ODDS AND ENDS. 303 



is now entering upon a steadily increasing import business 

 in orange peels, because the home supply does not even 

 begin to fill the demand. It is not used here as in Eu- 

 rope, for making marmalade, but as a basis for medicinal 

 preparations, tonics, orange bitters, syrups, and confections. 

 The imported peel brings from ten to twelve cents a pound, 

 and has no import duty to pay. 



This may seem a small item, but it is such items that 

 make up the sum total of domestic economy ; save all the 

 clean orange peels, dry and sell them, and there will be 

 more money in our pockets and less sent out of the 

 country. 



Note how the importation is increasing : In 1877, five 

 thousand nine hundred and twenty-seven dollars was sent 

 to Europe to pay for orange peels ; in 1881, the latest date 

 we have been able to obtain, the same small item of ' ' waste 

 peel" cost us over twelve thousand dollars. It has doubt- 

 less more than doubled now, and Florida might just as well 

 keep this money at home, since it would be all clear gain, 

 requiring no outlay. 



SUMMER ORANGES. 



There are a few varieties of late oranges (Hart's Tardiff 

 is one) that will hold their fruit well into the summer sea- 

 son, and such fruit is always at a premium, because it 

 comes in when the market is empty of oranges. But there 

 is a method practiced in Mexico by which any ordinary 

 tree may be made to bear summer oranges. 



When the trees bloom at the usual season, a brush made 

 of stiff leaves or twigs is used to whip off the blossoms, 

 one and all ; none must be left to set fruit. The trees, be- 

 ing strong, healthy, and in vigorous growth, resent this 

 unmerited whipping, and at once set out to repair damages 

 and make good their loss. 



