The National tribune., 1909-03-11

4 Il
ing slgnt. Next to Q tree loaded down
WIN red apples an orange tree Is the most
pleasing sight in nature There seems to-
be - much difference in oranges as ip
appies apt eIase ana the groves shipped seven differ
little well-known tangerines with thick
skin that comes of readily leaving A ball
OF delicious pulp. There were the larger
pineapple oranges with the smooth yellow
skin filed with juice and pulp which made
them noticeably much heavier than the
others. Another variety was the King,
which seemed to be an exaggerated tan.
gerins with heavy, thick, rough skin and
much fuller of pulp and juice than the
tangerine. Beside these were the russets
and other varieties. The fruit is gathered
IN baskets slung over the shoulders by
negroes who carry a pair OF curved shears
to clip each orange off by itself. 1t will
not do to pull it, as IL the stem Is pulled
out the microbes Immediately enter and
the keeping qualities of the orange is de-
stroyed. In the packing house the first
inspection is to see whether the orange
has its stem remaining. II not, no matter
how fine it Is, it is tossed over among the
culls. After this inspection the oranges
are classified by size in a very simple way.
| The inspector after looking at the orange
to see that its stem remained tossed it on
a couple of ways which gradually widened
The small oranges dropped thru quickly
| illO tuS uISI TeCSptdCIop tHe utAL SLe iulO
| the second. and so on, with the largest
oranges rolling to the end of the ways.
Several of the best grades of oranges are
wrapped in tissue paper with Inscriptions
giving their classification and packed in
specially strong boxes. The first grade
sells for $500 box at the grove; the
second for S2.I5: third for $3.50 and SO
on down to S100 box for the inferior
and culls. The two orchards will ship
this year $4,000 boxes. The harvesting
begins in December and continues until
April. The trees are yet quite young and
are consequently increasing their product
every year at a great rate, probably as
of one tree in the region which was killed
| by the frost of 100 boxes and another tree
had a record of 70 boxes. Just now many
of the trees are only producing a box
apiece where next year it is ex ASted that
they will produce two and so on, increasing
in productiveness every year.
An increasing quantity of grape fruit
is also being raised in these orchards.
A provision is being made against an
other killing frost by packing up the earth
| around the trees to hight Of 10 or Is
inches. This protection is put around the
trees in the Fall and taken away again in
the Spring. The object is that il there
should come a frost it would still leave
the sweet orange stock, which would at
once send up sprouts and in a few years
bear. As these shoots begin to bear in
three or four years the grower would
only be out of returns from his orchard
during that time. Still I regard orange
to have it as side line. but man makes
a mistake who places his whole depedence
upon it.
Trucking.
Outside of the two orange groves men
toned there is now very little regular
orange growing attempted. A great many
people have a few orange trees but the
most of those who can be said to be
actually farming are devoting their atten-
ton to trucking" of various kinds. A
great many of the natives, of course, do
not go beyond raising little patch of
corn and cabbage for their own use and
saw mills and turpentine stills or on the
railroads and supplement the meat OBJ
tanned from their wild cattle and hogs. A
growing interest is being taken in raising
cucumbers, celery, lettuce, beans and par
ticularly cabbages. Wonderful results
are reported from small plots of land. l
saw one cabbage patch of less than two
acres which the owner grumbled had not
been properly taken care of by the man
whom he had associated with him and
who had not cultivated it at all this Win
ter. 1 asked him why he should cultivate
weeds, but he explained that by stirring
the ground and admitting the air the
growth of the cabbages was increased. He
had begun to harvest his cabbages and
said that he would get off of the two acres
at least 400 crates, worth at the place of
mentally calculated that $500 was pretty
good return from. two acres. Something
Of the same stories were told me as to
the results from patches of beans, celery,
lettuce and radishes, and l was shown a
nice comfortable home built of concrete
which one man had made off of two acres
of beans. In spite of all these results
the people generally seemed to take little
interest in the trucking and there was not
much evidence anywhere of a rush for
land to put under cultivation and duplicate
the performance of the others. The aver
age Floridian does not seem to take kindly
to working between meals.
Sugar Cane.
I saw several plots of sugar cane which
looked thrifty and there was one little
roller mill for working up the stalks with
a kettle set in brick to evaporate the juice.
In this way very excellent molaSses is
made and the buyer for a number of great
truck commission firms in the North told
introduce the syrup into his market, but he
found it required some education to get
the people to take to it and he did not have
the time to devote to it.
Other Fruits.
I saw no apple trees nor could hear of
any, altho at little distance the young
live oaks look surprisingly like apple trees.
l saw but few peach trees and they were
not particularly thrifty. They were in
bloom at the time, but this was not as
plentiful as one sees in the North. The
people told me that there was too much
sand, and peach trees did not do well ex-
cept where there was more clay in the
soil. l saw no tame cherries, but an
abundance of wild cherries, which were in
full leaf and bloom and formed pleasing
sight. 1t seemed to me that other cherries
would grow where the wild cherries did,
but that is one Of the possibilities of the
soil that has not yet been tested. Plums
are said to do very well, indeed, and in |
the thickets were plenty of wild plums |
which were in bloom. A number of pear
trees were seen and are said to do we'll |
OF course, Strawberries will do we'll and
produce wonderfully. In the neighboring |
country great quantities of strawberries |
are raised. They seem to grow nearly ali |
the Winter and the early Strawberries
seen in the Northern markets all come from
that section. No attention had apparently
been given to strawberry beds around
where l was, but there is no reason why
they should not become leading crop. /
saw no raspberries, but occasionally black