CONTINENT OF AMERICA. 

 MEXICO. 



GUERRERO. 



REPORT BY CONSVL SUTTER, OF ACAPULCO. 

 (Rcpnblished from Consular Report No. 41.) 



Varieties. Sweet and bitter oranges, navel oranges, lemons, limes, 

 shaddocks, citrons. 



Limes and sweet oranges are the most valuable. Some 15,000 boxes 

 of limes, representing for the growers a value of about $25,000, are ex- 

 ported annually per steamers of the Pacific Mail Steam-ship Company 

 to San Francisco. Brought to town, selected, and packed for export, 

 this fruit costs, more or less, $3 per box. 



Only small quantities of oranges are exported to San Francisco per 

 steamer from December to February, before the crop from the islands 

 in the Pacific overstocks the market. 



Oranges are obtained at $5 per thousand, but on account of high rates 

 of freight can not compete in the San Francisco market with the fruit 

 imported from those islands. 



Maturity. Lime trees which are allowed to grow like a bush, with 

 branches rising from the roots, commence to bear at the age of four 

 years, and are in full bearing when eight years old; in good soil and 

 with but very little care the tree will attain the age of fifty years. This 

 tree is indigenous, whilst the other varieties of the citrus family are said 

 to have been imported. 



Orange trees commence to bear at the age of five years, are in full 

 bearing at the age of ten, and will remain fruitful fully as long as the 

 lime tree. 



Propagation. All the trees are seedlings. 



Insect pests. Ants are the only insects which are injurious to the 

 trees, much more to the orange than to the lime trees; people protect 

 their trees in various ways from ants with more or less success. The 

 ants are destroyed by digging up their nests, or are kept off' the trees 

 with fine sand, fire, water, petroleum, etc. Fungous growth and other 

 parasites are not found in such abundance as to seriously injure the trees. 



Planting. Most of the trees are planted very irregularly, in selected, 

 favorable spots, which may keep moist all the year round. In a few 



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