THE MONTHLY BULLETIN". 403 



made of it. The cost of clearing an acre is estimated at from $2 to 

 $4. The ant colonies on the cleared land are destroyed by fumigation, 

 using sulphur and arsenic. Mandioea is planted on the land thus pre- 

 pared. The cost of planting the mandioea crop is estimated to be about 

 $10 per acre, and three cultivations of this crop costs about $6 to $10 

 per acre. The mandioea crop requires about one year for reaching 

 maturity and is said to have a value of about $30 to $45 per acre. In 

 some cases the orange lands are planted to sweet potatoes, or yams, 

 peanuts, corn, peas or pineapple instead of mandioea. The crops raised 

 on the orange lands are said to pay the expenses of clearing the land 

 and planting the orange trees, in addition to maintaining a proper 

 condition of the soil for the trees during the first year. 



PLANTING. 



Navel orange trees are planted at Bahia during all months of the 

 year, although the spring season is usually preferred by the growers. 



The trees are arranged usually in squares and are set about twenty 

 feet apart, making an average planting of about one hundred trees per 

 acre. We did not see any terraces or contouring of the land on the 

 hillsides. 



The trees are set in the ground so that the ball of roots is covered. 

 In dry seasons we were told that the individual trees are watered for 

 some time after setting. "We did not see any manure, fertilizer or any 

 other treatment of the soil in w^hich the trees were set. 



CULTURE. 



All cultivation is done by hand labor wdth a heavy hoe called enchada. 

 The weeds and other natural growth in the orchards are scraped off the 

 surface of the soil from one to three times yearly. The work is fre- 

 quently contracted for at the rate of about $3 per acre. 



Manure is almost universally used for fertilizing the soil. AU of the 

 leading orange growers with whom we came in contact maintained 

 dairies in order to secure manure for use in the orange orchards. The 

 groves we saw w^here manure had not been used, were almost wholly 

 unproductive, while the most productive groves were those in which we 

 were told the largest quantities of manure had been used. 



The milk from the dairies is sold in the city or neighboring villages, 

 little butter or cheese being made. The dairy cattle are commonly 

 hybrids of the Turino and Zebu breeds, fairly good milkers and resistant 

 to tropical diseases. 



The most healthy and productive of any grove of similar age that we 

 saw at Bahia, was growing in a field of Para grass. The orange trees 

 had been set in the grass field w^liich formed a permanent cover crop. 

 In this grove, which adjoined a dairy, the manure was distributed daily 

 over the stubble after the grass had been cut for the day's use in the 

 dairy. In other orchards the manure is buried in a shallow basin 

 between the trees. In still other cases we found manure distributed 

 in long piles between the rows of trees, in these cases affording a 

 considerable mulch. 



The liberal use of manure is regarded as absolutely essential to profit- 

 able orange production by all the growers whom we met. In one large 

 orchard we found that in addition to manure, the refuse from the 



