iOi 



TKE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



December 26, 1908. 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



HINTS TO FRUIT GROWERS. 



Some seasonable hints to banana anil urange 

 growers appear in the Novenibernumber of the /our/*((^ 

 of the Jamaica Agricultural Society. 



Small grower.s are advised to e.'cercise more judgement in 

 the time of planting their banana.s, and also in selecting 

 suckers. A jdant banana requires from twelve to fifteen' months 

 from setting out to fruiting, and a ratooa sucker from eighteen 

 to twenty months. The older the root is, the longer the time 

 required by the sucker to come to maturity. Since the fruit 

 fetches a good price for export in December ami .January, it 

 i.s advised that suckers be selected and left to grow in .luly 

 or August, and tliey may be e.xpected to yield their pn)duce 

 at the desired time, about eighteen months later. Gooil stunt 

 .suckers oidy should be left, and the more light and air they 

 liave, the cpiicker will they grow. 



The fruit from early bearing orange trees will now have 

 been gathered, and growers are advised to at once carry out 

 any washing or spraying operations that may be necessary. 

 A good wash for use in scrubbing the trees is made by adding 

 boiling water to a mi.xture of lime and sulphur (4 nf lime to 

 1 of sulphur). This should be prepared in a wmiden tuli, 

 and rubbed on to the tree by means of a stiil' bru^h. The 

 mixture serves as an insecticide as well as a fungicide. 



DECAY OF ORANGES WHILE IN 

 TRANSIT 



The citrus iruit einp tit ( \ilii'.ii-nia amounts to 

 nearly 30.000 car-loads annually, lia\ ing a gross value 

 of about §30,000,000, of which oran;,'es (comprise from 

 N.5 to 00 per cent. Tiie handling, shipping, anil 

 marketing of the ;il)nve-nientiiuic(l enormo\is outinit of 

 fruit now neces.sarily constitute a highly fievelopeil 



■ and well organized indusiiy. 



About 75 per cent, of the liil;d outiiut of uranges troin t'ali 

 fornia con.sists of the Wasliingtrn Navel variety, the remain- 

 ing 25 per cent, being cliieHy Valencias, with small quantities 

 <if the St. Michael, Mediterranean Sweet etc. The area planted 

 with citrus fruits amounts to from C0,000 to 70,000 acres. 



' The great bulk of the Galifornian orange crop Knds its chief 

 n arket in the Eastern cities of the United States, During 

 trans|)orlation, a certain amount of decay takes place among 

 the fruit, and the losses sustained in this way l)y the growers 

 tnrmerly ainniuited to from .•i?750,000 to $1,.500,000 

 annnally. The whole snliject of the decay of the fruit while 

 in transit, .and the intluence of ditlerent methods of picking, 

 curing, packing, and cooling the oranges upon their kcejiing 

 properties, has I'nn; ed the -abject of a lengthy and exhaustive 



investigation carried out Ijy the several officers of the Bureau 

 of Plant Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture. 



The.investiiiations made, and the conclusions arrived at, 

 are embodied in JJii/liiiii L.'-l of the Bureau of Plant Jndu.-- 

 try, and the large amount of data there brought together 

 should prove most valuable to orange growers and shippeis. 

 The investigations were carried out on a commercial scale, 

 anil undei- conunercial conditions, with a view to securing 

 accurate information in regard to the various phases of the 

 citrus fruit industry. 



The conjinon Ijku' mould Penicilliuni ijlnucmn was alwaj's 

 found associated with decaying oranges. This fungus \v;us 

 formerl}' considered to be purely .saprophytic (i e., to attack 

 dead and decaying matter only), but inoculation of soujid 

 oranges has, without exception, resulted in the characteri.-t'.c 

 decay. Investigation has shown that the decay was pieceded 

 by mechanical injuries to tlie skin, most of which injuries 

 were so small as to be invisible to the inexperienced eye, 

 Tlie most couHnon forms of injury- were caused by the cli)> 

 pers in cutting the fruit from the tree, stem punctures, and 

 scratches and bruises in the packing hon.se. 



if the fruit is packed promptly after picking, and is 

 ^hipped at once in a cool temperature, the dec.iy may not 

 develop in transit. 



It was found very advantageous to lower the tempera- 

 ture of- the fruit to 40" F. by ])lacing it in cold storage, before 

 ))acking in the compartments in which it had to travel. 

 Kven though the car was legularly iced, oranges packed at 

 a fairly high- tem[ierature took a long time to cool wh.en in 

 tiansit. 



SOILS FOR CITRUS FRUiTS. 



The iniluoncc of the soil on the ipiality of crop 

 produced, nu)ro cspeci.ally in tiie case of fiuit trees, is 

 discussed at considerable length in an arlich' appearing 

 in the Ixnrnl Califarn iaii for October last, 'i'lie follow- 

 ing extract relates to soil preferences shown by or.inges 

 and other citrus fruit : — 



Cilrn.s fruits prefer soils with good surface and subsoil 

 drainage, and with favourable expo.sures. liicl; .soils, when 

 low and'too~ moist, jaoduce fruits low in acid and. sugar, so 

 that the citrus characteristics are practically lost. A dee|> 

 .soil is desirable, but v.lien drainage is goixl, oranges and 

 lemons often do well on soil no more than 4 feet dee|i, and 

 r.'sting on impervious hardpan. " Under certain conditions 

 even land of less depth has grown good orchards, but such 

 land should oidy be planted when all the more suitable .soil.* 

 have been occupied. 



