The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1913-11-29
The Florida GrOwer.)

The Florida GrOwer.)
For ages poets have sung of Sicily.
Ter glorious climate, her, blue skies
md her wondrous vistas Of noun
ain, sea and plain have been re-
lowned through all the world. We
rave imagined it a country OF lotus
,aters, where twas always after
loon. Now and then some glimpse OF
,amorra or Vendetta outrage has
louded our idealistic picture of the
sland, and these we ignore and soon
orget and Sicily remains ideal poetic
country, when the main, if not the
ole, occupation of the inhabitants
writing Italian blank verse Tin
1nglish), admiring the scenery and
eading Homer.
OF course they would eat oranges
nd drink wine between whites in
his classic atmosphere. Still we
ave found from sad experience that
ranges and wine don't have much
endency to produce themselves
without some human encouragement
To those of us which have
reamed of honeymoons or happy
enescent, second childhood in her
'lassic cline it is quite shock to
ace Sicily as a possible competitor
Il the American fruit market, pro
ucing both lemons and oranges
also, the discussion Of the methods
Whereby Sicilians fertilize and cult
ate citrus fruits is very much more
pertinent than how they scan Vir-
sil's poetry.
The commercial sound of the notes
which follow may jar your esthetic
'ensibilities, but please consider
hem in view of the new tariff SEIZED
lie and forget poetry.
General Conditions
The Sicilian citrus industry is con
ined to the production of very con-
siderable quantities of oranges and
emons. Agricultural methods are
primitive, crude and effective. Irri-
cation is imperative, as the soil is a
white hard clay, which bakes badly
The Introduction of water for all the
groves are On slopes or plains near
water courses.
Rainfall is light, about 16 inches
annually. Marketing and rental
systems are different from any ex-
sting elsewhere in the citrus pro-
lucing regions of the earth.
Planting
Orange and lemon trees are treat
ID exactly alike in main. features in
Sicily. The soil being naturally fer
lie, and secondarily being a white
,olloidal clay, which bakes very hard
IN exposure to the sun, supports and
justifies close planting of trees.
The best orchardists plant from
$50 to 200 trees per acre, the object
being first to utilize all possible
space because arabic ground is both
scarce and valuable, and, second, to
shade the soil as much as possible
and prevent baking and working
with consequent loss Of soil moisture
Mechanical and physical injury of
course follow the hardening of the
soil and the burning of the sun.
The octare, 1000 meters square,
ls the standard measure of land, but
lnasmuch as this is a tract of sew
eral acres extent and groves are all
small, it is Of little or no value to
state the number of trees planted on
IN octare. Sufficient to say, 200
trees per acre is the most usual and
most approved planting.
Young groves are thoroughly
worked and sometimes supplied with
cover crops. The. usual method.
however, is to raise vegetables and
grain among trees until they reach
the bearing age.
Recent years have seen virtually
40 increase in grove acreage. One
very good reason for this is the fact
that arabic land has been nearly all
planted for many decades and, Sec
)ndly, lack of progressiveness
among both owners and renters of
groves.
Cultivation
Sicilians cultivate their groves
along the same general plans as
Spaniards, except that they do not
lse plows. All working Of the soil is
~ the short handled hoe of the Med
.terranean coast, which is similar to
our grubbing hoes. Contrary to
spanish custom. however, it is not in
the least unusual to find women and
girls Of the campana working
shoulder to shoulder with their hus.
bands in the groves. Hoeing, pfun.