St. Landry democrat., 1889-11-09
Evolution in Orange Growing.

A MODEL ORCHARD NEAR NEW ORLEANS
The Item some weeks ago gave an &C
count of Mr.. F. A. Quinette's hay farm il
Jefferson parish, opposite Carrollton. 4
promise was made at the time to speak O.
his orange orchard in further article.
Mr.. Quinette holds, and his experience
goes to prove it, that man can have s
paying orchard in three years from the
bud, thus saving five years interest on the
capital invested, and five years of labor
and expense in cultivation, as the old sys
tenn required about ten years to bring s
profit.
He has now about $4,000 trees in his
nursery and four orchards. The main or
chard covers three acres of ground, and
contained $500 trees of nursery stock OF
the Mandarin variety. Last spring he
sold $500 worth of trees, and this fall
will dispose of $500 worth from this plot.
There will then be left about 1850 trees on
the three acres 600 of these are now laden
with about 100000 Mandarins, valued at
$1,000. The Mandsrins bring about double
the price of the ordinary Louisiana orange.
None of these trees are over three years
old. The product in three years, there
fore, amounts to $1,000 from three acres,
and the orchard has just begun bearing.
AS the trees increase in size some will
be removed, until those remaining are each
separated by a distance of ten feet one
way and fifteen feet the other. Under the
old system the trees were set out twenty
feet apart, which gave only about 1919 trees
to the acre. By diminishing the distance
the trees will protect each other from the
cold.
The second orchard, two acres in extent,
is of the Satsuma variety, thornless tree
from Japan, with fruit highly favored and
of bright color. This orchard contains
about 80 trees but recently budded.
The third orchard contains 304 trees of
the Tangierine variety. This variety was
recently introduced from Tangiers, Africa.
The fruit has the deep red color and the
shape of the tomato
The fourth orchard contains 800 trees,
mostly of the Brizilian and Mediterranean
varieties. The fruit from the first named
is suitable for eating and has delicious
flavor when the rind is green. When
thoroughly ripe it is exceedingly sweet.
The Mediterranean when matured is sim
liar in SIZE and flavor to the Louisiana
orange.
The Creole orange is considered as choice
do AL huo"u Na1lCty' pub IL 10 fcIy Suo-
septible to cold. The Mandarin, Satsuma,
and Tangierne not only give large Yields
of finely favored fruit, but they will stand
15' more of cold than even the sour orange
will. In budding the sour orange, there
fore, Mr.. Qainette finds it best to bud near
the ground, and then to cover the original
stock with earth. The greatest enemy of
orange culture in Louisiana is frost, and
it is of the utmost importance to have
hardy tree. Among the other advantages
of the Mandarin, is that the fruit is less
liable to fall or be blown off, and bears
shipment and handling better, and there is
large yield to the tree.
Mr.. Quinette thinks thst, the main rea-
son why so many orchsvs are not four
ishing, is that there is not proper atten-
ton paid to cultivation. Weeds should
be kept down, and the orchard ought to
be as well cultivated as the cane field.
The Louisiana orange industry is sus-
septible of great development, and, thanks
to active and intelligent men like Mr..
Quinette, the industry is already progress
ing rapidly.-N 0. CfQ Item.