Lower coast gazette., 1913-03-29
Orange Growing in Florida.

about bees and honey, ! will give a few
statements in regard to orange grow,
ing and marketing here in Florida.
had supposed when / came down here
a year ago that the growing of oranges
as an industry had passed its most pros.
porous period with the great freeze OF
1894, but was surprised to find that a
good many oranges were still being
produced, and / believe it is not an ex-
aggeration to say that more oranges
will go to market from Florida this
season than in any other season of the
past. While the great freeze of 1894
caused great Encouragement, yet today
oranges are being grown over wider
areas, and in many cases can be grown
in the northern part of the state sue
cessfuily. Around DeLand there are
many prosperous growers, and even up
in the northwest part Of the state
there is profit in growing the fruit.
While this is true, much Of the land
that produced fruit previous to the
great freeze has been given up and
growers have gone farther south or
found sheltered places where groves
were not seriously injured in 1894.
Much of the ground now set to
oranges Or grape fruit, it would seem,
would never come into profitable bear
ing, owing to neglect or lack Of fertil-
ity Of the soil. There is yet an abund-
ance of land suitable for fruit growing
not even cleared up, and we need not
worry, for | believe the state Of Flor
ida could, if her land was fully devel-
oped, produce fruit enough to supply
the whole country.
l understand many California glow
ers are coming here and investing and
preparing to raise citrus fruits on a
large scale, yet ! have my doubts il
orange growing mere is as profitable as
apple growing in northern New Eng
land.
The best groves appear to be on high
dry. sandy soil, with ~retentive subsoil
to hold the fertilizers given to the
trees regularly, in the best groves
three times a year. The old seeding
trees produce a very sweet, moderate
sized fruit, and the trees, many Of
them, were set quite close together
and run up tall. I have seen them, I
think forty feet high, with fruit mostly
in the top. Few sights in nature are
are more beautiful than an orange
grove of grated fruit, set. say, twenty
five feet apart, and the limbs coming
nearly to the ground and loaded with
beautiful fruit, leaving only room for a
team to go between the rows.
The grapefruit, that gets its name
from its habit of producing its fruit in
clusters like the grape, is quite as
beautiful as the orange, as it hangs on
the tree and gives one a feeling from
its size and abundance Of ever greater
productiveness than the orange, and
some growers are working over their
orange groves into grapefruit. 1t is no
uncommon sight to see six or eight or
even ten OF twelve Of these great fruits
hanging in a cluster, and in ore in
stance ! counted sixteen OF these fruits
hanging from a single stem no larger
than my finger, the cluster would seem
almost large enough to fill a bushel
basket. | believe the grapefruit in
dustry is yet in its infancy, as varie-
ties are likely to be produced that are
seedless and much superior to any now
on the market to any extent.
Few sights, to northern eyes, are
more interesting than a packing house.
While each is In some respects different
from the others, yet in principle they
are all alike. First the fruit must be
rubbed OF scrubbed. found enc house
that simply poured the fruit into a large
slated cylinder like an old fashioned
barrel churn, and revolved in the same
way by hand, and the rubbing of the
fruit together would brighten it and
make it look quite respectable. But
the better way, practiced by the larger
houses is to give the fruit a water
bath and go through g scrubbing ma
chine. From this they are carried on a
Slated revolving platform through a
long, enclosed box, perhaps fifty feet
long, where q strong draft of air is
forced through. and when the fruit
reaches the other end it is dry and
clean; here it takes two roads and
travels on past two s~orters, who re-
move any imperfect fruit and send the
bright fruit ON in one road, and that
mere or less off color on another path.
On and on the fruit travels, being pol
ished as it goes until it shines like the
SUM-. Along this pathway are a
number of bins to receive the different
sized fruit, and when any fruit reaches
the bin designed for it. it leaves the
path and goes over and down into the
bin designed for this particular size.
Beside the bin stands q strong, active
man, with a box or crate in trent CT
him and bundles Of paper, and he rap
idly covers the oranges with thin paper
and places in the box IN such a way
that each will hold the exact number
ill., ,rn 4Lot L.. -.o5:.- Ill -