Lower coast gazette., 1914-11-28
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER % 1914.
Orange Day in New Orleans.

al of the governor, was celebrated in New Or
leans under his proclamation on Thursday. No.
yember 10. Very many handsomely decorated
automobiles lined up in the orange procession
and thousands of oranges were given away to
the multitudes who lined the streets throughout
The procession's route.
The motive in having Orange Day in New
Orleans was to attract the attention of our peo-
pie to the fact that this great crop sought for
the world over, can be successfully produced in
Louisiana and under modern conditions can be
produced here with considerably greater safety
than in any of the rest Of the mainland orange
producing parts Of the federal union.
The occasional freezes. say once in ten or
fifteen years, that freeze the leaves off the trees
and cause the loss of a single crop and perhaps
freeze all of the new growth off the trees, can
be avoided so far as the danger is concerned by
billing up the trees in December. above the
point at which the graft or bud has been in
serted: on the sour stock. With this killing up
above the point named should some extraordjn-
airy freeze come. and they come at rare inter-
walls, then the loss of the leaves OK the loss Of
the leaves and the new wood will do but little
harm and interrupt the growing Of the crops
for but one year.
The gradua! development of these improved
methods of culture has required a vast amount
of experimentation and in this q number Of our
leading orange growers have shown their Wis
dom and their improved methods and have
taught all the orange growers Of the country
how to protect themselves in times Of danger.
One of the problems of the present time is that
of the presence of the white fly, which leaves a
dark colored deposit on the leaves of the orange
trees and gives them a darkish or blackish look
and is a matter Of severe injury 80 far as the
final crop is concerned. The citrus canker,
against which recent provision has been made,
is another pest that our planters are on the qui
wye to avoid and the efforts that have bean
made to destroy all infected trees bids fair to
keep our state free of that pest, although it will
require the constant vigilance of our inspectors
such as has already been inaugurated. Hun.
dreds of orange growers are now entering into
the business and we shall surely have some
very large orange crops within a few years.
This will bring up the whole matter of distri.
button and it will have to be studied by our
orange men if they desire to avoid the Cutting
OF the market which is one of the greatest dam
gers that could now befall this crop, Of course
oranges can be kept in cold storage, but apart
from that. the evidence of Cutting the market
demands comparative uniformity in the oranges
that are shipped and orange growers should
learn all Of the ms and outs of the market as
rapidly as practicable. A uniform size in each
box is one of the necessities of the case and very
large oranges are not much sought for, as there
are so few Of them in a box and very small
oranges, unless they are mandarins or tanger-
ines are not very salable. so the happy medium
IS the one to be reached and the experienced
orange growers know about where that lies,
The general care of orange orchards will
have to be studied and it will be wise not to
make any attempt to raise hay crops in the
orange orchard nor to have any cattle pasturing
in them. as the harm that they will do to the
orchard trees is very great. Many years ago
we were taught that the best thing to do with
an orange orchard was to let it alone but now
the orange growers Of Florida have taught US
that the ground should be entirely free Of grass
and weeds and have. if anything grows thereon.
it should be leguminous plants, the cow pea for
instance, and this with its large leaves shading
the ground will keep down the grass and at the
same time introduce nitrogen into the soil. Some
OF our orange growers are planting truck gar
den crops in between the rows of trees. The
very considerable fertilization that the orange
trees get in this way will probably be full COM
pensation for any damage that they may do to
the land, This problem, however, is still some-
thing OF an open one. All of these propositions
must be considered by our orange growers and
we have many of them on the Lower Coast who
have been engaged in the business for a life
time and whose experience will be of immense
value to these who are just now going into the
industry, 1t will be wise for the new men to
confer with these older orange growers and
thus to avoid mistakes that might otherwise be
made,
Citrus Erraif Dencnor<c