Export of Citrus Fruits. 435 



Fruit Packs. — In the preliminary examination of tlie first packs 

 tlie outstanding features were : (1) Boxes badly constructed of roughly 

 saMMi wood; (2) protruding nails in the centre partition: (3) escape 

 of juice from the orange peel, making a yellow oily mark on the 

 wrapper, and resulting in a dried patch on the fruit ; (4) wrappers 

 torn where the fruit had come in contact with the wood ; (5) damj) 

 wrappers, excessive in cases where fruit had been packed directly 

 after picking; (6) splinter wounds and imprints; (7) fruits badly 

 misshapen owing to pressure; (8) occasional split and cracked fruits; 

 (0) occasioiud completely mouldy fruits (as the examination was made 

 witliin four days from the packing, it is very probable that some 

 indication of incipient mould was present, and should have been 

 detected in wrapping) ; ('10) fruit-fly punctures, all of wliicli 

 developed mould; (11) mechanical injuries, due to thorns, nails, fingei' 

 nails, cutters, and besides these very many minor injuries were found 

 on the rind ; (12) scale : fruits were packed .showing a small amount 

 of purple scale and much more red scale ; the puncturing of such fruit 

 by these scale insects must render it more liable to attack by mould; 

 (13) tlirips : navel oranges were very badly marked. (Note. — Nos. 

 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 are the result of packing with a bulge.) 



Arising from the above, it was decided to employ specially chosen 

 men to handle the fruit in every process from the orchard to the rail- 

 way truck. These men were advised through Mr. Hobson, the Chief 

 Citrus Canker Inspector, as to the various precautions which should 

 be taken in handling the fruit. As a result mechanical injuries in 

 tlie fruits were reduced to ahnost microscopic dimensions. 



.4 Lahoratory E,rperiment. — Some interesting experiments were 

 carried out in the laboratory, and the following is instanced : — A navel 

 orange, when first unpacked, showed a soft spot which was obviously 

 an early stage in mould infection. This orange was rewrapped in 

 two new sterilized wrappers and placed with fo\ir sound oranges 

 similarly wrapped in a sterilized, well-ventilated jar. After 21 days, 

 although the affected orange was entirely disintegrated and the 

 wrappers of the other fruits were wet and thickly covered with spores, 

 no infection of any one of the four fruits had taken place. At the 

 end of two months they remained unaffected by mould (but one fruit 

 showed u brown spot at the stalk-end), and were then discarded. 

 Similar experiments were repeated with the same results. This shows 

 that these contact oranges which remained sound for such a length 

 of time must have had uninjured skins. 



Examijiation at Capetown. — On arrival at Capetown each indivi- 

 dual orange in every consignment was examined by the Government 

 Mycologist. In all 37,000 individual oranges were inspected, and 

 of this number 26 fruits were discarded, 7 showing blemishes, and 

 19 mould, and the observation made at Pretoria that mouldy and 

 stained boxes did not show a higher percentage of waste than clean 

 boxes was confirmed. It was observed also that the bulge on the 

 experimental packs was not sufiicient to do any damage. 



The following observations were made at Capetown: — (1) A pack 

 of navel oranges (150) from Rhodesia showed 39 infected with mould. 

 Almost every single orange in the case had a small cut in the rind. 

 possibly (-aused by an exposed nail in the grader. (2) A case of navel 

 oranges from Rhodesia, which showed a high percentage of mould, 

 was put into cold stores after the mouldy fruit had been I'emoved. 



