The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1893-05-24

same. | know of Seeding trees that have
not had knife in them for good many
years and they are yet running right up.
l have no Seeding trees of my own, but
they are in a neighbours grove
HEALY: The King trees will grow up
like pear tree, but this year the crop Of
fruit held them all down. There is
nothing the matter with Seeding tree
but the man that has them isn't all
right.
BEAN: ! have seen within five miles
of Mr.. Hamlin's place as pretty groves
of Seeding trees as | have seen anywhere
in the State.
HOLDRIDGE: Nearly all the old pro-
ductive groves in our vicinity are sweet
seedlings, and if understand right the
reputation Of Florida was made on
oranges that were raised on sweet seed
ling trees. One of my neighbors sold
oranges to the amount of 500 from one
Seeding tree. He got So. 124 per box for
fruit from his seedlings right on his
platform, not more than eighty fee<Irom
his door.
SOME CITRUS FRUITS THAT SHOULD BE INTRODUCED
INTO FLORIDA.
The advances made during recent years in hor-
ticulture are largely due to the introduction of
new varieties of cultivated plants or to the i'm
prOvement of old ones by careful selection or
hybridizing. When we consider the great changes
OF
work in the horticulture of q whole district or
whole States, it curious, to say the
least, why more effort has not been made to pro-
cure all known varieties andtest them thoroughly
in each region.
brief sketch OF thei Introduction Ofcitrus fruits
iuto Florida may not be amiss as an example
The sour orange &c. Bigaradia) was probably
introduced by Spaniards at about the time Of
the discovery of America. Afterwards sweet Or
anges lemons, lines and shaddocks were carried
to West Indies, and from there the sweet orange
probably came to Florida For the first forty
years of modern ctriculture in this State practi-
cally only single variety of sweet orange was
grown
The only lemon known foryears was the "FIor-
ida rough" and the Sicily. )
Probably to-day would have a scant dozen
good varieties of citrus fruits in America if Gen.
Sanford had not by his liberality inaugurated
most extensive introduction of citrus fruits from
parts of the world but particularly from Italy
Rev. Lyman Phelps, once our members, assisted
and advised Gen. Sanford in these mportations
Hundreds of varieties and strains were intro
duced and it is probably no exaggeration to state
that two thirds of our desirable varieties and
goodly share of those grown in California were
brought here and first tested by Gen. Sanford
Little has been done since these importations
except to select and propagate occasional
sprOut or bud variation. Many of these may be
in reality hybrids made by birds and insectscar
ryjng pollen from one tree to another of course
there would be more chances of such crosses be-
ing valuable after the number Of good varieties
commonly grown had been increased by Sanford's
importations.
Almost nothing has been done in the improve
ment and origination OF varieties by artificial
crossing except by Rev. Lyman Phelps.
There can be no doubt that this method OF i'm
provement is q most important one. Almost
any desired combination OF qualities of two vari-
cites species of closely related plants can be
obtained if the crosses are repeated long enough.
The experience of Prof. Millardet on this point
is most instructive. When PbyIloxera first ap-
pearedin European vine yards the first treatment
adopted against the new enemy of the grape was
to treat the roots of the diseased plants with
carbOn-bsulphide or other insectcidc. Soon it
was discovered that by using American vines as
stocks, the disease could be avoided. Now Prof
Millardet announces that he has succeeded in
obtaining hybrid OF the European Vitini-
n m f[oEb hoe,