526 A. E. Verrill—The Bermuda Islands. 
American markets. In early times they were preserved in different 
ways and shipped to London to some extent. The present produc- 
tion is from 10,000 to 12,000 bunches. (See ch. 27.) 
The Pineapple was also introduced in 1616 and flourished very well 
for some sixty years. Large quantities were raised, about 1630 to 
1670, and many were shipped to England. But probably the long 
voyage was not favorable for this trade, at that time. At present 
they are seldom cultivated. 
Oranges and Lemons were also introduced before 1617, and flour- 
ished luxuriantly. They were soon widely cultivated and produced 
excellent fruit, much of which was exported to London, Virginia, 
New York, and New England. For a long period, after tobacco 
ceased to be profitable, oranges formed one of the principal exports 
to London, and they were sometimes shipped even to Barbadoes. 
It is recorded that in 1660 a vessel sailed for Barbadoes “ filled up 
with oranges and potatoes.” 
There are records of shipments to New England as early as 1636, 
but especially after 1644, and this trade continued for a long period. 
Oranges were often shipped in large quantities to London, from 1644 
to 1700 and later. The London Company, in 1677, sent a vessel to 
Bermuda with special orders to take back 400 chests of oranges, and 
many vessels returning from the West Indies to England used to 
call there to complete their cargoes with oranges. At some periods 
(1632, 1671), this trade was nearly destroyed by the Company pro- 
hibiting the use of cedar lumber for chests in which to ship the 
oranges. As they had no other material suitable for orange chests, 
this was nearly equivalent to suppressing the trade altogether, 
except as it may have been secretly carried on with the colonies. 
At such times, and later, onions and oranges were sometimes 
shipped in baskets made of palmetto leaves. . 
Sometimes, as in 1659 and 1673, this oppressive law was so modi- 
fied as to allow oranges and other native products, except tobacco, 
to be shipped in cedar chests. But their cultivation greatly declined 
from 1770 to 1840. 
The Bermuda oranges were very highly esteemed, though there 
is no evidence that any particular trouble was taken to secure choice 
varieties by grafting, until modern times, as is now universally done 
in Florida and California. 
Most of the orange and lemon trees were killed or ruined (about 
1855-70) by a disease or blight, which seems to have been caused 
mainly or entirely by scale-insects, which were neglected and 
allowed to increase to infinite numbers. 
