184 Fruits and Fruit- Trees. 



absolutely covered with self-sown orange-trees. Here- 

 abouts the fruit is somewhat bitter, but further north it 

 becomes deliciously sweet, as verified by samples which 

 have reached Covent Garden, and which have been no 

 less remarkable for their firmness and large dimensions. 

 So vast is the Brazilian production that the river-steamers 

 which ply between Buenos Ayres and the inland towns 

 carry, in the season, huge piles of the fruit upon their 

 hurricane-decks, free during the voyage to all who choose 

 to partake. The Brazilian oranges are usually of a fine 

 ruddy yellow, somewhat oval, like the Jaffas, and in one 

 variety, preferred to all others, remarkably umbilicated on 

 the summit, whence the provincial name. Oranges are 

 likewise grown extensively in South Florida, where there 

 are orchards of a hundred to a hundred and fifty acres, 

 twelve-year-old trees bearing fifteen hundred apiece. The 

 fruit from these has found its way to London, but until 

 there are steamers direct to England, little, as from Jaffa, 

 can be anticipated. Florida is the Italy of North 

 America, and before long will become one of the most 

 productive fruit-countries in the world, emulating even 

 southern California, that wonderful region in which a 

 single acre of ground can be made to yield as large a 

 clear profit to the owner, by semi-tropical nut and fruit- 

 culture, as twenty to fifty acres in the Eastern States 

 devoted to common farming. Australia is not behind- 

 hand. In 1883 the orange-gardens of New South Wales 

 produced nearly a hundred millions of oranges, most of 

 which were equal to the finest fruit of southern Europe. 



