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A grove or orchard of Seedling trees, fifteen
years old, should average 1500 to 2000 Oranges
to each tree, and these will sell readily at one
and a half to two cents each, purchasers paying
for picking and packing. This, in a grove of
one hundred trees, would give from twenty-two
and a half to forty dollars per annum, or $ 2250
to $ 4000 per acre—loo per acre. The Orange
tree, if properly cared for, will continue to grow
and bear udinfinitum. I have seen trees said to
have been one hundred years old, that yielded
annually from TOGO to 10,000 marketable Oran
ges. Can the same space of ground planted in
any other article, be made to give a greater return
in money value for the same outlay of capital
and labor ?
Take a piece of wild land; say its original cost
is $lO per acre; to put it in proper condition for
successfully growing the Orange, say will cost
(grubbing, ditching, plowing and fencing) $ 100
per acre; sa} T original cost of one hundred trees
and putting them out, one dollar per tree, on one
acre $ 100; thus making one acre in an Orange
grove cost $ 210. If put out in budded trees will
give something for market the third year; if in
Seedlings, about the fifth year. During which
time the same land can be advantageously culti
vated in corn, peas, potatoes, and all kinds of
melons and garden vegetables for family use.—
The labor necessary to cultivate these articles,
can give the Orange trees all the attention they
will require; and at the end of ten years there
will be an income of one to two thousand dollars
per acre; as secure as the best bank or railroad
stock in the country. The Orange tree requires
the same attention as the Apple tree North. It
has but two enemies that I know* of in this sec
tion of country. Cold below” 22 deg. Fahrenheit,
and what is. known as the “ Orange insect.” —
The first may be guarded against by a judicious
selection of locations and using smoking log
heaps to the northw”est on the few” cold nights as
may be required. The insect may be overcome
by cultivation, and keeping the trees in a steady
but vigorous state of growth; or by the use of a
solution of guano, injected occasionally over the
infected trees. My most beautiful trees have had
the insect on them since they were six inches
high ; they are now eighteen years old.
You ask about the varieties of Orange among
us: The principal are the round and oblong,
Mandarin and Tangerine; the latter in my opin
ion, is nothing more than the Mandarin, rather
a small, flat Orange, the pulp of which is inclin-
SOUTHERN CULTIVATOR.
ed to be red, and the lobes part or separate from
each other when the outside peel is removed.
A great diversity of opinion exists in regard to
the Orange. Some contend that the plant from
the ftweet Orange seed w ill be a Sour Orange
tree, and that a bud from a budded tree on the
Sour Stock, w ill produce a sour Orange. My
experience is that, without exception, the seed
from the Sweet Orange, will produce a sweet
Orange; but that they may and do dilFer in flavor
and sweetness from each other, and that the bud
from a budded tree will produce its like—the
product from the bud partaking of the nature of
the parent bud, and not of the stock budded.
I have treated exclusively the Orange. The
same treatment will answer equally well for the
Lime and Lemon. These, however, are a shade
less hardy than the Sweet Orange—the Lime be
ing a little more sensitive to cold than the
Lemon.
The Guava, another tropical fruit, deserves
particular notice, as I esteem it of equal impor
tance to either of the above. But this commu
nication is already too much extended, and 1 will
therefore refrain for the present—simply remark
ing that during the winter of 18G8-9, my Guava
trees were all killed to the ground; that the
sprouts from the old roots are now from six to
eight feet high, and full of fruit, losing but one
crop of fruit by the disaster. —F. L. Dancy, in
South-Land.
On the Georgia coast we have found the Sour
Orange hardier the Sweet. — Eds. So. Cult.
———
MY PLAY FOR RAISING WATER-MELONS.
Editors Southern Cultivator : —As I am
very successful raising water-melons, I thought
I w'ould send my plan. The spot of ground that
you expect to plant, prepare well early in the
spring,by plowing deep; the first of April lay
off your hills eight feet apart each way, dig out
holes 2 feet deep, 2 feet square; in each hole put
half peck rotted cotton seed, half peck of hog
pen manure, and a table-spoon full of salt; mix
well with a hoe, adding soil until you get the
hole full up to 3 inches from the surface, then
draw on light loo9e dirt until you get it level; do
not elevate it, for by so doing, you cause them
to die out when summer comes; draw your hoe
around to form a furrow ; plant half-dozen seed
in a hill—soon as up, thin out to four; second
hoeing thin to tw r o. Continue to hoe them eve
ry four or five days, and ju6t before the vines
start to run, side with a plow, first one way, then
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