JAMAICA. 



LIBRARY 



BULLETIN Bor'lN.rAL 



OF THE 



OARDEN. 



DEPARTMEXT OF A(iPiICULTUJiE. 



Vol. IV. MARCH, 1906. Part 3. 



CULTIVATION AND MARKETING OF CITRUS 



FRUITS. 



By H. Q. Levy. 



An Address delivered at the Auniicd Meeting of Elementary School 



Teachers Jor Agricultural Instruction, January, 1906. 



The subject set down against my name on the Syllabus, is "The 

 Cultivation and Marketing of Citrus Fruits." Some may well ask 

 why it is that I persistently advocate the cultivation of Citrus 

 fruit year after year when we cannot dispose of those we already 

 have growing wild about the different parts of the Island. My 

 answer would be, as I have often repeated, because by cultivating 

 standard varieties we would have a ready-made market for all the 

 fruit we could grow ; secondly, we would have a more even grade 

 of fruit that would better stand shipment, and thirdly, by having 

 the trees in grove form we could handle them quicker and more 

 carefully than by the present system. I advise, time and again, 

 the planting of the improved varieties of oranges and grape fruit 

 as I firmly believe that there will always be a market for them if 

 shipped in a proper manner and given every chance of their ar- 

 riving at their destination in a good condition ; on the other hand, 

 I have always said that at no distant day we will have no sale for 

 our wild oranges except when the foreign markets are bare of sup- 

 plies. Now this is a subject well forth considering, for it means 

 bread and butter to many of us. Are we going to waste time until 

 we are elbowed out of the market altogether ? or are we going to 

 set about planting improved varieties and so gradually capture a 

 portion of the market that is ready waiting for us ? Do not be 

 UD discouraged by the number of failures that have taken place in the 

 S past, for if you enquire into each one you will be sure to find that 

 "" in every case the parties were doomed to failure from the very 

 ,__, commencement. Citrus culture needs careful study and a special 



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