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ing to the same class and species. It is destined to take high rank as a table and dessert fruit.'"'

NONPAREIL.-Size above medium, somewhat flattened, color ordinary, grain fine, pulp melting and tender, juice sub-acid and vinous. Quality best. Tree prolific and very thorny. Native seedling.

HIGGINS.-Medium, fair; skin smooth and thin; pulp fine, juicy, sweet and excellent. This variety was awarded twice the first premium at the State fair, for quality.

OLD VINI.-Size above medium; color, dark orange; skin rather rough, medium; pulp rather coarse, juicy, sweet and remarkable for a sprightly aromatic flavor. TARDIFF. Large, dark orange; skin smooth and thin; pulp rather tough; grain fine, juicy and sweet; an ordinary orange, but valuble for its late ripening qualities. ARCADIA.-Size large, color deep, skin smooth, medium; pulp deep rich color, coarse melting, juicy and sub-acid.

SWEET SEVILLE.-Small, color dark; skin thin, pulp very fine, juicy, melting and very sweet and sprightly.

SPRATT'S HARUM.
PARSON BROWN.
EGG.

BIJOU DANCY'S TANGERINE,

PEERLESS-Synonym, Rembert's Best.— Large; round; color, light clear orange; skin smooth, fine and thin; juicy; juice sub-acid; flavor delicious; quality best. Tree prolific, vigorous and very thorny. Native seedling.

MAGNUM BONUM.-Size large to very large; flattened; color light, clear orange; skin smooth and glossy, grain fine, tender and melting; fruit heavy and juicy; juice sweet, rich and vinous; quality best. Tree prolific, vigorous and very thorny. Native seedling.

SOUR.-Large; color dark; grain coarse; inner rind bitter,; juice acid. Retains its perfection throughout the summer, when it is much prized for its refreshing acid juice; used also for making marmalade and conserves. The tree bears young; very prolific; vigorous; makes a desirable and ornamental shade tree. Native wild orange of Florida.

BITTER SWEET.-Medium size; juice

Other varieties named but not requiring sweet and pleasant when separated from special description:

PHILLIP'S BITTER SWEET.

DRUNNETT.

DIXON.

the inner bitter rind. Used in summer as

a subsitute for the sweet fruit. Tree indistinguishable from the above. Native wild orange of Florida.

Part II.

PRACTICAL ORANGE CULTURE.

CHAPTER I.

PROPAGATION.

When it came to planting my orange orchard, I found the buying of young trees at 75 cents apiece a severe strain upon my resources. To grow my own stock from the seed was not to be thought of, since that would involve a delay of three or four years. Time is money in fruit growing. So I hit upon the plan of buying trees for my own orchard and planting seeds for some other man's orchard; paying tribute myself and taking letters of marque and reprisal against the next generation of orange planters. The idea was by no means original, for I found an old gentleman in Pasadena who had carried out the scheme before me. He had reared his nursery in the open spaces between his rows of orange trees, and he told me that from less than an acre thus devoted he had realized $600. His success as an amateur propagator was marked, for I found in his nursery the finest and healthiest trees in the market. His example, no doubt, had much to do with confirming my purpose to plant seeds.

After reading all the available authorities on propagation, and consulting all of the nurserymen of my acquaintance, I did as most people do who take advicefollowed a plan of my own. As my method proved quite successful I venture a description of it. Perhaps it will be of service to some reader in forming a plan of his own better than mine. I do not claim to have originated anything in the matter of propagation, but merely to have studied the delicate requirements of the orange seed and plant, applying thereto the most suitable and, at the same time, the most labor-saving methods which I could devise.

TIME. I planted in June.

BOXES. From a fruit jobbing firm I obtained a quantity of boxing material in the "shook." Size of boxes: Eighteen inches square and five inches deep. They

were a kind known as "peach boxes," and being of a size out of use I got them for nine cents apiece-about one-half market rates. The making of 160 of these boxes required two days. They were fastened staunchly with four and six penny nails, the lids, of course, not placed. I followed the precaution of leaving cracks of a quarter of an inch between the bottom boards to facilitate drainage.

SOIL. While the boxes were making the Chinaman was engaged hauling and preparing the soil to fill them. In the bottom of a ravine, among the oak trees, I found a sediment deposited by the winter flood, which seemed to be the lighter and finer particles washed from the soil above. It formed a compact, grayishblack mass, which cracked open as the moisture dried out of it, and one could pull it up in cakes. Its weight was only about two-thirds that of average soil. It crumbled readily between the fingers, leaving a powder almost as fine and soft as flour. "This," I said to myself, "is humus, and as near the pure article as Nature ever prepares it." So I had Ah Ngoon haul a quantity of the sediment. I prepared it for use by pulverizing and then passing through a screen, and at the same time adding a third part of sifted melsand. This mixture made a warm, low, rich soil, free from gravel and all other obstructions, and one also which would not pack under the repeated application of water. It proved to be remarkably free from wild seeds, thus obviating a deal of laborious weeding. In fact it. was the very ne plus ultra of a propagating soil, according to my notion. I would not know how to improve it in a single particular were I planting again.

FILLING THE BOXES.-From the pile of prepared soil we filled each box about two-thirds full, striking off the top to a

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I obtained some well-matured seedling fruit. A quantity of cullings thorned and partially rotted fruit-thrown out by a packing house, served the purpose, and my only expense was the hauling. I have since used seeds from imported Tahiti oranges. The foreign seeds are plumper and more fertile. These I ordered from a San Francisco importing house, and the expense, delivered, was $7 per barrel of rotted oranges. A barrel yielded about eight thousand seeds. In my first planting, however, the native seeds did fairly.

EXTRACTING THE SEEDS.-In using fruit that was sound, or nearly so, I made a latitudinal cut about the orange, taking care that the knife penetrated only a part of the way through the pulp. The halves

ARRANGEMENT OF THE BOXES.

admitting a free circulation of air beneath for warmth and drainage. There were four tiers of boxes, the two outside containing two rows each; the inner, three each. This made ten rows, with sixteen boxes to the row-altogether 160 boxes. Between the tiers alley-ways, eighteen inches wide, gave access to every part of the bed. No alleys were left around the outside. From any alley I could reach over the first row of boxes and work in the second row without inconvenience.

SEEDS.-For seed, in my first planting,

were then torn apart, and the seeds forced out by pressing down upon the pulp with the ball of the thumb. In handling thoroughly rotted fruit I used a sieve with quarter-inch mesh. In this the pulp was thoroughly macerated and washed with water. The finer particles passed through the sieve, and the skins and coarser parts were picked out, leaving the seeds separated and clean. The seeds should not be allowed to dry before planting. I kept mine in a bucket of water until used. I tried, to a certain extent, the Mediterra

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