AN article in this month's issue of The Horticulturist, by Al Fresco, I consider calculated to mislead, by failing to tell the whole truth and give the reasons therefor. That I can tell all the truth on the subject I don't pretend, but what little I have learned I feel it my duty I should honestly tell, and in so doing I desire to be distinctly understood, first, that I am not interested nor endeavoring to injure any land speculation in the State, and secondly, that I am naturally a sanguine person, and thirdly, I have been engaged in horticultural pursuits all my life, and that is not much short of one-half a century; nor do I expect to make my home in other northern climes because 'tis there easier to accumulate a fortune. Orange growing in Florida has been the subject of much speculation, and to the novice to-day is much of a puzzle to explain, and why? The climate and soil of Florida are very peculiar, and therefore but seldom understood until experimented with. The sandy foundation is so porous and devoid of nutriment; the surface where much sand exists necessarily gets so hot in summer, that everything decomposable in it must decompose with the united effects of the powerful sun and abundant moisture, always present in the air to such a degree that plants must do or die, in a very short time; and this is why 'tis called the land of flowers; the majority of plants bloom ere they grow often one-tenth of the height they do farther north.

I have often seen blossoms larger than all the other foliage on the plant. This forcing process so carbonizes the vegetable matter that goes to fill up the marshes, that the marsh mud is not as valuable when applied to plants as one would suppose, though it be all made from vegetable deposit.

This muck when dry is a powerful absorbent of ammonia, and this explains the cause why it often injures plants when first applied too abundantly, close to the bare roots of trees. I have heard of several persons injuring their young orange trees by such applications. If finely pulverized and saturated with ammonial manure it acts finely and lasts longer than any manure I know of here.

The low wet lands and those but two or three feet above the water level, where the wild orange is found in the thick hummock, with often immense live oaks six and eight feet through, with a sandy subsoil always wet, if cleared and exposed to the sun, will not make a permanent grove without ditching and manuring to an amount per acre, that deters even very enterprising persons from undertaking it. At Sand Point, most of the inhabitants prefer planting in the dry pine woods, and there with sufficient manure they do be9t, and this want of sufficient manure is the great drawback to extensive orange growing. To grow cattle to an extent sufficient to produce an amount of manure, requires one to live so far from their neighbors that life is too lonely, and the necessaries of life that come from a distance too expensive. Cattle ranges in so thin a soil must necessarily be far apart to get the proper amount of food. The thinness of the soil generally throughout the State, will cause the producing of oranges to be so expensive, that an abundance of fruit will not soon be raised sufficient to supply all the inhabitants of the State, though they are shipped off for sale as much as possible for the sake of the money they bring.

A large per cent., often one-third of the fruit on a tree, cracks open before ripe, and those that are shipped do not bear transportation as well as oranges raised in dryer climes. I would never advise any one to go into orange raising to make a living in Florida, unless they can secure some of the few favored spots where Indian mounds have made a deeper soil, or some river deposit furnishes an abundance of suitable soil, which seldom ocours. That orange trees will produce in poor sand is not reasonable, and in this town I have been shown one grove of 50 trees that have been planted and the ground kept clear of weeds for 25 years, yet they have not produced a peck of oranges, yet. I found nearly all the women living in what is considered the best sections for orange growing, quite glad to leave the country for good, and seldom could I find a man that had been on his place five years, but would gladly sell for one-half cost.