CHAPTER XL 



CULTIVATION OF THE ORANGE AND LEMON IN INDIA. 



IN the Journal of the A.H.S. of India (Part IV. New 

 Series, vol. i, of 1869, p. 372), kindly lent me by Mr. 

 Blechynden, secretary to that Society, I found a des- 

 cription of the orange groves of Shalla, in the Khasia 

 hills, by C. Brownlow, Esq. He says : " Here, in one 

 large connected piece, of about 1,000 acres, is the 

 garden that supplies a great part of Eastern, as well as 

 Western Bengal with oranges. One may walk for a 

 good hour or two, always under the shade of orange 

 trees, without reaching the limits of cultivation, and 

 when, as in December and January, every tree is 

 laden with ripe fruit, no sight can be more enjoyable. 

 I have been through the Sorrento gardens, but this 

 beats Sorrento, and the Neapolitan orange growers 

 would find some difficulty in selecting out of their 

 entire 'piano/ a piece at all approaching this." * 



" The way the oranges are gathered in the Khasia 

 hills is this. A man with a net-bag open at the 

 mouth by a cane ring, and slung on the back by a 

 strap passing over the right shoulder and chest, 

 climbs a bamboo ladder, plucks the oranges and puts 



* It should be kept in mind that the Shalla and Sorrento oranges 

 have no connection, other than that both are oranges. Those of 

 Shalla are of the suntara type. Those of Sorrento are of the 

 Malta orange type. 



