The cost of planting an orange orchard must vary greatly in different localities, depending partly upon the original condition of the land and partly upon the expense of getting the trees from the wild grove. Formerly the wild trees were considered as free to everybody, and people wishing a few to plant dug wherever they pleased; but now they are beginning to have a market value. It is not in all cases convenient or possible for a person to buy land with wild groves on it. A certain sum, then, must be allowed for stocks.

One gentleman with whom I am acquainted, and who has already planted several acres, estimates the cost in his case as only $25 per acre. He does not, however, include the cost of clearing the land. I estimate as follows for ten acres of fresh hammock land with its natural forest growth upon it:

The use of the ground for other crops will fully pay for all the cultivation the grove will require for the first three years, after which there will be an income from the grove itself.

With regard to the productiveness of the orange-tree, it is impossible at present to arrive at any very satisfactory conclusion. This is partly because there has been no systematic mode of culture pursued, and the real production has varied greatly in different groves; but mainly because people in Florida never weigh, measure, or count anything, and really have no idea how many oranges one of their trees produces. Some of the old trees at St. Augustine are said to have produced annually at least 8,000 oranges each. Mr. C. F. Reed, of Mandarin, on the St. John's River, gathered 12,000 from three trees last year, one tree bearing 8,200, another 8,800, and the third 5,500. I have been told that thrifty trees sometimes bear as many as 1,000 oranges the third year from the bud, but such productiveness I think must be rare. The conclusion I have arrived at, from personal observation, is that a well-planted and properly cultivated grove at ten years of age will average 2,000 oranges per tree. Taking one half of this, however, as a basis of calculation, ten acres will produce 1,000,000, which; at $25 per thousand, the lowest price of the last season in Jacksonville, amounts to $25,000. The crop of the present season has in some cases been bargained for in advance for $25 per thousand at the grove.

Florida oranges are the best in the world, and will always command the highest price in all markets. Some of the best were sold in Jacksonville during the last winter as high as $50 per thousand.

It should be, observed here, that north of the twenty-eighth parallel of latitude, crops are occasionally cut off by frost; but a total failure from this or any other cause is rare.

Glen Evergreen, near Jacksonville, Pul.