THE ORANGE TREE 



Supply in Cold 

 Season. 



Possible Hot- 

 season Supply. 



Nagpur. 



Careful 

 Cultivation 



Budding on to 

 Limes. 



CITRUS 



AURANTIUM 



Nagpur 



arranged on a trellis, no two fruits being allowed to touch each other, and 

 then suspended from the roof of the house, the fruit may be preserved 

 for months. 



This orange is conveyed by boat to Calcutta, where it is sometimes 

 spoken of as kamld-nebu, from which circumstance Prain thinks it may 

 be inferred the orange was derived from the kingdom of Comilla to the 

 east of Calcutta, and not from Upper India. There is but one complaint 

 in Bengal against the present supply, namely that it comes in the cold 

 in place of in the hot season. This has led to numerous efforts, with 

 indifferent results, to obtain a second supply of equal merit from other 

 localities. In Kullu, for example, the fruiting season is much later, and 

 an effort has accordingly been put forth to send supplies to Simla in 

 April and May. 



Nagpur. Mr. J. H. Stephen, Superintendent of the Government 

 Botanic Gardens, Nagpur, published in 1899 an instructive account 

 of the production of oranges in the Central Provinces. Mr. A. Ross, in 

 a letter published in Firminger (I.e. 277), furnishes other particulars 

 of interest. Stephen inspected several large orange plantations and 

 found that where carefully cultivated and liberally irrigated the trees 

 were healthy and fruited freely ; where neglected, the yield was so low 

 that the gardens were not remunerative. In every instance the plant 

 grown was the Nagpur suntra budded on the sweet lime. This is believed 

 to produce a thinner skin and a sweeter and more luscious fruit than when 

 budded on the citron or jambiri. The Sylhet system of raising from seed 

 seemed nowhere to be followed, because it is believed that such plants 

 take from fifteen to twenty years to come into bearing. The lime is sown 

 in January to March, and when a year old the budding of the orange is 

 made on the seedlings. They mature in the sixth or seventh year, and 

 in about nine to twelve years are in full bearing ; after that date they 

 decline. In Nagpur the orange yields (or can yield) two crops a year. 

 The plants flower in February to March, and the fruit is ripe in 

 November to December or January. The second flowering is in June 

 to July, and the fruit ripens in March to April. The oranges of the 

 second crop are the sweetest, and, coming as they do at the beginning 

 of the hot season, are much valued. These are plucked green, and thus 

 are rarely allowed to change into the characteristic yellow colour of the 

 other crop. On this account some writers have regarded them as being 

 bergamot oranges. 



About the middle of May the roots are exposed and the plants 

 manured (according to Ross, the roots are exposed and the manure given 

 in October). Pruning is unknown in the Nagpur groves, and, except to 

 be watered freely in the hot season, the plants receive little or no further 

 attention. R. S. Joshi, Rai Bahadur, has just published an account of 

 the orange cultivation of these provinces (Agri. Journ. Ind., 1907, ii., 

 pt. i., 64-9) which will be found to richly repay perusal. In the details 

 of cultivation he makes, to all intents and purposes, the same facts as 

 already exhibited. He urges the necessity for high cultivation, especially 

 on soils with a liberal supply of lime, and reaffirms belief in budding. 

 " The stock generally used," he says, " is the sweet lime (mitha nimbu], 

 but the common citron (zamburi) is also very often utilised. Buds of 

 the orange grafted on the latter stock produce trees which yield fruits 

 with a very loose skin, whilst those on the former stock have a more closely 



322 



Full Bearing. 

 Two Crops. 

 Seasons. 



Later than 

 Sylhet. 



Manure. 



High 

 Cultivation 



Influence of 

 Budding. 



