Oranges and writers free essay sample

To give a reader the feeling of being in Florida, there are many different aspects of Florida culture that could be described. In some stories, writers have used orange agriculture to help give the reader the feeling of being in Florida. Oranges have been around Florida since the 1500s and are nearly synonymous with Florida culture. The feeling of being in Florida was created in A Land Remembered when the MacIvey family decided to begin growing oranges. The work of raising cattle was getting too difficult for Tobias MacIvey as he grew older. Oranges seemed to be an easy way to make some additional money. Being new to growing oranges, their efforts were not successful at first. Cattle were allowed to graze in the orange fields so their manure would fertilize the trees. Unfortunately, the cattle had a taste for orange leaves and would eat the lower branches. The obvious answer was taller trees. We will write a custom essay sample on Oranges and writers or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Since the MacIvey’s had plenty of money, the cost of this initial mistake was no problem. The larger trees thrived. They would haul their crop to Fort Meyers and sell the oranges to the same gentleman that bought their cattle. Oranges were a very successful cash crop for the MacIveys until the first killing freeze during the winter of 1894-1895. That year the entire crop was lost and the family was concerned that the trees would die too. By the end of January, however, the weather had warmed and the trees began to bloom, to the great relief of the MacIvey family. Eventually, their entire land was covered with oranges. Oranges came to America from Southeast Asia (Tantillo). The California orange business first started with a man named William Wilfskill. He planted the first orange in Los Angeles in 1841 (Tantillo). Almost everyone in town laughed at him because they thought it was crazy (Tantillo). William Wilfskill sold oranges to gold rush miners and with the completion of t he transcontinental railroad, shipped them to St. Louis in 1877 (Tantillo). Because of what William Wilfskill did many pioneer families switched to shipping gift fruit (Tantillo). The first commercial orange grower in Florida started 13 years earlier than California when Douglas Dummitt sold his first crop in 1828 (Gouger). By 1859 he was selling 60,000 oranges per year. Oranges first came to Florida in the 1500’s when Ponce deLeon planted the first tree (Gouger). The orange tree thrived and by the late 1700’s the tree was seen growing along riverbanks by the explorer William Bartram (Gouger). When orange growing started in Florida only people that lived near the groves could buy the oranges (Helen). Soon, barges and steamboats were used to transport the oranges out of Florida an up the Atlantic coast. Because of the long trip, oranges were considered a luxury in New York. With the expansion of the railroad into Florida, oranges could be transported to New York in on ly a few days. Soon, the entire country was able to enjoy our delicious citrus fruit. Oranges thrive in semitropical regions such as Florida and subtropical regions such as California and the Mediterranean (Tantillo). The most common orange that is grown in Florida is a blood orange (Tantillo). It is called a blood orange because of the red juices that the oranges make. The blood orange is a hybrid between pomelo and the tangerine (Tantillo). Since there are not many machines that can pick oranges efficiently about 96% of all oranges are harvest by hand (McPhee). Oranges are normally picked from trees that are at least three years old, and the older the tree is the bigger the crop (Helen). The best fruit comes from trees over ten years old (Helen). About 80% of all the oranges that is produced in Florida are turned into orange juice. Brazil is the world leader in orange and total citrus production followed by the U.S. with Florida second by itself in orange production to Brazil (Tan tillo). Florida produces about 75% of the U.S. oranges and accounts for about 40% of the world’s orange juice (Tantillo). Texas and Arizona are the only other U.S. orange-producing states of note, besides California (Tantillo). Florida produces about three times the amount of oranges than California does (Tantillo). The history of orange agriculture in Florida is measured in freezes. The freeze of February 1835 was probably one of the worst freezes in Florida’s history. Oranges freeze at a temperature of 28 degrees Fahrenheit. The way that orange growers protect their tree is by spraying water over the oranges. Because water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit, the frozen water keeps the orange from freezing as long as they continue to be sprayed with water. Even though this method doesn’t always work it is still used to this day. Whenever a horrific freeze goes through Florida and kills most of the oranges, the price always increases, and may triple. This price wi ll stay high for the next three or four years until more oranges are mature enough to produce a large supply of oranges (McPhee). These freezes make for great drama in a novel. Every story always has a conflict. The Florida freezes are a classic man vs. nature conflict. This conflict is discussed by Marjorie Kinnan Rawling during one especially cold winter. She hired extra workers to pick fruit throughout the night to beat a freeze that was coming. Not all the fruit could be picked, so she set pine torches burning throughout the grove to keep the air a few degrees warmer. Sometimes she would succeed and save the fruit. Other years it was just too cold and the fruit was lost. The drama of this conflict is unique to Florida. The orange agriculture industry has always been associated with Florida. From an early age we learn that orange juice comes from Florida. We hear every winter about freezing weather possibly hurting the orange industry in Florida. This is why writers can easily c reate a feel of being in Florida by providing detailed descriptions of event related to orange agriculture. Oranges will always be in Florida’s culture. Works Cited Gouger, Amy. History of Florida Orange Trees | EHow.com. EHow | How To Do Just About Everything! | How To Videos Articles. 18 Sept. 2009. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. . Hill, Helen. Florida Citrus Absolutely Florida! Absolutely Florida Guide to Travel in the Sunshine State. 21 Mar. 2010. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. . McPhee, John. Oranges. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2000. Print. Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. Cross Creek. New York: Simon Schuster, 1996. Print. Smith, Patrick D. A Land Remembered. Sarasota, Fla.: Pineapple, 2009. Print. Tantillo, Tony. Oranges. Tony Tantillo Farm Fresh. 24 Feb. 2000. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. . Townsend, Chet. The Story of Florida Orange Juice From the Grove to Your Glass. UltimateCitrus.com The Ultimate Citrus Page. 24 Apr. 2006. Web. 21 Mar. 2010. .

Essay on the OlympicsEssay Writing Service

Essay on the OlympicsEssay Writing Service Essay on the Olympics Essay on the OlympicsThe Olympics play an important part not only the sport life but also in the cultural life of the global community. the Olympics involve nations from all over the world and they are the major sport events in every four years in the entire world. At the same time, the Olympics attract not only sportspersons but also spectators, who are interested in sports and who either attend Olympics in the area, where they take place, or watch the Olympic Games broadcasts.The Olympics have a considerable impact on the development of the personal, national and global identity of people because the Olympic Games are the major event in the sport life of the world and people get involved into the Olympics at all level, from individual participation or involvement into the Olympics to the national and global level when people form and support their national teams and compete with other teams and sportspersons from all over the world. Therefore, the Olympics are socially important e vents that take place every four year and shape the individual, national and global identity.Historically, the Olympics were internationally significant event that unite people from all over the world. The Olympics are the major sport event that takes place every four years. The Olympics is the ultimate manifestation of the greatest achievements in the field of sport since every sportsperson participating in the Olympic Games. There are winter and summer Olympic Games which are conducted in winter and summer every four year respectively. The Olympic Games include all the sports registered by the International Olympic Committee as Olympic sports. Sportspersons and teams are qualified for the Olympic Games in the course of the competitions which take place prior to the Olympics during four years period.Moreover, the Olympics have a considerable symbolic significance. For instance, historically, the Olympics were associated with the time, when all wars either ended up or stopped for th e time the Olympics ran. The Olympic Games become a unifying event that unites people on the ground of their love to sport and healthy lifestyle.At the same time, the Olympics have a considerable impact at all levels from the individual level to the global one. However in spite of the level of the impact of the Olympics, the Games contribute to the formation of the imagined community which allows people to shape the imagined identity, which though is short run and fades away, when the Olympics end. People perceive the Olympics in different ways but they can hardly stay indifferent or unaffected by the Olympics.In addition, it is possible to distinguish participants of the Olympics and the spectators, i.e. those individuals, who attend the competitions as well as those, who watch broadcasts of those competitions (Chomsky, 1997). Sportspersons participating in the Olympics develop their identity feeling their unity as the community of sportspersons. Even though this community is imagi ned in a way, because they may never encounter each other in their life before or after the competitions, but during those few weeks of the Olympic Games, they live like a sort of family or community, where all sportspersons feel their belongingness to that community, no matter how short run the existence of this community is (Bagdikian, 2000). The audience of the Olympics comprises another large group of people which may unite in imagined communities and develop their identities within those communities. These communities may exist at the local level, as well as at the national or even international level.People can unite into small communities and change their identity while being a part of those small communities at the local level. For instance, people attending a sport bar on the regular basis develop their identity. They may not even know each others’ name and they may invent their new identity being united by their passion to sport and the Olympic Games.At the national level, people can also unite in imagined community of fans supporting their national teams and sportspersons representing their countries on the Olympics. In such a situation, people feel their unity as the nation but they have the authentic feeling of the belongingness to the community, where they can feel being a part of the nation. In such communities, they develop their identities that may be different from the identity, which they have in their everyday life. For instance, the Olympics may raise patriotic feelings and emotions that contribute to the unity of members of the imagined community consisting of fans of sports and people interested in the Olympics.Moreover, individuals can develop broader communities, at the international level, when each person attending the Olympics feel being members of one community that unites people, who like the Olympics so much that they have abandoned everything and came to watch the major sport events of the Olympics. They may create their small communities in social networks, where they create new imagined identities (Bagdikian, 2000). New communities unite people interested in the Olympics. They can use social networks to establish social relations and communicate with each other and steadily form the international community of people, who are interested in the Olympics and who want to attend the Games.At the same time, they can shape their imagined identity to spend a few weeks in their imagined community. If they use social networks to establish friendly relations with other community members, they can create new identities and other users will never know, whom they really communicate with. Such a freedom of the development of the imagined community allows users and people interested in the Olympics they construct their new identities feeling the unity of their community (Chomsky, 1997).The formation of the identity at all levels among both sportspersons and spectators occur under the impact of the Olympics and it s media presentation. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that the identity of people united by the Olympics occurs under the impact of the Games. The media of the Olympics contribute to the formation of the original atmosphere of the Games that make them a distinct sport event. The Olympics are the brand that always attracts many people from all over the world. For instance, the Olympics is one of the main sport events for professional sportspersons, who view the win on the Olympics as the major achievement in their professional sport career.As for fans and spectators at all levels, they also are vulnerable to the impact of the Olympics. In this regard, the impact of the traditional perception of the Olympics as the exclusive sport event and the past of the Olympic Games that dates back to the time of ancient Greece is particularly strong. Spectators view their presence on the Olympics as if they are present on the important historical event.Essay on   the Olympics pa rt 2