Shiner gazette. [volume] (Shiner, Tex.) 1893-current, 1907-05-16
HISTORY OF THE DUGAT
ORANGE.

to a Letter of Inquiry.
Beeville Tex, Mar. 8, '07.
Mr.. Frank A. Slavik, Rich
mond, Texas.
Dear Sir Your letter of
March 10th respectively, to Ma
jor w. S. Dugat has been hand
ed to me for reply. In refer
ence to the Dugat orange it
takes considerable time and
space to give it's complete his
tory, hence, | must be brief. In
the year 1890, l myself discov-
cred what is now generally
known as the Mother Dugat
orange tree in the yard of w.
S. Dugat then planted about
three or four years. The Major
thought a great deal of his tree
but did not attach to it the i'm
portance that he later did. l
took notes on this tree for one
year, it being among a lot of
sour and bitter orange trees. |
reported its habits to Mr.. G.
Onderdonk, ST.; he lost no time
to investigate its history, but,
the Major had lost and forgot
ten the name and place of the
party from whom he had
bought it, hence it became a
wearisome task to trace up the
origin of this tree, but Mr.. On
derdonk inaugurated the inves-
tigation and with hopeful pa
thence perseveringly corre4
sponded through the Horticul-
tural Journals of the United
States in search for the party
who had sold this particular
tree to Major Dugat, in order
that it's history might be OBJ
tanned and succeeded in finding
the party, Mr.. Coats, of Cali
fornia, who imported this tree
with other nursery stock direct
from Japan, under the name of
Onshin. More recently known
as the Satsuma, and sold it to
the Major under that name. 1t
has proved not to be the Onshin
or the Satsuma, but of some
other Japanese variety, and
realizing the fact that it would
have been a very difficult task
to obtain it's true name in Japan
we decided to name it Dugat,
after the planter, Major w. S.
Dugat, as he was the sole in
strument through which this
tree found its way to Texas.
He so kindly permitted his
name to be used for that pur-
pose which will be an ever
lasting monument to his mem
DRY.
This tree now stands where
it was originally planted, sup
porting a heavy crop of fruit as
usual. At first we thought that
it was grated on Citrus Tri-
foliata stock, but on examina-
ton | find that if it is grated
at all it is on some other citrus
stock, and / am firmly Of the
opinion that it has not been
grated at all, or if it was graft
ed to the Onshin, the graft
failed to develop, or was other
wise destroyed and the original
Seeding stalk was by a mistake
imported and planted in it's
present location, where it
proved to be valuable addition
to Horticulture in South and
Southwest Texas.
1t is very indurate like the
Onshin and will stand more
cold and severe abusive change
than any of the ordinary vari-
cites of oranges that were ever
grown in the United States. 1t
being a very young and prolific
bearer of nice fruit which COM
pares favorably in size and
quality with the ordinary or
ange that we find in our Texas
market imported from Florida
and California, for which we
pay at retail from forty to fifty
cents per dozen. Many thou
sands of trees of this variety
have been propagated and
many acres of them have been
recently planted, but so far we
have been unable to supply the
demand. Those who desire to
get a start of the Dugat and
Satsuma varieties should send
in their orders carly before the