The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-02-24
ORANGE TREES WERE DAMAGED.
An Inspection of Groves shows Many
Reports Erroneous.

Pa,atka Fla, Feb. PA trip from Win
ter Park TO Ocala over the Florida Cen
trai ana Peninsu.ar Railway and from
Oca,a TO Palatka over the Plant System
takes the traveller through some of the
best orange growing sections OF the state.
aud having made the trip yesterday your
correspondent is in a position to say some
thing about the present condition of the
groves and the outlook for the immediate
future.
A few trees about the Winter Park sec
ton may shed their leaves and put out
blooms in time for a crop of oranges next
winter, but the majority of the trees will
be fruitless for one or two years to come.
The great majority of the young trees
are apparently killed to the ground. As
the cold wave came in streaks there are
few groves and truck patches that were
not wholly struck and yet everywhere tho
general appearance Is about the samoa
scene of Encouraging desolation. 1t is
sa fe to predict that more groves will be
entirely and forever abandoned than after
the previous great freeze. The least prom
ising of the old groves will not again be
put under cultivation by the present own
ers.
The most singular thing found was the
damage done at Eldorado on Lake Harris
between Tavares and Leesburg. United
States Senator Platt of New York, and
ex Gov Sims, of Mississippi have valua-
BILE groves there. A few months ago these
groves contained the only real orange
trees have seen since TIE great freeze. 1
mean, they showed clean trunk five or six
feet up from the ground with no shoots
from the roots. To-day these trees present
a sad scene of desolati The leaves look
as though a forest fire had swept the
place, while the ground is covered with
frozen oranges. Yesterday gang of work
men were putting up an immense high
board fence as a wind-break to protect
these once fiourishing trees
Below Ocala the cold seems to have
been more severe and deadly, and hardly
green leaf could be seen on an orange
tree. All along the route traces OF the
freeze could be seen on the oak trees. II
is all nonsense to talk about no damage to
orange trees where such evidences of the
lowest temperatures can be seen. Thou
sands upon thousand of young orange
trees win be cut to the ground. and in
many cases abandoned so far as cultiva-
ton and future care is concerned. The
prospect OF announcer wait Oh nNe OF SIX
years, OF even less. for a crop of oranges
that may never mature, is not a hopeful
outlook for previous sufferers
The desolation of the truck farms is
rapidly disappearing all along the route
your correspondent Travelled. Never be-
fore was such activity seen in the fields
and groves, nor so much land put in cul-
tivation. The people realize the full ex-
tent of the great calamity that has come
upon them, and that their only hope of
relief is 10 put into the soil some kind
of crops that will keep their families from
starvation. Groves are being splowed and
crops put in and in some cases there
will be good surplus for marketing if
another freeze does not come along. In
the midst of so much desolation ID seems
heroic on the part OF these poor people
to turn again 10 the soil for food crops.