THE AGRICULTURAL NE\VS. 



Febkuaky 25, 1905. 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT. 



STERILIZED FRUIT. 



At the meeting of the Boaixl of Agriculture held mi 

 Tuesday, December 1 3, the Director of Public Gardens 

 submitted eight jars of fruit preserved by a sin)|ile process of 

 sterilizing. This jirocess is as follows: — Water is sterilized 

 by heating to 150' F., allowed to cool and next day the fruit 

 is (JUt into the bottles, the caps and clips are fi.xed on, and 

 the bottles with the sterilized water are heated to 150^ or 

 155' for four hours. 



The total cost of the small apparatus by uhich this 

 experiment was done, including freight, is £'2 5s. 5'/. 



The bottles supi)lied with covers and rubber rings co.st 

 as follows : — 



29 oz. size, 4»\ Gd. per dozen, 48s. per gross. 



30 oz. size, 4.>;. per dozen, 42s. per gross. 



Fruits are put up in exactly the same manner in Great 

 Britain and .sold at the following prices: blackberries, lis. 

 jier doz. : red currants, 12.<. per doz. ; plums, 10,«. per doz. 

 The best dessert fruits put up the same w'ay, such as apricots, 

 sell at 15s. ; pears at 1 -"is. ; pine-apple.s, lis. 6d. The fruits 

 put up are as follows : varieties of mango, pine-apjiles, 

 banana, and akee, and one of the jara being opened three 

 months after being put up, the fruit was found to be in 

 perfect condition. This bottled fruit is now on show at the 

 rooms of the Agricultural Society, and we shall be glad to 

 Lave anyone interested call and see it. The whole apparatus 

 together with bottles may be had from ilessrs. Fowler E. 

 Lee & Co., Maidstone, Kent, England. {Journal nf ih<- 

 Jamaica Aijricultural Society, January 1905.) 



WEST INDIAN FRUIT TRADE. 



In ail interesting article in the Journal of the 

 Society uf A rts on the ' Foreign Fruit Industry' it is 

 .shown that Great Britain's fruit demands are largely 

 supplied by foreigners. Much more might be done in 

 this connexion, it is argued, by the colonies — especially 

 Australia, Canada, and the West Indies. 'A brave 

 attempt is being made to create a large fruit trade 

 between the United Kingdom and the West Indies . . . 

 yet the fruit exports increase very slowly, if Jamaica is 

 excepted. And even in Jamaica the industry does not 

 rest on a solid basis . . . the planters do not concern 

 themselves with the taste of the market, they neglect 

 grading, and are careless as to the condition in which 

 the fruit reaches the consumer.' 



The writer urges "that with both bananas and 

 oranges Jamaica might learn much by studying the 



methods of the Canaries and tS[)ain, whose fruit 

 usually obtains a much higher price, and states: — 



And what is true of .Jamaica is equally true of other 

 West India Islands. The pine-apple, for example, flourishes 

 everywhere, and some of the pines, the Montserrat for 

 instance, are of veiy delicate flavour, liut this pine is 

 unsightly and not suitable for the ]*]nglish market. The 

 best for this trade is the Smooth Cayenne, grown so largely 

 in the Azores, and now' beginning to be grown in the West 

 Indies. It has, too, to be remembered that the jiine is grown 

 for ornament as well as ciuality. The crown of the jiiiie is 

 the glory of it, and it is found that the wind and weather 

 to which it is subject in the West Indies injure its appear- 

 ance, a drawback that might easily be overcome by the 

 erection of some sort of inexpensive sheltering. Rut nothing 

 is done. Just as the English farmer thinks all that is 

 nece.ssary, to make a paying orchard, is to [ilant a certain 

 number of apjile trees without much regard to adaiitation of 

 kind to soil, and to ]jack tlieia when ripe, and send them 

 anyhow to market, so the West Indian grower pays little 

 attention to qualitj-. Rut it is quality, as Mr. ilonro, of 

 King Street, Covent Garden, is never tired of insisting — and 

 he is one of the biggest fruit-brokers in the kingdom — that 

 is the one thing indispensable in fruits that are to secure any 

 hold on public consumption. 



BARBADOS BANANA INDUSTRY. 



The following notes on the banana industry of 

 Barbados are extracted from an article in the Western 

 MarnuHj Xc(i:s of January 19 : — 



But if the Canary banana so far has suriiassed the 

 Jamaica fruit in appearance, it has now a competitor to face 

 which is more than equal to it in quality. The Barbados 

 banana can now be put upon the English markets in perfect 

 condition. It has taken time to market the Rarbados banana 

 in perfect condition in this country. The loss sustained 

 does not exceed 1 per cent., .so that the .shipping 

 arrangements must be considered admirable. 



The planters in the colony are wise in their 

 rejection of the larger-growing variety raised in .Jamaica. 

 It is known as the Gros Michel. It deserves the prefix 

 Gros on account of the size of its bunches, but is 

 a coarse kind, and not to be compared to the delicate but 

 fine fruiting kind shipped from Barbados, lint though the 

 latter is the same sort as that raised in the Canaries, yet the 

 fruits jiroduced are far richer and better flavoured than those 

 of the Canaries. At present the Barbados is the finest fruit 

 of its class imported into the United Kingdom. 



