Lower coast gazette., 1914-04-18
SATURDAY, APRIL Is, 1914
Orange Culture in P~laquemir1es
Parish.

Orange Culture III f'aque
= Parish.
FIFTY years ago there were many Hue a'n
oroves above the present so-called ofahse 'sN
Thore wore numerous orange orchards OF great
=. ~, ess size from the Court House up on Doth
s;dos of the river. Madame Groleau at one ullhe
bod . handsome orange orchard in Jesuits Benz,
Fairyiew plantation had two moderate s'zeo
orange orchards and there was one OF cohsoef-
shlo size m Andrew Robinson's Fanny planta-
ton and 50 all the way up the coast to the Bar
racks orange orchards were more or less !le"
ouent.l Orange Grove, the present braun
waite plantation, got it's name from It's la'oi'
able location for oranges.
The sleetv and freezing weather that closed
the yellow fever year of 1918 ana opsheu VIZ
vear Of 1879 killed some of the orange trees anu
the still, colder weather of 1886 practically IN
;shed the killing of the orange orchards Oh
both sides of the river from the Court fooSe
the upper lines of the parish. Inc unpleee
denied snowfall Of 1896 with IL lnches Oh s'o"
in the parish. killed all the orange trees oo~n
n Triumph Post Office near Fort Jackson anu
tho GREAT freeze of 1899, the coolest weather III
200 wears, practically killed all the oranee ''seo
in the state and even killed some Oh 'he ~
trees. . ,f
This led to a very careful investigation o.
the orange industry and the quick recovery
orchards from the roots Of the CID trees Suggest
al that if the new method Of budding trees re-
aulted in the buds or graft being located near
tho Ground line, that if the earth was hllleo up
around the trees during January and teoruary
any killing freeze would then only Kill the Top
of the tree and a quick recovery from the pro-
tected root system and the tree itself Tor ~ OF
u inches above the ground would insure the loss
Of no more than one crop by sucn disastrous
freezes. This method of protecting the trees
has become almost universal in Plaquemlnes
Parish and we hear less now about protecton
bv fire. smoke and smudges than we heard LOT
merly, the method Of killing up seeming 10 oe
universally successful as q protecting metnod
-~s~.~ --S~as.se tsssssassas r. $500
We are led to these reflections by the fact
that MI. L. A. Goudeau has taken tbs splendid
St. Clair plantation at English Turn with a view
of converting it into a great orange orcnaro
wherein he will plant his famous Seedless Gou-
deau Oranges, for which he received the Wider
silver medal given by the American Pomologlc-
al Society. There has been successful orange
grove on the Paris road about 8 mile back from
the river on the old Battle Ground plantation
and we understand that it has been in success
full production for many years. This would lead
us TO hope that all along the coast on each side
of the river there will be a recovery OF our
orange industry and that hundreds OF thous-
ands Of dollars of money will be realized in the
upper half of this parish from this crop, just as
il is now being done in the lower half OF the
parish.
When we recall the fact that in the state Of
Delaware where peaches are grown very ex'
tensiyely for the great eastern markets they
only count on getting three to four crops from
q tree and then cut it out giving room to tht
younger trees that are coming on and realiz'
that orange trees are very long lived, unless
they are killed off by frost or flood and keep OF
bearing for fifty or more years, we can reallz'
what an advantage we have over Delaware. 4
more careful study of orange culture woul'
probably reveal the desirability OF more FIRE
quent paintings Of the trees and the cutting
out Of the older and less desirable ones.
The Parish Of Plaquenines juts out into tn
sea like a great peninsula, with the river rur
ming down the middle of it and On the maps 9
the country looks like the great state OF Florida
Its typographical conditions are OF such a chal
acter as to develop a great industry in oranges
as it is already doing in all kinds of truck ga
dening crops. We shall hope that Mr.. Coz
deau's example and the beautiful orange o
chard some four miles below on Stella plants
ton, now belonging to Mr.. W. I. Hardie, an
the fine grove of Mr.. Elias Lothrop just belo
Stella on Linwood. these latter only planted
recent years. will lead scores of others to en-
ulate these examples and make the Low
Coast the manifest paradise according to n
lures first intentions.
Malarial Fever in Some Rural Di.
tricts, But NOt'in This Parish.