Metropolis weekly gazette. (Metropolis, Ill.) 1???-19??, 1918-07-26
TO GROW ORANGES
Not All Land in Florida Suitable
to Production.
no More Beautiful Sight in the World
Than a Fine Orange Grove Bear
Ing Fruit and Blossoms
Concurrently.

Don't LET anybody fool himself with
the idea that he can grow oranges
anywhere In Florida. writes John A.
| Sleicher in Leslie's Weekly. The or
ange needs soil adapted TO 1t. 1t
thrives best not In the white sand you
see under the pines. but in yellow
loan. The pines are cut or burned
and the palmetto cleared away. Then
/ the land is plowed and narrowed at 81
cost of about So per acre for clearing
with eolored labor at 1S cents an hour
Then five-year-old budded stock is
planted. II comes from the nurseries
carefully hoxed and packed and looks
like a sawed-off young tree about two
or three inches in diameter. The
acreage is first carefully plotted out in
regular rows. with stakes - feet apart.
A hole is dug and the orange tree IS
carefully laid in, ut a depth of two or
three feet. A basin is left about the
tree Into which quantity of water is
poured and then the soil is heaped UP
to the level. or higher, as circum-
stances may require. These young or
ange trees cost from - cents 10 81
each ut the nursery and viii begin to
bear in four or five years. II they sur
vive the frost, insects and gophers or
land turtles that burrow around the
roots.
An acre of mature bearing orange
or grapefruit trees Is expected to Yield
from 81 900 to $1,000 net TO the own
er in such hlgh-priced times as these.
saw grove Of nine and half acres
near Lakeland for which an offer Of
$4,000 had been refused. The own
er. II was said. received over $4,000
for his crops this year. At the Lake
Highland Country club. Mr.. Hallam
told me he planted his orange groves
In % rows Of 30 trees. or asa to Il
ten-acre plot, using two-year-old bud
ded trees that cost - cents each.
He calculated TINT clearing the land
and setting trees cost from $50 to $50
an acre each. care and cultivation So
per acre per month, fertilizer for
ten-acre plot SEQ the first year. $50
the second, $40 the third. and $40
the fourth. He figured that the fourth
year the growers might expect TO har-
vest an average Of two boxes OF
fruit per tree, with an increase of one
box year thereafter. Culls and drop
ped fruit, formerly thrown away,
now find market. the pulp he,
ing used for marmalede and the Juice
for bottling noticed advertisements
In local papers offering 30 cents per
leo pounds for sound drop and Gull
grapefruit" Signs In the packing
houses notify growers that every
doubtful orange is Gull"
The orange tree IS remarkable. The
visitor is astonished 10 find blossoms
on one branch Of an orange tree and
fully ripened fruit on another. Ma
ture is n wonder worker. She makes
nor bribed. A grower tells Inc
that nm orange free blossoms IN
February and In June. Il In Fehru.
airy the developed fruit shows less
than the average yield, the tree puts
forth additional blossoms In June and
this counterbalances she loss. but If
the fruit Is fully up 10 the average
no blossoms appear In June. There Is
no more beautiful siyht than a fine
orange grove bearing fruit and hlps-
SONS eoncurrently. The appeal Of
the golden fruit is u the palate, OF
the snowy blossoms 10 the eye, and
the fragrance to the sense Of smell.
One can well imagine an endless
bridal procession amid grove of Or
ange blossoms with tuneful hooking
birds forestaliing the wedding march