The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-03-07
SEEKING A NEW ORANGE,
Trying to Get One That viii Bear Fruit
in the North.
(From the Washington Post)

(From the Washington Post)
Man is seeking to improve natures
work upon the orange, and it is likely
that he will be able to do it. If success
crowns experiments now in progress,
the orange will become u hardy fruit,
able to grow and bear even as far
north as Canada, with skin that will
peel off as easily as a tangerine's, and
perhaps devoid of the seeds that now
threaten the peril of appendicitis.
The freeze in the southern states in
1894 and 1895 destroyed every orange
tree, causing a loss upon the crop eX-
pected Of nearly $4,000 900, and a dam
age to the industry in general that has
been computed at the extraordinary fig
ure of $4,000, 900. 1t will be five years yet
before orange growing is on a paying
basis and ten to fifteen years before the
orange crop is as large as it was at the
time of the disastrous weather.
Since that time the agricultural de-
partment has been experimenting in
the cross-fertilization of oranges in the
hope OF producing one or more varieties
that will possess the other qualities not
found in the fruit of today.
The practical part of the work is
being conducted under the supervision
of II. J. Weber and w. T. Swingle,
special agents of the division of vege-
table physiology and pathology.
Up to the present the experimental
processes have been productive of the
results expected, but the most inter-
esting and delicate stages are yet to
come. In the greenhouse there are al
| least 1000 hybrid groWths from the
seeds that have been crossed, and next
| spring many of these will be taken tC
the southern states and grated on the
orange trees growing there. Then al
least three years must elapse before
the grated trees will begin to bear the
fruit that is to be hardy, sweet, loose
| skinned and perhaps seedless.
In 1892 Messrs. Weber and Swinglt
were in the south studying the diseases
that affect oranges, and the need of I
harder orange than the usual varietie!
was brought to their attention. Thi.
was emphasized by the disastrous
frosts of 1894 and 1895, The growers haC
! sought to overcome their foe by select
ing for planting and development seed
from only the hardest of the tree
growing in their fields, but even thesI
succumbed to the severe attacks of tn
invading cold.
In the meantime experiments con
Quoted by Mr.. Weber in this cit,
turned out unfavorably, through n
fault of his own. 1t was not until 1879
that he succeeded in hybridizing tn
orange in a way to insure the favor
able result of planting or grating. H
had found prior to the hybridizing tina
the Japanese trifoliate orange, al
though its fruit is small and of littl
value except for preserves, is decidu
Gus, and so hardy that it can be grow
without protection as far north a
Philadelphia. A number of these tree
had been planted in the departmen
grounds, and, in spite of cold, ha
borne fruit, small and bitter 1t oC
Icurred to him to cross the Japanes
variety with the different kinds tina
flourish in the south to get the hard
quality. The practical work of hybrid
izing then commenced.
If the seedlings that are grated o
the southern trees develop a fruit the
cannot be killed in blossom or maturit
by the winters in that section, til
scientists will feel that they have bee
sufficiently repaid for all their effort
Orange growing then would not be al
tended by the great risks that now ell
compass it. In addition, if a hard
orange can be produced that will liz
in the north and yet have the swee
ness and juiciness of the southern frui
then the work of nature will have bee
wholly improved by the hand and il
| 70 Of man