Appendix. 269 



evince a degree of superiority that astonishes persons ac- 

 quainted only with the limes of the East. 



" The lime-farming industry of Monserrat dates from 1852. 

 Mr. Burke commenced the first orchards, and now the Mon- 

 serrat Company owns more than 600 acres, on which are 

 120,000 lime-trees. The amount of lime juice exported to 

 England alone is said to be more than 80,000 gallons a 

 year. 



" In the island of Trinidad oranges are largely cultivated, 

 including the Portugal Silver and St. Michael oranges. In 

 1877 a trial consignment shipped to London from that dis- 

 tance is said to have been pronounced the best then offered 

 in the market, except similar varieties received about the 

 same period from Brazil, the former selling for eight shillings 

 a box of loo oranges, and the latter fetching eleven shil- 

 lings." 



" In Trinidad the trees are reared about 25 feet apart, 

 thus admitting sixty-five or seventy trees per acre. The 

 smallest average yielded in unfortunate seasons is 500 oranges 

 per fruiting tree, and the highest average 1,000. Taking the 

 lesser crop as an example, the whole harvest will seldom fall 

 below 32,500 oranges, which at the modest price on the spot 

 of five shillings a hundred, shows a gross return of ;8i 53. od. 

 per acre. It is a curious circumstance connected with the 

 rearing of this favourite fruit, which fits in admirably with 

 the necessity which exists for plucking it in a green state 

 when sent to a distant market, that the trees from which 

 unripe fruit is gathered bear plentifully every year ; whereas 

 those allowed to fully ripen their oranges only yield abundant 

 harvests during alternate years."* 



" It may prove interesting to know that foreign cattle are 

 particularly fond of lemons, and that in Brazil the herds eat 

 greedily of the fallen fruit." 



* I have noticed in the English markets that some oranges of the 

 Portugal type had little flavour. I attribute this to their having been 

 plucked too unripe. The best I have tried were those from Florida, and 

 they appeared to have been fully ripened on the tree. Later in the 

 season (May) I found those from Spain very fine flavoured also. 



