The bystander. [volume] (Des Moines, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1918-09-06
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. It
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
cost Of about $25 per acre for clearing
with colored labor at 10 cents an hour.
Then five-year-old budded stock is
planted. It comes from the nurseries
carefully boxed and packed and looks
like sawed-of young tree about two
or three inches In diameter. The
acreage is first carefully plotted out in
regular rows, with stakes rs feet apart.
A hole is dug and the orange tree is
carefully laid in, at a depth Of two or
three feet. A basin Is left about the
tree into which a. 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 Is cents to 81
each at the nursery, and will begin to
bear in four or five years, If 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 $1,000 to $1,000 net to the own
er in such high-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, it was said, received over $1,000
for his crops this year. At the Lake
Highland Country club, Mr.. Hallam
told me he planted his orange groves
in % rows Of % trees, or 484 to
ded trees that cost Is cents each.
He calculated that clearing the land
and setting trees cost from $25 to $35
an acre each, care and cultivation So
per acre per month, fertilizer for
ten-acre plot SEQ the first year, $50
the second, $11O 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 a market, the pulp be-
ing used for marmalade and the juice
for boteling. noticed advertisements
in local papers Offering so cents per
100 pounds for sound "drop and Gull
grapefruit" Signs in the packing
houses notify growers that "every
doubtful orange is q GULL"
The orange tree Is remarkable. The
visitor is astonished to find blossoms
on one branch Of an orange tree and
fully ripened fruit on another. Ma
ture is wonder worker. She makes
no mistakes. She can neither be fooled
nor bribed. A grower tells me
that an orange tree blossoms in
February and in June. If in Febru-
airy the developed fruit shows less
than the average yield, the tree puts
forth additional blossoms in June and
this counterbalances the loss, but II
the fruit Is fully up to the average
no blossoms appear In June. There is
no more beautiful sight than a, fine
orange grove bearing fruit and BIOS
SONS concurrently. The appeal Of
the golden fruit is to the palate, Of
the snowy blossoms to the eye, and
the fragrance to the sense Of smell.
One can we'll imagine an endless
bridal procession amid a grove Of or
ange blossoms with tuneful knocking
birds forestalling the wedding march.
Navel Orange Freak.