Citrus Fruits And Their Culture 12+

📖 PREFACE. The closing decades of the nineteenth century have seen great changes in the principles of citrus fruit culture in America. Twenty years ago the amount of fruit pro- duced was comparatively small, now the industry has at- tained a place among the large horticultural industries of this country. Then, at most, a few hundred boxes of fruit were produced annually now the crop is counted not by hundreds but by millions of boxes. The pomelo was scarce- ly known and the lemon was a fruit imported almost en- tirely from the Old World. Then, the means of transportation closed many a desirable tract of land through which the railroad now runs and from which large quantities of fruit are now shipped. Then, the methods of combating insects and fungous diseases were less perfectly under stood than now. In those days, the fertilizers applied to the soil were mostly made at home, now the nitrogen, phos- phorus and potash, deemed so essential for the production of first-class fruit, in many districts, can be obtained as commercial commodities in any market. Numerous de- vices are now successfully employed in protecting trees and fruit against the effects of frost and freeze, then, noth- ing of the kind was attempted or in fact deemed neces- sary. Then, cover crops were not considered in the light in which they now are. Then, the citrus industry in the New World was more or less firmly linked to that of the Old. Now, we have an American industry on the large, broad lines of American ...