Oranges

by Liberty Hyde Bailey, Theodore L. Mead, E.N. Reasoner, W.C. Stubbs

This material is reprinted from the Cyclopedia of American Horticulture by Liberty Hyde Bailey circa 1900. Many advances and retreats have been realized since this information. We can only hope that genetic material and human innovation remains available for the intelligent, varied, fertile future of citrus. LRM

The Orange is one of the oldest of cultivated fruits. Its nativity is still in doubt, but it is probable that it is indigenous to the Indo-Chinese region. It is now widely distributed in all warm-temperate and tropical countries, in many of which it has run wild and behaves like a native plant. In parts of Florida the Orange was found wild when permanent settlements were made, but it had probably spread from stock that was introduced by the early Spaniards. In stature of tree and character of fruit, the Orange has varied immensely. Normally, the fruit contains ten compartments of locules; but under the influence of domestications these compartments have been increased, and in some cases a secondary axis, with its accompanying locules, has been thrust into the center of the fruit, causing the “navel” appearance of some varieties. These navel Oranges, of which the Washington Navel or Bahia is the best known, are chance seedling varieties, as other varieties are. The immediate cause of this particular kind of variation is unknown. The Washington Navel was introduced from Brazil in 1870 by the late Wm. Saunders, of the U.S. Dept. of Agric., and by him distributed as the Bahia. In recent years, some of the odd and grotesque types of Japanese Oranges have been introduced into this country, but they will probably always be curiosities rather than commercial pomological products.

There are three well-developed Orange regions within the confines of the United States: central and southern Florida; the delta region of the Mississippi; California. Parts of Texas and the Mexico-Arizona region will no doubt develop into commercial Orange sections in the near future. Until within recent years a large part of the Oranges consumed in this country have come from Mediterranean regions, but the Florida Orange has taken the place, to a large extent, of the imported fruit. Since the great Florida freeze of 1895, however, the California Orange has come to be much better known in the eastern states.

Fifty years and more ago, Oranges were commonly grown under glass in England and parts of the continent. At that time there was no rapid transportation between the Orange-growing regions and northern countries, and the Orange fruit was a luxury. Special houses, known as orangeries, were devoted to the culture of the fruit. The trees were ordinarily grown in large tubs or boxed, and were kept in the open in summer and were placed in the orangery in winter. These orangeries were scarcely greenhouses in the modern understanding of the term. In many cases they had slate or shingle roofs, the sides only being provided with an extra amount of glass in the shape of windows. Some of them, however, were houses with glass roofs. As imported Oranges came into be more common; these Orange houses gradually fell into disuse. It is doubtful if there are any of these establishments now standing in this country, but one sees them occasionally in Europe. As the Orange trees disappeared, other plants were grown in the house, so that an orangery came to mean a particular kind of house in which plants are grown that will thrive in conditions suited to the Orange. It came to be no uncommon thing to see orangeries in which there were no Oranges.

The Orange tree is still a popular subject in conservatories, however, and in window-gardens. In the latter conditions it rarely produces fruit of any consequence, but the shining evergreen foliage and the very fragrant flowers make the plant interesting and desirable. The attention must be given to syringing and sponging the foliage. The leading difficulty in the growing of an Orange tree in the dwelling house is a tendency to keep it growing the entire year and to keep it too wet at the roots. After the fruiting season, in late fall or early winter, the plant should be allowed to rest for a time in order to harden its wood for the next year’s bloom. It may then be kept at a temperature of 40 degrees to 50 degrees and fairly dry at the roots. Water should not be withheld entirely, however, because the plant should be kept in such condition that the foliage will not drop. After a period of relative inactivity of one or two months, the plant may be set in a sunny place and given somewhat higher temperature, and water and liquid manure may be applied at the roots. It should be in bloom during the summer and early fall. Best results are secured if the roots are somewhat confined. When the plant is small, it may be potted on from time to time; but after it has attained the height of five or six feet, it should not be given more root room than a small tub or a half barrel. Ordinarily, it will not need repotting for several years at a time after it has attained this size. Some of the surface soil may be removed from time to time and fresh soil added and liquid manure applied. Usually the stocks which are used are grown from seeds, and the plants vary as peaches or apples do. Some of the plants may give desirable fruit, but the larger part of them will give fruit of indifferent or even inferior quality. If the best kind of fruit is wanted, the young plants should be budded after they are well established in the pots. Buds may be secured from any tree that bears a desirable fruit, or they may be obtained from the South.

In recent years the Otaheite Orange has come into prominence as a pot-plant. It is a dwarf form of the common Orange species. It is undoubtedly the best form of Orange for growing in the house. The fruits are small and handsome, and the flowers have a pinkish tinge and are very fragrant. These plants will bloom and bear when not more than a foot high if the roots are somewhat confined or the plants not overpotted. Unusually they will bloom the greater part of the year, but, like most hard-wooded plants, the best results are secured if they have a period of rest, as described above. The temperature for all Oranges should be relatively low; that is, it should be the temperature of the intermediate house or one which will grow carnation, chrysanthemums, geraniums, and the like.

There is much literature on the Orange, but there is no full and comprehensive treatise on Orange culture in North America. An authoritative general work on Oranges is Risso and Poteau, “Histoire et Culture des Oranges,” Paris. On the oriental forms and histories of Oranges, one should consult Bonavia, “The Cultivated Oranges and Lemons of India and Ceylon,” London, 1890. The American books on the Orange are as follows: Garey, “Orange Culture in California,” San Francisco, 1882; Moore, “Treatise of Orange Culture in Florida, Louisiana and California,” New York and Jacksonville, Third Edition, 1883; Manville, “Practical Orange Culture: including the Culture of the Orange, Lemon, Lime, and other citrous fruits as grown in Florida,” Jacksonville, 1883; Spalding, “The Orange: Its Culture in California,” California Fruits,” and the publications of the California State Board of Horticulture.

– Liberty Hyde Bailey

ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA – The foundation of Orange culture in Florida was laid, it is believed, by the accidental distribution of sour Orange seeds by the Indians, who obtained the fruit from trees planted by the Spaniards in early days, and which were probably grown from imported seeds.

These sour Oranges were carried from camp to camp, and the seeds thus scattered through the northern and central parts of peninsular Florida found congenial soil and conditions in the open hardwood forests and live-oak groves of that region, and in time formed wild groves of great extent, always in places where more or less protected from sun and radiation by towering live-oaks, magnolias and similar trees.

Sweet Oranges were grown to some extent for family use even before the civil war, but in the absence of transportation facilities were considered of no commercial value.

Between 1865 and 1870, however, the Orange trees along the banks of the St. John’s River began to attract attention as a profitable investment, and a little later an enterprising horticulturist bought a portion of a wild grove in the interior, near Orange Lake, and budded the tops of the sour trees to sweet varieties. The profits were prompt and large; so much so that this pioneer, who began with an investment of only $1,000, had a crop valued at $231,000, for the year of the great freeze, 1894-5.

Many of these wild groves were injured or destroyed, however, by the removal of the protecting live-oaks, and being located on about the 30th parallel of latitude, the Oranges themselves had to be marketed early in the season to avoid destruction by frost. By 1880 cultivated groves spread over all parts of Florida where railroad or steamboat transportation was accessible; the Indian river hammocks being justly celebrated for the quality and abundance of the fruit, while almost every kind of soil and exposure had its champions as best for Orange culture. The winters for several years prior to 1880 were almost frostless, and the rains abundant all the year round, so that the growth of well-cultivated young groves was phenomenal, and the whole northern half of peninsular Florida gave itself up to Orange culture with reckless enthusiasm – it was estimated that the Orange at 12 years of age would pay from 10 to 150 percent interest on a valuation of $100 for each tree, and in the case of individual trees even the highest figure was sometimes realized.

The first check to this state of affairs was received in 1886, when a three days’ blizzard from the northwest swept over the state and cut back or at least defoliated all the Orange trees down to the 29th degree, and still further south in all but the most protected stations. This injury, however, was only temporary in most cases, and while much of the crop of 1885-6 was lost, there was no diminution in the crop of the following year, although the trees themselves had received an evident check.

From 1886 on, there has been a succession of frosts, generally not sufficient to hurt old trees but enough to destroy or seriously cripple nearly all the young groves north of the latitude of Tampa, so that few, if any, new groves have been brought into successful bearing north of that point since 1886.

In December, 1894, a still more severe northwest blizzard defoliated all the trees as far south as the Manatee river, and this was followed in February by another similar freeze, which caught the trees covered with tender shoots and young foliage, with active sap, and killed most of them to the ground from Tampa north, and, moreover, so enfeebled them from the repeated shocks that the majority were unable to rally, and are today either dead or worthless. The loss to the Florida Orange industry by this double freeze is reasonably estimated at $100,000,000.

The crop of 1894-5 was the largest hitherto produced, and estimates at 6,000,000 boxes, each of 2 cubic feet. The following year about 75,000 boxes were produced, all from south of the latitude of Tampa, and the crop has been increasing till that of 1900-01 is estimated at 1,000,000 boxes, 95 percent of this coming from regions south of Orange county, which just about reverses the proportion observed “before the freeze.”

FLORIDA ORANGE CROPS
Boxes
1884-85…..600,000
1885-86…..900,000
1886-87…..1,260,000
1887-88…..1,450,000
1888-89…..1,950,000
1889-90…..2,150,000
1890-91…..2,450,000
1891-92…..3,761,843
1892-93…..3,400,000
1893-94…..5,055,367
1894-95…..6,000,000 (Est.)
1895-96…..100,000
1896-97…..250,000
1897-98…..216,579
1898-99…..225,000
1899-1900…..400,000
1900-01…..1,000,000 (Est.)

Many groves in Orange county and northward have been brought into fair condition by banking the trunks with earth during the winter so as to limit the injury by frost, and if another series of frostless winters like those between 1870 and 1880 were to occur, these groves, with others newly planted, would gain sufficient age and size to defy the ordinary frosts and make this region again productive. Many acres have recently been shedded over with slats or canvas – usually removed in summer – and, thus protected from the cold, are promising large returns on the heavy investment required to build the sheds – from $600 to $1,000 per acre. They are usually heated during the coldest nights, either with open wood fires or stoves burning coke or coal. The most extensive shedding operations are those of John B. Stetson, of Deland, who has 37 acres covered, various systems of protection being employed on different plots.

The Orange has been grown on the most varied soils in Florida, but successful groves have been mainly on “high hammock” and “high pine,” and the greatest profit, as a rule, has been from the hammock groves, where seedling trees came into bearing much earlier than on pine-land, and both seedling and budded trees produce more abundant crops.

The Orange groves of California and Arizona are subjected to greater winter cold than those of Florida, but suffer comparatively little damage from it, since the winters are more uniformly cool and dry and the trees are consequently dormant, while the usual warmth of a Florida winter keeps vegetation constantly in more or less active growth, and hence more sensitive to sudden frosts. Thus in 1894-5 not only Orange trees but peach and mulberry trees and old Wistaria vines – all hardy as far north as Canada when dormant – were frozen to the ground. The mean temperature has changed little, if at all, during this alternation of mild and frosty cycles of years; indeed, the mean of maximum and minimum observation taken daily at Mount Dora, Fla., for six comparatively frostless years prior to 1886 was half a degree F. colder than the mean of six years of injurious frosts subsequent to 1886.

The Orange tree is a gross feeder, and in the sandy soils best adapted to its culture in Florida can use to advantage large amounts of commercial fertilizer, provided the ammonia is balanced by abundant potash and care is taken to avoid an excess of crude fermentable materials containing nitrogen, such as cottonseed-meal and dried blood.

On the moister grades of hammock land, such, for example, as those bearing the fine groves near the Manatee river, it is considered unsafe to give more that 10 pounds of commercial fertilizer a year, even to the oldest bearing trees, on account of its liability to produce disease; and additional sulfate of potash is used, even with standard brands of fertilizer rich in potash. On the high pine-land at Deland, profit has been found in applications of 80 pounds to the tree, or 2 tons to the acre, but the average amount used by successful growers is 20 to 30 pounds to the tree of special brands, costing from $30 to $37 per ton.

So long as the soil is not unduly depleted of humus, frequent cultivation is an important factor in producing rapid growth of Orange trees. As an experiment, a seed was planted and hoed every day except Sundays for four years. It was then about the size of an average eight-year-old tree in the region – one celebrated for its fine and fast-growing Orange groves and bore four boxes of Oranges – about what would be expected from an eight-year-old seedling in that place.

Soils – The surface soils of peninsular Florida are almost wholly of subaerial origin – that is, are composed of particles cast up by the waves of the sea and carried to their present positions by the wind. The process may be observed at the present day in some places on the coast, for example, where a gentle slope inland from the beach ends in a thicket of underbrush and small trees. At such a place the slope abruptly ends at an angle of 45 degrees, and when ever a breeze blows from the sea on a dry day a continuous stream of sand may be seen blowing over the crest and falling down the steep angle, gradually engulfing and burying the thicket in a layer of sand sometimes 15 feet in depth. The trees and bushes form a wind-break and thus check the blowing of the sand towards the sea when a land breeze prevails. As might be expected, the elevations in peninsular Florida are small, the highest point of the peninsula being but 300 feet above the sea-level.

The result of long ages of wind action on a soil composed wholly of fine particles has been to assort these articles according to weight and size and other physical characteristics into innumerable patches, small and great, each of which has its own peculiarities in its reaction upon the vegetation which it bears. This makes the soil capabilities of any tract of land a bewildering puzzle to the newcomer, and the only certain clue to its solution is found in the character of the vegetation already growing on it. Chiefly in accordance with this natural growth, the soils are classified as high hammock and low hammock, high pine and low pine, or flatwoods, prairies, scrubs, bays and shell-mounds. Any land bearing an abundant growth of hardwood trees – live-oaks, hickories, magnolias, etc., is hammock land, and if not less than 3 to 4 feet above water is preferable to lower hammock. The word hammock is the aboriginal Indian name for hardwood forest.

“High pine” land is characterized by the predominant growth of the long-leaved or yellow pine. This is also suitable for Orange culture; the larger the pines the better the land. If the pines are intermixed with willow oaks and an occasional hickory and cabbage palmetto, the land is sometimes called halfhammock, and such land is more fertile than ordinary pineland. Blackjack oaks, on the contrary, are an indication of poverty of soil.

As fires sweep over the pine lands annually, burning the resinous pine straw, there is a good deal of finely divided charcoal in these soils but very little humus, while in hammock soil the percentage of humus is often very large.

Flatwoods (low pine land) is characterized by several small-coned species of pine, which otherwise very much resemble the long-leaved pines. This land is often underlaid with hardpan a foot or two below the surface. Much of it is subject to overflow in the rainy months, and when overgrown with gallberry bushes it is useless for Orange culture.

A prairie is a tract in the flatwoods overgrown with grass only and covered by standing water during a part of each year.

A scrub is a tract of white sand – often like clean granulated sugar – overgrown with dwarfed live-oaks and other bushes, mostly of the heath family and usually only a few feet high, with scattered spruce-pine trees, the open spaces often covered with reindeer moss and allied lichens. It is entirely worthless for Orange culture, though suited for pineapples if richly and constantly fertilized.

A bay or bayhead is a deep accumulation of humus – muck and peat. When drained, such lands make the best vegetable gardens.

The shell-mounds are, as their name implies, accumulations of the shells of marine or fresh-water mollusks, intermixed with a little sand and humus. They are apt to be thirsty, though fertile when plenty of water is supplied, and although the Orange will grow upon them and produce fine, silky-skinned fruit, the trees are not long-lived, as a rule, and seem subject to disease. The finest silky-skinned fruit is rarely, if ever, produced by trees in vigorous health and rugged growth.

The tendency of Orange trees on pine land, especially bottomless pine lands – those not underlaid with clay – is to wood growth, and the postponement of abundant fruiting till a great age has been reached; this is especially the case with seedling trees. The coarser the pine land soil in texture, the longer, as a rule, will the Orange tree take to reach a bearing age, sometimes requiring twenty or thirty years, even with abundant fertilizing, on the coarser sands. On the hammocks, seedlings fruit at a much earlier age, and budded trees often dwarf themselves from overbearing.

South of the 27th degree of latitude there are some rich, red loamy soils, while the sand consists largely of coral debris instead of quartz. In these southern regions the Orange is supposed to flourish only upon the scrublands, being dwarfed and subject to disease on the otherwise rich and fertile red soils.

When not injured by frost, the Florida Orange tree is immensely productive of thin-skinned delicious fruits.

Varieties – Of the leading varieties, Homosassa may be taken as the type of the finest seedlings originating in Florida; other Florida seedlings have been named, but they are much alike. Jaffa and Majorea are typical of the best thornless foreign varieties; the Washington is the only navel Orange sufficiently productive to warrant planting in Florida, where none of the navel Oranges are as prolific as other sorts. Of the kid glove Orange, the Tangerine has quite displaced the Mandarin in Florida, the brighter color of the former always ensuring a higher market price. Satsuma has the merit of being earlier than the Tangerine and possibly being hardier, hence is largely planted, though not equal in appearance or quality to the Dancy Tangerine. Of the two varieties of Kumquat or Cherry Orange, the “oblong” is the best market fruit, the “round” being too variable in size and often too small.

– Theodore L. Mead

ANOTHER VIEW OF ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA – In primitive Orange culture the tree was a seedling from selected fruit, and even at this time the majority of bearing trees in Florida are seedlings. Seedlings are late in coming into bearing, their fruit is of variable quality, and the roots of sweet Orange trees are likely to get the “foot-rot,” or mal-di-goma. Therefore growers are now more careful as to stocks used and seldom plant the sweet seedling tree, but graft or bud on more suitable roots. On very high land of best quality, which is deeply drained, it is possible to raise the sweet seedling without great danger from foot-rot. As long as the roots are healthy the trees produce fruit in abundance, and many growers contend that the fruit produced, whether of Orange, lemon or pomelo, on sweet Orange stocks is better in quality of juice, has less “rag” and a thinner skin, and hangs on the tree in perfection longer than when grown on other roots.

The sour Orange as a stock for other citrous trees is a contestant with the longer grown sweet Orange, and as it is free from gum disease, commonly called “foot-rot” and yields abundant crops, it is planted on soils which naturally suit it; these are low, rich lands of both pine and hammock. In the central part of Florida it has run wild, and grows in the open hammock woods where some years ago the best thickets were budded or grafted to the sweet Orange, and up to 1895 bore enormous crops of fruit. The sour Orange does not do so well on higher land, though sometimes planted there, and will not grow at all in dry, coarse sand, where the “rough lemon” manages to exist and produce fruit.

This “rough lemon” seems to be a natural hybrid citrus, with leaves and flowers somewhat resembling the commercial lemon and with large, round, coarse fruit with a lemon’s acidity, but with the appearance of a coarse sour Orange.

For quickness of growth and prolific fruiting, no citrous tree compares with the “rough lemon” as a stock for Oranges, lemons, etc., and growers are more successful with it than with any other stock on diverse soils so far tried.

Another prominent stock for citrous trees is the wild hardy Citrus trifoliata of Japan. It is a very thorny deciduous tree of somewhat dwarf habit, succeeding well on good Orange land not too dry. It influences the cion growing upon it to a great extent and causes a considerable increase of hardiness against cold, as well as earlier ripening of fruit; the tree itself blooms very late in the spring and ripens its fruit comparatively early. In north Florida and along the Gulf coast it is now being largely planted, worked to all varieties of Orange, pomelo, kumquat, etc., with more or less likelihood of successful fruition. It will probably never be wanted as a stock in localities free from frosts. The roots of other citrous trees, as pomelo, lime, bittersweet Orange, etc., with more or less success, as the nature of the land determines.

Propagation of these various trees is usually effected by seed. For sweet seedlings intended for orchard planting, the seed is carefully selected from the fruit of very best qualities, and only the vigorous plants are saved; for the nursery, to be worked by budding or grafting to various sorts, the seed is taken from any fruit available, whether good in quality or not. The seeds are squeezed out of the fruit by hand, after cutting the skin, and not allowed to dry. The seed of Citrus trifoliata may be dried, as it keeps longer without loss of vitality.

Seed-beds are prepared by thoroughly digging and pulverizing the soil, which should be of a light or sandy nature, and, unless of very good quality naturally, should be manured slightly with composted stable manure or chemical fertilizer. Seed should be sown thickly on the loose soil and pressed down well before covering; soil of the same light nature should now be thrown evenly over the surface to a depth of about an inch, and if the bed is considerably exposed to the sun should be mulched lightly with straw or leaves. Planters usually provide a temporary shading for the beds or else select a situation shaded by trees or walls, although the seedlings will grow in full sunshine if only mulched, but require more attention in watering. After two to six weeks, according to the warmth of the weather, the seedlings will appear above the surface and must be kept as free as possible from weeds, insects and fungous diseases. “Damping off” causes much trouble, and whole beds may be lost unless sprayed in time to check the spread of this fungous trouble. Bordeaux mixture seems to be the best preparation to use, although through dusting with flowers or sulfur sometimes is effectual.

The seedlings at the age of six months, or say during the summer rainy season, may be planted in nursery rows, about 10 x 48 in. apart. Less risk of loss, however, results when transplanting is done in midwinter with one-year-old plants, which at this age should be 6-18 in. high, according to variety. Watering is necessary both at time of setting and occasionally afterward, unless rains are frequent enough to keep the ground well moistened.

Fertilizer is used on poor soil about three times per year in the nursery, and clean tillage is a necessity to produce healthy trees quickly. At the age of three or four years the seedlings are usually budded to the desired varieties just before the growth ceases in the autumn. In spring the tops are cut off a few inches above the live buds, which quickly push out and grow strongly the first few months. Care is now essential in keeping down sprouts from the stock and in training the young bud. Most growers drive a small stake at each stem and tie the shoot thereto with soft twine, topping it to induce branching at the desired height. After a full season’s growth the young budded trees will be well hardened and available for planting out in the permanent orchard during the winter months.

Grafting the Orange, as well as all citrous trees, is not so certain a process as budding, the hardness of the wood and heat of a warm climate being against success. Bark-grafting, or sprig-budding, is practiced on old stumps fairly successfully, but other forms of grafting usually fail.

In starting an orchard, the character of soil and drainage must determine the kind of stock to be used. The distance apart for standard trees should be ample, 25-30 ft. seeming about right. Trifoliata stock may be set closer. The land must be staked off and holes thoroughly prepared some time before setting trees. If land is newly cleared and somewhat acid, the soil thrown out of the holes may be sweetened by a liberal mixture of fresh lime, and will be benefited if allowed to remain exposed to sun and air for two or three months, after which it may be thrown back and the surface fertilized (if necessary) a week or more before setting trees.

The young trees ought to be judiciously pruned at the top to counterbalance loss of roots in digging, and part or all of the leaves may be removed if transplanting takes place in cool weather; the removal of leaves is additional security against loss, less water being needed to establish the roots. In summer, however, the hot sunshine makes it advisable to leave on some foliage to avoid burning or scalding. Winter transplanting is preferable in almost every case.

After transplanting, the trees will be greatly benefited by a mulching of straw, leaves, or trash, which will keep the ground cooler and moister, and in rotting add humus to the soil. Fertilizer during the first years may not be needed if the natural soil is rich, but by the time fruiting commences some elements will probably be needed. If the grower is undecided as to what his soil lacks, a series of soil analyses may be useful in giving a suggestion. Potash, phosphoric acid and nitrogen are the main elements in manures, and the formulae used in mixing chemical fertilizers may be readily varied to suit each particular orchard. The fertilizer may be purchased ready mixed, or the grower by care and study can make his own mixtures, buying the various ingredients to best advantage. Sulfate of potash, bone-black, and sulfate of ammonia are safe and favorite chemicals for all citrous trees. Fertilizing is usually done in December and again in May or June; sometimes a third application may be necessary in early autumn to properly fill out the fruit.

Cultivation has been for some years along the same lines: light plowing about the time of the winter fertilizing followed by thorough harrowing all through the spring and early summer, keeping weeds and grass well under, and conserving the moisture through the spring drought. After the rains settle down in earnest, all cultivation is suspended and the orchard is sown to various soil-enriching forage-plants, or allowed to develop crabgrass. The abundant foliage of the forage-plants keeps the ground cooler and renders the tree less liable to scald during extremes of heat and moisture; the forage may be cut and cured for hay, but when so doing a return of such loss ought to be made to the orchard, to some extent, from the barn lots, or in applications of mulching or leaf-mold. At all events the orchard should be mowed previous to the time of fruit gathering.

Since the destructive freezes of 1894-95 and the following three cold winters, growers in the upper portion of Florida have used various forms of protection against frost, for Orange trees. The most general work along this line has been the banking of tree-trunks with soil up to a height of 1-4 ft., which in the event of freezing carries the budded stem safely through the winter and saves considerable growth. This is only a makeshift, however, to preserve the budded variety and does not protect the top or bearing part of the tree, so that many forms of tents for covering the whole tree has been devised, with heating apparatus. Sheds have also been made with tight walls, covering large areas of trees and having either slatted or movable roofs: during severe cold, open fires, aided by the high walls, keep the temperature above the freezing point. There is also the possibility of warming the air by means of sprays of water, forced from set nozzles by a steam pump, as the temperature of well water in Florida is constantly about 75 degrees Fahr. or warmer. Under sheds trees may be set closer and kept at the very highest state of growth, removing crowded trees from time to time, as it may be expedient.

The gathering of the Orange crop may proceed somewhat at the will of the owner; picking, of course, proceeds with the ripening of the different varieties, the early sorts being fit to gather in October, weeks or months before medium and late ripening sorts: all varieties will keep in perfection for several weeks while hanging on the trees.

The fruit from all citrous trees should be cut off, and never pulled, as a rough treatment would cause early decay. Packing is carried on quite uniformly in a great degree of perfection through all the Orange sections of the country; the main essentials to success are a slight wilting of the fruit (two or three days), and a firm, but not extreme degree of pressure, in each package.

– E.N. Reasoner

ORANGE CULTURE IN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA – From the early settlement of Louisiana to the present day Orange culture has received attention in the lower Mississippi valley. Until recently the seeds of sweet Oranges were planted and the young trees transplanted in and around the yards and gardens. No extensive groves were grown until after the close of the civil war. At first groves of seedling trees only were planted and these proved exceedingly profitable up to the very cold spell of 1895, which destroyed nearly every one in the state. In the meanwhile extensive experiments had been made in budding the choice varieties of sweet Oranges on various kinds of stocks, and many of the experiments demonstrated the power of resisting the cold by certain kinds of stocks, notably the Citrus trifoliata. Accordingly many of the old groves and a number of new ones were planted in budded stocks, using the buds of selected trees of sweet Oranges and establishing them upon the Citrus trifoliata.

Budded stock has thus entirely superseded sweet seedlings. The sour Orange, the bitter-sweet Orange, the rough lemons, the grape-fruit or pomelo and the Citrus trifoliata have all been used successfully as stock for the sweet Orange. In the meanwhile several hardy Japanese varieties, including the Satsuma, Mandarins and Tangerines, were introduced and budded upon various kinds of stock. In 1895, with the temperature going down to 15 degrees F. in New Orleans, it was found that the combination of the hardy Japanese varieties upon the Citrus trifoliata alone withstood the cold. This experience caused an adoption of the Citrus trifoliata as the chief stock for future groves. Accordingly nearly all of the groves planted since that time have been with this stock.

But there is a frost limit beyond which this combination is destroyed. This was evidenced by the unprecedented freeze of February 1899, which again destroyed nearly every grove in the state. Since that time Orange planting has made very slow progress, and only a few large groves are today to be found in the state. The industry is, however, so profitable that a renaissance may be expected at an early day. The budded trees bear early and yield profitable returns in three to five years after being transplanted in the grove. The city of New Orleans furnishes a home market for all that can be raised, and the Louisiana Orange is about one month ahead of those of Florida and several months ahead of California in ripening, and, therefore, reaches the market when, on account of scarcity, good prices prevail. These facts, coupled with the readily productive soil, requiring no fertilizers, and the abundant rainfall, dispensing with irrigation, make Orange culture exceedingly profitable in Louisiana, and the only drawback is an occasional blizzard from the northwest, which drives gulf-ward the usually balmy climate and temporarily chills the groves. At rare intervals these blizzards are so intense as to destroy tree and fruit.

How to protect groves against these destructive frosts is today the “burning question” with the Orange growers. Flooding the orchard with water from the river upon the approach of a freeze has been practiced upon a large scale without complete success.

The practice of banking the tree – piling the soil around the stem to a height of a few feet – on the approach of a blizzard whose intensity and time of coming are usually predicted by the government weather bureau, is now almost universally adopted as the best protection against excessive cold. This banking retains vitality in the main truck, and while the outer limbs are killed young shoot will start from the tree when the soil is removed and spring advances. This practice gives only partial protection. The tree is virtually destroyed, but new shoots from the protected trunk will soon appear and in a year or two the tree has resumed shape and is ready to bear a crop. The crop for the ensuing year or years is destroyed, but by skillful care the grower is enabled to secure a renewed plantation quickly.

The sweet, the sour, the Mandarin, Tangerine and Satsuma, the Shaddock, the grapefruit, the Kumquat and the trifoliata, are all grown quite largely in Louisiana. The Myrtle and the Otaheite are occasionally found as ornamental trees.

The Orange is grown in this state directly from seed and from buds. Budding is done at any time of the year from early spring to late fall. When performed in the fall, the buds remain dormant through the winter. The various stocks have particular merits for special soils and other conditions, and several kinds are used, as already said; but when the chief obstacle to successful Orange culture is cold, all other considerations must be dispensed with and only the most resistant stocks used. These are, first, Citrus trifoliata, and, second, sour Orange. Hence nearly all the Louisiana groves are on these two stocks, a large majority being on the former.

Planting a grove is always preceded by a nursery. The latter is made by planting the seed of the Citrus trifoliata or sour Orange. When the young trees are one to two years old they are shield-budded with buds from selected varieties. One year after, these buds are large enough to be transplanted to the grove.

The soil of the grove is thoroughly prepared and pulverized, and well drained. The trees are planted at intervals of 20 to 40 feet apart both ways, and the grove is cultivated until the trees are large enough to shade the ground. After that only the weeds and bushes are kept down. Late and early cultivation of an Orange grove is usually discouraged as having a tendency to induce a too luxuriant, sappy growth, which may be injured by subsequent frosts. The cultivation is usually performed with light plows or suitable cultivators.

In three years after a grove is planted the trees should begin to bear, increasing its products every year thereafter and becoming exceedingly profitable at 5 to 6 years. It has been found best here to head the Orange tree low, and prune it only for shape and comfort. Excessive pruning is never followed.

When ripe, the Oranges are gathered by hand from ladders, assorted and packed in boxes or barrels and shipped to New Orleans. Before the late excessive cold the crop of the state was estimated at 500,000 boxes. It was quite small last year, as the result of this freeze.

The following varieties have been grown in this state, which, for convenience, are here divided into three classes: first, early ripening; second, medium; third, late.

Of the first class there are numerous creole strains, – Beach Nos. 1 and 2, Boone Early, Brazilian, Centennial, Early Oblong, Foster, Homosassa, Nonpareil, Parson Brown, Peerless, Pride of Malta, and Whitaker, of the sweet varieties; and the Satsuma and Mandarin, of the dulcis type. In the second class are Acapulco, Baldwin Nos. 1, 2 and 4; Beach No. 3, Bessie, varieties of Blood Orange, Circassian, Cunningham, Dulcissima, Exquisite, Jaffa, Joppa, Magnum Bonum, Majorca, Madame’s Vinous, varieties of Navel Orange, Old Vini, St. Michael, Portugal, Prata, Queen, Ruby, Selecta, Star Calyx, Stark Seedless, Sweet Seville, Tahiti and Traveler, of the sweet Orange, and Tangerine, of the dulcis type. The third class – late maturing varieties – which are unpopular here on account of danger of frost during winter, are Acis, Beach Nos. 4 and 5, Dorr, DuRoi, Higley Late, Lamb Summer, Long, Maltese Oval, Mediterranean Sweet, Mott, Pineapple, Rio, Rivers Late, Simms Summer, Hart Tardif, and White, of the sweet, and King, of the dulcis type.

The Kumquat is grown both in the round and the oblong. A dozen or more varieties of the pomelo are also grown, while a few varieties of the sour Orange and shaddock are occasionally to be found.

– W.C. Stubbs

ORANGES IN CALIFORNIA – In 1769 the Franciscans moved northward into what is now known as California. In connection with the Missions which they established they planted gardens and orchards, and the first Orange trees planted were from seeds, cuttings, or plants introduced by these worthy and thrifty padres.

The Missions were scattered over a wide range of country, as far up as Sonoma, some fifty miles north of San Francisco. The planting and care of orchards of both citrous and deciduous fruits was encouraged, but after the secularization of the Missions, in 1834, interest waned and they were neglected, so that in 1846 Fremont wrote of them what “little remains of the orchards that were kept in high cultivation at the Missions. Fertile valleys are overgrown with wild mustard; vineyards and olive orchards are decayed and neglected.”

At the Mission San Gabriel, in what is now Los Angeles county, were the most extensive orchards; and it was 86 years afterwards that the seed of an Acapulco Orange was planted at Sacramento, and four years later transplanted to Bidwell’s Bar in Butte county, in the northern part of the state, and more that five hundred miles from the locality selected by the Mission Fathers for their first plantings.

While the climate of California, from San Diego in the south to Shasta in the north, is more or less suited to the Orange, and there are localities especially well adapted to its culture, there are some regions in the coast range as well as in the Sierra Nevada mountains where the low winter temperature prohibits its growth. The question of soil also enters largely into this problem, and considerable special knowledge is required in order to make a judicious selection.

The southern portion of the state was first selected as most promising, but since about 1890 every year has shown a vast widening-out and extension of the Orange belt. The business did not assume any commercial importance till 1880, when, and for some years afterwards; Orange groves were planted with feverish haste, consequent upon the enormous prices obtained for the product. As a natural outcome thousands of inferior trees were set out, unsuitable varieties in unsuitable localities, and seedlings which were of little value. The nurserymen could not grow stock fast enough, and the stock was often bought a year in advance. In a few years, however, Orange culture became better understood, until in 1899 the returns made by the county assessors showed an acreage in Orange trees alone, not including lemons, of 35,000, or 3,500,000 trees, nearly half of which were in bearing.

The foot-hill region of the Sierras was soon found to be capable of producing fine Oranges, notably in Placer county; later on in Kern, Tulare, and Fresno counties, and in the whole of the Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys were found large areas where Oranges could be grown as fine as those in southern California, and in some instances they were found to ripen earlier.

In some places, notable about Oroville in Butte County, near the extreme northern part of the Sacramento valley, the citrous industry thrives, side by side with gold-mining. The red, mineral lands, with abundance of water carried in ditches from the high mountains, grow to perfection the Washington Navel and other Oranges.

Though the temperature of the great San Joaquin valley is lower in winter than at points nearer the coast, the summers are warmer, and the Orange thrives in the sunshine, away from the coast fog, and the trees are healthier and less affected by scale insects.

The so-called “thermal belt” comprises some 1,500,000 acres of land adapted to the cultivation of the Orange commercially, and in every part of California, with exceptions above noted, Oranges may be grown in a small way, to satisfy the taste and embellish the home surroundings. This “belt” runs from San Diego to Tehama, and is nearly 700 miles long, and from two or three to twenty-five miles long, and from two or three to twenty-five miles wide. Its altitude does not exceed 1,800 feet above sea-level, and from that down to 30 feet.

Orange seedlings were grown mostly from seed of imported Tahiti Oranges, and later from miscellaneous seed from any varieties. Seed from the Florida Sour stock has been largely used, but does not give general satisfaction. The young plants are budded in the nursery at two years old, and transplanted one or two years later to the orchard. Very many large, old trees have been “worked over,” because the variety was found to be unprofitable. There are several ways of doing this, perhaps the most successful being to cut back the top of the tree, and to bud into the young shoots that will grow as a result of this cutting. In three years the old tree will have a new top, frequently with a good crop of fruit.

The Orange is a gross feeder, throwing out many and widely-spreading roots, and for this reason, though the soil may be naturally rich, it is necessary that it be plentifully supplied with fertilizers as well as water. This is done systematically and regularly, the trees being irrigated not less than once a month through the summer by means of shallow furrows opened by the plow on either side of the row.

The varieties considered most valuable for market are Washington Navel, Paper-rind, St. Michael, Malta Blood, Jaffa, Mediterranean Sweet, Parson Brown, Homosassa, and some of the Tangerine varieties. Of all these the Washington Navel is by far the most valuable. The first trees were imported from Brazil by William Saunders, of Washington, D.C., in 1870, and by him sent from there to California in 1873. The fruit is seedless, which adds to its value. Oranges are cut from the tree with small shears in preference to being pulled. After they have been kept in the packing-house for a few days to allow the rind to shrink, they are graded and packed in the regulation case, which is 11½ x 11½ x 26 inches. This work is done with the utmost care, and by experienced, skilled hands.