M\RCH I, 1884.] 



THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



669 



cisions cut near the root, ancl the product is the fine, 

 white, flaky variety so ranch valued in commerce. The 

 chief flow of gum takes place during the night, and hot 

 and dry weather is the most favorable for its production. 

 This substance is the variety chiefly used in calico priutiag 

 as a thickener of colors and mordants ; in medicine as a 

 demulcent and vehicle for insoluble powders, and as an 

 excipicat for pills. Gum kuleira is another species of gum 

 tragacanth, but is scnrcely known in commerce. Oherry- 

 tree gum occurs in shiny reddish lumps, resembling the 

 commoner kinds of gum arabic. It is not much used com- 

 mercially. Gum of Bassora is obtainerl at Bussorah, in A'^ia, 

 and is sometimes importel iuto the Loudon market under 

 the name of the hog tragacanth. It is insipid, crackles 

 between the teeth, occurs in variable-sized pieces, is tough 

 of a yellowish white color and opaque, and has properties 

 similar to gum tragacanth. Under the name of carauamica, 

 gum is mixed with inferior kinds of gum tragacanth be- 

 fore exportation. Gum rosins apparently combine the pro- 

 perties of gums and rosins, being partly soluble in water, 

 and partly in alcohol; but thej are e\adently compound 

 substances formed of two or more vegetable principles, 

 which, indeed, are often in a state of mere mechanical 

 mixture. Aloes, ammoniac, assafoetida, galbanum, gamboge, 

 oilbanum, scamraony, and a great variety of concrete juices 

 are referred to this head. 



Gum substitutes are manufactured from wheat starch, 

 farina, or potato starch, sap flour and other feculas by 

 baking or roasting, so as to convert the starch into dextrine. 

 This is now au important manufacture in which a large 

 amount of capital is engaged. They are largely employed 

 in dressing calicoes and other fabrics, also as a substitute 

 for the more expensive gums in gumming paper, as in 

 the case of postage and receipt stamps, which are made 

 adhesive by dextrine. For this and some other purposes 

 the gum substitutes are superior to the real gums, as 

 they are easily dissolved and can be spread more easily 

 over a smooth surface. Very large quantities of the starch 

 of potatoes, called farina or potato flour, are made in 

 this country, and are also imported from the continent 

 to be used in this mannfacture. — E.vckanf/e. 



THE ORAN^GE TRADE. 



Few importations have increased so rapidly as that of 

 oranges during the last ten years. It is within the me- 

 mory of many that they were really a scarce fruit, and 

 comparatively dear, and when none cpuld be got at all for 

 many months of the year. But now we have oranges all 

 the year round, and they can often be bought at the rate 

 of three or four a penny in almost every street. The 

 recognised season for importation covers, generally speak- 

 ing, about nine months of the year, beginning in Novem- 

 ber and ending in July, but consignments continue to 

 come in after that, though not large ones, and so the 

 market is ii'^^ver without oianges. The revolution in, and 

 development of, the trade has been brought about mainly 

 by the employment in it of large steamers, the first of 

 which exclusively engaged in the trade arrived in London, 

 in November, 1867. In the recent Christmas week there 

 were nine ships of various kinds laden with oranges in 

 the port of London. The first mention of oranges b(nng 

 brought to this country is in the reign of Edward I., 

 when it is recoixh-d that in 1290 that the Queen bought 

 various fruits from thy cargo of a Spanish ship which 

 came to Portsmouth, and that among them were seven 

 oranges (Poma (h Orancfe). But no mention of this fruit 

 is found in the " Li bell of English Policy" or the "Liber 

 Albiis of London, " in which most articles of fruit and 

 grocei-y find a record. "We read, however, of oranges in 

 the r^'ign of Henry VI. (1432); and they are mentioned 

 in the " Paston Letters" in 1470. They are entered in 

 the "household expenses" both of Henry VIIL {1530), 

 and in that of his dauf^hter the Px-inces Mary (1539); 

 and by the end of the 16th century they were recognised 

 as a notable article of commerce, and, according to Stow 

 (159S), Billingsgate was the principal quay at whi' h they 

 were landed. Sir Wa'ter Raleigh, **the father of *obiceo." 

 is crcdit-'d with having brought orangca to Eng'a-id, and 

 it x- sai-i that Sir Francis Oarew, who married his niece, 

 ■planted their seeds and produced orange trees nt Bed- 

 dington, in Surrey ; of which Bishop Gibson, in his addi- 



tions to Camden's "Britannia," speaks as having been 

 there for a hundred years previous to 1695. These trees 

 perished in the " great frost " in 1739. At Hampton Court 

 there are still several orange trees, believed to be 300 

 years old. The most interesting feature in the growth of 

 the orange tree is that it bears at one time what may 

 be called three different stages — the blossom, the imniature 

 fruit, and the ripe oranges. "We read of oranges in 

 Shakespeare ; au'l the famous Mistress NcU Gwynne carried 

 her orange basket in Drury-lane, and probably from au 

 earlier period "bills of the play" were associated with 

 oranges. When Pop^s went to the "King's Playhouse" 

 with an "ovder, " the successors of "pretty, witty Nelly" 

 with these orange baskets were a recognised institution; 

 and to the present day the odour of orange peel has a 

 peculiar affinity to the flare of the foothghts, at least 

 among the "gods of the gallery." 



Our chief orange supply comes from Valencia and other 

 Spanish seaports ; but Lisbon, Villa Real, Ariero, and Oporto 

 also contribute their quota. Other consignments hail from 

 the Azores, Brazil, Palermo, and Malta, and other Medi- 

 terranean ports. The St. Michael's oranges are held in 

 high esteem by connoisseurs, and they are pre-eminently 

 the Chrisbnas fruit, as they do not begin to arrive in this 

 country till the end of November. The St. Michael's crop 

 was, in 1882, almost a total failure, in consequence of a 

 disease among the trees, caused, it is supposed, by some 

 insect ; and fears were entertained that eventually the 

 supply from the island would almost cease, as it has from 

 others of the Azores group, such as Terceira, Fayal, and 

 St. George's, which once produced a large quantity of fruit. 

 St. Michael oranges, as are most Brazilian, are separately 

 wrapped, in the packages, in the leaves of Indiau corn, 

 while oranges from all other parts are wrapped in thin 

 paper. The "blood" oranges, as they are called, come 

 mostly from Valencia, but a few from Malta. The aromatic 

 and delicious Tangierenes hail from St. Michael's, and also 

 from Lisbon, and vary considerably in price, according to 

 the supply. Seville oranges (specially alluded to iu Shakes- 

 peare's "Much Ado about Nothing") come from the place 

 of that name, and, as most people know, are now almost 

 exclusively used for making mar m Jade and orange wine. 

 For both these purposes, however, the Palermo "bitters" 

 are really better adapted; and it may not be generally 

 known that the best marmalade of all is produced from 

 the shaddock, a sort of cross between the orange and the 

 lemon, and named after a Captain Shaddock, who first 

 brought it from China, or, as some say, from Guinea, and 

 planted it in the West Indies, whence we derive our limited 

 supply. It is the bitter element in the Seville and Palermo 

 oranges which fits them for marmalade, as it preserves 

 their skins while they are drying. We need not be much 

 alarmed at the stories we hear of orange peel being collected 

 at places of entertainment and in the streets for marmalade 

 making, as the skins of ordinary oranges, instead of drying, 

 simply become rotten. 



The head-quarters of the orange trade is Pudding-lane, 

 Lower Thames-street, where, during the height of the season, 

 the chief brokers hold sales tliree or four times a week. 

 Pudding-lane, where the Great Fire of London is said to 

 have begun, is not exactly an orange grove, but the fruit 

 trade makes it about as busy a spot as any in the City; 

 and if an unwary passenger happens to get iu the way 

 of the "fellowship" porters carrying along it, without inter- 

 mission, the wooden packages of oranges, he is not un- 

 likely to become the object of some Billingsgate vernacular. 

 The trade in oranges and other fruits has now beourae so 

 enormous, that Lower Thames-street and its vicinity is 

 all too small to accommodate it, even if the fish trade 

 were removed. There are many things more unlikely than 

 that this may be eventually the case, and that the more 

 sweetly-smelling fruit trade may one day occupy the 

 historical market of Billingsgate itself. A large quantity 

 of the oranges sold in Pudding-lane afterwards finds its 

 way to Duke's-place, a quarter of the Hebrew region on 

 the west of Houndsditch, where it is re-sold to shop- 

 keepers and costermongers. This locality is redolent of 

 oranges, and it is no exaggeration to say that, in wet weather, 

 you may walk literally ankle-deep in orange pulp and peel, 

 mixed with cocoa-nut fibre. The appetite for oranges among 

 the masses in London seems almost insatiable, and it is 

 said that nearly half the retail trade in them is done by 



