The Florida agriculturist., 1889-05-15

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present in this section of fair Florida.
Not wishing for the present to consume
the valuable time of this Society by read
ing long compilation of the ancient his
tory of the citrus family, all of which can
be found in several of the best published
works upon these fruits. leave that as
work for future committees who have
more leisure and taste for such work and
confine myself mostly to the living ques-
tions of the day
! 1t may be well to mention that pre-
vious to the great freeze of 1885, so des-
tructive to the orange growing interests
of this State at that time, there were but
few citrus fruits grown along the Allan
tic Coast counties outside of st. Angus
tine, where there were several quite extern
sive egroves, and along thelowe st. Johns.
Between that time and the Rebellion
there were quite d number of orange
groves planted further south among
which We're those of c. c. Sutton and Jas.
Vass, of Port Orange, the latter grove
having been set by Mr.. Marshall. B.
c. Pacettie's grove near Mosquito Inlet,
those of the Sheldon Brothers, John and
Arad; E. K LOWd and Capt. Dummitt
along the Hillsborough River and La
goon, the Estes grove on Turkey Greek
and Judge Herlnan's twelve miles below
CaprOn on Indian River.
Further north there were bearing trees
at Darien, Ga, as early as 1850, and
quite an extensive grove on Wilmington
Island few miles below Savannah. A
few scattering trees, mostly upon the sea
islands were grown as far north as Charles
ton.
Since the Rebellion the industry has
made rapid strides until now the trans
portation lines, though rapidly multi
plying both in number and facilities, can
not keep up with the increased demand
| for rapid transport alton OF the fruit.
VARIETIES.
| OF citrus fruits growing in the East
Coast counties, the orange holds by far
| the most prominent place, the sour and
bitter sweet growing wild in great abun-
dancein our hammocks, while the culti-
walton of the different varieties of the
sweet constitutes our chief industry.
The lemon comes next in Importance,
and is rapidly growing in favor and area
| of cultivation, while Brevard and Dade
counties produce few lines for shipment.
OF the other citrus fruits, such as Cit
rOns, ShaddOcks, POmelO, KumQuat, etc ,
few are raised for exhibition purposes
and home consumption, but in too small
quantities to make them of any CONNER
cial Importance.
1t would seem that the citron of COM
merce and the Kumquat might be raised
proftably for preserving purposes, ,and the
Pomelo, or ''grape fruit" as it has been
called, is thought by many to be worthy
of mO4n extensive cultivation as a table
fruit. That it has valuable properties is
beyond question and as severaTimproved
varieties in which the bitter element is
less pronounced, are being brought to
notice there is little doubt but that it will
soon become more popular in public esti-
nation and more profitable to the
grower. ~
AS the subject of citrus fruits in all it's
branches is entirely to large to handle
prOftably in one report of this kind
will confne myself principally to aconsid-
GRAFTON of the orange as itschiefrepresen-
tative and takeup such matters in connec-
tion with it as are of most vital impOr-
tance to those now engaged or likely soon
to be in it's cultivation.
SOILS.
l FOrsOme distance back from the coast
and coast rivers, most of the orange
groves are on hammock lands, where the
trees make rapid growth, come to bear
ing early and produce handsome, bright
oranges of the finest quality, fruit that