198 ORANGE CULTURE IN CALIFORNIA. 



stead to the commission merchants of San Francisco a hetero- 

 geneous collection of large, small, ripe, green, and, in some 

 instances, half-rotten fruit. This fruit could not, of course, 

 compete with the fine, uniform Mexican or Tahiti limes, and the 

 merchants returned account sales of 'nil.' Hence we must learn 

 to put up our fruit properly, and, if we send a second or third- 

 class article, mark it as such, and not mix it with what is first- 

 class. I will say, in this connection, I have just received from 

 Messrs. Littlefield, Webb & Co., of San Francisco, account 

 sales of my last shipment of limes, returning me net seven 

 dollars and forty-five cents per thousand, and they wrote on the 

 margin, 'Good, well-selected limes looking up,' This tells the 

 story at this season of the year. But what shall we do when 

 vessels laden with this fruit begin to arrive from Mexico and 

 Tahiti? I would say in reply: 



"Second Flood the market at the same time with our own 

 fruit. One or two trials will let out the shippers of foreign 

 limes, and we shall have the markets of this coast all to our- 

 selves. 



"Third After having secured and controlled this market, we 

 must introduce our limes to the lemonade drinkers of the 

 'States.' Limes are almost unknown in the East, lemons being 

 used almost exclusively there. Introduce limes, and the con- 

 venience alone of using them, as compared with lemons, will 

 give the market to the former. 



"Fourth In addition to the foregoing, a citric-acid manu- 

 factory, as you suggest, to work up the unmerchantable fruit, 

 would cause lime culture to return thousands of dollars a few 

 years hence to enrich our people. It may be asked at what 

 price can we lay the fruit down in San Francisco at a profit to 

 the grower? 



"I feel confident that the lime growers of this country will be 

 quite satisfied with a prompt market at twenty-five cents per 

 hundred, or two dollars and fifty cents per thousand. Lime 

 trees at twelve to fifteen years old bear from two thousand to 

 five thousand limes annually. One hundred and nine may be 

 planted to advantage on an acre. I leave the calculation on 

 income per acre to those having an interest in this industry." 



