The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1921-02-25
AS Others See Us

Al. Miller large California fruit grow
er who Is spending the winter in
Florida, to his home paper, the Covina
Citizen. and republished in the Red
lands, (Calif.) Daily Facts, shows how
the Citrus industry here is viewed
by man from the Pacific Coast.
The letter follows:
I'VE drove by auto from st. Angus
tine to Orlando, which is city OF
about 10000 in the summer time and
over 10000 in the winter time, and
more or less surrounded by orange
groves, mostly seedlings. We have
had a most excellent opportunity to
investigate the orange industry as
we have travelled more than thou
sand miles looking at orange land and
at orange groves. Thus far. the best
orange groves we have seen in and
about Winter Haven. in Polk county,
in central southern Florida. thought
I had seen more large groves in Cali
;ornia, but here many groves are be.
ing set our running from one to five
thousand acres. The citrus belt is
very scattered I have seen old seed
lings groves over forty years old sur
rounded by heavy timber lands and
maybe there would not be another.
orange grove in ten to thirty miles.
There are thousands OF small lakes
in Florida and these lakes are indeed
most beautiful Surrounding many
Of these lakes are orange groves. and
it is these lakes that afford the cold
weather protection. There are nine
ty-three lakes in ten miles square in
the Winter Haven district. These
lakes are beautiful, many connected
by canals, and you can go from one
to another in launches and by row
boats. These are fed by springs and
filled with fine fish.
You can readily understand why
there are so many lakes when you
see it rain from one to five inches
in as many hours sometimes. The
annual rainfall is from 40 to so in
ches, / saw wild orange tree a few
days ago and picked some wild or
anges which We're very good to eat. a
little sour. The orange groves are not
irrigated. Young orange trees are
watered once or twice when first set
and that is all the water that is appli-
ed except the natural rains. The
groves are not as well cared for as
in California. The soil is very sandy
with trace of black soil, and there is
a subsoil of yellow sand. This yellow
sand is thrown up by the gophers,
and is the best evidence of good citrus
soil. I might say that the gophers
do not injure the orange trees here.
The groves are cultivated very shall
low, not over two or three inches
deep. They plow the groves once or
twice year, very shallow. They use
the wheel disc also, and these wheels
are for the purpose OF keeping the
machine from going too deep.
Very little stable manure is used.
as they claim manure will cause die
back. A great deal of commercial fer
tilizers are used. Lime has nearly
ruined many groves that have seen
here.
All groves are fenced hog-tight to
keep the cattle and hogs out. as all
kinds of stock run at large in this
state. The poor, skinny cattle and
razor-back hogs in this state seem to-
be of more importance than the citrus
industry.
They have many varieties of or
anges-the seeding. Pineapple. Par
SON Brown. Valencia. Lou Jim Gong.
Temple. King, Tangerine and Navals.
and several other varieties. But very
few navals are grown. The principle
budded varieties are the Pineapple.
which is an early variety Of Valencia.
then the Lou Jim Gong. fpropagated
by Chinaman by the namel. and the
Valencia. A great many tangerines
and grapefruit are raised. and both of
most excellent quality. The or.
anges here are inclined to be pale. not
having the nice golden color like those
from California. There is a fine crop
Of all varieties. We have seen some
very good groves. but they do not
have fine oranges like California.
It costs less to care for grove
here. People do not live on their
groves like they do in California.
Many Of the very large groves are
owned by non-residents who many
times have only seen the grove a
few times in ten years, or maybe have
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