Meade County news., 1918-07-11
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
.coneurrently.

Don't let anybody fool himself with
the Idea that he can grow oranges
anywhere In Florida, writes John A.
. Eleicher in Leslie's Weekly. The or
oNhge heeds a soil, adapted to 1t. 1t
thriyes. best not in the white sand you
see under the pines. but in yellow
loan. The. pines are cut or burned
fahd the palmetto cleared away. Then
the.Jand is plowed and narrowed at
cost OF about $25 per acre for clearing
: With coloTed labor at IS cents an hour.
Then fve-year-old budded stock Is
planted. It comes from the nurseries
carefully boxed and packed and looks
!, ike q 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 at 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 rs 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 $4,000 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, 1t was said, received over $4,000
for his crops this year. At the Lake
Highland Country club, Mr.. Halfam
told me he planted his orange groves
in % rows of % trees, or 484 to a
ten-acre plot, using two-year-old bud
ded trees that cost 70 cents each.
He calculated that clearing the land
and setting trees cost from $25 to $S5
an acre each, care and cultivation So
per acre per month, fertilizer for
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 q 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 bottllng. noticed advertisements
in local papers offering 80 cents per
100 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 to find blossoms
on one branch Of an orange tree and
fully ripened fruit on another. Ma
ttre 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-
ary 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
noSmore beautiful sight than fine
ofahge grove bearing fruit and bios
SONS concurrently. The appeal Of
the golden fruit is to 1.-THE palate, Of
the snowy blossoms to the eye, and
the fragrance to the sense Of smell.
One can well, imagine an endless
bridal ,pgoeessIon amid grove of Or
ange blossoms with tuneful mocking
birds fOrestalNng the;twedding march.