Mar. 2, 1908.] Agricultural Gazette of N.S. W, 221 



there was a very fine exhibit of cattle, chiefly Holland and Swiss, but a con- 

 signment of Herefords brought over from California \vere sold by auction and 

 lirought ^•ery poor prices. All the horses were English, imported or bred 

 frcnn English stock, and were very fine animals ; poultry were very well 

 represented, so were pigeons and rabbits. Sheep, as usual, poor, and repre- 

 sented l)y only two pens of Cots wold. 



On tlie 5th November, left for Yutapec at 7 a.m. Dr. Giandar was to 

 have gone down with me, but missed the train ; arrived there at 3 p.m., where 

 tl)e INIayor, his Secretary, the Chief of Police, Chief Fi'uit Inspector, and a 

 mounted i^scort met me and took me to a house, where I lived with a bodv- 

 guard of a policeman and a solicitor during my stay. The orchards of Yutapec 

 consist chiefly of oranges, the valley is rich black soil, and is all under irriga- 

 gation : all the trees are seedlings and of considerable size, and grown in a 

 very irregular manner. The growers know nothing about pruning, grafting, 

 or budding, and apparently never cut out a diseased tree until it dies out or 

 is blown down ; but the ground is so rich and the climate semi-tropical, so 

 that they nearly always have a crop of fruit. The fruit is large, well 

 flavoured, and contains very few seeds. This district is the only one where 

 oranges are grown for export, and the Entomological Division have advised 

 the State oflicials, who have passed laws to compel the growers to clean up 

 their orchards by burning or burying the infested fruit and windfalls. The 

 expense of making the furnaces, inspecting the fruit, destroying the old 

 wooden fences, and replacing them with barbed wire, and the payment of the 

 Inspector's salaries is borne by the Federal Comtnission, the State authoiitifs 

 seeing that the regulations are carried ouf, even to arresting a man who will 

 not clean up his orchard, or notify the Inspectors when be is going to gather 

 his fruit. Any fruit arriving at a railway station without an Inspector's 

 certificate is not allowed to go on the train, and the owner has to get an 

 Inspector, when he is ready, to examine it there. Where wood is scarce all 

 the oranges are gathered into heaps, and the Inspectors first punch a hole 

 into the end of each orange and the next one injects benzine into it with a 

 glass sj'ringe, plugging up the hole with some clay. I paw two men treat 

 358 oranges in forty minutes ; it is claimed that the benzine kills every 

 raago;ot, and these oranges are then allowed to rot on the ground. I doubt 

 if this treatment kills all the maggots, even if cheaper than burning. Labour, 

 however, is cheap, the Chief Inspector gets 75 cents (Is. 6d.) and the 

 assistant 50 cents (Is.) for twelve hours' work. The oranges are examined 

 while being placed in the crates, and the Inspectors are very expert in 

 detecting damaged fruit. They are counted in threes, two hands of three, or 

 53 hands 318 oranges to a crate. These crates are carried to the railway on 

 mules, and the oranges are worth 25 cents a hundred in the orchard (English 

 money, Gd.). The wild oranges, which are sour and are made into wine, are 

 gatliered and sold for 3 cents (Id.) per hundred. 



Most of the orchards are small, raneino-from 50 to 500 trees in this district, 

 and other parts of Central Mexico, but larger orchards are now being planted in 

 the north, mure on American plans. The Department, M-hich naturally wishes 

 to keep their export market in the United States open, claims that fruit fly is 

 only found in this State attacking oranges, but I have found records that it 

 is found in other districts, and it: prdbably has an extendeil range, but the 

 methods they are enforcing in Mirelas State is greatly reducing the pest. 



I could not find that the parasite recorded from Mexico, on the orange 

 maggot, Avas of any value in checking tlie pest. 



On returning to Mexico City I made several visits to difterent districts, 

 and several days at the Department with Professor Herrera, obtaining 



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