311 



IVIr. Austin, whose work as inspector of fruit importation allows 

 him to speak authoritatively, said that he had kept a careful 

 account of the citrus fruit which entered this port from California 

 and found that its gross value amounted to al)out one hun- 

 dred thousand dollars per annum. If the Territory could only 

 be made to appreciate the money it was expending on the Coast 

 in preference to keeping it at home, this condition of affairs would 

 not continue. 



Mr. Hall said that he would like to make known the result of 

 an experiment he had made upon a fig tree which grow on his 

 land at Pearl City. The tree in question had been unproductive 

 for some years, but he had lately well pruned and fertilized it with 

 the result tb.at its last crop had num_bered at least twelve hundred 

 fruits. In one day he had picked two hundred figs and there had 

 been sufficient fruit from this one tree to suppy two or three 

 families besides his own. Even the mynah birds had partaken 

 without appreciable effect on the supply. 



Mr. Austin informed the meeting that fig trees produced their 

 fruit on the new wood and that judicious pruning not only stimu- 

 lated the tree, but increased the available fruit producing twigs. 

 Peach trees might be treated in the same manner with success. 



Mr. Roberts recommended that those people whose trees did not 

 bear so well as Mr. Hall's, should try a device for frightening 

 away the m.ynah birds from fruit trees, which he had tried with 

 success. After removing the bottom from a number of beer or 

 similar bottles he corked them and passed a string through the 

 cork to which were attached inside the bottle a few nails. When 

 these were suspended from the trees the action of the wind caused 

 them to emit a continuous tinkle which aroused the suspicions of 

 the birds and kept .hem at a distance from the trees. 



The following paper was then read : 



THE FOOD VALUE OF TROPICAL FRUIT. 

 By Dr. Edmund C. Shorey. 



When I was assigned the task of preparing a paper on this sub- 

 ject several questions were asked me which showed that on several 

 points there was a possibility of difference of opinion. These 

 questions may be summed up in two; what is fruit and what is 

 food ? 



