go 



TfJE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 



[Aug. -2, ihS6. 



to dry off thoroughly will keep for months. The 

 assorting and wrapping is doue mostly by young girls 

 and women, who get on an average a salary of from 

 nine to sixteen cents per day, and on that pittance 

 live and enjoy life better than some of our million- 

 aires do in this country. A^ the packing-houses or 

 magazines, the fruit is assorted with the greatest care 

 by experienced Italian girls who will take two or 

 three oranges in their left hand from a box or tray, 

 make a rapid movement with their fingers, that will 

 revolve the oranges in their hands with almost light- 

 ning rapidity, examining them on all sides. One or 

 two may be thrown into the basket of a neighbour 

 to the right, and one into the basket of one opposite. 

 "Were you to take an orange from each of those 

 baskets, you would probably observe no ditference in 

 them, and wonder why the st^paratioii was made, but 

 if you were to ask the bright-eyed Italian girl, she 

 would show you a small spot on one, or the absence 

 of a stem on another, sufficient to warrant the fruit 

 being rejected or packed as a second grade, the im- 

 perfection in both cases causing rapid decay. The 

 oranges are then sized, wrapped and packed in boxes 

 to suio size of fruit. The smallest size being desig- 

 nated "00," meaning the smallest, usually numbering 

 yoO or 'S60 to the box. The next grade being a little 

 larger are called "(>," and pack about I'OO to the same 

 size box, while the largest size is termed " imperials," 

 and packed 100 to the box. The usual way to de- 

 termine the number of oranges iu a box without 

 counting them all, is, if they are packed straight, 

 couut one layer of one end of the box; if it is packed 

 in rows of 5 and 5 it would make 25 to a layer, and 

 as there are 4 layers to a side, you multiply the 8 

 layers by 25. and you have 200 the number in the 

 box, or if it be a box ot large Imperials you will find 

 it to count 4 and 5 makir.g 20 to the layer, and 8 

 layers gives you ICO oranges to a box. This rule is 

 a safe one to apply to all fruit i)acked in Palermo 

 or Sicily ; but iu Catania, where little regard is paid 

 to the sizing of the fruit, it may have the appear- 

 ance of being Imperial size on top but "00,'' below. 

 After years of experience, the buyer becomes familiar 

 with the brand on the boxes of reliable packers and 

 can feel confident of what he has in the boxes with- 

 out exmination. Let us return to the magazine, where 

 the boxes are strapped, stenciled and put on board 

 the steamer, perhaps 20,000 boxes or more ready to 

 start for America. As soon as the vessel is loaded, 

 a manifest is made out of the lots, their marks, and 

 to whom consigned in New York. This manifest is 

 at once sent by the fastest mail to New York where 

 a catalogue is prepared by Messrs. Brown & Heccomb, 

 fruit auctioneers, who sell at auction all the Medi- 

 terranean green fruit upon arrival. The steamer when 

 loaded, starts for New York, and as it passes out 

 of the Mediterranean through the strait of Gibraltar 

 the signal station agent at the Kock notifies by cable 

 the Maritime Exchange in New York that a fruiter 

 hys just passed, giving her name and destination. 

 Eighteen to twenty days is the usual run for a fruit 

 steamer from Gibralter to New York. Upon her arrival 

 at New York IMessrs. Brown k Seccomb advertise 

 when the steamer's fruit will be sold and at what pier 

 it may be examiued, Ilepairing to the dock, the fruit 

 merohmit is prcinted with a catalogue of the cargo, 

 -howiug the number of boxes iu each line or lot; and 

 Ji woodcut of the, mark on the bo.Nes of that Hue, 

 'juc or two boxes each line being opened and placed 

 on Ihe pile that surli sample is to represent. The 

 merchant after examining the fruit as to size, quality, 

 and soundness, puts some hieroglyphics opposite each 

 lot f !i his catalogue to indicate its eouditiou and 

 ^aliie to him, the better to guide him iu buying when the 

 fruit is offered fur sale at the .luction-room. Oranges 

 oomir.'g from Havana, Porto Eico, and Jamaica or 

 usually disposed of by the importer or commission 

 merchant to whom consigned. Until recently it was 

 a rare thing to wee any barrel oranges offered for 

 f^ale at the fruit auction room. Each country 

 has its peculiar style of package for shipping its fruit. 

 From the island of Sicily we rccei\e the oranges in 

 ^>oxvs, made in two si^es. Tor tUe largwt size oranges, 



called Imperials the box is of the following dimen- 

 sions ; 11 X 14 X 20 inches, and for the regular or ordinary 

 size, 10 X 14x27 inches. From.Toppa (in the Holy Land), 

 we receive oranges iu what are called flats or half- 

 boxes, measuring 5 x 14 x 27 inches. From Naples and 

 Sorrento the same box is used as in Sicily. It may 

 be of interest to know that since 1850 nearly all of 

 the orange boxes used for the Mediterranean trade, 

 have been made in the State of Maine, five or six 

 cargoes of boxes in shucks being annually shipped from 

 Bangor, and put together by the natives. J'revious 

 to 1850 the boxes came from Trieste in Austria, but 

 their yearly advance iu price drove the orange ex- 

 porter to look to other fields for supplies. The Yan- 

 kee box makers of Maine took advantage of the situ- 

 ation, and have held the bulk of the trade ever since 

 Valencia in Spain, uses cases instead of boxes to 

 send oranges to America ; unlike the boxes the cases 

 have three compartments. There are four sizes of 

 cases used, medium large, extra large, and mammoth 

 or coffin cases ; the dimensions of the largest are 

 15 X 18 X 4(3, and medium, 12 x 16 x 40. As these packages 

 are so much heavier than the Sicily boxes, it is necess- 

 ary for them to be roped or corded, and for that 

 purpose is used a rope made from the Espatto grass 

 which resembles the cat tails grown in our salt mead- 

 ows. This cord is largely made by the convicts iu 

 the prison ; is very strong, and costs far less than 

 machine-made manilla rope. The Valencia orange 

 differs but little from those grown in Sicily as to 

 sweetness and flavor, neither being a perfectly sweet 

 orange, but what is termed by the trade a pleasant 

 tart ; those grown in Naples and Sorrento are of a 

 pale color, and considered the sourest orange imported, 

 which is accounted for b^' its coming from the most 

 northern portion of the country where oranges grow. 

 It is a noticable fact that the nearer the Equator 

 the oranges are grown the sweeter the fruit, and the 

 further north the sourer. Even the seed from the 

 sour orange of the Mediterranean when planted further 

 south i^roduces a sweet orange. 



AVEST INDIA SUPPLY. 



Leaving the Mediterranean and drifting south, the 

 first orange district we encounter of any magnitude 

 is Cuba, where but little attention is given to the 

 cultivation, assorting or packing of oranges. Not the 

 slightest care is given to the sizing of the fruit, or 

 the selection of the package used for transportation, 

 barrels being used exclusively, without regard to what 

 thej' may have previously contained, whether potatoes, 

 flour or cement. This orange (the Havana) is with- 

 out doubt the sweetest orange grown in the world ; 

 in fact, when fully ripe, is so sweet as to be almost 

 insipid. "While it is a general favorite in its season, 

 it is always highly prized in the sick room. 



Next iu order comes Porto Rico, situated two degrees 

 south of Cuba, in latitude IS degrees, which island 

 produces an orange lighter in color than the Havana 

 and about as short-lived. Their favorite and only 

 mode of shipment is to send them to New York iu 

 bulk, as it is called; that is, to rig the hold and deck 

 of a schooner into bins about three feet deep and 

 fill each of these with loose oranges, thrown in with- 

 out being wrapped or sized , As there arc but few cargoes 

 come from Porto Rico and they arrive duiiug the 

 months of February and March, when we have plenty 

 of oranges from other ports, they are not looked 

 upon as one ot the standard oranges of commerce. 



Next in order comes the wonderfully productive 

 island of Jamaica. Like Porto Jvico, it is situated iu 

 latitude 18 degrees, its shores washed by the warm 

 waters of the Caribbean Sea. From this island. lUO 

 miles south of Cuba and 1.450 miles from New York, 

 comes a most excellent orange, and one that is daily 

 increasing in public favour. The best varieties are 

 grown ou the Maudevillo mountains iu the IManchester, 

 Clarendon, St. Catherine and St. Anus parishes, and 

 are fit for a king, In fact, I have paid <V2 per 

 barrel for a certaiu mark of this fruit known as the 



1^ brand— the highest price ever paid in New York 

 for a line of barreled orauges~in its original packngc, 



