumference. Only one of them
has ever borne a 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-
p~erience 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 such a bud, In the former
case the twigs and the blossoms are
bound to come out if the bud can be
kept alive. If it could be kept alive
inserted in the cork of a bottle / don't
know but it would be possible to show
a beer bottle bearing a full crop of
young oranges within six months 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 young bud the little oranges
may stay on andripen, otherwise they
will fall off. If the oranges OF the col
ored mans six 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 it's own
way, will drop its fruit for three or
four years, and will then begint to ripen
half a dozen oranges a year, growing
less new wood each year, and finally
standing still a stunted shrub that
will bear maybe so or 60 oranges at a
crop.
Nov about the big, sweet seedlings
that nave not begun to BEAR" the or
ange man went on. s"They are an ex-
treme case, as much as the colorod
mans h~alf-year-old bearing grove is.
They have been growing under the
temporary disadvantage of almost en-
tire neglect. Fortunately the soil had
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 loo oranges to the tree,
the second close to 500, and the third
fully 1000. If the colored man had
planted a 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, in casethe buddidn't
begin bearing SO early as to prevent it
ever making a valuable tree.
How soon would Iexpect to havea
grovethat would PAY for taking care of
itself and return a satisfactory profit
on the investment if / began making it
now? Well, in 10 years-provided
oranges brought the sameprice then as
they bring now
The matter of fertilizing has a good
deal to do with the growing of orange
treesin all except thefew favored spots
where the soildoes not require such re-
enforcement. The colored orange
grower mentioned in the foregoing was
unableto buy fertilizers; so h~efertilized
with fish caught inthe st. Johns river
with q seine and drawn up on his
mule cart. He conducted this work