Year: 1874




number, is required for the orange tree
to come into bearing, there are good
reasons for believing that this Is an
unnecessary length Of time, and that 1t
can be reduced three or four years by
such treatment and cultivation as will
insure rapid and continuous growth,
and by permitting the horizontal
limbs that come out near the ground
| to remain as aids In the growth and
for fruit bearers, instead of cutting
them off, This practice of removing
the lower limbs of tree, If healthy
andivigorous ones, has o two-fold effect
to keep the tree in an adolescent state.
In all healthy and vigorously growing
trees, but more especially in evergreen
ones, the removal of limb, even the
plucking of leaf, diminishes the
power of the tree to furnish material
for the growth of the roots, upon which
depends the growth of the tree itself.
What else but delay could be expected
If the relentless knife in the hands of
the thoughtless ownerlisd day after day
and for years killing off the innocent
and untiring laborers, which, if left to
perform their office, would toll unceas-
ingly to build up a structure and
hasten its maturity. If in the mis-
taken effort to prematurely force it to
a given height to please u fastidious
eye with a tall but weak, sickly and
naked stem, the tree is left without
agents to collect and prepare the ma
terial for its formation, it is reasonable
to suppose that its coming into fruit
bearing will be greatly retarded.


The proper tillage Of the ground of
an orange orchard is simply that which
will cause the most rapid and contin-
uous growth of the trees throughout
the year. If the location of the or
chard is exposed to frosts, the growth
of the trees should be diminished by
less irrigation, or other judicious
means, for sufficient time before the,
anticipated frost, in order that the
newly formed wood may in measure
mature and harden, in which condi-
ton it will escape injury or suffer
much less damage from q frost than if
soft, succulent and growing rapidly.
The orange tree when not forming new
wood withstands uninjured the effects
of slight frosts in the Winter season,
even when the cold is severe enough
to freeze the surface Of the ground.


Although condemning the use of the
knife upon the young orange tree, l
would not be understood as Objecting
to its employment for the removal of
useless limbs, as we'll as, whenever re-
quired, to prevent the tree from TAX
ing an unsightly or unproductive form.
If the head Of the tree is left to grow
thick and tangled with small branches.
the healthy circulation of the atmos-
phere among the leaves Is obstructed
in the interior of the head, which soon
becomes filled with dead and dying
limbs, and the fruit on that part of the
tree will be inferior. To form an open
head so as to give the leaves an open
field for their labors, should be the
chief object of the pruner.


Orange trees do not shed their fruit
readily, and although in this locality
the orange is considered ripe in No
vember and December, it improves
! greatly if suffered to remain on the
tree until the following May or June.
| The warmth of these months adds
| much to its flavor and sweetness.
The oranges Of one year or season may
remain on the tree with but slight, if
any, deterioration until the ripening
of the following crop commences.
From a bearing tree, If desired, ripe
| fruit may be plucked every day in the
year. Strictly speaking, the orange
tree brings but one crop annually.
From the time of the expanding of the
blossom until the fruit is fully ripe
nearly year intervenes. But if the
fruit Is gathered at intervals spread
over the entire year, flowers will also
put forth throughout the year, and thus
an ever maturing crop be borne. If
young and vigorous trees are so treat
| ed when first coming into bearing,
they will readily take on this habit.
The orange tree can be spropogated
by budding and by grating. The for
mer is the most preferable of the two
modes. BY budding young stocks
with buds from bearing trees, fruit
may be obtained some years sooner
than from seedlings. The Chinese
lemon, which is hardy and thrifty
tree, good bearer, somewhat dwarf
| ish, and which comes into bearing
much sooner than the orange or the
European lemon, and is easily propa-
gated by cuttings,i ,is a good stock upon
which to bud the orange.


AS so much depends upon the ma
ture of the soil, the cost of labor and
irrigation, 1t would be difficult to fix
even approximately the yearly ex-
pense, or the amount of labor requisite
for the cultivation per acre of an or
ange orchard. 1t will be far less, how
ever than that of vineyard, ,as neither
the planting, the irrigating, the prun-
Ing, the yearly cultivation or the gath
ering OF the crop requires as much
labor. The money product, or an ap-
Proclamation to the gross income of an
orange orchard, is less difficult of as
certainment. An acre of land planted
in trees thirty feet apart will contain
fifty trees, which producing each one
thousann oranges will be fifty thous-
| and, and these at two cents each, is one
thousand dollars for the gross yearly
product per acre of an orange orchard.


There are orange trees in this coun-
ty, growing in an orchard not exceed
ing thirty feet apart, planted In 1841,
some of which in 1857-8producedt three
thousand oranges per tree. There is
within the limits of this city an Or
ange orchard containing eighteen
hundred trees, planted in 1855, which
in l869-70 produced crop of oranges
which, after deducting the expense of
gathering and marketing, left upward
of ten thousand dollars as the net pro-
ceeds OF the crop. There Is another
orchard In this county of six hundred
trees from which were gathered in
lS69-70, when the trees were fourteen
| wears old. inward of six hundrad