272 



MONTHLY JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE. 



It would be tedious to enumerate all the 

 varieties of this tribe ; besides, the learned 

 differ as t<^) which are species and which va- 

 rieties. V/ho, then, shall decide? I give, 

 however, from the large work of Risso of 

 Nice, an arrangement which may suffice : 

 Sweet orange 43 ; bitter and sour oranges 

 32 ; bergamots 5 ; limes 8 ; shaddocks (! ; 

 lemons 46 ; citrons 17 sorts. In India the 

 shadilock, when it arrives at its largest size, 

 is called Pam])leniouse. There are in N. S. 

 Wales some veiy good varieties of sweet or- 

 ange rai.sed from seed ; the iiriucipal objec- 

 tion to them is their thick rind. A gentle- 

 man in Sydney has imported a number of 

 varieties of choice oranges from China. Chief 

 Justice Forbes imported a very superior or- 

 ange called the Selitta orange ; its fruit is 

 much prized. 



The fruit of the shaddock is fi-om two and 

 a half to eight inches in diameter. Tlie juice 

 is sweet in some varieties and acid in others ; 

 is rather insipid, but excellent for quenching 

 tliirst. The rind is very thick, in conse- 

 quence of which the fruit can be kept much 

 longer during sea voyages than that of any 

 other species of citrus. In the West Indies 

 the shaddock has been neglected ; from hav- 

 ing been usually i-aised from seed, harsh and 

 Bour sort of fi-uit of little value is obtained 

 there. Thunberg says that it is commonly 

 of the size of a child's head, in Japan. Dr. 

 Sickler describes it as weighing fourteen 

 pounds, ■with a diameter of from seven to 

 eight inches. Bishop Heber thus describes 

 the shaddock of India. The shaddock re- 

 sembles a melon externally, but it is in fact a 

 vast orange with a lind of two inches thick, 

 the p'dp much less juicy than a common or- 

 ange, and with ratlier a bitter flavor, cert<iinly 

 a fniit which would be httle valued in Eng- 

 land, but which in this burning weather I 

 thought rather pleasant and refreshing. In 

 N. S. Wales the shaddock has produced fruit, 

 but is veiy inferior ui quality. 



It appears that at Seville, orange trees in 

 good years will yield from 1,000 to l,.'iOO oi'- 

 anges each. In St. Michael each tree, on ar- 

 rivmg at full gi'owth, will anniuilly, ujion an 

 average, produce from 12,000 to 16,000 or- 

 anges ! A gentleman told me he had once 

 gathered 16,000. 



In addition to the fruit as used in its fresh 

 state, that of the different varieties, but espe- 

 cially of the citron, is used very extensively 

 as a conserve. The expressed juice of the 

 lime is exported in considerable ([Ujuitilies 

 from the West Indies uito England where it 

 is used principally in the process of calico 

 printing. The rind of the bergamot yields, 

 both by pressure and distillation, the scent 

 called bergamot. It is said to have its name 

 from the town of Bergamo. Even the flow- 

 ers ;ii-e made to produce a reveniu-, as some 

 gardens in France yield from £100 to £200 

 a year from this item alone. 



The fijllowing observations apply to the 

 cultivation, &,c. of tho orange tree ; without 



(DCO) 



doubt they ^e most of them equally applica- 

 ble to the other species. Wliere either of 

 them requires a different treatment [ shall of 

 course, if I am aware of it, describe it. 



MoisTURK. — If there be any instances in 

 Western Australia in which the orange has 

 thriven in what is commonly called dry soil, 

 it has not come to my knowledge ; should it 

 be cultivable in such, I shall be agi-ecably 

 disappointed. The only chance of success in 

 such situations, 1 should say, is deep trenching 

 in a soil eitlier naturally or artificially rich. I 

 do not mean that ground natnrally dry may 

 not be made available for this ti-ee by irriga- 

 tion, but I think that unless water can be 

 ha-d for it either naturally m the soil, or otli- 

 ei-wise, success will be at least doubtful. 

 Shepherd, who appears to have been a prac- 

 tical gardener, says that in N. S. Wales in a 

 dry season hundreds of bearing orange trees 

 die for w;uit of water. Were they well wa- 

 tered and maniu'ed they would be seldom at- 

 tacked by insects. I should like to see the 

 orange tried in the black friable soil of our 

 richest flats on the Swan — a goed unitation 

 of which would be old hot-bed dung, two or 

 three years old, or compost of decayed ve- 

 getable matter. I would plant the trees in a 

 depth of at least three feet of this compost. 



As some persons who might wish U^ form 

 orange groves no doubt possess situations 

 suitable to the orange as to moisture, but with 

 a soil totally unfit from its being too sandy, or 

 otherwise too poor — I ^vould say in such sit- 

 uations dig holes 4 feet deep and either 2 or 

 3 feet across, accordmg to the abundance or 

 otherwise of the compost with which they are 

 to be filled. This space vi-ill suffice to nour- 

 ish the trees and enable them to flourish and 

 produce fruit for some years at least, as wit- 

 ness the orange ti'ecs in tubs or boxes which 

 many of us have seen in England, Flanders, 

 France and Italy. At a future time these 

 trees can be supplied with additional pabu- 

 lum without greatly distin-bing their roots, by 

 adding at their four sides, during foiu- suc- 

 cessive years, or at longer intenals, tmd to 

 the depth of the original holes, a similar com- 

 post. The compost recommended by die 

 French, and described belovk-, or something 

 like it, might be used for trees thus managed, 

 on the same principle as that is, by them, for 

 tubs, their intention is to compensate for 

 (juantity by richness. I would suggest that 

 the holes on this plan be not shallower than 

 four feet, as it would not be e;isy to increase 

 the depth hereafter. The horizontal diame- 

 ter across may be as little as two feet but not 

 less, as the roots would completely extend 

 over this space in one or two years. When 

 they shall have been increased U^ four feet 

 diameter they would ecpuil in bulk the largest 

 boxes I have ever heard of and though not 

 of suflicient bulk to produce trees of the very 

 largest size, yet would cany a considerable 

 quantity of fmit, iuul could be at any time 

 heriafter increased indefinitely, limitetl only 

 by ttie scarcity' of rich soil or compost. 



