The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1919-09-12
Girardville, Pa, Sept, 1919.

History of the Orange Industry in
Florida" ] have been requested TO
write another article on the orange
industry, and describe more in detail
the making, cultivating and caring
for citrus fruit orchard, which in
Florida is commonly known as an or
ange grove, other than converting a
wild orange grove into a sweet one.
The party making the request said
that in making the latter he realized
that nature did q great part Of the
work, etc. - -"N'--' =
The idea came to me that from my
large experience in such work, may
be could profit by my mistakes and
write something that might benefit
someone contemplating embarking III
this, the most fascinating of all hor-
ticultural work; therefore ! am going
to write something that ] hope will
interest and benefit someone going
into the business.
In this article ] will describe and
set forth how ] would do it; others,
well versed in the work, may have
different methods of doing it.
In the first place, the prospective
orange grower should look carefully
over the orange growing belt of the
state, and be sure to get location
with suitable soil for growing healthy
orange trees, for great deal of land
in Florida will not do this, and if
you get a bad location, with soil not
suitable for growing the orange, your
money, time and work will be in vain.
While ] always believed well drain
ed, rich alluvial hammock soil pro-
duced the best colored, juiciest and
most luscious fruit, and required
much less fertilizer than pine land,
all things being equal l prefer the
hammock to the pine land for an or
ange grove; but, Of course, there are
many fine groves on pine land in the
state, and by judiciOus fertili2ing a
great deal of fine fruit is produced on
pine land
In making your selection of a lOca-
tiOn you should avoid what is called
hard pan Such land will grow trees
that may flourish for a few years,
when the disease, commonly called
"die-back," will appear, also another
disease, commonly known as foot
rot" may attack your trees, and it is
uphill work to make a grove on any
hard pan land. BY good drainage
and proper fertilizing, sometimes
trees will grow out Of these diseases.
] have heard OF growers using dyna'
mite to break up the hard pan and nj
low the water that accumulates on
top of the hard pan to drain off, and
by the liberal use of fertilizer
largely composed Of potash, may
cause the trees to grow out of these
diseases, but it is much the best to
let hard pan land alone.
What we call gallberry land is not
good for orange trees, and low, white
sandy bottom land, especially il It
grows the sparkleberry, is no good,
even if it may be hammock. l would
avoid land growing saw palmetto. It
is not good orange land, and is ex-
pensive to clear.
A rich, alluvial, soil is the best.
Clay land that is not hard pan is
good, and is warmer than sandy land.
Land that grows the cabbage and
blue palmetto is all right for the or
orange tree.
If you select a pine land location,
try and get on land that grows the
turkey or willow oak interspersed
among the pine. You will always find
that turkey or willow oak land will
grow good, healthy orange trees. But
land that may have the best and most
suitable soil for the orange is not al
ways the best location for your
grove, for the greatest drawback to
making an orange grove in Florida IS
injurious frost or the occasional cold,
freezing spells of weather that come
to the state, sometimes extending
away down, even as far south as the
Caloosahatchee river on the gulf, or
Jupiter Inlet on the Atlantic. 1t
greatly depends on the state of the
sap in the orange tree as to the de-
gree Of cold it will stand without
being seriously injured. If winter
comes on gradually, so that the
growth of the tree is checked and the
sap is driven into the roots, and a
cold. freezing spell of weather, comes