THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 243 



Florida has about 45,000 acres of grapefruit trees between the ages of 

 one and five years, which in the next five years should produce a crop of 

 about 35,000 carloads. 



Porto Rico,^ in 1913, exported to the United States 216,216 boxes of 

 grapefruit, or about 500 carloads, estimating 400 boxes to the car. 

 Cuba, in 1912, exported to the United States the equivalent of about 

 250 carloads of grapefruit. In both Cuba and Porto Rico there are 

 reported to be large new plantings of grapefruit trees, so that the ex- 

 port of this fruit to the United States and elsewhere is likely to increase 

 greatly over the past records. A comparatively small but rapidly 

 increasing export of grapefruit to the United States from Jamaica and 

 some other foreign grapefruit growing sections is evident from the 

 observations and figures available for study. 



Vaile*' offers the following comment on the grapefruit situation in 

 California in consideration of the conditions in other grapefruit dis- 

 tricts which compete with the California product : 



" * * * ijij^g grapefruit situation in California is on a rea-" 

 sonable and sound basis at present. It may be expected that the 

 industry will be as profitable as any for a period of years. * * * 

 We would strongly suggest that future plantings be very con- 

 servative. We hesitate to recognize the wisdom of seeking new 

 acres adapted to this crop, and we sincerely deplore the commercial 

 boosting of large tracts of new lands for grapefruit culture." 



At least two facts must be remembered in considering this discussion, 

 first, that Florida or foreign grapefruit is no longer admitted into 

 California on account of the danger of the introduction of insect pests 

 and fungous diseases through this means. No doubt other western 

 states where grapefruit is being grown will sooner or later adopt similar 

 protective measures, so that the population of these states and their 

 eastern or other visitors will have to be supplied with home-grown 

 grapefruit; second, the period of ripening of California Marsh Seed- 

 less grapefruit is during the summer months when no other known 

 district has a ripe crop available to supply the great eastern markets. 

 For these and other reasons California has an opportunity to develop 

 a strong grapefruit industry, in the opinion of the writer, provided 

 only the best possible grade of grapefruit is produced and the fruit is 

 allowed to ripen before picking. The green, bitter, and strongly acid 

 fruit often found on the market under present conditions offers a strong 

 argument for the establishment of a standard of ripeness for grapefruit 

 by the growers, as has been done for the orange. For their self-protec- 

 tion growers should look into this matter carefully from an unpreju- 

 diced point of view and squarely face the consequences to the future of 

 the industry of a continuation of the present unfortunate and uncon- 

 trolled system of marketing California grapefruit. 



RELATION OF COMPOSITION AND OTHER CHARACTERISTICS TO 



QUALITY. 



The Bureau of Chemistry of the United States Department of Agri- 

 culture, through the laboratory of by-products, located in Los Angeles, 

 has been making some chemical studies of the composition of grapefruit 



•'Wallschlaeger, Bulletin No. 11, Citrus Protective League of California, p. 51. 

 ^Monthly Bulletin No. 11, California Commission of Horticulture, November, 1915, 

 p. 510. 



