The Ocala banner. (Ocala, Marion County, Fla.) 1883-194?, 1922-04-21
rLoRlDAs WILD ORANGE GROVES

Mr.. Agnew Welsh in his interesting
tabloid articles on Florida appearing
in the Miami Metropolis refers to a
paper on the History of the Wild
Orange written by the late James A.
Harris and read before the State Hor-
ticultural Society some years ago.
Knowing that the article will be
interesting to the readers of the Ban
ner we reproduce it:
THE incoming pioneers of Florida
found many groves of wild oranges.
John Francis Tenny, who came from
Vermont in 1859 and settled mead Pa
latka, close to Federal Point, stated
that there were at that time three
oranges groves in that vicinity; also
one at Harris Point, opposite Palatka,
and two at Orange Mills. In a paper
7ead fifty years ago before the State
Fruit Growers Association, James A.
Harris, prominent pomologist iden-
titled with citrus culture in the state,
read a paper on the history of the
wild orange in Florida He said there
were two varieties, the sour and bit
ter-sweet, but very much akin. After
careful study and investigation he had
arrived at the conclusion that they
should be classified as the Bigarde,
Or Seville, as they were sometimes
called, due to the fact that the Moors
had planted about that Spanish city,
great groves in this vicinity.
How they were introduced to these
shores he was not positive but in
clined to the theory that the early
Spanish adventures had brought
them, possibly more for their own use
than to use them for planting. He
found many people who believed the
fruit was Indigenous to the state. but
offset this with the argument that
the Spanish historians never made
mention of finding such fruit in a
strange land: furthermore, the groves
of this frui. were usually found in
the vicinity of ancitnt Indian camps.
This he took as evidence that the
indians had carried the seed from
the primal seat of civilization about
ST. Augustine into the interior; this
was strengthened by the fact that
these groves were most frequently
found in the vicinity of lakes or on
the margins of rivers, -usch spots as
ere ,.c-~~@lly collected for the site of
: cap.
"The largest of these wild groves
cO~e~ed hundreds of acres, such being
the one at Orange lake, in Marion
county; the next in size were those
at Lakes Griffin and Harris, in Sum-
ter county, and also at Lakes Weir.
Bryant. Panasofka, Jessup, George
and Apopka The streams named as
being bordered by these self planted
groves were the Ocklawaha, Withla-
coochee, S.. Johns, Halifax, Indian;
some few were found west of the
Apaiachi2ola. He stated that none
we're found south of the thirtieth
(2-e4bourne) or north of the twenty
eighth Green Cove Springs) degree
of latitude.
Many Of these native groves, were
cut down during the process of clear
ing the land for cultivation to cotton
or other crops. AS nearly as 1870
some use was made of the blossoms
for extracting from them their VIOLA
tile oil which was used in making
perfumes; from the skins of the fruit
was distilled citric acid which found
market in Philadelphia at $3.50 q
gallon for a. well-reduced, or heavy
bodied, fluid extract Mr. Harris stat
FED that as early as 1869 a Mr. Stock
we'll had a grove OF trees at "Pilatka'
that he had budded and two years
later Mr.. Harris himself began bud
ding sour stock, as the small trees
are called, with scions from sweet
oranges