has come to be the fashion for certain varieties of citrus fruits to
provide two crops, and the second, which ripens about the beginning of
August, the superior in size, appearances generally, and distinctly in
flavour. The fruit is just as juicy as that which ripens when the air is
saturated with the moisture of the wet season, while its fragrance almost
equals that of the snowy flowers whence it sprang. These facts hasten to
this conclusion--that the orange-grower has something beyond mere money in
compensation for his toil. Can it be called toil? Does he not for the
most part, after the first and essential preliminaries are of the past,
permit Nature to have her own wayward will with his dutiful trees? Does
he always and invariably cut out the dead wood which tells of much too
strenuous efforts on their part to justify their existence and his care?
Does he attempt to exterminate the pretty flies which send to the ground
a certain percentage, while yet the fruit is immature and bitter? Does
he let the light of the caressing sun into the hearts of his pet trees by
removing superfluous twigs? Well does he know that if he tended them as
he should their bounty to him would be much magnified. Yet does he dream
on, accepting that which comes, admiring leafage, bloom, and fragrant
fruit, and always postponing the day when substantial aid and credit
should be given. There is something to be said in favour of this happy
attitude towards good-natured trees. Should it not suffice to have given
them monopoly and choice? Many others, and some of far nobler
proportions, have been exterminated for their special benefit and
advantage. They have been grown from seed of most highly complimented
fruit; their infancy and youth have been nurtured and protected; each has
been assigned its proper place with due regard to the welfare of
neighbours; less promising vegetation has been summarily checked; the
first flowers have been sniffed with high delight, the first fruits
sampled with extravagant praise. Having bestowed upon trees care and
attention, while they were yet mere sprouts of tender green, and admired