8-i 



THE AGRICULTURAL NEWS 



March 16, 1912. 



FRUITS AND FRUIT TREES. 



THE PACKING OF JAFFA ORANGES. 



The gatheiing of oranges commences wben they are yet 

 green. The fruit is removed from the trees with a piece of 

 stalk by means of sharp long-handled shears, but great care 

 must be taken in cutting that the stalks do not project beyond 

 the circurafeience of the fruit and that the latter is not 

 injured by the shears, because the least wound will render it 

 un.suitable for exportation. The work of cutting the fruit 

 from the trees begins after the rain or dew has evaporated, 

 and as soon a.'; the orange is cut off it is placed in a canvas- 

 lined basket. 



When filled, the basket is carried on a boy's shoulder to 

 the shed or store in the orchard, the floor of which has been 

 covered with mats ready to receive the oranges. The basket 

 is immediately emptied by a workman in the shed, who takes 

 out the oranges two or three at a time by hand, examining 

 them as he does so, and separating any that he may find 

 bruised or wounded, forming with the sound ones a heap 2 

 to 2-i feet high. 



They are left in the store from one to three days, after 

 which they are sorted and phiced in cases in the following 

 manner. Sitting down beside the heap the workers take 

 each orange singly, examine it and place it in one or other of 

 fcur heaps of different qualities. The first quality is for 

 oranges with close, thin, smooth peel and without any stains 

 of scale disease or any trace of wound marks. The second 

 quality is for those similar to the fir.st quality, except that 

 the peel has slight stains of scale disease The third quality 

 is made up of the large, rough and thick-skinned oranges. 

 The oranges of these three qualities are, when sorted, wrapped 

 in thin tissue paper apd placed in cases in rows sufficiently 

 close that they may not move during the voyage, and are 

 shipped to England and llussia. 



The cases used for oranges of the first and second quali- 

 ties are 68 cm. [27 inches] long, 31 cm. [131 inches] wide, 

 and 27 to 28 or 30 cm. [11 to 12 inches] high. 



The third quality oranges are packed in cases 1 metre 

 40 inches] long, and 17 cm. [19 inches] wideband 47 cm. 

 19 inches I liigh, and consigned to nearer ports such as 

 Constantinople and Egypt. 



The fourth quality oranges, which are those attacked by 

 diseases or brui.sed, are poured into cases of the same size as 

 those used for the third quality oranges, without being 



wrapped in paper, and are shipped to neighbouring markets 

 in Egypt and Syria. As soon as a case is filled up, its cover 

 is nailed on. Other ca^es are sent on- camels to merchants 

 to be warehoused until sold. (From the Cuprus Journal, 

 January 1912, p. 602.) 



KOLA TREES AND KOLA NUTS. 



There has been published recently a work deding with 

 this subject, by A. Chevalier and E. Perrot, which forms part 

 of a larger [lublication entitled }'c{g('faiu: Utiles de I'Afrique 

 Occidentale, by the same authors. The information given in 

 the section under consideration is reviewed in an article that 

 appears in the Journal d' Agriculture Tropicale for August 

 1911, part of wliich has been utilized in piesenting the 

 matter below. 



The information published concerning kola plants before 

 the appearance of the work of Chevalier and Perrot is con- 

 .siderable, but the investigations have not formed a means of 

 determining precisely, from a botanical point of view, the 

 real characteristics of the varieties exammed, because the 

 material availalile for the purpose was insufficient. On the 

 contrary, the large number of investigations that A. Cheva- 

 lier has been able to make in every part of West and Equa- 

 torial Africa, wdiere kola plants are found, enabled liim to 

 criticise accurately the work of his predecessors. Before his 

 researches were made, the classification of the plants was 

 quite incomplete, and the efforts of different authors had 

 only served to nfake it more obscure 



The tw'o principal causes of error that have made of no 

 avail all past efforts to determine the relationships between 

 different species of Cola have been firstly, that it was believed 

 possible to differentiate the types by means of the colours of 

 the nuts, and secondly, that it was thought that only two 

 species existed, separable by the characteristic of seeds with 

 two cotyledons, and of seeds with more than two cotyledons. 



It has been, shown by .\. Chevalier that the same trees 

 can bear nuts of' different colours, and that the seiiaration of 

 the known typeif'Into two species, according to the number 

 of cc/tyledfins, does not suffice for complete classification. 



It is stated in the article from which this information 

 is derived, that the account of the past observations made for 

 drawing up the classification that was considered until 



