The Florida star. (Titusville, Fla.) 1880-1917, 1900-03-16
Shorter Orange TREES.
To Obtain Better Results We Should Re-
duce the Height Of the Trees.

duce the Height OF the Trees.
The day of the old Florida Seeding,
with eight feet to the lowest branches
and twenty-five to the topmOst, is gone
forever. 1t had an existence because ma
ture was willing and the pioneer was too
indolent TO head it back.
With a continent spread out before him
the American farmer was yet too eco
nomical of his patrimony to allow any
fruit tree the undivided occupation of a
little block of it. The tree must divide
with cabbages and potatoes, and the low
er branches were slashed away to permit
of tlllage close up to the bole. Blizzard
took his turn finally, and the long-legged
tree was shot in the calf.
The towering Seeding has been cele-
brated in ten thousand descriptions OF
Florida. 1t has been photographed for
admiring friends in the north, with the
pickers far up in the branches on ladders,
gathering the golden fruit into sacks. 1t
has been published hundreds of times as
a matter of pride that a certain tree had
produced forty boxes, of which probably
not one-tenth could have been harvested
without ladder. To this day, South
Florida boasts of forty-ive boxes 10 the
tree. True, North Florida would now
cheerfnlly climb thirty feet for a few
oranges, but if there had been fewer
thirty-foot trees there would today be
more oranges. Swamps were ransacked
for cypress poles long enough to make
ladders that would reach the sky-scraping
lor at least blizzard scraping) topmOst
limbs. If ladders long enough could moi
be bought or manufactured, they were
spliced or made with sliding joints. 1t re
quired a man with a sailors nerve Il
steady himself at thege dizzy elevations
and one-handed clippers were invented
to enable him To grasp gith one hanc
the treacher0us ladder. The picker offer
could not afford time 10 make the many
runged descent, and oranges Were lOWvre,
down out of midheaven with ropes.
In the halcyon days of the industry tn,
writer visited a grove of which AN i'm
pOrtant feature was tine magnificent tan
gerines. Their spread was mEch create
than their height; not foot OF elevation
was wasted; dozens of the branches bend
ing with their burden resting on thu
ground, and the lower oranges, swayIn.
in the wind, marked little paths in TIA,
sand. They yielded, many of them
seven or eight boxes apiece, and the own
er stood on the ground until he had gath
cred six or thercabOut. From this seven
acre grove it WAS said he sold less than
hundred dollars short OF seven thonsau,
dollars worth of fruit. True, II wen
with the rest IN the cataclySm, but viii
our present knowledge of tent protection
it could have been easily and uneXpen
sivcly saved. II would be fortune il
the present juncture. with tangcrincs a
IS Ia $40 per box.
The growers ofsouthcrn Italy and Sicil,
are Obliged To shorten their trees 10 pro
tect them against the hot, drSicratini
blasts which come over from Africa. Offer
completely drying out and killing the tex
trenities of the branches. In 4 rcpnl
some wears ago, Consul I.nwcnStcin note,
the same practice in Southern Spain
with the object of partially avoiding
these mistortuncS, the custom of pre-
ducing trees Of shortened growth has q
late years vastly extended" In the AZpr,
orange trees arc generally restrained =
Size doesn't Indicate quality. Hewar
of counterfeit and worthless >alvc utlcr,.
for DcWitt's. An inial,ihlc cur. for pii,
and all skin diseases. -. X. WIlSo