100 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS. 



March 29, 1913. 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



A NEW STOCK FOR ORANGES. 



The Revue Horticole foiv August 16, 1912, ha- 

 article describing a new stock for oranges. Th' 

 abstracted as follows in the Bulletin of the Burea 

 AgricitUural Intelligence and of Plant Disease.-^ 

 October 1912:— 



The natives of North Africa have two inaniiers of ; 

 gating orange trees: in most instances they resort . 

 sowing of a good fruit; the tree takes about fifteen ye 

 grow, assumes a fine shape, and generally yields good 

 These ungrafted orange trees were formerly fairly abiT 

 in all the mountain ravines on the coast where irrigai, 

 easy, but fine specimens for sowing have been 1 i 

 destroyed by root disease, or rot of the bark on a leve! 

 the ground. This is a serious infeciion, whioh is very 

 promoted by the bad habit of guiding the water into a 

 at the foot of the tree. 



In the desert region where oranges are still growi 

 pagation is carried out by grafting on a slip or 1 1 

 a citrus taking root easily. Unfortunately all tli 

 stocks are sprung from Citrus Litnonwin and theii u-.- 

 to the foot disease is very doubtful. 



In ^[orocco, among the BeniSnassen anotlei- very ^ 

 stock is used, the 'M'gergeb', which has generally been 

 for a citron tree, but which ma/ very well be a cross ■ 

 citron and the orange. This stock is resistant to tL 

 disease, whereas the citron is lamentably deficient in that r 



The 'M'gergeb' may very usefully be employed foi 

 ing varieties .-iuch as the Pomelos, which are too vigor' 

 reach their full growth on the roots of Seville orangf 

 Pomelos being on the other hand practically immune ^ 

 foot disease, there would be every advantage in propH_ 

 these citrus trees, already much in demand in America, t \ 

 grafting with the aid of the 'M'gergeb'. The 'M'gergi 

 thus also render service in the multiplication of Citrus 

 tea or Kumquat, which succeeds poorly on Seville • 

 and wliiib is only grafted on Triptera [Citrr.s tr(, 

 in Japan. 



At the present time it would be unwise to use 'M' i 

 on clayej' .'^oils, hut in light and very healthy .soils, 

 practice of tlie ^[oroccans should form an incentive i 

 trials. The great interest presented by this new si 

 in the surprising facility with which it lends itselt to 

 gation by slips and the rapidity of the fruiting • 

 grafted on this stock. 



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Ornatneutal horticulturists may, by the .system of prelim- 

 inary grafting of a piece of 'M'gergeb' on a branch of the 

 mandarin tree, obtain young slip subjects raised in pots, and 

 yieluing fruit at once. The '.M'gergeb' subjects also appear 

 very useful for receiving, in all seasons, grafts of the varieties 

 introduced from foreign couiitries. The side graft almost 

 always succeeds undfer these conditions. 



It is difficult 'to fix the geographical distribution of 

 -M'gergeb' outside Morocco Ferrari mentions the Canary 

 Islands and the Azores. 



The ultra optimistic statements in connexion with the 

 banana industry in Honduras is referred to in Diplomatic 

 and Consular llepm-ts. No. 50-38, Annual Series. It is 

 stated in this that althougL banana growing is certainly 

 profitable in Honduras, as mufh attention and good manage- 

 ment is require i in that country as elsewhere. The banana 

 market in the United States of America, on which Honduras 

 depends, is carefully and effectively controlled by the United 

 Fruit Company whose influence is a determining factor both 

 in regard to prices on the local markets and the marketing of 

 crops. Labour is plentiful, however, and is recruited largely 

 in the British West Indies. The price paid is 82 silver 

 (3s. id.) per day including food. There is a fair supply of 

 native labour at the same rate 



Circulation * of Starch and Water in the 



Sweet Potato.— It was found that the storage starch in 

 a sweet potato plant with the normal direction of the water 

 c:urrent is intercepted in its course by the lirst roots basal to 

 the leaf from where it starts, and does not go beyond it. 



The bearing of the results of these experiments on the 

 cultivation of the sweet potato is quite evident, as they show 

 that any portion of a many-rooted sweet potato plant may 

 draw water from the roots most favourably situated, which 

 are those in the main hill, so that whenever a drought occurs 

 the rooted branches will draw water from the main hill, 

 .^very rooted joint of any branch intercepts all the starch 

 .irr.ugbt from all the leaves beyond it, and allows n'ne to 

 ,iass to the main hill, lu a dry time a rooted branch may 

 • nea upon the main root, but in the best growing time it 

 (oes not help the crop of the main plant in the least. (From 

 the E.rjjeriiiitnt Station liicord for December 1912.) 



