THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 509 



THE OUTLOOK FOR THE POMELO.* 



By R. S. Vaile, Assistant Professor of Orchard Management, Citrus Experiment 



Station, Riverside, Cal. 



One of our southern California pomelo growers, Avhen asked his 

 opinion of the pomelo prospects, said he considered them very good, but 

 he hoped that no one would agree with him. In other words, it may be 

 a very easy thing to upset the good prospects by over-planting. 



There are at present some 600 acres of pomeloes in bearing in Cali- 

 fornia, from which will be shipped this season about 250 carloads. 

 There are some 1,100 acres under five years old, which in five years' time 

 should more than double our output. 



Florida has some 16.000 acres in bearing from which she will harvest 

 this season approximately 8,000 carloads of grapefruit. Mr. Lloyd S. 

 Tenny, secretary of the Florida Growers and Shippers League, writes 

 as follows regarding their future prospects : 



"From the best figures available there are about 45,000 acres of 

 grapefruit trees between the ages of one and five years. Using this 

 as a basis. Manager Jones of the Citrus Exchange, figures that with 

 the acreage already in full bearing and almost full bearing, in 

 another season after the approaching season we will harvest 

 approximately seven million boxes of grapefruit, increasing this 

 amount each year with an additional million and a half boxes for 

 the next five years, even if grapefruit planting should cease en- 

 tirely." 



This would give a total of 35,000 carloads. And this past spring the 

 nurseries in the state of Florida sold all the grapefruit trees they pro- 

 duced. 



The imports of grapefruit to the United States have remained fairly 

 constant for the past several years, averaging about 100 carloads, mostly 

 from Cuba. Probably ten or fifteen carloads of this imported fruit 

 have been converted into marmalade. 



Until this spring prices for both California and Florida fruit have 

 been fairly satisfactory. Average figures on several hundred carloads 

 from a certain Florida shipper show an f . o. b. price of about 2.4 cents 

 per pound for the past four years. An average price for a hundred or 

 more carloads from California has been about 2.35 cents per pound for 

 the past three years. This present season, however, the market has been 

 very largely demoralized. Florida has been especially hard hit and 

 large quantities of fruit have been allowed to rot in the orchards. 

 Grading has also been closer than usual. Had this not been so, Florida's 

 shipments might have been 10,000 instead of 8,000 carloads. The same 

 has been true of Cuba. 



The pomelo is used largely at present as a breakfast fruit, and in our 

 hotels and fashionable eating houses it is one of the most expensive 

 breakfast fruits. Florida made the attempt to have the retail price 



♦Address before the State Fruit Growers' Convention, Palo Alto, Cal., July, 1915. 



