Courier Democrat., 1918-10-31
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
ConcurrentIy.

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 q soil adapted to it. 1t
thriyes 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 a
cost of about $25 per acre for clearing
with colored labor at 1S cents an hour.
Then five-year-old budded stock Is
planted. It comes from the nurseries
carefully boxed 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 25 feet apart.
A hole is dug and the orange tree is
carefully laid in, at 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 Is cents to 50
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 $4,000 net to the own
er in such high-priced times as these.
I saw a 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 $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 % trees, or 4S4 to a
ten-acre plot, using two-year-old bud
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 a
ten-acre plot $50 the first year, $50
the second, $110 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 be.
ing used for marmalade and the juice
for bottling. 1 noticed advertisements
in local papers offering so cents pei
100 pounds for sound "drop and cul
grapefruit" Signs in the packing
houses notify growers that "every
doubtful orange is a Gull"
The orange tree is remarkable. Tht
visitor is astonished to find blossom!
fully ripened fruit on another. Ma
ture is wonder worker. She make
. no mistakes. She can neither be foolet
nor bribed. A grower tells M
that an orange tree blossoms il
February and in June. If in Febru
ary the developed fruit shows les
than the average yield, the tree put
forth additional blossoms in June an
this counterbalances the loss, but
; the fruit is fully up to the averag
no blossoms appear in June. There
no more beautiful sight than fin
! orange grove bearing fruit and bios
SONS concurrently The appeal G
the golden fruit is to the palate, c
the snowy blossoms to the eye, an
the fragrance to the sense of smell
One can well imagine an endles
: bridal procession amid a grove of O.
y ange blossoms with tuneful mockin
8 birds forestalling the wedding marc