Worcester morning daily spy., 1898-03-21
AT TANGERINE.
A Delightful Season just Now
in the Far South.
Past Winter Was Quite Disastrous to Or
anges in Mary pIaces-"FIorida"
Oranges from South
America.
Correspondence of the spy)
TangerIne. orange e., FIa

ssS4 MdrCn Ia,
The winter is past, strawberries are
ripe, peaches are the size of marbles,
! mulberries are half grown and orange,
plum and many other trees are in full
bloom. s,.
Sosmany of your readers are interest
ed in Florida because they have en-
joyed it's delightful climate or feasted on
| it's delicious fruits, and are anxious to
learn when they can again buy any
nice Florida oranges or grape fruit, that
l will venture a few words of explana-
ton in regard to orange growing in the
state.
| 1t is a fact that this winter has been
more disastrous to the orange growing
interest than the heavy freeze of '94
and IS. That was shock so phenome,
nal, so much like an earthquake or tor
nado, that the people were paralyzed,
and rendered helpless for a while, but
recovered one by one, and nearly all
who had the means concluded to try
again, and as the cold was so severe
nearly all groves were killed to the
ground, and there was little opportuni-
| ty to learn which might be favored loca-
/ tions.
This year, it is different. The cold
was just sufficient to kill in ordinary
locations. Places protected by lakes or
sWamps, on hill tops or on the south
side of heavy timber, or all combined,
] have served to demonstrate the dividing
| line that a few degrees of temperature
will effect in showing where trees will
grow and where they have been des-
| troyed.
It is true this does not prove any
/ thing, as the next winter may bring the
cold in another form or from different
direction. This year, 1t is said, the
| storm crossed the gulf from Texas in
stead of sweeping down from the north
and gradually diminishing in severity,
as in '94. The result is that the effects
of the cold were felt at Punta
Gorda more this year than In the great
| freeze of 94, while locations near us
that had water protection are not In
jured at all. So far as l have been able
to learn from all over the state, this
town has more acreage of orange
groves in good condition than almost
any town in the state. Some trees have
hardly lost leaf, and are blooming
heavily others have shed their leaves
| and will come out all right; in low
ground the trees are killed to the
ground and will be abandoned.
1 hear of favored groves all over the
| state, on the margins OF lakes and in
| protected spots, where the owners are
sanguine of success, and they have this
| advantage-they have their trees In
good condition, ready to bear after two
destructive freezes, the trees are grow
ing older each year, and better able to
Withstand any succeeding cold. Such
trees are valuable, and full groves of
such trees must command high price
in the next FIVE years, If uninjured by
cold Orange trees have been injured
| by cold all over the world to the eX-
tent that it is difficult to buy nice fruit
at any price. Only few persons COM
paratively have ever eaten any really
fine Florida fruit.
Before the freeze the market was
flooded with Florida oranges, but four
fifths of that fruit was grown on young
trees, had thick skin, full of pulp and
little juice Most OF the trees that are
/ saved now are on mature roots, and will
bear good fruit in a year or two, but
the supply will be limited, the price high,
and the market supplied with Florida
oranges raised in South America or Ja-
maica, shipped into Jacksonville, put in
Florida boxes and sent north to deceive
the people who buy them for F'loridas,
compare them with California fruit and
make odious comparisons
But enough for orange growing. We
are enjoying the most delightful wealth.
err The mocking birds sing day and
night The red maris, cat birds and
|
we are at work, and a whole army of
blackbirds in full plunage whirr up out
Of the wagon shed, fly into the top of a
large cherry tree and engage in one of
] their Spanish war songs every time we
| go down to the barn to feed or harness
Charlie. They are band of land pi-
rates, as they drill holes in our oat sacks
by the hundred, and after they have
been undisturhed short time the sack
looks as though it had been pierced by
thousand bullets, and the oats have
| visibly diminished We are now en-
gagged in fertilzing our groves with
| Bradley's orange tree fertilizer, plowing
all the ground hoeing around all the
trees and planting the middles with two
| rows of velvet beans, to be used as a
source Of nitrogen when they are plowed
in next fall. In examining trees in the
yard and in the field, we find a few of
the best that judges think viii bear five
boxes of grape fruit. This winter has
| been a crucial testing of trees, locations
and the financial condition of the own
ers, and we fear that as many groves
will be abandoned this year as in '95
Meantime, some will leave the state,
some will engage in raising other crops,
some cannot find means to fertilize the
trees they have, but all who remain can
breathe the same balmy odor of the pine
trees and enjoy the same glorious eli
mate that has attracted me mere for 20
years.
A BICYCLE PATH
BY the way, ] nearly forgot to men
ton a subject that is of much local in
terest at the present time, and will be
an additional attraction to all who ride
a wheel, to come to Florida to spend
the winter months. The plan is to pre-
pare an itinerant path that shall encir-
Gle the state, SO that all who come next
year and bring their wheels can go as
they please. So far as l have learned
the path now starts at Eustis, passing
through Mt. Dora. with side runs to
Favares, Tangerine, Zellwood, Apopka,
Orlando, Winter Park and Sanford, with
a trail cut and the intention of put